''■ ' 't^: '%'' THE WORLD'S PEOPLES . . By DR. A. H. KEANE. ETHNOLOGY. In Two Parts : I. Fundamental Ethnical Problems ; II. The Primary Ethnical Groups. Cambridge University Press, 3rd edition, 1901. "On this subject Prof. Keane speaks as a first-hand authority of the highest rank." — AcadcDty. MAJif PAST AND PRESENT. Cambridge ; stereotyped edition, 1900. " It ought to be bought by every public library, member of Parliament, colonial official, missionary, and novelist." — The Speaker. THE GOLD OF OPHIR. Stanford, 1901. "To explain the origin of the Zimbabwes and their gold traffic we must turn to Prof. Keane's brilliant essay." — Athenceum. THE BOER STATES, LAND AND PEOPLE. Methuen, 1901. " This is a book to buy, read, and keep— not to lend. It is too valuable — an absolutely satisfying bit of absolutely impartial work." — Vec/is. HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. Longmans, 1878. "No one needs a better introduction to the subject.'" — Alhenoeum. THE INDO-CHINESE AND INTER-OCEANIC ' RACES AND LANGUAGES. Triibner, 1880. " Mr. Keane's theory is striking and original, and seems to fit into nearly all the conditions. — Times. ETHNOLOGY OF EGYPTIAN SUDAN. Stanford, 1884. ''Prof. Keane is acknowledged to be the first ethnologist of the da5'. . . . The present brochure gives in 24 pages the most complete account of the ethnology of Eg3'ptian Sudan extant.*' — Pithlisher and Bookseller's Journal. Photo by permission of Mr. Cecil H. Firmin FIG. I.— A YOUNG MENDE GIRL, EASTERN SIERRA LEONE With silver face ornaments THE WORLD'S PEOPLES Sumus, Tarascos, Fantis . . 89 . 308 Yuman, Zapotecs. Fez Courier Anamese . 205 Filipinos 220, 221, 222 Anatolian Turks • 177 Finns . . . . . 185, 186 Andamanese . 60 Frenchmain • 353 Arabs . . 322, 327 Fuegians •302-5 Araucanians • 297, 299 Ardi . . 69 Gauchos . 295, 296 Arecuna . 291 Germans • 341, 372 Armenians . • 392 Gilbert River Natives . 44, 45 Australians . 44 49, 51, 53, 55 Gilyak • 155 Austrian • 371 Gold Coast, Natives of . 89 Goras .... . 86 Babira Pygmy Woman • 147 Gran Chacoans . 281, 294 Baluchi • 394, 395 Greeks • 369, 370 Bambute Pygmies 146, 148 Guinea, Woman of Uppe r . -92 Banks' Archipelago, women of . 41 Battas . 217 Hammegs . 109, no Bautchis • 94 Hausas • 95-7 Bavarian • 341 Homalin Magistrate (Bui -ma) . 197 Belgians . . . • 351 Hovas . • 223 Berbers • 318, 319 Huaxteca . • 279 Bethlehem, Women of • 33^, 332 Hungarians. . 182, 183 Bhils .... • 399 Bhutian . 192 Iranians • 393 Brazil (Botocudos) • 293 Irish .... • 344, 345 Bretons • 348 Italians •361-3 Bulgarians . . 181 Bundus ~~ . . 78' J a Luo Fisherwomen . . 119 Burmese 196-200 Jakuns . 15, 66, 67 Bushmen . 139, 141, 143 Japanese . 166-9 Javanese 69, 215, 216 Caribs 290, 292 Jews .... • 330, 333 Caucasians . • 387 Johore, Natives of . 66 Celebesians. . 213, 214 Chaldaeans . . 401 Kabyles • 309 Chinese . 21, 207-9 Kalangs . 69 Chippeway • 253 Kalmuks . • 157 Congo, Natives of i2r, 123, 124, 126 Kameruns , Natives of 93, 99 List of Illustrations PAGE PAGE Karen Mission . . . -193 Sakais . 69 Karens .... 193, 194 Sakalavas . . 224 Kashmiris ..... 396 Samoans 26, 419 Kathiawars (Aryans of Bombay) 411 Sarts .... . 180 Kirghizes ..... 179 Scotch . . 382 Koreans . . . . 164, 165 Senegal Man . . 76 Krus 87, 88 Servian . 386 Kurds . . . -. .393 Shahaptian . • 263 Shilluks 106, III Laos 202 Siah-Posh Kafirs . 412 Lapp . . . . . .184 Siamese . 204 Sierra Leone, Natives of • 78, 79, 84 Madagascar, Natives of . 223, 224 Sikka . . . . 64 Malayans . . 66, 67, 69, 153, 417 Sinhalese . 405, 406 Mandingos ..... 75 Siouans 228, 236, 244, 247, 255, 261 Maoris ..... 423-6 Solomon Islanders . 40 Masais 113 Somali Warrior .. ■ 317 Mazahua ..... 275 South Cape. See New Britain. Melanesians ... 17 Spaniards . 355, 357 Mendes . Frontispiece, 79, 80, 84 Sudanese Soldiers . lOI Mexicans .... 272, 275-9 Sumatrans . . 64, 65 217, 416, 417 Mota Islanders .... 41 Sumus . 280 Murray River, Australians from . 55 Swedes • 383 Muskhogean .... 258 Swiss 365, 367 Syce . 402 Nagas 195 Syrians 328 329, 332 Nancowry Harbour, Natives of . 62 Nautch Girls .... 413 Tahitian . 422 Navajo 243 Tangier Courier . ■ 308 Negritos .... 220, 222 Tarascos 272, 278 New Britain, Natives of . . 33-5 Tasmanians 57 New Guinea Chief, House of ' . 31 Tatars 160 New Guinea Youth ... 30 Taupo Fuamoa . 421 New Hebrides, Natives of . -39 Tessos 115 Nicobarese . . . 62, 63 Tibetans 189 191, 192 Nigerians . . . . -94 Todos • 409 420 Nilotic Negroes, . 106, 107, 109-11 Tongans Normanby Natives . . -53 Tsawkoo . 201 Nubians ..... 103-5 Tuareg , . 318 Nuers 107 Tunguses . • 159 Nyasas 120 Tunisians . • 311 Turks . . 172 173, 175, 177 Oran Gunong (Sumatra) . . 65 Uganda, Natives of • 115 Pahang Natives . . . '153 Uled-Nail . • 319 Pakokuan ..... 196 Patagonians . . . .298 Pelew Islander . . . .428 Veddhas 407, 408, 410 Persians .... 401, 403 Vei . . 85 Peruvians . . . 283, 285, 287 Philippine Islanders . . . 220-2 Wakambi . . 83 Polynesians 418 Wandorobos , • 113 Port Darwinian . 49 Wasogas . . 83 Portuguese .... 359 Welsh , • 347 Pottery-making . 281 Wuris 99 Pueblo Indians of New Mexico 267 Puen Laos .... 202 Yoruba . 92 Pygmies .... 146-8 Yuman • . 269 Rajputs . . . . >. 400 Zapotecs 276, 277 Russians . . . .38 9, 391 1 Zulu Kafirs 19, 128, 129, i 31, 133-6 THE WORLD'S PEOPLES CHAPTER I THE HUMAN FAMILY One or Many? (p. l) — Cradle (p. 2) — Early Migrations (p. 4) — Routes fol- lowed (p. 4) — Settlement of the Habitable World by Primitive Man (p. 5) — The Four Primary Groups (p. 5) — Their Antiquity and Inde- pendent Evolution (p. 6) — Early Works (p. 7)— The Stone Ages (p. 7) — Metal and Prehistoric Ages (p. 8) — Historic Age (p. 9) — Great Age and Early inter- Relations of the Four Primary Divisions (p. 10). WHEN the thoughtful observer ponders over the many strik- ing differences presented by the various human groups spread over the habitable world — some black, or almost black, some yellow, brown or white ; lank-haired or woolly-headed ; tall or short ; savage, barbarous, or cultured — one of the first questions he asks himself is, Are all these one or many ? Have they sprung from a single or from several stocks ? Do they constitute so many members of one family, or of four or more unrelated groups ? The answer, already given by those most competent to judge, is that the various divisions of mankind are really blood relations, branches of one parent stem, members of a single human family, which had its rise in one primeval home, and spread thence by slow migratory- movements over the globe. This conclusion, which may now be confidently accepted, has been reached both by positive and nega- tive arguments, which appear to be unanswerable. The view of the polygenists, as those are called who hold that there were several distinct human species who had no common ancestors, but originated quite independently of each other in different parts of the world, leads to all kinds of absurdities which require its summary rejec- tion. Thus they argue that, as there are a number of funda- mentally distinct languages, so there must be a number of r 2 The Woi*Id*s Peoples fundamentally distinct peoples speaking them. But such languages are reckoned by the hundred, certainly two hundred in America alone, and in some regions are crowded closely together, as in the Caucasus, the Sudan, and along the north-west Pacific seaboard. Are we therefore to infer that these particular regions, inhabited by peoples of uniform physical type, have given birth to hundreds of distinct human groups ? Is it not obvious that there is no arguing from race to speech, and that other explanations must be found for all these divers tongues ? On the other hand the monogenists, that is, those who hold by the unity of mankind, are able to show that all peoples- Europeans, Asiatics, African and American aborigines — are fertile . among themselves, and are consequently not different species, but only different varieties of the same species, comparable, for in- stance, to the terrier, the pug, the greyhound, the bulldog, and the many other varieties of the single canine species. It will also be noticed that these canine varieties, admittedly sprung from one ancestor, differ one from the other far more than do the human varieties. A huge mastiff might make a mouthful of a mercurial toy terrier, whereas a tall Scot is less than twice as tall as the smallest African pygmy. Besides, the human varieties all merge gradually one in the other through imperceptible transitions, as between Finn, Lapp, and Tatar; Bushman, Hottentot, and Herero ; Melanesian, Micronesian, and Polynesian ; Japanese, Korean, and Mongol ; Uzbeg, Turk, and European, and so on. This considera- tion alone would suffice to show that we are here dealing, not with specific differences, but with mere varieties, all sprung from a common human prototype. As man is therefore essentially one, he cannot have had more than one primeval home. This human cradle, as we may call it, may now be located with some certainty in the Eastern Archipelago, and more particularly in the island of Java, where in 1892 Dr. Eugene Dubois brought to light the earliest known remains that can be described as distinctly human. From the Pliocene (late Tertiary) beds of the Trinil district he recovered some teeth, a skull, and a thigh-bone of a being whom he named the Pithe- canthropus erectus, thereby indicating an "Ape-man that could walk," with a cranial or mental capacity of about 1,000 cubic centimetres, or about double that of the living higher apes (gorilla, orang, chimpanzee, and gibbon), as shown in the accompanying diagram : EURO LOW PITM - I.550. C.C PEAN - I.SSO.C.C. RACES - 1,000 C.C. ERECTUS Anl-hropo/d 31-em, 4 The World^s Peoples Here also the line of human ascent, as traced through the Javanese "missing link," is seen to spring, not from any of these higher anthropoids, as is popularly supposed, but from a common Simian stem having its roots far back in the Miocene (Middle Tertiary) epoch. In this " first man," as he has been designated, the erect position, shown by the perfectly human thigh-bone, implies a perfectly prehensile (grasping) hand, with opposable thumb, the chief instru- mient of human progress, while the cranial capacity suggests vocal organs sufificiently developed for the first rude utterances of articulate speech. The Javanese man was thus already well equipped for his long migrations round the globe. Armed with stone, wooden, bone, and other weapons that lay at hand, and gifted with mental powers far beyond those of all other animals, he was assured of success from the first. He certainly had no knowledge of navigation, which is even still an unknown art to many Amazonian aborigines. But that was not needed to cross inland seas, open waters, and broad estuaries which were non-existent in Pliocene and later times. The road was open across the Indian Ocean to Madagascar and South Africa by the now submerged Indo-African Continent. The Eastern Archipelago still formed part of the Asiatic mainland, from which it is separated even now by shallow waters in many places scarcely fifty fathoms deep. Eastwards the way Avas open to New Guinea, and thence across Torres Strait to Australia and through the Louisiade Islands to the Pacific Ocean, which is now known to be a region of subsidence. Thus Dr. Klaatsch, who has recently (1904) studied the question on the spot, concludes that the peopling of Australia could be explained only by the theory of a former land connection, a central point (such as Java) from which in one direction had been distributed the Asiatic races, and in another the Australian aborigines. In the northern hemisphere Europe could be reached from Africa by three routes, one across the Strait of Gibraltar, another between Tunis, Malta, Sicily, and Italy, and a third from Cyrenaica across the ^gean to Greece, and the British Isles from Europe via the Strait of Dover and the shallow North Sea. Lastly, the New World was accessible both from Asia across Bering Strait, and from Europe through the Orkneys, the Shetlands, the Faroes, Iceland, and Greenland. Here were, therefore, sufficient land connections for early man to have gradually spread from his Javanese cradle to the uttermost confines of the habitable globe. That he did so spread in very early (Pleistocene or even Pliocene) The Human Family 5 times is an established fact, as will presently be seen. Hence, although the routes here suggested as followed by him may seem somewhat speculative, they must still be accepted, since no others were available during the Middle or Late Tertiary period. Much trustworthy evidence has been collected to show that the whole world had really been peopled during this period, which roughly coincides with the Ice Age, when a large part of the northern and southern hemispheres was subject to recurrent in- vasions of thick-ribbed ice advancing successively from both poles. The migrations were most probably begun in pre-glacial times — that is, before the appearance of the first great ice-wave, then arrested and resumed alternately with the long inter-glacial intervals, thus advancing and receding with the spread and retreat of the ice-cap, and completed in the post-glacial or early Pleistocene epoch, say, some two or three hundred thousand years ago. At that time the various wandering groups had already made considerable progress both in physical and mental respects, as is seen in the Neanderthal skull, which is the oldest yet found in Europe, standing about midway between the Javanese ape-man and the present low races. All were still very much alike, presenting a sort of generalised human type which may be called Pleistocene man, a common undeveloped form, which did not begin to specialise — that is, to evolve the existing varieties until the several Pleistocene groups had reached their respective zoological domains. We know from the study of extinct and existing animal forms how, for instance, the Camel family, which probably originated in North America, is now represented by such allied species as the guanaco, vicuna and llama in South America, and the Baktrian and Arabian camel in Asia. It was the same with the human family, which, originating in Malaysia, is now represented all over the world by four main varieties with their endless sub- varieties : Negroes or Blacks in the Sudan, South Africa, and Oceania (Australasia) ; Mongol or Yellow in Central, North and East Asia ; Amerinds (Red or Brown) in the New World ; and Caucasians (White and also Dark) in North Africa, Europe, Irania, India, Western Asia, and Polynesia. The four main divisions of mankind are thus seen to have been evolved independently in their several zones from four Pleisto- cene ancestral groups of somewhat uniform physical type, and all sprung from a common Pliocene prototype. This view 6 The World's Peoples of human origins at once removes the greatest difificulty hitherto presented by the existing varieties, which, being sprung separately in separate areas from a common parent stem, need no longer be derived one from another — white from black, yellow from red, and so on — a crude notion which both on physiological and geographical grounds has always remained an inscrutable puzzle to serious students of mankind. To suppose that some highly specialised group, say, originally black, migrating from continent to continent, became white in one region or yellow in another, is a violent assumption which could never be verified and is opposed to the natural relations. Such a group passing from its proper zone to another essentially different environment must inevitably have died out long before it had time to become acclimatised. The fundamental racial characters are the result of slow adaptation to their special surroundings. They are what climate, soil, diet, heredity, natural selection, and time have made them, and are of too long standing to be effaced or blurred except by miscegenation^ a process which assumes the existence of other specialised forms, and, as above seen, is rendered possible by primordial unity. By common descent and separate local developments is further explained the surprising resemblance which is everywhere presented both by the earliest remains and the earliest works of primitive man. Such are the fossil or semi-fossil skulls found in Europe, Egypt, Mongolia, and the New World, and the stone implements occurring in vast quantities in Britain, France, Belgium, North and South Africa, India, North and South America from British Columbia to Tierra del Fuego. Ceitain Australian skulls seem cast in the same mould as the above-mentioned Neanderthal, while rude stone implements brought from the most distant lands are so alike in form and character that they might have been made by the same hands. On the banks of the Nile objects of European type have been discovered, and others collected in Somaliland might have been dug out of the drift deposits of the Seine, the Thames or the ancient Solent (Sir John Evans). The Pleistocene or Quaternary epoch, as represented by these objects of primitive culture, ranged over a vast period of time which has been conveniently divided into two great epochs, the Palaeolithic or Old Stone, and the Neolithic or New Stone Age, these being so named from the material chiefly used by primitive peoples in the manufacture of their weapons and other implements. The distinction between the two periods, which are not to be taken as time sequences The Human Family 7 since they overlap in many places, is based essentially on the different treatment of the material, which during the immeasurably longer Old Stone Age was at first merely chipped, flaked, or otherwise rudely fashioned, but in the New more carefully worked and polished. Evidence is, however, now accumulating to show that progress was continuous throughout the whole of the first cultural era, which thus tended in favourable localities such as South France, the Riviera, and North Africa to merge imperceptibly in the second, so that it is not always possible to draw any clear line between the Old and New Stone Ages. In one respect the former was towards its close even in advance of the latter, and quite a " Palaeolithic School of Art" was developed during a long inter- or post-glacial period of steady progress in the sheltered Vezere valley of Dordogne, South France. Here were produced some of those remarkable stone, horn, and even ivory scrapers, gravers, harpoons, ornaments and statuettes with carvings on the round, and skilful etchings of seals, fishes, reindeer, harnessed horses, mammoths, snakes, and man himself, which also occur in other districts. Many of the palseoliths have been found in surroundings which bespeak a vast antiquity. Such are those from the lowest strata of Kent's Cave near Torquay, and from the undisturbed glacial drift of the Ouse, Thames, Somme, Seine, Nile, and other streams which have since scoured their beds down to depths of 50, 100, and even 400 feet. In the Brussels Natural History Museum there are flints from the Puy Courny district which are the work of intelligent beings who were contemporary with the Dinotherium, and are referred by Dr. Rutot and M. Georges Engerrand to the Upper Miocene or Middle Tertiary epoch. Other so-called eoliths (earlier than the palseoliths) from the plateau drift of Kent date from the Middle Pliocene period, and are separated from the base of the Pleistocene by the Cromer forest beds which were laid down in pre-glacial times, when the long extinct gigantic j5'/^//m^ meridionalis ( " Southern Elephant " ) roamed the forests of Italy, France, and South Britain. In Tunisia many implements lie under a thick bed of Pleistocene limestone deposited by a river which has since dis- appeared. The now absolutely lifeless Libyan plateau is strewn with innumerable worked flints, showing that early man inhabited this formerly fertile region before it was reduced by the slowly changing climate to a waste of sands. The same story of man's great age is told by discoveries in Burma, India, North an4 8 The World's Peoples especially South America, and now also in North Britain, where the very existence of the Old Stone Age has hitherto been strenuously denied. But the writer has recently had an opportunity of inspect- ing some of the many hundred undoubted palseoliths which during the course of many years have been collected by the Rev. Frederick Smith of South Queensferry in various parts of Scotland between Aberdeen and Berwick-on-Tweed. Outstanding features of the New Stone Age, to which Sir William Turner has a-ssigned a duration of perhaps 100,000 years, are the Swiss and other lake-dwellings, the Danish peat-beds with their varied contents, the kitchen middens or shell-mounds occurring on the seaboard in many parts of the world, the British barrows, the dolmens and menhirs ranging from North Africa through Syria eastwards to India, Korea, and Japan, and northwards to Brittany, the British Isles, and Scandinavia, the megalithic monuments of Tiahuanaco in Bolivia. In Scotland the Neolithic Age lasted long enough to witness the formation of the Carse clays, which now stand 40 or 50 feet above sea-level, but then formed the bed of a sound or estuary flowing between North and South Britain. Hence the suggestion that, after the separation of Britain from the mainland, another land connection, a " Neolithic land-bridge," may have enabled Neolithic man to reach Scotland while the upheaved terrace was still clothed with the great forest growths that have since disappeared. In the more civilised regions, such as Egypt, Babylonia, parts of Asia Minor, and the ^gean lands, the Stone Ages were at an early date followed by a period vaguely designated as "prehistoric," during which stone as the material of human implements was gradually replaced by the metals, first copper, then various copper alloys (arsenic, sulphur, nickel, cobalt, zinc, and especially tin) generally called bronze, lastly iron. Thus were constituted the so-called Metal Ages, during which, however, overlappings were everywhere so frequent that in many localities it is quite impossible to draw any well-marked dividing lines between the successive metal periods. Indeed a direct transition from Stone to Iron may be suspected in some places, and in any case the pure copper period appears to have nowhere been of long duration except in America, where there was no iron and little bronze. Besides the metals, letters also^ or at least pictorial writings The Human Family 9 such as the old rock carvings of Upper Egypt, were introduced in the Prehistoric Age, which comprises that transitional period dim memories of which lingered on far into historic times. It was an age of popular myths, folklore, demi-gods, eponymous heroes, traditions of real events, and even philosophic theories on man and his surroundings, which supplied ready to hand the copious materials afterwards worked up by the early poets, founders of new religions, and later lawgivers. So also in China the early historians still remembered the still earlier "Age of the Three Rulers," when people lived in caves, ate wild fruits and uncooked food, drank the blood of animals, and wore the skins of wild beasts (our Old Stone Age). Later they became less rude, learned to obtain fire by friction, and built themselves habitations of wood and foliage (our New Stone Age). Then came beneficent rulers who introduced orderly government, organised society on the basis of marriage and the family, invented nets and snares for fishing and hunting, taught the people to rear domestic animals and till the land, established markets for the sale of farm produce, explained the medicinal properties of plants, studied astrology if not astronomy, and appointed " the Five Observers of the Heavenly Bodies " (our Prehistoric Age). Thus is everywhere revealed the background of sheer savagery which lies behind all later cultural developments, while the " Golden Age " of the poets fades with the " Hesperides " and Plato's " Atlantis " into the region of the fabulous. Of strictly historic times the most characteristic feature is the general use of letters, most fruitful of human inventions, since by its means everything worth preserving was perpetuated, and all useful knowledge thus tended to become accumulative. Writing systems, as we understand them, were not suddenly introduced, but gradually evolved from pictures representing things and ideas to conventional signs or symbols which first represent words, as in the Chinese script and our ciphers, and then articulate sounds, as in our alphabet. Between the two extremes — the pictograph and the letter — there are various intermediate forms, such as the rebus and the full syllable, and these transitional forms are largely preserved both in the Egyptian and Babylonian systems, which thus help to show how the pure phonetic symbols were finally reached. That must have been at least six thousand years ago, since we find various archaic phonetic scripts widely diffused over the Archipelago lo The World's Peoples (Crete, Cyprus, Asia Minor) in Mykaenean and pre-Myksenean times. The hieroglyphic and Cuneiform systems whence they originated were very much older, since the rock inscriptions of Upper Egypt are pre-dynastic, that is, prior to all historic records, while the Mesopotamian city of Nippur already possessed half-pictorial half- phonetic documents some six thousand years before the New Era. From the pictorial and plastic remains recovered from these two earliest seats of the higher cultures it is now placed beyond doubt that all the great divisions of the human family had at that time already been fully developed. Even in the New Stone Age the present European type had been thoroughly established, as shown by the skeletal remains of the " Cro-Magnon Race," so called from the cave of that name in Perigord where the first specimens were discovered. A skull of the early Iron Age from Wildenrot in Bavaria had a cranial capacity of 1,585 cubic centi- metres, and was in all respects a superb specimen of the regular- featured North European. In Egypt, where a well-developed social and political organisation may be traced back to the eleventh century b.c. Professor Petrie discovered in 1897 the portrait statue of a prince of the fifth dynasty (3700 b.c.) showing regular Caucasic features. Still older is the portrait of the Babylonian King Enshagsagna (4500 B.C.), also with handsome features which might be " either Semitic or even Aryan." Thus we have documentary evidence that the Caucasic.^ that is, the highest human type, had already been not only evolved but spread over a wide area (Europe, Egypt, Mesopotamia) some thousands of years before the New Era. The other chief types (^Mongol, Negro, and even Negrito) are also clearly portrayed on early Egyptian monuments, so that all the primary groups had already reached maturity probably before the close of the Old Stone Age. But these primary groups did not remain stationary in their several original homes, but have on the contrary been subject to great and continual fluctuations throughout historic times. Armed with a general knowledge of letters and the correlated cultural appliances, the higher races soon took a foremost place in the general progress of mankind, and gradually acquired a marked ascendency, not only over the less cultured peoples, but to a great extent over the forces of nature herself With the development of navigation, and improved methods of locomotion, inland seas, barren wastes, and mountain ranges ceased to present insurmountable obstacles The Human Family ii to their movements, which have never been completely arrested, and are still going on. Thus during the long ages following the first peopling of the earth by Pleistocene man, fresh settlements and readjustments have been continually in progress, although wholesale displacements must be regarded as rare events. With few exceptions the later migrations, whether hostile or peaceful, were generally of a partial character, while certain insular regions, such as America and Australia, remained little affected by such movements till quite recent times. But in the Old World constant interminglings inevitably brought about great modifications of early types, while the ever-active principle of convergence tended to counteract the divergent process and thus produce a general uniformity, an equiU- brium amongst the new blends, such as that established by the centripetal and centrifugal forces in the solar system. That is why the modern peoples, although often the outcome of many different elements, still present each its particular stamp or cachet, so that the Englishman or the Italian, for instance, may generally be recognised in a group of other nationalities. We see the same process now at work in the New World, where the descendants of the early British settlers often seem to converge towards the original Amerind type. Such assimilation has been noticed especially in Egypt, where the present Arab-speaking peasantry show a curious resemblance to those of Pharaonic times. When some years ago the wooden effigy of an official under Khephren (4200 B.C.) was brought to light it was at once named the "village Sheikh," so striking was its resemblance to the then living local headman. Thus "the Egyptians themselves have come down from the Old Empire through all the vicissitudes of conquests, mixtures of races, changes of religion and language, so little altered that the fellah [peasant] of to-day is often the image of the Egyptians who built the pyramids " (S. Laing). This is fully confirmed by the recent studies (1906) of Dr. C. S. Myers, who finds that compared with the prehistoric Egyptians of 5000 B.C., the present inhabitants show no sensible difference in head measurements, and that, from the anthropometric standpoint, there is no evidence of plurality of race in modern Egypt. But as there is abundant historic evidence of such plurality, this only means that the various elements have been merged in one in virtue of the principle of convergence, aided no doubt by racial interminglings. In the general survey of our four primary groups, here 12 The World's Peoples brought together for convenience of reference, the physical char- acters of each are those of what may be called the ideal types, that is, as they existed in the original cradle-lands before they became blurred and pardy even effaced by later secular interminglings. At the same time it should be pointed out that these ideal types are not absolutely extinct, but still persist here and there in isolated or secluded districts where the natives were able to preserve their racial purity by keeping aloof from the surrounding populations. It is also to be observed that complete loss of the original characters and absorption in a different division, as in the case of the Hungarian Magyars, who are now Europeanised Mongols, is a somewhat rare phenomenon, and that generally speaking the members of the different groups retain a sufficient number of their respective bodily traits to distinguish them one from another. A normal average is established to which all conform, and by which a Chinaman, for instance, can always be recognised as of the Mongol connection, a Scandinavian as a member of the Caucasian division, and so on. This term Caucasian, it should be explained, is not here to be taken as merely indicating a native of the Caucasus, but as the collective conventional name of the White division, of which Blumenbach, founder of the science of ethnology, regarded some of the Caucasus natives as perhaps the most typical representatives. CHAPTER II GENERAL SURVEY Negro or Black Division I. Eastern {Oceanic) Sectiofi ORIGINAL Domain: Malaysia, Andamans, Philippines, New Guinea, Melanesia, Australia, Tasmania ; no later expansion. Present reduced Domaift : Malay Peninsula, Andamans, parts of Eastern Archipelago and Philippines, New Guinea, Melanesia, Australia. Population : 2,000,000 (?), chiefly in New Guinea and Melanesia. Physical Characters : Very variable, differing from the African section chiefly in the height, which is generally below the average of 5 ft. 6 in. ; the hair, which, though always black, is rather frizzly ("mop-headed" Papuans) or shaggy (Australians); the shin, very dark brown or blackish ; the nose, often large, straight, and even aquiline, with downward tip ; the lij>s, less thick and never everted ; and Negro traits generally less pronounced (Fig. 3). The Oceanic Negritos often closely resemble the African, differing mainly in the colour, which is always darker ; the height, which is greater (4 ft. 6 in. to 4 ft. 10 in.) ; and the jaivs, which are sometimes more projecting (Samangs of Malay Peninsula). Mental Characters : Papuans and Melanesians boisterous, trea- cherous, and often extremely cruel ; head-hunting and cannibalism very prevalent ; generally more savage than the African ; Australians better in all these respects, despite painful puber ty rites and a lower stage of culture (no tillage, little navigation). No science or letters anywhere ; few industrial arts, but artistic sense developed amongst the Papuans (elaborate wood-carving and graceful decorative designs, and good boat-building). Speech : Archaic forms of the Oceanic (Malayo-Polynesian) stock language everywhere in Melanesia \ numerous agglutinating tongues 'of a somewhat uniform type in Australia, with postfixes but no 13 14 The World^s Peoples terms for the numerals beyond 2 or 3 ; numerous agglutinating tongues of divers types in New Guinea, with prefixes and postfixes ; in the Andamans a stock language of a highly intricate nature, but also without words for the numerals beyond i and 2. Religion : Spirit-worship very prevalent, with tabu in Melanesia, and totemism in Australia ; 7nana, a subtle essence or virtue like the Augustinian grace, is a striking feature of the Melanesian system, which is in other respects distinctly animistic, distinguishing between pure spirits, that is, supernatural beings that never were in a human body, and ghosts — that is, men's disembodied spirits revisiting their former abodes. There are prayer, sacrifice, divination, omens, death and burial rites, a Hades too, with trees and houses, as on earth, also a ghostly ruler, but no supreme being. Little or nothing of all this in Australia or New Guinea, where the religious sentiment is so little developed that many close observers have failed to detect it. Sub-sections : Papuans of New Guinea and East Malaysia as far west as the island of Flores ; Melanesians, i.e. "Black Islanders," who give their name to the Melanesian world comprising the Bismarck Archipelago, the Louisiades, Solomons, New Hebrides, Banks, Santa Cruz, New Caledonia, Loyalty, and Fiji ; Australians, originally scattered thinly over the whole continent, but now dis- appearing ; Tasmanians, extinct ; Negritos, formerly widespread throughout Malaysia, but now reduced to a few isolated groups : Andamanese (formerly called Mincopies) of the Andaman Islands ; Samangs, Jakuns and others of the Malay Peninsula ; Aetas of the Philippines ; Karons of New Guinea ; and the nearly extinct Javanese Kalangs (Fig. 2). 2. Western (African) Section Original Domain : Africa south of the Sahara. Later Expansion : Madagascar, North Africa, Southern United States, West Indies, Latin America. Population {pure and mixed) : Africa, 180,000,000; Madagascar, 3jOoo,ooo ; America, 25,000,000 ; Total, 208,000,000. Physical Characters : Head dolichocephalic, i.e. much longer from front to back than from side to side; cephalic index 72, which denotes the much shorter transverse diameter, the longitudinal diameter being taken at 100; thus the longer the head the lower the index, and conversely. The Negritos, both Oceanic and African, are From a photo by Dr. W. A. Abbot, per Mr. C. B. Kioss FIG. 2,— JAKUNS OF KOMEL, MALAY PENINSULA These are Negrito-Malayan half-castes 1 6 The World's Peoples all brachycephalic, i.e. short or round-headed, with cephalic index ranging from about 80 to 95 ; height above the average (5 ft. 8 in. to 6 ft.) ; but Negritos only 4 ft. or under, seldom over ; skin very dark brown or blackish, rarely quite black ; hair short, black, woolly, flat in cross-section; jaws prognathous, i.e. projecting; cheek-bones rather small and retreating ; lips thick and everted, i.e. showing the red inner skin ; brow arched ; nose short and flat or slightly concave with wide nostrils ; eyes large, round, black, with yellowish sclerotic ; arms disproportionately long ; calves undeveloped -^foot flat and broad with low instep and larkspur heel. Mental characters: Sensual, unintellectual, lacking the sense of personal dignity or self-respect, hence readily bending to the yoke of slavery ; fitful, passing suddenly from comedy to tragedy ; mind arrested at puberty owing to the early closing of the cranial sutures, hence in the adult the animal side is more developed than the mental ; hence also no science or letters, slight aesthetic sense, and few industrial arts beyond tillage, stock-breeding, weaving, dyeing, pottery, woodwork and hardware (iron, copper), sometimes of graceful form and ornamentation; cannibalism common, formerly perhaps universal. Speech : Agglutinating with both prefixes and postfixes ; "stock languages very numerous in Sudan, one only in Bantuland, besides Hottentot and Bushman tongues ; in Madagascar, Malayo-Polynesian exclusively ; in America, European jargons exclusively. Religioti : Animistic, Ancestor-worship being much more pre- valent than Nature-worship; no supreme being anywhere; chief deities Munkidimkulu, with many variants along the eastern sea- board; Nzambi^ also with many variants on the west side, both intermingling in the interior ; witchcraft, omens, and ordeals very prevalent; pure fetishism and human sacrifices in Upper Guinea (" Customs "), in Uganda, and other parts ; Obeah and Voudu rites with ceremonial cannibalism still surviving in the West Indies. Sub-sections : Sudanese {Negroes proper) between the Atlantic and Abyssinia, and in the Welle basin ; Bantiis, mixed Negroid peoples occupying nearly the whole of the continent south of the Sudan, all speaking dialects of one stock language, but presenting a great variety of types between the pure Negro and Caucasian ; Bushmen and Hottentots, South-west Africa ; Negritos, Congo and Ogoway forests ; Vaalpens, Transvaal. By permission of the Bishop of Tasmania FIG. 3. — MELANESIANS Softened Negro features, all with frizzly or woolly hair 1 8 The Wofld*s Peoples MoNGOLic OR Yellow Division Original Domain : Probably the Tibetan tableland. Early Expansion : Mongolia, Siberia, China, Indo-China, Malaysia, Mesopotamia (?). Present Domain : Tibet, Central Asia, Mongolia, Siberia, Manchuria, Korea, Japan, Formosa, China, Indo-China; parts of Irania, Armenia and Caucasia ; most of Asia Minor ; parts of Russia, Finland, Lapland, the Balkan Peninsula and Hungary ; most of Malaysia, the Philippines and Madagascar. Population: China, 400,000,000; Japan and Korea, 58,000,000; Mongolia, Manchuria and Siberia, 25,000,000 ; Central and West Asia and East Europe, 20,000,000; Malaysia and the Philippines, 48,000,000; Tibet and Tndo-China, 45,000,000; Total, 596,000,000. Physical Characters : Head brachycephalic, but somewhat vari- able, the cephalic index ranging from under eighty to over ninety ; cheek-bones very high and prominent laterally ; jaws orthognathous or slightly projecting ; 7iose very short and flat (snub) ; lips thin, never everted ; brow low and moderately arched ; eyes small, black, oblique, with outer angle slightly raised, and vertical fold of skin over inner canthus (a highly characteristic trait) ; foot normal but artificially deformed in Chinese women ; colour dirty yellowish and light brown ; hair uniformly black, lank, coarse, lustreless, rather long, round in transverse section, moustache but no beard ; height rather under the average of 5 ft. 6 in., but tall (5 ft. 8 in. or 5 ft. 10 in.) in North China and Manchuria (Fig. 5). Metital Characters : Generally somewhat reserved, sullen, and apathetic (Mongols proper) ; very thrifty, frugal and industrious (Chinese and Japanese) ; indolent (Malays, Siamese, Koreans) ; nearly all reckless gamblers ; science slightly, arts and letters moderately developed ; porcelain, bronze work, ivory carving, and decorative painting scarcely surpassed (China, Japan, Korea formerly); but all plastic and pictorial art defective, lacking per- spective, and the human figure mostly caricatured. Speech: Three great linguistic families : I. Mongolo-Turki {Ural-Altaic), ranging with much lexical and structural diversity from Lapland across North Asia to Japan, and from the Lena basin through Central Asia, Western Turkestan and Asia Minor to Turkey in Europe and Hungary. Japanese and Korean stand quite apart ; but all the rest (Manchu, Mongol, 20 The WofId*s Peoples Turki, Finno-Lapp, Magyar) are typical members of the agglutinat- ing order of speech, with unchangeable roots and shifting postfixes bound together by the principle of vowel harmony. 2. Tibeto-Indo-Chinese, from the Western Himalayas to the Pacific, and from the Great Wall to the Indian Ocean ; originally agglutinating, now in every transition of phonetic decay towards monosyllabism, which is not a primitive, but a very late condition of articulate speech. In the process of decay innumerable homo- phones have been developed, which have to be distinguished by their tones; hence the members of this family may be called monosyllabic lofted languages. Structurally they are isolating, the sentence consisting of unchangeable isolated words, the inter- relations of which are determined not by inflection or affixes, but by iposition, as often in English {James struck John ; John struck James'). 3. Malayo-Polynesian, the " Oceanic " family in a pre-eminent sense, ranging from Madagascar across two oceans to Easter Island, and from New Zealand north to Hawaii. All are more or less agglutinating at various stages of dissolution, but untoned ; vocalism predominates, and in some branches the vowels are more stable than the consonants. Religion : Animism in the widest sense is the dominant note, the worship of spirits extending both to the disembodied human soul (ancestor-worship, which is now perhaps the most prevalent form) and to the innumerable spirits, bad and good, which people earth, air, water, the celestial and underground regions. Although nominal Buddhists, the Chinese, Indo-Chinese, and Mongols live in terror of the malevolent circumambient spirits, and the Annamese scrupulously observe " Roast-pig Day," as they call their All-Souls Day, by littering the graves of the dead with scraps of victuals. Amongst the Siberians this spirit-cult lakes the form of Shamanism, in which the Shaman (wizard or medicine man) is the "paid medium " of communication between his dupes and the invisible good or evil genii. In Tibet demonology still survives beneath the official Lamaism ; the Gilyaks, Ainus, Oronches, and other Eastern Siberians are Bear-worshippers ; and the Polynesians have deified both the living and dead members of their dynasties. The historical religions are largely a question of race, the Mongols proper, Manchus, Koreans, Japanese, Chinese, Indo-Chinese, and Tibetans being at least nominal Buddhists ; the Turks, Tatars, and most Malays General Sufvey Mohammedans ; the Finns, Lapps and Magyars now Christians. Other so-called State religions — Confucianism and Taoism in China, Shintoism and Bushidoism in Japan — are rather ethical codes fostered and upheld for political purposes. The much-cherished "filial piety" for the most part means devotion to the reigning dynasty, while for the theolo- gical virtues are substituted the civic virtues of obedience and loyalty, the sole aim of which is to mature good citizens. Chief Sub- divisions : Mon- gol Branch: Mongols proper, Tunguses, Man- chus, Koreans, Japanese, of Mongolia, North-eastAsia, Japan ; Tiirki Branch: Yakuts of the Lena basin, Kirghizes, Uzbegs, Turko- mans of West Siberia and Western Turke- stan j Anatolian Turks, Osmanli, of Asia Minor and the Balkan Peninsula ; Ugro-Finnic Branch : Finns, Lapps, Samoyads, Mordvins, Magyars, of Finland, Lapland, Siberia, Russia, and Hungary. Tibeto-Chinese Bra?ich : Tibetans, Burmese, Nagas, Shans, Siamese, Annamese, Chinese (Fig. 5); Malayan Branch: Malays proper, Javanese, Dyaks, Tagals, Formosans, Malagasy, of Malaysia, the Phihppines, Formosa, and Madagascar. Photo by Mr. J. Madscn, Copenhagen FIG. 5. — A CHINAMAN A typical Chinese head— modified Mongol eatures 22 The "Wofld^s Peoples American (Amerind) or Red Division Original Domain : The New World. Present Restricted Domaiit : The Arctic seaboard, Greenland, Alaska ; numerous reservations and some unsettled parts of the Dominion and the United States ; most of Mexico, Central and South America, partly intermingled with the white and black in- truders, partly still in the tribal state. Population : Full-blood Amerinds about 10,000,000, Mestizos or half-breeds of all kinds, 30,000,000 (?) ; total, 40,000,000 (?). Physical Characters : Head extremely variable, ranging from the highest dolichocephalous in Greenland to the highest brachycephalous in Argentina (cephalic index 66 to 93) ; jaws massive and slightly projecting ; cheek-boties rather prominent ; nose large, bridged or aquiline ; eyes small, round, straight, black, rarely with Mongolic fold ; height generally well above the average, 5 ft. 8 in. to 6 ft. and even 6 ft. 4 in. (Bororos, Patagonians) ; but some very undersized (5 ft. to 5 ft. 4 in.); as a rule prairie Indians tall, highlanders short ; colour normally reddish or coppery, but variable, some very dark brown, some yellowish (Amazonians) ; hair uniformly long, black, lank, coarse (horse-tail type), round in transverse section ; face beardless (Fig. 6). Mental Characters : Generally reserved, moody, taciturn, wary, with deep feelings marked by an impassive exterior towards strangers ; genial and cheerful in the home; strong nervous system with great power of enduring physical pain ; high sense of personal dignity, though somewhat coloured in romance ; great range of culture, from the lowest savage state (Seres, Botocudos, Fuegians) to the fairly civilised Aztecs, Mayas, Chibchas, Peruvians, and Aymaras ; architecture, engineering, calendric systems, well de- veloped; no literature properly so called beyond oral folklore, myths, and a few crude historic (?) records ; writing systems mainly pictorial and ideographic. Speech: A great number of linguistic families, more perhaps than in all the rest of the world, but all belonging to the same order of speech, the so-called polysynthetic or holophrastic, which is exclusively -confined to America. In this system the tendency is to fuse all the related terms of a sentence in a single word, often of prodigious length. Thus there are, so to say, no separate or abstract nouns or verbs, and you cannot say " to strike," or speak of General Survey 23 a man or a boy, but only to strike-hard, or a-tall-man, a-little-boy, and the-tall-man-struck-the-little-boy-hard, all in a breath. The process is everywhere more or less fully developed, from the Eskimo in the extreme north to the Araucanian in the extreme south, and the few seeming exceptions, such as the Mexican Otomi, would appear to be due to later disintegration, inevitable in suchacumbrous method. In North America there are about sixty irreducible stock languages of this order, a few (Eskimo, Athabascan, Siouan, Algon- quian, Iroquo- ian, Shosho- nean) spread over wide areas, but all the rest crowded to- gether chiefly along the Pacific seaboard. It is the same in Cen- tral and South America, where over a hundred are pressed into narrow spaces, while about a dozen (Aztec, Maya, Carib, Arawak, Quichua, Guarani, etc.) occupy or formerly occupied wide-stretching domains. Religioji : Shamanism (see above) is widely diffused amongst the North American aborigines. But still more prevalent is the cult of the aerial gods who support the four quarters of the heavens, and of animals (bear, wolf, raven, jaguar), which has given rise to strange Pkoto per Dr. R. W. Shufeldt. FIG. 6.— NORTH AMERICAN INDIAN Prairie Amerind. The feather head-dress varies with each tribe 24 The World^s Peoples werewolf superstitions, and to totemistic systems analogous to those of the Australian natives. Solar worship prevailed in Peru, while the cultured peoples of Mexico (Aztecs, Mayas, Zapotecs and others) had developed a complete pantheon of ferocious deities, such as Tezcatlipoca, Quetzalcoatl, and Tlaloc, whose thirst for human blood was insatiable. Thus arose an established order of priests, who immolated hecatombs of victims on solemn occasions, and presided over other sanguinary rites often accompanied by unutterable horrors. Aztec women still cast their infants into the Mexican lagoons to propitiate the Rain-god Tlaloc. Chief Sub-divisions : (i) Northern : Eskimo; Athabascan (Chip- pewayan, Taculli, Hupa, Apache, Navajo) ; Algonquian (Cree, Chippeway, Mohican, Delaware, Shawnee, Cheyenne, Illinois, etc.) ; Iroqtioia?i (Erie, Huron, Mohawk, Tuscarora, Cherokee, etc.); Siouan (Dakota, Assinaboin, Missouri, Iowa, Winnebago, Mandan, Tutelo, Catawba) ; Muskhogean (Seminole, Choktaw, Creek, Chicka- saw, Alibamu, Apalachi) ; Salish ; Shoshone ; Pawnee ; Pueblo (Zuni, Hopi, Tegua). (2) Central: Opata'Pij)ia{Ymn2i, Cora,Tarahumara, Tepeguana); Nahiian (Aztec, Huichol, Pipil, Niquiran); Maya-Quiche (Huaxtec, Maya, Lacandon, Quiche, Pocoman, Zendal, Choi, Zotzil, Cachiquel, Mame) ; Zapotec ; Mixtec (Mixe) ; Lencan (Chontal, Wulwa, Rama, Guatusa) ; Bribri ; Cuna. (3) Southern : Chibcha ; Choco ; Quichua (Inca, Chanca) ; Aymara (CoUa, Calchaqui); Antisuyu ; Jivaro ; Zaparo ; Pano ; Ticuna ; Chuncho; Carib ( Macusi, Akawai, Bakairi, Arecuna) ; Arawak; (Atorai, Wapisiana, Maypure, Parexi) ; Warrau ; Chiquito ; Bororo ; Botocudo, Tupi-Guarani (Chiriguana, Caribuna, Goajira, Omogua, Muridrucu) ; Payagua ; Mataco ; Toba ; Arauca?i ; Puelche ; Tehuelche (Patagonian) ; Fuegian (Ona, Yahgan, Alakaluf). Caucasic or White Division Original Home : North Africa between Sudan and the Mediter- ranean. Early Expansion : Europe, the Eurasian Steppe between the Carpathians and the Pamir, Asia Minor, Syria and Palestine, Arabia, Mesopotamia, Irania, India, North-east Asia, South-east Asia, Malaysia, Polynesia. Present Domain : North Africa ; most of Europe ; parts of South- west and Central Asia ; South Africa ; parts of Siberia, Irania, India, General Survey 25 Indo-China and Malaysia ; Polynesia ; Australia ; New Zealand ; North and South America. PopulatioJi : Europe, 355,000,000; Asia, 300,000,000 (?)j America, 115,000,000; Africa, 20,000,000; Australasia, 10,000,000; Total, 800,000,000 (?). Physical Characters : Three types : (i) Northern or Teutonic: Head, rather long; cephalic index 74 to 79; jaivs orthognathous, very slightly projecting ; cheek-bones generally small, not prominent ; ?iose large and straight ; eyes blue or grey with white sclerotic ; colour white or florid ; hair rather long, straight or wav}', fair, flaxen, very light brown or reddish, full beard ; height above the average, 5 ft. 8 in. to 6 ft. (Fig. 8). (2) Central or Alpine : Head short ; cephalic index 80 to 90 ; jaws and nose as in (i); eyes brown, hazel, or black; colour pale white, rarely florid; hair dark brown, chestnut, or black, rather short and straight or wavy; small beard; /z^/^/z/ medium, 5 ft. 5 in. or 5 ft. 6 in. (3) Southern or Mediterranean : Headlong; cephahc index 72 to 78 ; jaws and nose as in (i) ; eyes generally black and bright ; hair black, wavy or curly ; colour pale olive or swarthy, never florid ; height generally undersized, 5 ft. 4 in. to 5 ft. 6 in. Mental Characters : Temperament of (i) slow and somewhat stolid, cool, collected, resolute, persevering ("dogged"), enterpris- ing; of (2) and (3) fiery, fickle, bright, impulsive, quick but unsteady, with more love of show than sense of duty ; all three highly imagina- tive and intellectual ; hence science, arts, poetry, and letters fully developed, to some extent eve:g^ from very early times ; most civilisa- tions (Egyptian, Saosean, Assyrian, Persian, Indian, Mykenaean, Greek, Italic) have had their roots in Caucasic soil.. "^v^'^V Speech : Several linguistic families both of the agglutinating and higher inflecting order of speech ; in the- latter the formative elements tend to merge completely in the root, which thus becomes endlessly modified ; reduplication, a primitive trait, also persists, as in the Latin cado, cecidi ; mordo, inomordi, etc. ; the tendency was at first to build up these intricate forms synthetically, as in the classical languages, and then break them down analytically in their modern representatives. Thus the Latin pater, patris, patri becomes in liaXiSin padre, del padre, al padre, etc. ; amabitur^sara amato, etc. There are three great inflecting families : Hamitic (Old Egyptian, Beja, Galla, Somali, Berber, perhaps Basque), North Africa, Western 26 The World*s Peoples Pyrenees (?) ; Semitic (Himyaritic, Arabic, Abyssinian, Assyrian, Syriac, Phoenician, Hebrew), Arabia, Abyssinia, Mesopotamia, Syria, Palestine ; Aryan or Indo-European (Sanskrit, Zend, Persian, Armenian, Greek, Slavonic, Lithuanian, Latin, Teutonic, Keltic, and nearly all the modern European tongues), India, Irania, most of Europe and the European colonies, with United States and Latin America. The agglutinating tongues are more numerous, but con- fined to narrower areas, Basque to the Pyrenees, Georgian, Circas- sian and several others to the Caucasus, Dravidian and Kolarian to Central and Southern India. Religion: Now various forms of Chris fianityin Europe and the Colonies ; Hinduism in India ; Islam in Central Asia, Siberia, Turkey, Arabia, North Africa, Irania, India, Malaysia; but originally Nature-worship was more pro- nounced than the cult of ancestors. The Egyptians did not worship but embalmed the dead ; the chief gods of the Semites were the sun and moon, and those of the Aryans Dyaus, Indra, Zeus, Jupiter, Apollo, Saturn, etc., all per- sonified elements of the upper regions. Later these forces were symbolised in wood or stone, which led to idolatry — that is, the worship of the image itself, which still persists amongst the uneducated in some parts of Christendom ; the old belief in magic, demons, witch- craft, omens, ghosts and allied superstitions is also still prevalent. Out of the general polytheism were slowly evolved various shades of monotheism, whence arose the historical religions of the West {Judaism, Christianity, Mohammedanism), while crass polytheism persisted in the East {Brahmajiism in India, degraded forms of Buddhism in Ceylon and elsewhere). Intermediate between mono- theism and polytheism is the Persian dualism, which refers light Photo by T. Andrew, Apia, Samoa FIG. 7. — A SAMOAN CHIEF Fine Caucasic features Photo by J. W. McLellan FIG. 8. — AN ENGLISH FISHERMAN Notice the large straight nose and full beard 28 The World's Peoples and all good to Ormuzd and his host of angels, night and all evil to Ahriman and his host of demons. Although already denounced by Isaiah, whose Jehovah is the one source of all things (" I make peace and create evil," 45, 7), this twofold principle found its way into the early Christian teachings, and explains the demonology which with all its attendant horrors flourished in mediaeval times and is not yet quite extinct. As there is a heaven for the chosen few, so there is a hell with its Ahriman and host of demons for the multitudes foredoomed thereunto (Calvinism). Chief Sub-divisiotts : Hamites : Egyptians, Bejas, Afars, Somals, Gallas, Masai, Turkanas, Wahuma of North-east Africa, mainly between the Nile and the Red Sea ; Berbers, Tuaregs, Tibus of the Sahara and Mauritania. Semites: Arabs, Abyssinians, Syrians, Jews, of South-west Asia, North Africa and Europe. Aryans : Hindus, Persians, Afghans, Kurds, Armenians, of India and Irania ; Georgians, Circassians, Kabards, Lesghians, Chechenzes and others of the Caucasus ; most Europeans. Polynesians : Maori, Tongans, Tahitians, Samoans (Fig. 7), Hawaiians, Micronesians. CHAPTER III THE OCEANIC AEGROES AND NEGRITOS The Papuans (p. 29)— The Melanesians (p. 36) — The Australians (p. 43) — The Tasmanians (p. 56) — The Andamanese (p. 61) — The Nicobarese (p. 62) — The Bankas (p. 63) — The Samangs, Sakais, and Jakuns (p. 64) — The Aetas (p. 65) AS shown in our General Survey, there are five more or less distinct groups — Papuans, Melanesians, Australians, Tas- manians, and Negritos — all for long ages, since the subsidence of the former Indo-African Continent, separated by the Indian Ocean from the kindred Western Negroes. The Papuans, who lie nearest to the Javanese cradle of mankind, and formerly perhaps ranged over most of the Eastern Archipelago, are now mainly confined to the great island of New Guinea and some of the neighbouring insular groups. Those of Ke, x'\ru (Fig. 9), and some other parts are specially distinguished by their so-called " mop-heads " of hair, from which the Malays gave them the name of Papuwa (frizzly), by which they are best known. This feature, of which they are very proud, is carefully attended to, a long six-pronged bamboo fork serving as a comb and constantly used at spare moments to keep the dense masses from getting matted and tangled. Others substitute a large horseshoe-shaped comb worn over the forehead and fastened behind with a piece of wood which is plated with tin and supports a plume of cock's- tail feathers. Peculiar to the men is a band of plaited grass tied round the upper arm, to which is attached a bunch of hair or bright-coloured feathers. The women often display a necklace of teeth or beads which is attached to the earrings and then looped 29 30 The Wofld*s Peoples on to the hair-knot behind, producing rather a pretty efifect. Anklets of brass or shell and tight-plaited garters below the knee help to set off a solitary garb of matted palm-leaves reaching from the hips to the knees (Fig. 9)- The Papu- ans do not stand at the lowest level of culture, since many raise crops, make pottery, display much skill in their wood car- V i n g s, build strong boats and houses either perched in the branches of trees or raised on piles along the beach (Fig, lo). But the majority are still cannibals, and many of the wild tribes pre- sent a very black picture of the baser quali- ties of primi- tive humanity. Those of the south-west coast in Dutch territory are described as treacherous and blood- thirsty savages, who murder almost for the sake of murder. But even these are far surpassed in fiendish cruelly by the slave- raiding Tugares who live farther east about the Dutch and British frontiers. They break the arms and legs of their captives to Photo by Rev. W. G. Lawes FIG. 9. — A NFAV GUINEA YOUTH A Mop-Head of full-blood Papuan stock The Oceanic Negfoes and Negritos 31 prevent them from fighting or escaping, and then keep them as fresh meat, cooking one or two at a time as required. Or else the captive's palms are pierced, a string passed through the holes, and the arms tied together behind. In this state they are Phoio by J. W. Lindi, Melbourne FIG. 10. — THE chief's HOUSE New Guinea Pile Dwellinars brought back in the boats to undergo worse tortures at the cannibal feasts. On reaching the village they are thrown into the water, and fished out by those on the beach sticking barbed spears into the fleshy parts. Then they are put on mats, a rope 32 The "World's Peoples secured to a tree is passed round their necks to make them sit up, and after much slow torture they are wrapped in dry coconut leaves, hoisted some six feet from the ground, and slowly roasted with fire-brands. When the rope is burnt and the body falls to the ground, the wildest and most savage scene takes place. The natives rush with knives in their hands, each slashing a slice from the body, which may be still alive, in the midst of diabolical shouting and yells of delight {Official Report^ 1895). The Rev. J. Chalmers, who witnessed some of these orgies, was himself at last seized, killed, and eaten. Worthy of these human fiends are their fierce demon-gods, who prowl about everywhere, and in some districts take the form of huge monsters {Atitigi), with an eye in front and another behind, six fingers on each hand, and the right index finger furnished with a long sharp nail. They dwell in caves and prey on the people, eating them if the flesh is found to their taste. To test the point a piece is first scooped out with the long finger nail, and if relished the captive is roasted and eaten, otherwise allowed to go free. Besides this repulsive form of demonology, ancestor-worship is com- mon amongst the Western Papuans. After a burial a block of wood called a karwar is fashioned by the village magician to a rude efiigy of the departed, with eyes, nose, ears, and mouth, amid much feasting and dancing kept up for several days. Meanwhile the soul of the deceased is still flitting about, and every effort is now made to entice him into the finished image. A tremendous uproar is raised with shouting, yelling and drum-beating until the soul enters its future abode, from which it can no longer escape and go about working mischief The karwar is now put carefully away under the best mats in a corner of the hut, where it receives much homage and offerings, and is consulted as a sort of oracle on family matters. It accompanies travellers on long journeys to guard them from harm, but at last loses its efficacy, and is then cast aside as so much lumber. In British New Guinea witchcraft causes much trouble, and everywhere presents the same general features. A wizard, paid for the purpose, collects a pack of rubbish containing a hair, the nail parings, or anything else taken from the person to be operated on. The parcel thus acquires magic powers, and so frightens people that they have been known to sicken and die through fear. Tabu {tamki, tapu) also, so universal in Oceania, is widespread 34 *rhe ^01*1(^*8 Peoples in New Guinea, where it retains primitive forms which help to reveal its true origin. Here it has no religious significance, but, as in New Caledonia, is associated exclusively with the question of food — that is, the question which most interested primitive man. Leaves, rags, shells, bast, almost anything will do to show that such and such sago or coconut trees are held in reserve and must not be touched, r and in some places the prohibition is announced by a syren of wood on a string wielded by a fishing-rod. Some- times ropes are drawn r ou nd gardens; branches are tied to the door of a house that is not to be entered, or are laid across a track that is not to be traversed. It is a convenient way of warning off maraudef s and others in the interest of the chief or the commune, whose authority is later re- placed by that of the local gods, and it is then that tabu re- ceives religious sanc- tion. Broadly speaking, the moral sense is scarcely yet awakened amongst the Papuan peoples, so that there are no ethical codes, no rules of conduct beyond the tribal injunctions, no provision made for saints and sinners in the after life. Hence in Woodlark Island, at the east end of New Guinea, the souls of good and bad alike are wafted by the wind to the neighbouring islet of Watum, where they FIG. 12. — YOUNG MAN OF SOUTH CAPE, SOUTH COAST OF NEW BRITAIN, WITH ARTIFICIALLY FORMED HEAD. The Oceanic Negroes and Negritos 35 continue their earthly lives unmolested, the women cultivating and cooking food for the men, who hunt, and raid, and fight, and enjoy themselves just as in this world. Nor are there any social distinctions, since the Papuan is a pure communist, recog- nising no chiefs or other superiors except for their personal qualities, and obeying no law except that of public opinion. The sense of perfect equality is well seen in their extraordi- nary communal houses, which are all built on piles and of immense size, from 300 to 500 and even 700 feet long, large enough in fact to accommodate all the famihes of the tribal group (Fig. 10). Here no social distinctions are possible, and all associate together on absolutely equal terms. But they are equal, not through any sense of per- sonal freedom, of which they are yet unconscious, but be^ cause in the com- munal life, which ■ lies at the base of all human society, no account is taken of the individual who enjoys no separate rights or privileges. The so-called " dobbos," houses built in the branches of high trees, occur only in lawless districts, where they afford a refuge from the sudden attacks of hostile neighbours. Artificial deformation of the head, which is so general in New Britain (Figs. 11, 12, 13), is not practised by the Papuans of New Guinea. FIG. 13. -PROFILE OF THE SAME PERSON Melanesian Type 36 The "Woi-ld^s Peoples In their boisterous and fitful temperament the Papuans are true Negroes, as is well shown in the classical passage in which Dr. A. R. Wallace compares the Papuans with their Malay neighbours after a close study of both at first hand. " Whether we consider their physical conformation, their moral characteristics, or their intellectual capacities, the Malay and Papuan races offer remarkable differences and striking contrasts. The Malay is of short stature, brown- skinned, straight-haired, beardless, and smooth-bodied. The Papuan is taller, is black-skinned, frizzly-haired, bearded, and hairy-bodied. The former is broad-faced, has a small nose and flat eyebrows ; the latter is long-faced, has a large and prominent nose, and projecting eyebrows. The Malay is bashful, cold, un- demonstrative, and quiet ; the Papuan is bold, impetuous, excitable, and noisy. The former is grave and seldom laughs; the latter is joyous and laughter-loving ; the one conceals his emotions, the other displays them." The Melanesians No such contrasts could be drawn between the Papuans and their Melanesian cousins, whose present domain stretches from the Bismarck Archipelago (New Britain, New Ireland, Duke of York) south-eastwards to New Caledonia and eastwards to Fiji and Rotuma (Fig. ii). There is strong presumption that they formerly ranged over all the South Sea Islands, where a dark strain is almost everywhere noticeable amongst their present Polynesian inhabitants. On the other hand the Melanesian territory has in later times been encroached upon at various points by the Polynesians, so that both the physical and mental characters have in some places undergone considerable modifications which have led some observers to suppose that the Papuans and Melanesians belong to two different stocks. But a careful survey of the whole insular field shows clearly that the Papuan element greatly pre- dominates (Fig. 14). Thus the Admiralty and the Solomon Islanders, who may be taken as typical Melanesians, differ little from the average Papuan except in the nose, which is smaller and without the characteristic tip at the end, and in the height, which is lower, seldom exceeding 5 ft. 4 in. The natives them- selves recognise no kinship with others, being indigenous and sprung from the soil, or rather from a sugar-cane, two knots of 38 The World's Peoples which began to shoot, one giving birth to a man the other to a woman, the parents of mankind. Socially there is little to choose between the two sections, who may be collectively called Papuasians, and are both alike, for the most part, treacherous bloodthirsty head-hunters and cannibals. Thanks to missionary work, some little improvement has been noticed amongst the New Hebrides natives ; but even the very latest observers still continue to speak in unmeasured terms of the villainous character of the Solomon Islanders, " by nature lying, treacherous, thievish, and cruel cannibals " (Carl Ribbe). Yet in some respects the Melanesians show a marked superiority over the Papuans, and they certainly stand on a much higher mental plane, which may safely be attributed to the Polynesians long settled amongst them. This is seen in their more developed social and political institutions, the existence of chiefs, the restrictions imposed on the sexual relations, and above all their religious notions, which are far beyond the crude demonolatry of the New Guinea people. Indeed we are told by Mr. Codrington that there is no devil-worship, although the English word devil is common enough, being adopted by the natives in ignorance of its meaning. A distinction is clearly drawn between two classes of spirits, the bodiless and the disembodied — that is, pure spirits that never were mortals (animism) and the ghosts of the' departed (ancestor-worship). But the most essential feature of this system is a subtle power or virtue called 7na?ia, which was obviously borrowed from the Polynesians, and which confers special faculties on the persons and objects — men, houses, boats, weapons — possessed of it. In general, all pure spirits, most ghosts, and some men have mana, and after death those souls alone are worshipped who are supposed to have acquired it in life. These are of course the chiefs and others of high rank, while the common folk having no mana in this have none in the next world, and so are neglected and soon forgotten. All howe'^r are admitted to Hades where they lead a happy if an empty life, free at least from sorrow and earthly cares. It is reached, like Avernus, through a crater near a lake, where ghosts assemble, and where the new- comers are received by Ngalevu, the ghostly ruler of the place. On the far side of the lake, whither no man is known to have come, clouds of steam rise through another cleft, a proof that Ngalevu has heard the cries of the shades who have climbed an overhanging tree and called aloud for admittance. In shade-land 40 The Wofld*s Peoples are trees and houses where dwell the dead, though they may still visit the glimpses of the moon, and are seen like fire at night right in the path of the wayfarer who fears to go farther into the gloomy woods. Amongst the social institutions a great part is played by the secret societies, which are widespread and celebrate occult rites, from which, as amongst the European free- masons, women and the unini- tiated are ex- eluded. The members are disguised by masks and an enveloping garb when abroad in the daylight, and have strange cries and secret signs by which their presence may be known when unseen. Such societies are the Dukduk of New Britain, the Matambala of Florida, the T a m a t e of Banks' Islands, the Qatu of the New Hebrides, and others of Fiji and New Caledonia. In all of them the ghosts of the dead are supposed to be present and consulted by certain prescribed methods. Besides the great lodges, which are very powerful in enforcing the chiefs' edicts and their own decrees, there are numerous minor societies which may be started by anybody, some being cheap and of easy entrance, others Photo by permission of Sir C. A. G. Bridge FIG. l6. — NATIVES OF UGI, SOLOMON ISLANDS Full-blood Melanesians 42 The ^01*1(1*8 Peoples more select with heavy entrance fees. The initiation to some of the higher bodies is quite an ordeal, the neophytes being subjected to severe trials of endurance by torture, hunger, and other hardships continued for many weeks, during which they are taught to sing and dance. The dances, which always form part of the mysteries, are really wonderful performances, and usually take place by moonlight in an open space encircled by spectators. Amid loud reports produced by the bursting of bladders in the surrounding woods the dancers enter upon the ground one after the other with a surprisingly rapid stamping movement of the feet, and come to an equally surprising sudden halt. The leader carries a long-shaped bamboo drum answering to the baton of our conductors, while the rest bring their bows and arrows. All move in concert, and when they are numerous and expert, the very ground seems to shake beneath their feet. Various rich dancing costumes are worn (Fig. 17), and a favourite ornament is a huge ear-plug which sometimes distends the lobe down to the shoulders, as in the New Hebrides, Fiji, and many other places. The same sense of rhythm and harmony is shown in their songs, which are accompanied by the music Qf drums, pipes, stringed instruments, bull-roarers, and rattles. These songs are transmitted orally from age to age, as are also their numerous myths, legends and popular traditions, animal stories and wonder tales. In all this the Melanesians greatly excel the Papuans, as they do also in the products of the industrial arts, canoes, outriggers, weapons, fishing gear, houses, forts, stone buildings, and the decorative arts generally. The war canoes, which take a long time to build, are forty-five to sixty feet long by six wide, stem and stern being turned up to a height of fifteen feet and finished off with elaborately carved figure-heads (Fig. 15). In order togetmana, a human victim is required on the first voyage, and if none turn up the captain arranges privately with some neighbourly chief to let him have one of his men, some friendless person or a stranger, who is then suddenly pounced upon and brained while looking at the new canoe. Victims are also often buried alive under the foundations of new houses, some of which are very fine structures. The dwellings of chiefs are often noble buildings thirty or forty feet long by thirty high with interlaced bamboo floors raised well above the ground, sunken hearth, and a number of *' cubicles " ranged along the walls for the owner's wives. Such The Oceanic Negroes and Negritos 43 a house has to be " consecrated " with the head of a man, or at least of a woman or bo}', and it was formerly customary to crush one or more men under the base of the main pillar or post. The fittings include a chest on legs for storing dried bread-fruit, a hole and pile of stones for an oven ; wooden hooks hanging from the roof with bags of food to protect them from the rats, large wooden platters, bowls, pestles, bamboos for water, wicker dishes, a few wooden knives and tools stuck between the layers of sago or coconut palm thatch, and mats spread upon the floor. In some places the wooden bowls, noted for their great size, fantastic shape, and fine ornamentation, serve as pots set upon the pile of stones heated in the oven. Narcotics, such as the areca-nut chewed with betel-leaf and coral-lime, are common ; but there are no indigenous intoxicants, and even the Polynesian kava is confined to the Banks' Islands and New Hebrides. In Aurora the root is pounded with a rough coral pestle and mortar ; but elsewhere the preparation is more elaborate. It is first chewed by the drinker, and when the fibres are separated a mouthful of water stimulates the secretion of saliva. Then some more water is added in the coconut shell cup, over which the fibres are well squeezed, and the potion is ready. This seems repulsive enough, but it is worse in Polynesia, where the mastication is done not by the drinker himself, but by girls engaged for the purpose. The Australians and Tasmanians Despite a general physical and mental likeness, most observers now recognise two original elements — a black and perhaps a low Caucasic — in the constitution of the Australian aborigines. That the black forms the substratum is also generally admitted, and is indeed self-evident, the colour being often almost quite black, while the features and bony framework are distinctly negroid. Those of the Adelaide River in the north-west, who may be taken as typical natives, are described as nearly pitch-black, with very long head (index 70 to 71), projecting jaws, deep-set black eyes, depressed nose, wide nostrils, thick lips and no calves (Fig. 18), while infants, as elsewhere in Negroland, are born a light yellow or brown, and remain so for about two years. The distinguishing trait is the black hair, which is neither woolly nor frizzly, but rather shaggy and even 44 The World's Peoples straight, and, like the well-developed beard, of coarse texture. This hirsuteness (Fig. 23) is doubtless due to an early infusion of the Caucasic element, which is also pointed at by some skulls presenting Neanderthal characters found in districts which could be easily reached from Malaysia by the Javanese Pleistocene man at a time when Australia still formed nearly con- tinuous land with the Asiatic continent. After the subsi- dence of the land- connections the na- tives remained for long ages cut off from the rest of the world, visited only now and then by a stray junk or prau till quite recent times. They had thus ample leisure in their iso- lated seclusion to live their own life, and to develop those marked mental and moral characters by which they are dis- tinguished from all other races. But their environment was unfavourable, mostly arid waterless wastes, bush or scrub in the central and western parts, good grassy and well-wooded tracts only in the east. And as primitive man necessarily reflects his surround- ings, no further explanation is needed of the very low stage of culture at which the Australian aborigines have always remained. The stimulants and influences from without came too late — first British settlements towards the close of the eighteenth century — Photo by J.W. Lindt, Melbourne FIG. l! : — MAN OF THE " ARILLDA " WALLINUMAH TRIBE, GILBERT RIVER, AUSTRALIA The Oceanic NegfoeS and Negritos 45 and they Were too strong to be effective except for the further degradation and practical extinction of these untutored savages. They were never very numerous, not more than about 150,000 at the discovery, and according to the 1901 census all have disappeared except about 22,000 full-blood and half-breeds, some gathered into re- serves but the ma- jority still in the wild state. This wild state stands at nearly the lowest level of human culture, if the term culture can be at all applied to a people who build no houses, not even mud huts, but only screens of foliage shifted with the shifting winds ; who till no land, raise no crops, but are omnivorous feeders on roots and fruits, vermin even such as beetles, grasshoppers, and termites, besides small and big game, man included ; make no boats, or dug-outs beyond the framed bark of their euca- lyptus trees ; wear no clothes or even personal ornaments except perhaps a bone thrust through the nasal septum, or a rude shell necklace (Fig. 18) and the rough weltings raised on the skin by their barbarous tattooing processes (Fig. 22); have no names for the numerals beyond two or three, hence no letters, science, or arts, and, some good observers add, no religion. But religion is a burning question, on which ^opinions vary from Photo by J. W. lAndt, Melbourne FIG. 19.— AUSTRALIAN YOUTH, GILBERT RIVER 46 The WofId*s Peoples absolute denial of its existence to crediting them with a beh'ef in the " All-Father." The most general impression is that they have no prayer, or sacrifices, or religious observances of any kind, acknow- ledging no Supreme Being, worshipping no idols, and believing only in wicked spirits, authors of all evil and dangerous especially at night. Hence they seldom venture from the encampment after dusk without carrying a firestick to scare away these malignant beings. Yet some are said to hold that all men and animals have a soul which can pass into other bodies, leave a person even in his lifetime, visit the grave of its former possessor, eat scraps of food lying about the camp, and warm itself by the night fires. In the native folklore a prominent figure is Bunjil, creator of most things. Armed with a large knife, he makes the earth and then goes about cutting and slashing it into rivers and creeks, hills and valleys. Then, after contact with the whites, there is a curious adaptation of Bunjil to Biblical legends, as when people grow wicked he waxes angry, raises storms and fierce winds which shake the big trees on the hilltops. Thereupon he again goes about with his big knife, cutting this way and that way, and men, women and children are all cut into very little pieces. But the pieces are alive and wriggle about like worms, when great storms spring up, and they are blown about like snow- flakes. They are wafted into the clouds, and by the clouds borne hither and thither all over the earth, and thus is mankind dis- persed ; but the good people are carried aloft and become stars, which still shine in the sky. The above-mentioned tribal All- Father holds sway in Victoria and New South Wales, and a native " Trinity " is even spoken of comprising Boyma, a benevo- lent omnipotent Being, his all-knowing son Grogoragally, mediator between Boyma and mortals, and a third person half human, half divine, the great lawgiver Moogeegally, and lastly a hell with everlasting fire, and a heaven where the blessed dance and amuse themselves. Amongst the Arunta and some other tribes of Central Australia the totemic system has acquired strange developments, totems being even assigned to the mysterious Irttntarinia entities, vague and invisible incarnations of the ancestral ghosts who lived in the Alcheringa time, the dim remote past, the beginning of everything. They are far more powerful than living men, because their spirit part is associated with the so-called Churinga, stocks or stones or any other object endowed with the Arungquiltha, the Australian The Oceanic Negroes and Negritos 47 mana, which makes the yams and grass to grow, enables a man to capture game, and so on. The Churinga, being the outward sign, if not the embodiment of the ancestral souls, are naturally held in the highest esteem by tribes whose very existence depends on their success in the chase. They are rightly regarded as the typical hunters, in this respect unsurpassed even by the Canadian trappers, the African Bushmen, or any other people, savage or civilised. Hence in the wild state, the Australian is the most independent of mortals, but at the same time is prevented from making any progress in civilisation beyond a certain low level. The difficulty of capturing game with his primi- tive methods compels him to give his whole time to the quest of food, and spend his days in roaming restlessly over wide hunting- grounds, and devising all sorts of artificial methods and precautions for preventing these preserves from becoming over-peopled. This is the explanation of certain indescribable puberty rites, as well as of the strange marital relations, which are so arbitrary and intricate that they remain quite incomprehensible except to experts who have devoted years to their study. Even these are not agreed on all points, and while all admit the complicated class marriages within the several groups, the still more primitive " Communal Marriages," practically mere promiscuity, are strenuously denied by many close observers. In fact the class system, prevalent both in exogamous and endogamous tribes, necessarily excludes promiscuity, which, as shown convincingly by Mr. Curr, neither did nor does exist in any part of Australia. What is certain is the brutal treatment to which the bride is often subjected, A man having a daughter thirteen or fourteen years old, offers her to some elderly person "for a consideration," and when the bargain is struck, she is brought out and handed over to a man whom she may have never seen but to loathe. The father carries a spear, a waddy or a tomahawk, which he freely uses in case of resistance. If she still rebels and screams, the blows are repeated, and if she attempts to run away, a stroke on the head from the waddy or tomahawk quiets her. The mother screams and scolds and beats the ground with her digging-stick ; the dogs bark and whine, but nothing interrupts the father, who to enforce his authority will seize the bride by her long hair and drag her to her new home. Here further resistance is followed by further brutal treatment, under which her bridal screams and yells make the night hideous. 48 ThelWofld^s Peoples Besides the arms here mentioned, the most characteristic weapon is the boomerang, of which there are two kinds. One is a mere throwing-stick used in tribal warfare : but the other, certainly a native invention unknown elsewhere, is somewhat sickle-shaped, about three feet long, two inches wide and nearly one inch thick. When grasped at one end and projected upward at an angle of about 45° it rotates to a great height, and then suddenly returns to the thrower. It may also be thrown downward to the ground, when it rebounds in a straight line, pursuing a ricochet motion till it strikes the object aimed at. This is not used in battle, but is treated merely as a plaything, or for killing fish, as in the north-western Broome district, where the natives have neither boats nor even fishing tackle (Dr. Klaatsch). There are, however, shields of divers patterns, and some simple useful implements, such as the saddle-back quern, used with a roller stone for grinding nardoo seeds, and carried about on the backs of the women. The shell fish-hooks, too, are of ingenious and complicated design, and G. Scott Lang describes a remarkable fish-trap in the Brewarina district forming an immense labyrinth of large stone walls which " have stood every flood from time immemorial." Scanty or doubtful references are further made to a North Queens- land dug-out and canoes fifty feet long, more hkely captured or stranded from New Guinea than of native build, and even to traces of permanent huts and the cultivation of yams in the Hutt River district. But the vague or rare mention of such "proofs" of social progress rather tends to confirm the low estimate of Australian culture held by the best observers. Nevertheless the mental faculties and even the moral qualities are in some respects of a higher order than is generally supposed. As amongst the true Negroes, the school children in the reservations show as much or even greater aptitude for learning than those of white parents, although we are not told that this early promise yields much fruit in the adult. The moral character is well summed up by Brough Smyth, who describes the native as cruel to his foes and kind to his friends ; he will look upon infanticide without repugnance, and even feed a child on its murdered brother in the belief that it will thereby acquire the strength of both ; yet he will show affection for those who are permitted to live ; he will half murder a girl in order to possess her as a wife, but protect and love her when she resigns herself to his will. He is a murderer The Oceanic Negroes and Negritos 49 when his tribe requires a murder to be done, but in a fight is generous and takes no unfair advantage. He is affectionate towards his relatives and respectful and dutiful in his behaviour to the aged. Cases are on record of wives refusing to survive their husbands and conversely, and even of men sickening to death on the loss of a friend. Their soci- able disposition is -^.'-r-rrr!^ well shown at the festive gatherings, where all take part in the corroboree, as the characteristic Australian dance is called (Fig. 21), There are two kinds, one, like our " carpet dances," got up on the spur of the mo- ment without much order or formality. But the other is a very serious affair, requiring much pre- paration and a great variety of costumes, and is often kept up for three consecutive nights. It is a weird spectacle, diversified by several different styles in some re- spects resembHng the performances of the Melanesian secret societies. There is much advancing and re- treating, the dancers waving spears or other missiles, or else their wands with many-coloured spiral markings, and keeping such perfect time as to produce only one simultaneous loud impact of the feet on the ground. This is the Arunta style as described by Dr. Stirling. Formerly the Bengel and other tribes of New South Wales 4 FIG. 20. — AUSTRALIAN OF PORT DARWIN 5° The "Wofld*s Peoples held similar gatherings in connection with one of their puberty rites which consisted in piercing the nasal septum for the insertion of a bit of wood or bone, and at the same time knocking out a tooth. With the loss of a tooth the young men entered the ranks of the adults, and were henceforth privileged to take part in their wars and kangaroo hunts. In the year 1795 Collins witnessed such a ceremony from the summit of Farm Cove. On his arrival he found the chief actors, who were members of the Kemmirai tribe, grouped in full array at one end of a clearing in the bush, and at the other the young men who were to lose their teeth. The ceremony opens with the warriors advancing singing, yelling, hurling their spears at the targets, and raising clouds of dust with their caperings. Then the youths are seized one after the other and brought to the other side, where they remain seated with crossed legs, clasped hands, and downcast look. In this extremely uncomfortable position they remain the whole night, never stirring, raising their eyes, nor tasting a morsel of food till the operation is over. Now the wizards perform some mysterious rites, one of them suddenly throwing himself flat on the ground, rolling over and over with wonderful twistings and contortions, shamming frightful convulsions, and then seeming to draw out a bone from himself to serve for the next performance. And all the time the others keep dancing round about, and patting him on the back till the magic bone is extracted, whereupon he seems relieved from his pretended sufferings. Scarcely has one risen from the ground, bathed in perspiration and thoroughly exhausted, when a second goes through the same farce and also produces a bone. All this is to convince the youths that the pending operation would only cause them little pain, since they would have the less to endure the more the wizards suffered. Soon after dawn the next day the actors advance in Indian file, raising a great uproar and running three times round the clearing. Then the youths, with bent knees and clasped hands, are brought forward, and now a series of ceremonies are gone through, each representing something particular, but one and all strange and grotesque. In one scene the lads are seated at the upper end of the clearing, while the actors run on all fours several times round the place, imitating the attitude of the dingo. 52 The "World's Peoples their boomerangs being stuck behind in their girdles, so as to stand out like dogs' tails. This canine display is presumably intended to hand over the control of these animals to the youths. Another scene shows them still seated, while a powerful native advances with the straw effigy of a kangaroo on his shoulder, and another behind him with a bunch of foliage on his shoulder, the two seeming to break down under their burdens, staggering along till they reach the young men, at whose feet they lay their prey, the kangaroo indicating the permission henceforth to hunt this animal. In the third scene the actors stick a bunch of herbage in their girdles and set off Hke a herd of kangaroos, now springing on their hind legs, now standing erect, now scratching with their claws, while a man keeps banging a shield with a club, and two others follow, trying to overtake, spear, and kill the game, as in a real hunt. Then each of the actors seizes a boy, mounts him on his shoulders, and carries him off to the place where the last scene of the comedy is to be acted. The first lad to be operated upon is lifted on to the shoulders of a man kneeling on the ground and is shown one of the bones, which is sharply pointed at one end in order to cut through the gum ; were this not done the blow might easily break his jaw. Then a kind of chisel is applied to the tooth, which being now loosened yields to a strong well- planted blow. All the young men, fifteen in number, were treated in the same way, and during the whole performance the on-lookers kept shouting at the top of their voices, either to distract the boys or else to drown their shrieks of pain. As is pointed out by Frobenius, nearly all these tooth-drawings, scarifyings, ear-piercings and general mutilations have a deep religious significance for primitive man. On Babar, one of the Lesser Sunda Islands, the distention of the ear-lobes is connected with the notion that access to deadland after death is allowed to those only who during life had taken care to have their ear-holes properly enlarged. Some Australian tribes think that those are tortured hereafter who do not have the walls of the nostrils bored for the insertion of a bone, a bit of stick, or the like. Amongst the Motu, a tribe in British New Guinea, there are, strictly speaking, no punishments after death. Nevertheless in the popular belief there is one painful experience for the souls of those careless people whose nose is not pierced, and who consequently go to a wretched place where food is scarce and there are no betel-nuts. According The Oceanic Negfoes and Negritos 53 to the beUef of the natives of Maevo, an island in the New Hebrides Archipelago, all those whose ears are not distended to a sufficient size must drink no water, while all who are not tattooed will get no proper food to eat. For the souls of the natives of Florida Island, after death a wandering journey begins, in the course of which they meet a certain tindalo (spirit) on the shores of an island where dwell the departed PJioto by yir. Richard Phillips FIG. 22. — AUSTRALIANS OF THE NORMANBY TRIBE souls. He examines the nose, and if it is found pierced, they are easily admitted to the kingdom of the blest, but if not, for them begins a period of sorrow and suffering. On Mota, one of the Banks' Islands, those fare worse still whose ears are not found bored by Paget, judge of the dead ; and in the Gilbert Archipelago the tattooed alone are allowed to enter the abode of bliss. In the Hades of the Fijians all whose ears are not enlarged are treated with the utmost contempt, and women who are not tattooed are immolated by the souls of their own sex, and served up as food for the gods. It all means that the goodness and virtue of a 54 The World's Peoples person consist entirely in his strict observance of the tribal customs and traditions. In Mrs. Jeannie Gunn's The Little Black Princess, a charming picture of Australian inner life and thought, we see what a firm hold witchcraft and the magic arts still have even on the natives that have long been in close contact with Europeans. Here Goggle Eye, one of the chief characters, has been cursed by the magicians of his tribe. They bewitched him by " singing magic " and pointing death- bones at him, so that he is sure to die. So firm is their faith in the efficacy of the process, that many do actually pine away and die when they learn that they have been cursed, and this is the fate of Goggle Eye himself, who goes off" to attend some of the tribal ceremonies, is operated upon by an enemy, and returns to his European home in a dying state. This is how it is done. The enemy secretly sticks a sharp-pointed bone in the ground, bends over it, and "sings magic into it." When enough magic is sung, the bone, now charged with a deadly virtue, is brought to the camp and secretly pointed at the unsuspecting victim. Everything must be done in this secret way, for if the man's friends find out who has done the bone-pointing, they will go and do the same to him in revenge. On the other hand the victim must somehow be informed of the fact, else he will not get a fright and die. One way of letting him know is to put the bone in some place where he is sure to find it. This dying from bone-pointing is after all merely faith-dying, the reverse process of our Christian Scientists' ''faith-healing." To Mrs. K. Langlow Parker, another English lady who has lived for years amongst the natives and learned to sympathise with them, we are indebted for some fresh information at first hand on their views regarding the soul, or rather the souls, for each person has three and some even four. Such, she tells us, is the doctrine of the New South Wales Euahlayi tribe, who hold that besides the Yowee, which never leaves the body till death, there are at least two others, the Doowee, which wanders in dreams, may be captured, knocked on the head or otherwise ill-used with bad results to its owner, and the Mulloowil or shadow soul, the loss of which is also hurtful. These three are common property, while Yunbeai, the fourth, which is the animal soul or personal totem, is reserved for the great magicians and those to whom they may give it. In the magic rites performed for the purpose of detecting murderers this animal soul sometimes plays an important part. The neighbourhood Photo by permission of Mr. John Bagot FIG. 23. — AUSTRALIANS FROM RIVER MURRAY The Caucasic element is seen in the full beard and more regular features 56 The "Wofld*s Peoples of the victim's grave is carefully searched for the spoor of an animal, and this spoor is always found to be that of the totem of the criminal, who is thus known, like the European were-wolf, to have taken the form of his totem animal for this and perhaps for other wicked purposes. The Australian totemic system, the origin and nature of which are the subject of such heated discussion amongst students of primitive institutions, is thus seen to be largely if not altogether animistic. Each person inherits some animal totem, which was at first merely a badge or token to distinguish persons or small groups one from another, and in course of time the association becomes so close that the totem and its bearer become one. They are now insepar- able, and the connection in due course acquires tribal or social and eventually religious sanction. In Australia religion itself is so little developed that this final stage has scarcely yet been reached, and the system remains a social institution. But elsewhere, and especially in North America, it has assumed such a pronounced religious character that its true origin — a simple heraldic device introduced for a practical purpose — is obscured and forgotten. It should be remembered that all such later developments take place normally and have their roots in the wants and needs of primitive societies, as we see, for instance, in the Pontifex Maximus, the " Chief Bridge- builder," now the title of the head of the Roman Church. It is noteworthy that the main object of Australian totemism is to fix and determine the consanguineous and kinship groups and thus regulate the marital relations. It is a distinguishing family mark just as tabu is a question of food (see above). If the Australian aborigines may be taken as representing a somewhat low phase of the New Stone Age, their distant Tasmanian cousins may be said to have scarcely reached the lowest phase of the Old Stone Age, when they became extinct about twenty years ago. There is some doubt as to the precise date, but Mr. James Barnard assures us that one full-blood Tasmanian, Fanny Cochrane Smith, was still living at Port Cygnet in 1889, although Mr. H. Ling Roth, perhaps a better authority, declares that she was only a half-breed. Opinions differ as to their origin, and while some regard them as perhaps aberrant Melanesians modified, not by crossings but by long isolation in their insular home, others look upon them as primitive Australians modified both by isolation and by Melanesian interminglings. The divergence from both is shown especially in the width of the skull in the parietal region, the form Photo Copyright by J. W. Beailie, Hobart FIG. 24. — A GROUP OF TASMANIANS Reclaimed from the wild state, as shown by their European dress. All now extinct 58 The World*s Peoples of the nose, the projection of the mouth, the size of the teeth, and the character of the hair, somewhat intermediate between the Papuan mop-head and the shaggy Austrahan (Fig. 24). On their extremely low cultural status all are agreed. Their rude stone implements have been compared with the British eoliths (older than the palaeoliths) and with the specimens from Portugal claiming to be of Pliocene if not of Miocene (Middle Tertiary) origin. None are ground or polished, or detached from the core by pressure, but only by blows in the simplest way ; nor were they mounted on hefts, but only grasped in the hand, like all true eoliths. Thus the Tasmanians would appear to have rema:ined to our day living representatives of the earliest Stone Age, left behind in cultural development even by the ancient tribes of the Somme and the Thames. " The life of these savages proves to be of undeveloped type alike in arts and institutions, so much so that the distinction of being the lowest of normal. tribes may be claimed for them" (E. B. Tylor). Even their speech, distinct from all other tongues in its vocabulary and structure, was of a rudimentary character. In the absence of sibilants and in some other features it showed some resemblance to the Australian, but was of a much ruder type, and so imperfectly constituted that there was no settled order or arrange- ment of words in the sentence, the sense being eked out by tone, manner, and gesture, so that they could scarcely converse in the dark, and all intercourse had to cease with nightfall. Abstract terms scarcely existed, and while every gum-tree or wattle-tree had its name, there was no word for " tree " in general, or for qualities such as hard, soft, hot, cold, etc. Anything hard was " like a stone," round " like the moon," and so on, the speaker suiting the action to the word, and supplementing the meaning to be under- stood by some gesture. Though there were fire-sticks it is doubtful whether they could kindle fire by friction or otherwise. But they remembered a time when there was no fire at all, until two blackfellows standing on a hilltop threw it about like stars. At first the people were frightened and ran away, but came back in time and made a fire of wood, after which " no more was fire lost in our land. The two blackfellows are in the clouds, in the clear night you see them like stars. These are they who brought fire to our fathers " {Tasmanian Folklore). There were no boomerangs, or thro wing- sticks, or shields, nothing but two primitive spears and the waddy, The Oceanic Negroes and Negritos 59 something like the Irish shillelagh. In their diet were included snakes, lizards, grubs and worms, also birds, fishes, roots, seeds, fruits, besides the opossum, wombat, and kangaroo, but not man as a rule. They were gross feeders, eating enormous quantities of food when they could get it, and the case is mentioned of a woman who devoured fifty to sixty eggs larger than a duck's besides a double ration of bread at the station in Flinders Island. They had frail bark canoes and rafts like those of Torres Strait, but no dwellings beyond caves, rock-shelters, and branches of trees lashed together, supported by stakes and disposed crescent-shape with the concave side to wnndward. Usually the men went naked, the women wore a loose covering of skins, and ornaments were limited to a shell necklace, cosmetics of red ochre, plumbago, and powdered charcoal. The Oceanic Negritos Although the Spanish diminutive Negrito with its variant Negrillo, meaning " Little Negro," is by established usage applied in a collective way to certain undersized groups dispersed amongst the taller Malayan peoples of the Eastern Archipelago, the term is not to be taken in too strict a sense, since only a very few of these groups can properly be called pygmies, while all are of dis- tinctly higher stature thati the African Negritos, all of whom are true pygmies. The African falls normally well below 4 ft. 6 in., whereas the Oceanic often reaches 5 ft., and perhaps averages 4 ft. 8 in. Another marked difference lies in the colour of the skin, which- is always black in the east, always brown or yellowish- brown in the west. In other respects both present much the same Negro or Negroid characters such as short or round heads with cephalic index sometimes above 90, projecting jaws, a slightly tottering gait, and especially short black and woolly hair of tufty growth, this being a constant trait by which the true Negrito can always be recognised. Although no longer found in the great islands of Sumatra and Borneo, or in any of the lesser Sundas, their undoubted presence in Java, the An damans, Banka Island, the Malay Peninsula, the Philippines, and New Guinea plainly shows that the Oceanic Negritos must have formerly ranged over the whole of Malaysia, and there are indications that perhaps the greater part of India was 6o The World's Peoples once included in their domain. But at present, and perhaps through- out historic times, they are mainly restricted to five isolated areas : the Andaman Islands, of which the " Mincopies," as they were formerly called, hold exclusive possession; the Malay Peninsula, where the Samangs, Sakais, Jakuns, and several other full-blood and half- \ Photo by Colonel Waterhouse FIG. 25. — A GROUP OF ANDAMANESE Are the tallest of all the Oceanic Negritos caste groups live either aloof from or intermingled with the sur- rounding Malay populations ; the island of Java, where the formerly widespread Kalangs are now nearly if not quite extinct ; the Aetas, dispersed in small bodies over the Philippine Archipelago, where they are either dying out or becoming absorbed in the Tagala and The Oceanic Negfoes and Megt-itos 6i other Malayan communities ; lastly the little-known Karons of the Arfak Hills, North-west New Guinea. A special interest attaches to the Andamanese Islanders from the fact that since the extinction of the Tasmanians they are almost the only group of aborigines who, until the recent British occupation, have lived quite apart from the rest of the world in their remote insular homes since the early Stone Ages. Hence it is not perhaps surprising that when questioned by their first visitors as to their ideas regarding the universe they replied that their islands comprised the whole world, and that the visitors themselves were their deceased forefathers who were allowed now and then to revisit the erenia — that is, the world, the Andaman Islands. Hence also the natives of India who now come regularly as convicts or sepoys are still always called chaugala, i.e. " Departed Spirits." Of this world itself they have the strangest possible notion, supposing it to be flat as a plate and badly balanced on the top of a very tall tree, so that it is doomed one day to be tilted over -by a great earthquake. Then the living and the dead will change places, and the latter, to expedite matters, combine from time to time to shake the tree and so displace the wicker ladder by which it is connected with heaven. Here dwells Puluga, an immortal invisible being who knows everything, even men's thoughts, in the daylight but not in the dark, and has made all things except three or four bad spirits for whose misdeeds he is not responsible. There is a curious notion about wax-burning, which, being distasteful to Puluga, is often secretly done when some enemy is fishing or hunting in order to stir up his wrath and thus spoil the sport. Hence in the criminal code before lying, theft, or murder comes wax-burning, the greatest crime of all, equivalent to our sacrilege. Many wild statements formerly current about these harmless aborigines have been dispelled, and we now know that they do not burrow in the ground like rabbits, that there are no " oven-trees " for roasting pigs or men, no cannibalism, boomerangs, or even blow- pipes, useless without poison, of which they have no knowledge. They have, however, two kinds of boats, one a very rude outrigger, and two kinds of dwellings, also very frail and primitive, like the leafy shelters of the Amazonian Amerinds. The Andamanese are the tallest of all Negritos (average about 4 ft. 9 or lo in.) and are of a somewhat infantile type, with greatly modified Negro features, due perhaps to the softening influence 62 The W"orld*s Peoples of their oceanic climate -.(Fig. 25). They are described as a merry, talkative, somewhat petulant, inquisitive, and restless people, and a pleasing trait is the treatment of their wives, who, though necessarily doomed to much drudgery, are regarded as real helpmeets on a footing of perfect equality. Marriage is a permanent tie, divorce being unknown, and "conjugal fidelity till death the rule and not the exception" (E. H. Man). Despite the extraordinary complexity of their agglutinative language, radically distinct from all others, there are no names for the numerals beyond two. Attempts however are made to count up to ten by tapping the nose with the finger- tips of both hands, beginning with the little finger and saying one^ then two with the next, after which each successive tap makes and this. When the thumb of the second hand is reached, making ten, both hands are brought together to indicate 5 + 5, and the sum is clenched with the word ardiiru = all ! But even this feat is rare, and after tzao you usually get nothing but many, numerous, countless, or some other vague term of multitude. The neighbouring Nicobar Islanders are not Negritos, but of a somewhat low Malayan type, with perhaps a strain of black blood, as seen in the group from Nancowry Harbour (Fig. 26). There are two distinct tribes, the Shorn Pen who live in the interior of Great Nicobar, and are the true aborigines (Fig. 27), and the coast people, who are later arrivals from Malaysia and Indo-China. But there is now little physical difference, and all are rather undersized Photo by Mr. E. H. Man FIG. 26 NATIVES OF NANCOWRY HARBOUR, NICOBAR The Oceanic Negroes and Negritos 63 (5 ft. 2 to 3 in.), with slant narrow eyes, flat features, yellowish or reddish brown colour, rusty brown or blackish hair usually straight, but also wavy or curly, Shorn Pen always straight. One of the few industries is a rough painted pottery of which the islet of Chowra has a "monopoly," because long ago the Great Unknown de- creed, under terrible threats of sudden death, earth- quakes and other calami- ties, that the industry should be confined to the Chowra women. The popular belief was confirmed by the fate of one of these women who began to make pottery in another island, and was struck dead for her temerity. The Malay island of Banka off the east coast of Sumatra has also a primitive group, the Orang Gunong ( " Hillmen " ), who betray their Negrito descent in their frizzly hair, short nose, wide nostrils, and thick elevated lips (Fig. 29). Traces of the same connection may be noticed in the Sikka .of the adjacent island of Bihton (Fig. 28), and perhaps also in the Battas of Lake Toba, North Central Sumatra. In the Malay Peninsula the most typical Negritos are the Photo by Mr. E. H. Man. FIG. 27. — GREAT NICOBAR : MEMBERS OF AN INLAND TRIBE These are the Shorn Pen aborigines 64 The Woi'ld*s Peoples Samangs of the central inland districts, who are perhaps the only group that have hitherto preserved their racial characters intact. These Orang-utan^ as the Malays call them, are of a sooty-black colour, with short woolly hair clinging to the scalp in little crisp curls, flat nose, protruding lips and jaws, and pronounced Negroid features. They are true nomads without permanent stations, camping wherever game is most plentiful, and living in frail lean-to's of matted palm-leaves propped on rough uprights. Clothes they have next to none, and their food is chiefly yams and other jungle roots, fish, sun- dried monkey, venison and other game. Salt is so rare that even rock-salt when pro- curable is greedily swallowed in handfuls without any bane- ful results. In some districts they take refuge in trees from their hostile Sakai neighbours, stretching rattan ropes from branch to branch, and along these aerial bridges even the women will pass with their cooking-pots and other effects, with a babe at the breast and the bigger children clinging to their heels. For, like the Andamanese, they love their womenfolk, and in this way rescue them from the Malay and Sakai raiders and slavers. About these Sakai half-breeds (Figs. 33) who have gone over to the enemy and now join them in hunting down their own kinsfolk, the Samangs have a weird legend of some great Amazons destined one day to come and destroy the traitors. These mysterious female warriors, who dwell in the gloomy woodlands beyond the mountains, and are stronger, taller and bolder than any men, have even been seen, and their bows and blow-pipes also, larger and better carved than any others, are found now and then in the deep recesses of the forests. "Many moons ago" a Samang chief and his two Photo by Dr. W. A. Abbott, per Mr. C. B. Kloss FIG. 28. — SIKKA OF BILITON ISLAND, EAST COAST OF SUMATRA The Oceanic Negroes and Negritos 65 brothers found a dead stag lying in a brook, killed by a larger arrow than theirs. That instant, hearing a loud threatening cry in a strange tongue, he looked up and beheld a gigantic woman breaking through the jungle, and then his brothers fell pierced by arrows, and he alone lived to tell the tale. These Negritos appear to have reached the Malay Peninsula perhaps from Java during the early Stone Ages, and must have lived in isolated seclusion for tens of thousands of years. Hence their speech, so far as known, has diverged too widely to be now traced back to the Anda- manese, or any other common source. There is reason to think that the primeval home of the Negrito race was Java, where the now all but extinct Kalangs were formerly wide- spread over the whole island. The distinctive physical char- acters, and especially the enormously projecting jaws, are well seen in one of the only known survivors, Ardi, who was a few years ago employed in the Buitenzorg botanical gardens, and may be called the most ape-like of men, nearly as much so perhaps as his probable pre- cursor, the Javanese Pithe- canthropus eredus. Dr. A. B. Meyer speaks of a few other Kalangs as still surviving, and Van Musschenbroek, to whom we are in- debted for Ardi's photographs, tells us that he has met with the same type in other parts of Java, though not so pronounced, and that it could always be traced to a Kalang origin. This observer regards the Kalangs as the true aborigines of Java gradually ex- terminated by the intruding Malays, and looks on them as akin to the other Oceanic Negritos. Of these the most numerous at present are the Aetas ('" blacks ") 5 Photo by Dr. W. A. Abbott, per Mr. C. B. Kloss KIG. 29. — GRAN GUNGNG YOUTH, BANKA I., EAST COAST OF SUMATRA Shows Negrito characters Photo by Mr. Machado FIG. 30. — JAKUN BOYS FROM THE INTERIOR OF BATU PAHAT IN JOHORE The Jakuns are mostly semi-civilised Negrito-Malayan half-castes The Oceanic Negi-oes and Negritos 67 of the Philippine Archipelago, where they are also the true aborigines. They are still found in most of the islands, and even in Mindanao, where their presence was not previously suspected. But they are not always easily distinguished from the surrounding populations, many having adopted the dress, speech, and usages of the Malayan intruders, and largely intermingled with them, thus giving rise to various shades of transition between the two races. But the full- blood groups everywhere show the same physical and mental traits Photo by Dr. W. A. Abbott, per Mr. C. B. Kloss FIG. 31. — JAKUNS OF KLAGDONG, SOUTH MALAY PENINSULA Are negrito half-breeds of Malay speech with singular uniformity — woolly, matted hair like Astrakhan fur, crushed nose, broad at base, deeply depressed at root, thickish and everted under lip, sunken eyes set wide apart with uncertain wildish glance bespeaking an untamable character, long arms, slender extremities, and feet often turned slightly inward. Some, especially of the women and children, show the true Negro expression, heightened by the low bulging frontal bone, altogether an expression that one expects to meet on the banks of the Congo, but is startled to find animating the wooded heights in the neighbourhood of Manila. Here the Aetas were from time out of mind the sole masters, even exercising seignorial rights over the Malayan immi- 68 The World^s Peoples grants. The tribute imposed on these early settlers was levied in kind, and when payment was refused, the Negritos swept down in a posse and carried off the head of the defaulter. But after the arrival of the Spaniards terror of the white man drove them to take refuge in the uplands, where they are slowly disappearing. In some places, however, the old relations are kept up between the aborigines and the later arrivals, and we are told that before the advent of the Americans (1898) the Negrito and Igorrote tribes kept a regular debtor and creditor account of heads. Wher- ever the vendetta still prevails, all live in a chronic state of tribal warfare. Periodical head-hunting expeditions are organised by the young men to present the bride's father with as many grim trophies as possible, the victims being usually taken by surprise and stricken down with barbarous weapons, such as the long three-pronged spear, or darts and arrows tipped with two rows of teeth made of flint or shells. To avoid these attacks some live in huts perched on high posts or in trees sixty or seventy feet above the ground, and defend themselves by showering stones on the raiders. The Aetas are particularly noticeable for an inextinguishable love of freedom and personal independence. They are happy only in the midst of their wooded uplands ; they neither keep slaves them- selves nor endure the yoke of servitude, and are, in fact, as untamable as wild beasts. The case is mentioned of a young Negrito brought to Madrid, educated for the Church, ordained a priest, and on his return immediately escaping to the hills. In social matters some progress has been made, and the tribal institutions are based on the family and private property. To the chief, not hereditary but elected for life, are referred all disputes, and he also punishes misdeeds in accordance with tribal usage. The Aetas are strict monogamists, and do not appear to be quite destitute of religious notions, judging at least from certain symbolic dances like those of the Pueblo Indians, and from the ceremonies associated with marriage, births, and deaths. Of the New Guinea Karons there is little to be said. Since their discovery in 1879 by the French explorer M. Raffray, not much has been heard of them, whether eaten or assimilated by their Papuan neighbours. The main point concerning them is that they alone of all Negrito peoples are known to have been cannibals. From a photo by Va:i Musschenbroek, per Dr. A. H. Keane FIG. 32.— ARDI, ONE OF THE LAST OF THE KALANGS i' ■■> is- ■'.■■ ^w .^.■# p^'lr^ / !» f P/(0^ 6y Wr. Maclunl'-) FIG, 33.— SAKAIS CHAPTER IV THE AFRICAN NEGROES AND NEGRITOS Former and Present Range (p. 70) — The Two Main Divisions : Sudanese Negro and Negroid Bantu (p. 71) — Contrasts and Resemblances (p. 72) — Common Mental Characters (p. 72) — West, Central, and East Sudanese (P- 73-) — Nile-Congo Negroes (p. 107) — The Negroid Bantus (p. iii) — The Eastern Bantus (p. 114) — The Central Bantus (p. 120) — The Western Bantus (p. 125) — The Southern Bantus (p. 132) — The Bushmen and Hottentots (p. 139) — The Negritos (p. 148) — The Vaalpens (p. 149). IT is still commonly supposed that the whole of the Dark Continent is the proper domain of the Negro race, that all of its inhabitants are Negroes, and in fact that African, Negro, Black, and even Ethiopian are all equivalent terms. Such is far from being the case, and two thousand four hundred years ago Herodotus was already aware that Africa, as known to him, was occupied, besides Greek and Phoenician intruders, by two distinct indigenous peoples — Libyans (our Hamites) in the north, and Ethiopians (our Negroes or Blacks) in the south. The statement still holds good, and, as shown in the General Survey, the Negroes, with whom alone we are here concerned, range from south of the Sahara to the Cape. A line drawn from the mouth of the Senegal through Timbuktu eastwards to the White and Blue Nile confluence at Khartum, then southwards to the equator and along the equator again eastwards to the Indian Ocean, will roughly indicate the ethnical divide between the northern Libyans and the southern Ethiopians of Herodotus. But long before his time extensive overlappings and comminglings had taken place, and these mutual encroachments have been going on almost incessantly from the Stone Ages. We know from the Egyptian records that not only Negroes but Negritos were continu- ally penetrating into the lower Nile valley during Pharaonic times. They are frequently referred to in the Book of the Dead, and, like the European dwarfs in mediaeval times, were in high request at 70 The African Negroes and Negritos 71 the Courts of the Egyptian monarchs, who sent expeditions to fetch them from the "Island of the Double," that is, the fabulous region of Shade Land in Southern Ethiopia. Thus it is recorded in a temple inscription that Pepi I of the Sixth dynasty (3700 b.c.) brought gold and slaves from the present Sudan, and also a pygmy, " one of the dancers of the gods,"" to amuse the Court at Memphis. Pepi II also sent an officer " to bring back a pygmy alive and in good health " from the land of great trees away to the south. But the remains of these little people have been found in Europe itself, as at the Neolithic station of Schweizersbild in Switzerland, and it has been suggested that the widespread legends of dwarfs and gnomes supposed to haunt caves and recesses in the mountains may be a reminiscence of these Neolithic pygmies. From the Balsi Rossi caves near Mentone on the Riviera have also been recovered the bones of full-sized Negroes with prominent jaws, broad features, very long forearms, and enormously projecting^^^ larkspur heel, this last being a highly characteristic trait of the African Negro. Dr. Verneau, who explored these caves, tells us thatV he has met the same Negroid type in some ancient graves in Italy^ and even found two of the survivors in an upland village n^fir Turin But throughout the historic period the Negro division has been mainly confined to the southern section of the continent, where it forms two distinct groups — the northern Sudanese, commonly regarded as the true or typical Negroes, and the southern Bantus, of mixed Negroid types. Mixture, however, mainly with Hamitic and Semitic Caucasians, prevails everywhere, and traditional Negro- Caucasic forms occur in endless variety alike in both regions, though perhaps more frequently south than north of the equator. The distinction is in fact based rather on linguistic than on physical grounds, and to some extent also on religious differences. Sudan may be described as a region of linguistic confusion where from twenty to thirty stock languages are current, and where numerous Moslem and pagan populations exist side by side, and in some places are even intermingled. Bantuland is, on the contrary, a region of remarkable linguistic uniformity, where all known tongues are closely related, being derived from a single stock language of unknown origin, and where the great mass of the people are still nature-worshippers, mainly in the form of pure animism, or the cult of ancestors. In most other respects there is little to choose between the 72 The World's Peoples Sudanese Negro and the Negroid Bantu. Both represent various phases of barbarism, which nowhere rises to the lowest standard of civiHsation, but in many places presents the aspect of sheer savagery, as seen in the generally hard treatment of the women, the undeveloped moral sense, cannibalism still prevalent over wide areas, the cruel practices associated with ordeals and witchcraft, the complete lack of science, letters, and stable political institutions beyond the established or traditional tribal laws and customs, and more especially the arrested growth of the mental faculties after the age of puberty. This trait, perhaps the most important of all, has its explanation in the early closing of the cranial sutures before the brain has attained its normal development, the further expansion of the intellectual faculties being thereby arrested. The phenomenon, outwardly shown by the exuberant growth of the physical characters, is uni- versal, prevailing both amongst the Sudanese and Bantu populations, as well as amongst the coloured people of the southern United States, where indeed it was first noticed about i860 by Dr. Filippo Manetti. This acute observer writes that in plantation times " the Negro children were sharp, intelligent, and full of vivacity, but on approaching the adult period a gradual change set in. The intellect seemed to become clouded, animation gave place to a sort of lethargy, briskness yielding to indolence. We must needs infer that the development of Negro and White proceeds on different lines. While with the latter the volume of the brain grows with the ex- pansion of the brain-pan, in the former the growth of the brain is on the contrary arrested by the premature closing of the cranial sutures and lateral pressure of the frontal bone." So also Colonel F. G. Ruffin of Richmond, Virginia : " Negro children up to the age of puberty learn remarkably well, but after that period of life has been reached they become incurably stupid and make no further progress." Throughout West Africa, writes Colonel A. B. Ellis, " it is by no means rare to find skulls without any apparent transverse or longitudinal sutures," and Captain Binger adds that " the develop- ment of the skull is stopped and prevents the further expansion of the brain." The result is racial stagnation, with no religious, intellectual, moral or industrial advancement in the Negro, who should be spoken of rather as non-moral than immoral, and is declared by Ruffin to be "a political idiot." Even when some progress has been made under the stimulus The African Negroes and Negritos 73 of higher influences, the removal of those influences is inevitably followed by a relapse into the former state, as in Hayti. Here the reversion to Voodu and other pagan rites, to snake-worship, canni- balism, and similar horrors, is attested by Sir Spencer St. John, who had ofificial knowledge of these matters, and, after twenty years' residence in the " Black Republic," tells us that, the better influences removed, the Negro gradually retrogrades to the African tribal customs. Sir H. H. Johnston, who knows him well, describes the Negro, left to himself, as incapable of progress, and speaks of him as a fine animal who "in his wild state exhibits a stunted mind and a dull content with his surroundings, which induces mental stagnation, cessation of all upward progress, and even retrogression towards the brute. In some respects I think the tendency of the Negro for several centuries past has been an actual retrograde one. As we come to read the unwritten history of Africa by researches into language, manners, customs, traditions, we seem to see a backward rather than a forward movement going on for some thousand years past — a return towards the savage and even the brute. I can believe it possible that, had Africa been more isolated from contact with the rest of the world, and cut off' from the immigration of the Arab and the European, the purely Negro races, so far from advancing towards a higher type of humanity, might have actually reverted by degrees to a type no longer human." This, it may be noted, is the matured opinion of an administrator who has had a wider experience of the black races than almost any man living. The Sudanese Negroes In Sudan, the Beled-es-Sudan, " Land of the Blacks '' of the Arabs, the Nigretia and Negroland of the early English writers, a careful distinction has to be drawn between the semi-civilised Moslem and the savage or barbarous heathen populations. The Mohammedans, who are for the most part Negro-Berber half castes in the western and central districts, and Negro-Arab half-castes in the east, the black element everywhere forming the substratum, have for many centuries been constituted in fairly organised nationalities, with regular political and social institutions based on the principle of slavery as in all Moslem states. Going eastwards, the chief Mohammedan peoples are the Mandingans, Jolofs, and Songhays in West Sudan, the Hausas east of the Niger ; the Kanembu, Kanuri, and Baghirmi of the Chad basin ; the Mabas of Waday ; the Furs, Nubians, and Eunj 74 The "World*s Peoples of Darfur, the White Nile, and Senaar ; lastly the Fulahs, scattered in small groups over the whole region from Senegambia to Lake Chad, Dominant in the west — that is^ between the Atlantic and the Niger — is the great Mande or Mandingan nation, an historical people with a record of over a thousand years as founders of the mediaeval empires of Melle and Guine, and of the more recent kingdoms of Masina, Bambara, Kaarta, Kong and others, all now mere provinces of French Sudan. Of the Mandingan family there are four main branches still named after their original animal totems, thus : Ba?nba, the crocodile, whence the Baimnanas, commonly called Bambaras ; Alali, the hippopotamus, whence the historical Malitike people ; Sama, the elephant, father of the Samank'e nation; and Sa, the snake, head of the Samokho branch. Such totemic systems are now rare in Africa, though formerly perhaps universal, and it is to be noted that at first they possessed no religious significance. They were merely the badges or tokens which were casually named from some object, generally a plant or an animal in Africa and America, and adopted by a family or a clan as a sort of heraldic device to distinguish it from other kindred groups. Such devices naturally became more and more venerated from age to age, acquired inherited privileges as sacred objects of endless superstitious practices, and were ultimately almost deified as the tutelar gods of the tribe. Besides these Mohammedan Mandingans, there are several other Mande or Mende groups, who stretch along the seaboard as far south as Sierra Leone, and are all still uncivilised pagans (Figs. 33, 35, 36, 37. 38, 39)- In the fourteenth century the Mandingans under their famous ruler Mansa-Musa of the Mali dynasty became the most powerful Sudanese nation of which there is any authentic record. After consolidating his empire, which included most of West Sudan and the western Sahara, Mansa-Musa made a wonderful pilgrimage to Mecca at the head of 60,000 men-at-arms preceded by 500 slaves, each bearing a gold stick weighing 14 lb., and jointly representing a money value of about ;^4,ooc,coo. The people of Cairo and Mecca were dazzled by his wealth and munificence ; but on the return a great part of his followers were seized by an epidemic called hvat^ a word which still survives in the Oasis of Twat, where most of them perished. At present the Mandingans possess no political status, but are noted for their industrial habits, being rivalled by few as agriculturists, From "I,iberia," by permission of Sir Harry Johnston, G.C.M.G., K.C-B. FIG. 34. — MANDINGOS From Northern Liberia 76 The World*s Peoples weavers, and metal workers. From their Wolof neighbours of the Senegal River they are distinguished by their more softened features, fuller beard, and lighter colour, the Wolofs with the kindred Jolofs being perhaps the darkest of all Negroid peoples. They are also the most garrulous, as possibly indicated by the term Wolof, meaning " Talkers," though this may also be taken to imply that they alone are gifted with the faculty of speech, all other peoples speaking inarticu- late jargons. Their language, which is widespread through- out Senegambia, is a typical Sudanese tongue unlike any other in its peculiar agglutinative structure, and re- markable for the numerous changes to which the post- fixed article is sub- ject, being modified in no less than twenty-four ways, first to harmonise with the initial con- sonant of the noun, and again according as the object is pre- sent, near, not near, and distant, some- what as in the French voici^ voila. Besides this articulate form of speech there is the "drum-language," which is widely diffused over West Africa, and affords a striking illustration of the Negro's musical faculty. Two or more drums are used together, each emitting a different note, and all played either with the fingers or with two sticks, while the lookers-on beat time by hand-clapping. To the untrained European ear nothing is distinguished beyond a repetition of the same note at different intervals of time. But to the native the drum speaks in distinct From the A nthropological Museum, Ley den FIG. 35. — SENEGAL MAN The African Negroes and Negritos 77 words and sentences, and at a palaver the company drums are made to express a variety of meanings. Their language is as well understood and more universally than the different tribal tongues. Only one European, Herr R. Betz, late of the Kameruns, has so far mastered this drum-language, which he claims to understand thoroughly, and even to converse in. Horns also are used by the Ashantis and others, and their notes are equally varied and in- telligible. The Moslem and somewhat cultured Wolofs present the sharpest possible contrast to the pagan Serers and Felups of the Senegambian coast, who are in every respect typical full-blood Negroes. The Serers, "African Patagonians," as they have been called, display a magnificent physique with their brawny limbs, great muscular development, and gigantic stature, but feeble mental capacity. Of all West Africans they are the tallest, men six feet six inches high being often met, and their figures might be called Herculean if the lower corresponded to the upper extremities. Like the Wolofs they build strong, roomy beehive-shaped houses with a framework of stout posts connected by cross-beams at different heights, the intervals being filled in with closely packed bundles of reeds. On the circular frame rests the roof, either of thatch or interlaced palm-branches, and at the death of the owner this roof is removed and placed over his grave. In the interior, forming a single apart- ment twelve to fifteen feet in diameter, a fire is always lit in the evening to keep off the witches and the wicked nocturnal spirits. The chief article of furniture is a capacious bedstead built up of six forked sticks with three cross-pieces supporting a waddle and large enough to accommodate six or seven persons. Throughout Senegambia an important section of the community are the despised minstrels or griots, as the French call them, a low class of musicians who attend all festive gatherings, and, like the old Irish harpers, display much ingenuity in chanting the praises of their patrons. The griots are not buried like other people, but exposed in the bush to hyenas and vultures. Their own belief is that they will live in peace until the day of judgment, after which all will return to earth and amuse themselves playing and dancing for ever. Others believe in the transmigration of souls, and gather at the new moon to conjure the spirits of air and night with mystic rites. There are two chief deities, a god of justice who protects the weak from oppression, and a god of wealth who 78 The World's Peoples is invoked for the success of all undertakings even when iniquitous and disapproved of by the god himself. The snake also, who is supposed to assume various disguises, is held in great honour, and formerly received offerings of cattle, poultry, and other living animals, but has now to be satisfied with the leavings of the public feasts. In the British and Portuguese territories of the Gambia and the Casamanza nearly all the natives are full-blood Negroes and pagans who, after centuries of contact with Europeans, are still little Photo by Mr. Cecil H. Firmin FIG. 36. — BUNDU GIRLS (OILED) AND "DEVILS," SIERRA LEONE removed from a state of sheer savagery. The Fehips, as they are collectively called by the Portuguese, are broken into a great number of small groups with no political and very little social organisation. Most of them are still in the matriarchal state in which the mother takes the first place as the head of the family, rank and property being transmitted in the female line. The women also enjoy the " suffrage " to the fullest extent, and take part in the village palavers on an equal footing with the men. The Casus, who give their name to the Casamanza river, present almost exaggerated Negro features : very broad face, large mouth, tumid, 8o The World's Peoples pendulous lips, crushed nose, and enormously long ears, the lobe being pierced in several places and gradually extended down to the shoulders by the insertion of bamboo rods increased in size from time to time. They also file the front teeth to a point, and overload their nearly naked bodies Avith heavy copper necklets and bracelets. Neither Christian nor Moslem preachers have yet succeeded in making any converts amongst them, but from the Mohammedan marabouts they procure potent charms inscribed with Photo by I\Ir. Cecil H. Firmhi FIG. 38.— GROUP OF MENDE, SIERRA LEONE Koranic texts, and equally efficacious medals and scapulars from the Portuguese priests. But their faith is still strongest in the poison-cup, to which are subjected those accused of bewitching men o> animals. Suspected thieves also have to undergo the ordeal of the red-hot poker, usually applied to the tongue, which if blistered is taken as proof of guilt. Yet most of the Felups are credited with a dim notion of a Supreme Being, who, however, is for them at once the heaven, the rain, the wind, and the thunderstorm. There are also multitudes of prowling The African Negroes and Negritos 8i demons of whom they Hve in terror, and are thus at the mercy of the medicine-men. Nowhere else are the wizards more invoked and yet more hated, hence are at times seized and tortured to death for kiUing people by their malevolent arts and machinations. Yet, despite their general barbarism, the Felups have learned to build themselves really comfortable habitations, substantial earth houses which resist the weather for years and are divided into several compartments in the interior. Those occupying the right bank of the Casamanza also build very large and well-shaped canoes, besides spears, arrows, and other weapons which they use with much skill. Of a moral order it is impossible to speak, since there is no distinction between the meum and iuum, and, as amongst the Spartans of old, a successful theft is held in such esteem that in some places professors are appointed to teach " the noble art of robbery." As in Borneo a Dyak is thought little of by his betrothed until he has laid a head or two at her feet, so in many parts of Senegambia the young men are held in no account until they have distinguished themselves as footpads and raiders. The dead, however, are treated with great pomp, and until recently several maidens were buried alive with the departed chiefs. Human flesh also formed part of the " baked meats " at funeral banquets in the more remote districts. In Sierra Leone long association with the British administrators, combined with the strenuous efforts of the European and native missionaries, has brought about a better state of things at least amongst the half-civilised settled communities. These are mainly the descendants of freedmen from almost every part of West Africa, who were rescued by the English cruisers from the " slavers," and found a refuge in the Freetown territory, where under their Euro- pean rulers they have made some progress in general culture. In the early days of the settlement over one hundred and fifty languages were current in the district, and the confusion was so great that English had to be adopted as the common medium of intercourse. But in the mouths of this hybrid population it was so strangely transformed as to be utterly unintelligible to the whites. When a translation of the New Testament was issued in this curious jargon {Da Njoe Tesfamettt : London, 1829), many of the words and expressions seemed so comical and even profane that the book had to be withdrawn from circulaUon. The Sierra-Leonese themselves, who are mostly nominal Protestants of various denominations, bear 6 82 The WorId*s Peoples rather a bad name for their avarice, hypocrisy, degraded morals, and especially an insufferable arrogance displayed both towards their English masters and the surrounding aborigines, or " Niggers," as they call them. Yet some of these natives, the Tiinni amongst others, who were the dominant people before the British occupation, also hold their heads rather high, and not altogether perhaps without reason. Those of the Rokelle valley, back of Freetown, are a fine vigorous race with rather pleasant Negroid features and proud bearing. Like most Africans, they prefer tillage to stock-breeding, and raise enough rice and other produce to supply the wants of the Colony. They have an oral literature rich in myths, tales, and proverbs, and their tribal system of government presents some very peculiar features. It is nominally monarchical, and almost every village has its kinglet. But the day before his election his future subjects have the privilege of subjecting him to a tremendous thrashing, either as a test of endurance or for some other now forgotten reason. In any case he does not always survive the ordeal, and if he does he still finds that he bears but an empty title, for the real power is exercised by the so-called /«rnz ox porro, a strange association which controls both ruler and ruled, and to which even slaves are admitted on terms of perfect equality. It is a sort of freemasonry like the duk-duk of the Melanesians, the boll of the Su-Su people, and similar secret societies which are widely diffused throughout West Africa, all with their special language, tattoo marks, and other symbols, forming powerful religious and social corporations or states within the state. The purra of the Timni nation are equally potent for good and evil ; their mandates are implicitly obeyed, and in fact enforced by organised bands of armed men who are completely disguised with masks and enveloping costumes, and serve all the purposes of a regular constabulary. Their secret rites are held at night in the depths of the forest, all intruders being put to death or sold as slaves, and strangers warded off, or even prevented from entering the tribal territory unless escorted by a member of the guild, who is recognised by passwords, masonic gestures, and the like. In these societies great influence is enjoyed by the magicians, amongst whom are included the crocodiles and wild beasts, and when anybody is carried off by them the evil omen has to be averted by burning the village of the victim. But in case of a FIG. 39. — WASOGA WOiMEN Frcm phctos by permission of Major Pringle FIG. 40. — WAKAMBI OF SIWA RIVER 84 The Woi-ld^s Peoples natural death (never natural to the natives, but always attributed to the AYorkings of some witch or wizard) a formal inquest is held over the body, the supposed murderer being killed usually by a lingering death, or else enslaved with all his family. The inquiry is conducted by cross-examining the clothes, the hair-clippings, nail- parings, or other belongings of the departed, and by some mysterious Photo by Mr. Cecil H. Firmin FIG. 41. — MENDE GIRLS, SIERRA LEONE process these objects are made to point out the evil-doer. In some districts the dead are buried in an upright position, the idea being that they will not then have to rise but may walk straight on to their future home. The kings and headmen, however, are not buried in the ground, but deposited in a sepulchral hut with a little opening left to supply the ghosts with food and palm-wine, and thus keep them in good-humour. Otherwise they might join the hosts of demons which infest all nature, and must be appeased with suitable offerings. The African Negroes and Negritos 85 There are no gods in the strict sense, no priests, nor any regular form of worship, but every family, every clan and tribe, has its own tutelar fetish, which may be any object so long as it is endowed with an indwelling spirit potent for good or evil. Hence small shrines or fetish-houses, placed in some secluded spot outside the village, serve to shelter skulls, effigies, shells, and other even more trivial objects which are supposed to serve as temporary abodes of the super- natural agencies. Poultry, sheep, goats, bananas and other fruits are the most ac- ceptable offerings. But when the spirits lose their efficacy, that is, cease to aid their votaries, the objects in which they dwell are neglected and cast aside as worthless. Such is the true inward- ness of the " fetish, " a term which is so widely used and misused by armchair students of primitive religions. Many of the above remarks apply also to the Veis (Fig. 42), Goras (Fig. 43), Bussi, Krus, Grebos and the other aboriginal peoples ot the adjacent republic of Liberia. As in Sierra Leone, here too a dis- From " I,iberia," by permission of Sir Harry Johnston, G.C.M.G., K.C.B. FIG. 42. — A VEI WOMAN With silver head ornaments 86 The World*s Peoples tinction has to be drawn between these natives and the ruling class who call themselves " whites," or else " Americans " because mostly descended from the emancipated plantation blacks of the southern United States early in the nineteenth century, and later reinforced by numerous refugees and freedmen from British North America. But these " Weegee," as they are called, need not detain us further, since they present much the same social characters as the above- described Sierra- Leonese, and hold in even greater con- tempt the " stinking bush- niggers" of the interior. They also claim to be more zealous Christians, and like their kins- men of the New World hold those camp- meetings or open-air gather- ings at which prayers, psalm- singing, and preaching or shouting are varied with groans, sobs, frenzied dancing, hysterics, and convulsions. Of the Liberian aborigines the most numerous (from 50,000 to 90,000) and in every way the most interesting are the Kriis (Krumen or Kruboys), a name supposed to be a corruption of the English From " I,iberia," hy permission of Sir Harry Johnston, G.C.M.G., K.C.B. FIG. 43. — GORA WOMEN The African Negroes and Negritos 87 Crewmen, but more probably an extension of Kraoh, the name of one of their most powerful tribes. Physically they are a robust, broad-chested people of the ordinary full-blood Negro type, with protruding front teeth, very thick lips, yellow bloodshot eyes, the " head of a Silenus on the body of an Antinous," and in muscu- lar development rivalling the Sene- gambian Serers themselves. Owing to these qualities and to their aptitude for a seafaring life, they are largely employed as " crewmen " by the European skip- pers along the tropi- cal West African seaboard, and from the English sailors receive such comical nicknames as Flying Jib, Two-pound-tea, Bottle- of-Beer, Mashed Potatoes, and so on. They are said to be a thoroughly loyal, honest people, whose word can generally be depended upon, which can scarcely be said of any other Africans. But despite their long and close intercourse with Europeans, they resist all Moslem and Christian influences, and remain at heart the same rude savages as ever. After each voyage they return to the village to spend their savings in drunken orgies, divest themselves of their European clothes and generally revert to sheer barbarism (Figs. 44, 45). The case is From "lYiberia," hy permission of Sir Harry Johnston, G.C.M.G., K.C.B FIG. 44.— KRUMAN FROM SETRA KRU The World's Peoples mentioned of a gang about to land at their own village one of whom is ailing. " We no want that man ; he go die," they say to the captain. As, however, they want his effects and cannot have them without the man himself, they agree to take him ashore. But the ship is scarcely round the next headland when they take him by head and feet and fling him over- board. And so is dissipated the mirage that has hitherto hung round the repu- tation of the Kruboy for half the virtues under heaven. Along the Upper Guinea, Ivory, Gold, and Slave Coasts there follow several Negro peoples — Fanti, Ashanti, Da- homi, Yortil?as, Benis and others — who form so many branches of one linguistic and probably also of one ethnical family. Their traditions bring most of them from the interior to the coastlands, and of the first two, now hereditary foes, it^is recorded that ages ago they formed one nation of one speech who were saved from the surrounding warHke tribes, some by eating of the fan, others of the shan plant, whence their present tribal names Fanti, Ashanti. Then they were driven by a red people, the Mohammedan Fulahs, to take From "lyiberia," hy permission of Sir Harry Johnston, G.C.M.G., K.C.B. FIG. 45. — KRU WOMEN In Gala Costume with enormous Finger Rings, Ram's Horns and Bead Necklaces The African Negroes and Negritos 89 refuge in the woodlands, where they multiplied tenfold, and after many adventures reached the coast, where they thought the hissing and foaming waves were hot water until it was found to be cold to the touch. But the inland peoples still think it is hot, and that is why they call the sea " Boiling Water." Several, especially the Ashanti, Dahomi and Beni, were constituted in powerful states where an extreme form of ancestor-worship led Photo by Herr Umlarf FIG. 46. — FANTI WOMEN, GOLD COAST Akin, but hostile,'to the Ashanti. Some are Christians to the sanguinary rites known as "Customs," that is, periodical feasts of the dead. The heads of all these states had gradually become absolute despots with unlimited power over the lives and property of their subjects, and as the deceased potentates had to be maintained beyond the grave in the same social position as in this world, they required a constant supply of wives, slaves, and officials. Thus their capitals— Kumassi, Abomey, and Benin— became veritable 90 The "World's Peoples human shambles, where the stream of blood never ceased to flow till arrested by the intervention of France and England in quite recent times. Strange to say, Benin was also the centre of a well- developed school of native art, and on its capture by the English Photo by Hen- K. Gunther FIG. 47. — FEMALE WARRIORS OF DAHOMEY The King of Dahomey maintained a corps of Amazons more formidable than the male warriors in 1897 it yielded a rich store of carved ivories, woodwork, and especially a series of about three hundred bronze or brass plates with figures in high relief of natives and Europeans and one head of a young^negress showing high artistic talent. Some of the more finished objects were no doubt'produced under Portuguese influence. The Affican Negroes and Negritos 91 On the Gold Coast most if not all of the invisible powers are regarded as hostile to man, and all calamities are attributed either to them directly, or indirectly to their agents the witches and wizards. Each town, village, and district, has its own local gods or demons who are of human shape, some black, some white, some m a 1 e , s o m e female, and they really exist be- cause they are seen from time to time by the priests and priestesses. They are the lords of the hills and valleys, of the rocks and forests, and es- pecially of the surf-beaten shore where so many boatmen, fishers, and bathers get drowned or de- voured by the shark-god. Their malignant nature is re- vealed by their very names, such as Bohsum, " Maker of Dis- asters," and the chief Ashanti god Tando, "the Hater," to whom human sacrifices are or were offered, usually seven men and seven women at a time. He resembles a mulatto in appearance, wears long flowing robes, carries a sword in his hand, and helps his proteges by exposing the secret plottings of their enemies. Sometimes also he changes to a little boy, puts himself in the way of the foe, and allows Bv permission of the Professor of Anthropology, Natural History Museum, Paris FIG. 48.— DAHOMEY MAN Nose and beard show a strong Hamitic strain 92 The World*s Peoples himself to be captured and taken to their towns, which he then wastes with the small-pox or other pestilence. To Tando are sacred the driver ants, which must not be molested although they march through the growing crops in devastating myriads. And the people who believe in these absurdities and act up to their convictions to their own det- riment (for with them religion is not a mere ab- straction, but permeates the whole social sys- tem) have been in close contact with Europeans for over four hundred years ! They are, in fact, "now much in the same condition, both socially and morally, as they were at the time of the Portuguese discoveries" (Colonel A. B. Ellis). Yet these children of na- ture display no little ingenuity in their notions about dreams, the after-life, and especially in their doctrine of the Kra, a sort of double or indwelling spirit quite distinct from the personal human soul. Both lead a separate existence, like, for instance, the conscious and sub-conscious self of our spiritualists, and both survive death, the disembodied kra becoming a sisa or By ■permission of the Professor of A nthropology, Natural History Museum, Paris FIG. 49. — YORUBA WOMAN Slave Coast, Upper Guinea The African Negfoes and Negritos 93 wandering spirit seeking some other body in which to resume its kra life, while the real soul becomes a s>-ahman, or ghost-man, in dead-land. This dead-land is itself a ghost-land, its hills and valleys, woods and rivers being the srahmans of corresponding natural features which formerly existed in the upper world. Thus the trees as they die reappear in the shadowy forest of dead-land, since all things have souls which must die, and, like the human soul, become edsietos, departed spirits dwelling in Edsie, the Ashanti Hades. The theory is carried even a step further, for the edsie itself with its edsieto inhabitants must also die, since nothing can live for ever; and that is the native's solution of the question of immor- tality (Figs. 46, 47, 48, 49). To the same train of thought that evolved the kra may be traced the many strange superstitions as- sociated with the widespread belief in were-animals, that is, man-animals (Anglo- Saxon zv e r = mOin) . As the disembodied kra can re-enter another human body at pleasure, so it may enter any animal body if so minded ; and when the kra and the personal soul were later merged in one, the real human soul could do the same. Then the wizards and other evilly-disposed people would naturally select the most ferocious wild beasts to effect their purpose — the wolf in Europe, whence the were-wolf; the tiger, bear, or crocodile in Asia; the lion, leopard, hyjena, shark in Africa ; the jaguar in America, and so round the globe. Then the same power of transformation is extended to the dead, as amongst the Nilotic Dinkas, who believe that the Photo by Hcrr I'mhir/ FIG. 50. — KAMERL'X WOMAN" The head-dress is quite unique 94 The World*s Peoples souls of wicked people may take the forms of lions or leopards. A transition is thus effected to the vampire, a nocturnal demon, or the soul of a dead man, who leaves its buried corpse to suck the blood of the living. Thus we see how these later survivals are rooted in the first crude beliefs of early man. In the region enclosed by the great northern bend of the Niger most of the inhabi- F.f *■ tants are full-blood Negroes little re- moved from the savage state. Amongst the Mossi, Borgiis, and others Islam has made some progress, but even the " Faithful " are still pagans at heart, and rely more on charms and magic than on Allah to pro- tect them from wars, sickness, and other troubles. When Captain Binger passed through a few years ago he was pestered for such things by a local " Imam," w h o pleaded hard to learn the names of Abraham's two wives which in his mind possessed some potent mana. "Tell me these," he urged, "and my fortune is made, for I dreamt it the other night ; you must tell me ; I really must have those names, or I'm lost." The Mossi themselves are extremely tolerant, one might say indifferent, having lost faith in the old beliefs without quite assimilating the precepts of the Koran. Binger met a nominal Moslem prince, who could even read and write and say his prayers, but whose two sons " knew nothing Photo by Mr. H. Gordon hewer FICx. 51.^ — BAUTCHI PAGAN BOYS Northern Nigeria : West African Negroes The African Negroes and Negritos 95 at all," that is, believed nothing, or, as we should say, were African " Agnostics." One of them, however, was claimed by both sides, the Moslems asserting that he said his prayers in secret, the pagans that he drank dolo (palm-wine), which of course no true believer would do. In the heathen dis- tricts the people are still the merest savages, whose bestial orgies on such occasions as wed- dings and funerals are vividly described by Binger. Similar scenes occur when any large head of game is cap- tured. "Here it is that these blacks show themselves as they really are ; their savage instincts are re- awakened; on such occasions they resemble beasts rather than human beings. During the preliminary arrange- ments some daub them- selves with the animal's dung, some wash cer- tain parts of their body with its blood ; some eagerly devour the raw tripe or the entrails barely passed through the fire. Far into the night, roused from my slumbers, I perceive by the light of the camp fires these black Photo by Mr. H. Gordon Lewcr FIG. 52.— HAUSA MAN A cultured Mohammedan bones, eating, shining faces still gnawing the hacking at the head, broiling the heels, eating, eating, without even stopping to sleep. There are six of them, and by four o'clock in the morning the whole of the inside, with the head. 96 The World's Peoples feet, and offal of the wild ox has disappeared " {Du Niger au Golfe de Guinee). In Central Sudan, between the Niger and Waday, most of these aborigines have vanished, either driven to the southern uplands or merged in the Moslem Arab or Berber invaders. All who accepted the Koran formed the substratum of a common Negroid population, by which were developed large semi-civilised communities and powerful political states. Thus it is that for over a thousand years Cen- tral Sudan has been occupied by a small number of mixed Negro-Ber- ber, or Negro-Tibu, or Negro-Arab nations, forming distinct political and social systems, each with its own language and special institu- tions, but all alike accepting Islam as the state religion, and conse- quently domestic slavery as the basis of society. These theocratic monarchies are all gone, and now form provinces or protectorates in the British or French possessions. But the peoples remain, and of these at one time the most powerful were the Songhays or Sonrhays, whose empire under the renowned Moham- med Askia, perhaps the greatest sovereign that ever ruled over Negro- land, extended from the heart of Hausaland to the Atlantic Ocean, and from the Mossi country to the Twat Oasis. But after his reign (1492-1529) the Songhay power gradually declined, and was at last overthrown by the Sultan of Morocco in 1 591-2. Since then the Songhay nation, numbering about 2,000,000 between the Niger bend and Asben, has been broken into fragments, subject here to Hausas, there to Tuaregs, elsewhere to Fulahs, and to the French since their occupation of Phofo by Mr. H. Gordon Lewer FIG. 53. — HAUSA WOMAN AND The African Negroes and Negritos 97 Timbuktu in 1894. Tliey are a very mixed people presenting various shades of transition between the Negro and the surround- ing Hamites and Semites, but generally of a very deep brown or blackish colour with somewhat regular features, and that peculiar long black and ringletty hair which is so characteristic of Negro and Caucasic blends. Barth describes them as of a dull, morose temperament, the most churlish and unfriendly of all the peoples visited by him in Negroland. The Songhay language, which is current in Timbuktu and along the middle Niger, displays much ingenuity in the formation of com- pound words, such as tree-child = fruit, tree- hand = branch; boat- master =boat man, death-m aster = corpse. The rude character of this primitive form of Negro speech is shown by such clumsy expres- sions as man-he-good = a good man ; I giving it by force I did not wish it = I gave it under com- Dulsion ^^'°'° ^^' ■'^''' ^' ^'"'''°" ^"''''''' -, ' i- <■• *1 FIG. i;4.— HAUSA WOMAN AND CH-II.D In recent tunes the rii,. ^s^. . . _ ^ ,c,^,„ The Hausis are the dominant nation in Central budan Songhays have been completely eclipsed by the Bausas of the Central Sudan, who may rightly claim pre-eminence over all the peoples of Nigretia in everything that constitutes the real greatness of a nation. Traditionally their seven historical states, the "Seven Hausas," were founded and named by the seven eponymous heroes,. Biram, Baura, Goher, Ka>io, Katsena, and Zegzeg, and from these were sprung seven others called in contempt the Banza iokoy, or "Seven Upstarts," all collectively constituting the 7 98 The World's Peoples Hausa nation, which is by far the largest in Africa, numbering perhaps 15,000,000. The Hausa language, which appears to be a strange mixture of Negro and Hamitic or else Semitic elements, is spoken by many millions more, having become the lingua franca or common medium of intercourse throughout the greater part of Sudan from Lake Chad to and beyond the Niger. But the Hausas themselves have lost all political power, all the states having been reduced early in the nineteenth century by the Fulah conqueror Othman Dan Fodye, who founded the Moslem empire of Sokoto and replaced the Hausa kings by Fulah emirs. But since the overthrow of the last Fulah emperor and the occupation of Sokoto by the English in 1903, the Hausa nationality is under British auspices again asserting its natural social, industrial, and commercial predominance throughout Central and even parts of West Sudan. They are excellent husbandmen, raising heavy crops of cotton, indigo, pulse, and cereals ; they are no less skilful artisans and enterprising traders, dwelling in large walled cities and great commercial centres such as Kano, Katsena, Jakoba, whose intelligent and law-abiding inhabitants number many tens of thousands. They have also preserved the old military spirit, and largely enlist in the British service, displaying fine fighting qualities under their English officers. Although the Hausas are a courteous and to some extent even a polished people, the utmost ferocity is displayed by the pro- fessional boxers in their pugilistic exhibitions, which frequently result in the death of one of the combatants. In these encounters, which are extremely popular, the protagonist, that is, the last man who has " beaten the record," leads off by advancing nearly naked into the ring, where he challenges all comers by crying out defiantly, " I am a hyaena ! I am a lion ! I can kill all that dare oppose me." Then another champion takes up the challenge, and the tussle begins by parrying with the left hand open, and hitting with the right, the blows being generally aimed at the pit of the stomach and under the ribs. When they close, one will clasp the other's head under his arm and pummel it with his fist, at the same time using the knees against his thighs and often even attempting to choke him or gouge out one of his eyes. The object is not to throw but to disable ; so that it is not a wrestling but a real boxing match, in which the " fight to a finish " is to be taken in the strictest sense of the expression. [ ' Pliolo per Mr. Paul Werner FIG. 55. — WURI NATIVES, KAMERUN Dwell on the Sudanese-Bantu borderlands ; are all pagan Bantus loo The World's Peoples Round about the shores of Lake Chad are grouped four other historical Mohammedan nations — the Kane?nbu on the north side, the Kanuri of Bornu on the west, the Baghirini on the south, and the Mabas of Waday on the east. Here the ethnical and social relations are far more complex than in the Hausa states. Islam has had more obstacles to contend wifeh than on the more open central plateaux, and many of the heathen aborigines have been able to hold their ground either in the islands of the lake {Yedinas, Kuri) or on the swampy tracts and uplands of the Logon- Shari basin {Mosgus, Maftdaras, Makari, and many others). It was also the policy of the Moslem states, whose system was based on slavery, not to push their religious zeal too far for fear of arresting the supply of slaves, since all converts are at once entitled to their freedom. Hence certain pagan districts were treated as convenient preserves to be raided from time to time just often enough to keep up the supply for the home and foreign markets. The organised razzias were always attended by a great waste of life, many perishing in defence of their homes, or through sheer wantonness. Besides about i,coo actually captured. Earth writes that on one occasion " 170 full-grown men were mercilessly slaughtered in cold blood, the greater part of them being allowed to bleed to death, a leg having been severed from the body." In the wooded districts the natives have reverted to arboreal habits, taking refuge during the raids in the branches of huge bombax-trees converted into temporary strongholds. Round the trunk is erected a breast-high look-out, while the less exposed upper branches support strongly built huts and stores, where the natives take refuge with all their effects, and even their goats, dogs, and poultry. During the siege long ladders of withies are let down at night, when no attack need be feared, and the supply of water and provisions is thus renewed from hiding-places in the vicinity. In 1872 Nachtigal accompanied an expedition to a pagan district south of Baghirmi against one of these tree-fortresses, when the assailants, having no tools to fell the great bombax-tree, could only pick off a poor wretch now and then, barbarously mutilating the bodies as they fell from the overhanging branches. . Some of these aborigines disfigure themselves with the disc-like lip-ornament, which is also fashionable in Nyasaland, Alaska, and South America. The types differ greatly even in the same group, and while certain Mosgu tribes are of a dirty black hue with dilated FIG. 56. — EAST SUDANESE SOLDIERS IN THE ANGLO-EGYFTIAN SERVICE I02 The "World's Peoples nostrils, thick lips, coarse bushy hair and knock-kneed legs, others astonished Barth " by the beauty and symmetry of their forms, and by the regularity of their features, which in some had nothing of what is called the Negro type." The complexion varies from " a glossy black to a light copper or rather rhubarb colour," and one youth was met " whose form did not yield to the symmetry of the most celebrated Greek statues." But here we are near the borderland of the Sudanese and Bantu domains, where such contrasts are perhaps to be expected (Fig. 55). Beyond Waday we enter the Anglo-Egyptian condominium of Eastern Sudan, where attention is at once arrested by the remarkable Negroid Fur people who give their name to the state of Darfur = " Furland." Although long subject to Moslem control, with a Sultan resident in El Fasher and arrayed in rich silken robes, a voluminous cashmere turban and white muslin muffler enveloping the face, with a gilt scimitar, a regal umbrella and feather fan, and above all a gold-embroidered sacred pouch containing a large assortment of amulets, the Furs never rose to great political power, and for many decades have been subject either to Egypt or the Mahdi usurper. They are really pagans who in religious and social respects present the strangest medley of Moslem and primitive usages. Thus in time of sickness recourse is had, not to Allah or the Prophet, but to the wizards who are called in to exorcise the demon of disease. This is usually done by writing a passage from the Koran on the inside of a cup and then washing it out with a little water, which, being swallowed by the patient, often effects a cure by the force of imagination. There is a numerous class of " root-doctors," a sort of herbalists who gather certain roots supposed to possess magic power either as love-philtres or as charms for obtaining favours, or else for bringing about the death of an enemy, this being effected by burying the root wherever the shadow of the doomed person happens to fall. Burglars also have horns filled with roots which, when they break into a house at night, throw the inmates into a deep sleep, or make them blind or deaf, so that they know nothing of what is going on around them. Evil-doers can even transform themselves into lions, hyaenas, cats, and dogs, and by these magic arts may revive three days after death, come out of their graves, and go away to other lands, where they again get married and lead a new life. Even the Sultan maintains a troop of necromancers, all of whom, The African Negroes and Negritos 103 in case of any threatened danger, have the power of making them- selves invisible by " melting into air, into thin air." Both the Sultan and the higher officials also keep troops of buffoons who are grotesquely garbed, and divert the Court with singing, dancing, barking like dogs, mewing like cats, and also act as public execu- Phoio by Schroeder & Co., Zurich FIG. 57. — NUBIAN The Nubians are all semi-civilised Moslem hall-breeds tioners, as if life itself were but a joke. The low culture of the people is shown in many other ways, as at the "wedding breakfast," for which several oxen, sheep, and goats are killed. But if the bridegroom cannot afford this outlay, he goes to the grazing grounds of his nearest relatives and hamstrings as many animals as are needed for the occasion ; and should the owners protest they get knocked on the head and sometimes even killed. 104 The "World*s Peoples Being great stock-breeders, the Furs settle most of their contracts by so many head of cattle, the dowry of the bride, for instance, being rated at from ten to twenty cows according to her personal charm. There is, however, a kind of currency consisting of strips of damoor cloth twelve by four inches, forty of which make one Pholo by M. Pierre Petit, Paris FIG. 58. — NUBIAN WOMAN " white cloth," and two of these one dollar. Damoor is a kind of coarse cotton fabric, the weaving of which with a primitive loom is the chief industry of the men, while field operations and harvesting are left mainly to the women and the slaves. Both in Darfur and the neighbouring province of Kordofan the most useful plant is the heglyg (^Balamites y^gyptiaca) which serves a great variety of purposes. The fruit supplies several favourite dishes; the sprouts make a Photo by M. Pierre Petit, Paris FIG. 59.— A GROUP OF NUBIANS OF THE UPPER NILE These Nilotic Nubians are sprungfrom the Pagan Nubas of Kordofan io6 The WorId*s Peoples good seasoning ; the chewed leaves are appHed as a poultice to wounds and sores ; a good soap is yielded by the unripe fruit pounded to a paste ; the wood burns at night like a lamp, and makes writing-tablets for the school children like our slates, while from the ashes is obtained a slightly bitter liquid salt. Lastly, the heglyg needs no cul- tivation, but grows spontaneously on these arid steppe lands, which but for it would be scarcely habitable. In Kordofan, which extends from Darfur to the White Nile, the most numerous people are the pagan Nubas who give their name to the Jebel-Nuba range, and are of a pronounced Negro type. From them are undoubtedly sprung the historical Nubians, who have for over two thousand years been dominant in the Upper Nile valley between Egypt and Berber. All speak dialects of the same language, but the Nile Nubians, at one time Christians, are now Mohammedans whose physical and moral characters have been profoundly modified by contact with both Semites and Hamites, and especially with the Moslem Arabs who conquered the whole land from Egypt to Khartum in the fourteenth century. The Nubians have preserved their distinct nationality, their speech, usages and traditions, but have allied Photo by Mr. L. Loat FIG. 60. — SHILLUK NATIVE Left Bank of White Nile The African Negroes and Negritos 107 themselves with the Arabs in the slave-raiding expeditions which since about 1820 ranged from Khartum to the equatorial lakes and were not entirely suppressed till the overthrow of the iVlahdists by Lord Kitchener in 1898. In this region, which comprises most of Egyptian Sudan and extends beyond the Nile-Congo water-parting into the Welle basin, the chief tribes and na- tions — all full- blood Negroes and pagans — are the Ham- megs oi the Blue Nile (Figs. 60 and 61), the Shil- liiks and Difikas about the Sobat confluence ; the Bari and Nuers of the Bahr-el- Jebel (Fig. 61); the Bongos, Mittus, Madi, Abakas, Mundus and others about the western affluents of the White Nile ; the Mo m b ti 1 1 u s ( Mangbattas) and Zatidehs {JViam-NiajHs) of the Welle lands. Politically the ^\^elle groups are now comprised within the limits of the Congo Free State, while all the others belong to the Anglo-Egyptian Condominium, and have already been brought under the civilising influences of the Gordon College at Khartum. It is not the object of this noble institution to proselytise these aborigines, but onl^__to^ raise them gradu- ally in the scale of civilisatioi>^^nd prot<^t them against themselves and others by suppressing all slave^aiding, as well as the ordeals and human sadrifices connected ^Vith witchcraft, Photo by Mr. L. Loot FIG. 61. — NUERS, Will IE NH.E io8 The World^s Peoples ancestor-worship, and the other barbarous practices of their primi- tive beliefs. These practices need not be described in detail, since they everywhere present much the same features as those of other Negro communities. But reference may be made to certain local pecu- liarities, such as the belief of the Bari people that their chiefs are rainmakers, though the office is exercised at their peril. If no rain comes after the offering of a number of goats, an ox is sacrificed and a great feast held with much drumming, and if the rain still holds off for three weeks the rainmaker is killed, and his cattle divided amongst his subjects. He has also the power of keeping off the rain by whistling and sweeping away the threatening thunderstorm with a wisp of grass to represent a broom. But this, too, may fail, and Captain A. J. Bramly tells us that on one occasion " a storm came up which no sweeping or whistling would persuade to move on. I had thirty inches of water in my tent that night." South of the Bari are the Madi and the Acholi, mighty hunters who organise great beats, and drive the game before them into nets cunningly hidden in the long grass, in which they get entangled. A more barbarous way is to surround a herd of elephants, set fire to the grass, and spear the half-blinded beasts as they try to force their way through. Deng-deet, chief god of the great Dinka nation, is the rain-giver, and in all other respects described as a Dinka chief arrayed in royal robes, an ostrich-feather head-dress and leopard-skin mantle. To this anthropomorphic deity corresponds the Micama of the neigh- bouring Shilluks, who, like the Jehovah of the Israelites, is the creator of good and evil {Isaiah xlv. 7), and communicates his mandates to the mek, overlord of the whole nation. Like the Madi, the Shilluks are great hunters, and will attack an elephant single-handed. Gessi tells us of a certain Duma who, after killing many of these huge beasts, was at last hurled by one of them fifteen feet into the bush. Escaping with a few scratches, he said to his admiring friends, " I will rather eat my wife seven times than not take my revenge." He took it by killing nine others in one day, after which he called the people together and said, " Come help me to transport the tusks, and take as much meat for yourselves as you like (Figs. 62 and 64)." Despite the allusion to wife-eating these Nilotic Negroes are not cannibals, like the Mangbattas and Zandehs of the Welle basin, K^^ i^^"' (.A no The World*s Peoples In this region both of these nations had founded powerful states which were first weakened by the Arabo-Nubian slave-hunters, and then annexed by the Congolese Government. During their flourishing time the travellers Schweinfurth and Junker tell us that in the Welle lands human flesh was an article of daily consumption, and describe scenes of cannibalism which almost exceed the limits of credibility. After a battle the victors feasted on the slain, and fattened the captives for the royal larder and the local markets. Yet these peoples are skilled husbandmen, and cultivate some of I'hoio by Mr. L. Leal FIG. 63.— HAMMEGS, BLUE NILE the industrial arts, such as iron and copper work, weaving, pottery, and wood-carving with great success. Here again it has been noticed, as often elsewhere, that the tribes most addicted to cannibalism usually excel in mental qualities and physical energy. Nor are they strangers to the finer feelings of humanity, and above all the surrounding peoples the Zandehs are distinguished by their attachment to their women and children. A curious fact, noticed by Junker, is that these as well as other Negroes display quite a surprising understanding of prints and pictures of plastic and other objects such as is seldom shown by The African Negroes and Negritos the Arabs and Hamites of North Africa. Riongo, an Unyoro chief, was able to arrange photographs in their proper order and to identify those of the Shuli and other tribes known to him, whereas an Egyptian pasha in Khartum could never make out how a human face in profile showed only one eye and one ear. He took the portrait of a fashionable Parisian lady in extremely low dress for that of the bearded American naval officer who had shown him the photograph. It would seem as if amongst IMoslem people the sense of figurative art had been deadened by the Koranic precept forbidding the representation of the human form in any way. The Negroid Baxtus In Bantuland, comprising nearly all the southern section of the continent, the multitudinous Negroid populations often differ very little from the Sudanese Negroes. The assumption is that they are never full-blood but always half-caste blends of blacks with Caucasian Hamites or Se- mites. But we have seen that great numbers, in fact the majority, of the Sudanese are made up of the same elements, so that it is not surprising that the members of the two great divisions are not everywhere physically distinguish able from each other. Here it is that the language factor is of such paramount importance, since, as already pointed out, all Bantus without exception speak dialects of the same mother- tongue, while the greatest possible linguistic confusion prevails in Sudan. This long extinct Bantu mother-tongue, which, like the Aryan, Mongolo-Turki and some other great stock-languages, ranges in 3 Photo by Mr. L. Loal riG. 64. — SHILLUK, WHITE NILE 112 The World's Peoples its numerous progeny over a vast area, is distinguished by several remarkable qualities apparently quite beyond the mental capacity of the natives themselves. "We find them peoples whose language is superior to themselves, illiterate folk with an elaborate and regular grammatical system of speech of such subtlety and exact- ness of idea that its daily use is in itself an education " (Rev. W. H. Bentley). This great authority refers in enthusiastic language to the ideal perfection of the typical Kongo tongue, its richness, exactness, and niceness of expression, so precise, clear, and truthful that it lends itself in no way to the quibblings, equivocations, and illogical perversions that abound in the European languages. So great is its structural regularity that there are virtually no ex- ceptions. Nor are these high qualities peculiar to Kongo, dominant on the west coast about the Congo estuary, but are equally characteristic of the whole Bantu family. " Identical rules, words, forms, and turns of expression are spread over the whole area, and are found amongst peoples who can have had no inter- communication since their first separation, such as the languages spoken at the Cameroons and in Zululand, which are 3,000 miles apart." The widespread possession of these qualities points to their existence in the parent stem, and the .explanation doubtless is that this wonderful form of speech was evolved, not amongst the Negroes proper, but by the northern Hamites, and by them imposed upon the black aborigines, just as the Aryan tongues were imposed upon the Neolithic inhabitants of Europe by the proto- Aryan conquerors advancing from the Eurasian steppe lands. In the Bantu system the most marked feature is the part played, not by postfixes, as mostly with us, but by prefixes combined with alliterative concordance. Of these prefixes there is a large number which serve to group the nouns in so many classes, to indicate the singular, the plural, the language, the country, and many other purposes. Thus, from a stem ;?/?<{ = personality, we get muntu, a person, and abantu, banhi, persons, people, which is the term chosen by Bleek as the collective name of the whole family. So from a stem ganda come Bu-ganda = Gandaland, Mu- ganda = a Ganda native, Ba-ganda = Ganda natives, Lu-ganda = the Ganda language, and so on. Then the alliteration is determined by the nominal prefix which must be repeated w^ith the pronoun, the adjective, and the verb agreeing with the noun. As in Latin filius, filia require the final agreements -us, -a {films mens, filia The African Negroes and Negritos 113 mea), so in Bantu the plural ma-tadi = stones (from ctadi, stone) requires the initial ma to be repeated with all the dependent words, as in — O nia-tadi ma-ina ina-utpeinbe ina-i)ipivena The stones these white great. But the prefixes often differ greatly in the different dialects, and to these differences are due the perplexities and confusion that prevail in the nomenclature of the Bantu lands. Thus the Swahili of Zanzibar Photo by Mr. Ernest Gedge FIG. 65, — A GROUP OF WANDOROBO AND MASAI The Wandorobo are skilled hunters who supply the Masai with game have wa for ba, ki for In, and u for bu, so that with them Baganda, Luganda, and Buganda become Waganda, Kiganda, and Uganda. Hence the practice of those writers is to be recommended who in all cases use these more familiar Swahili forms alone. Such is the doctrine which has hitherto been taught by Bleek and all other sound students of the Bantu languages. But now Mr. J. F. van Oordt has started a new theory (which cannot here be discussed), upsetting all the old ideas and bringing the tall Bantus and their speech from the Malay Peninsula pygmies through Assyria and Babylonia to Somaliland and thence by sea to equatorial Africa, 8 ii4 The World^s Peoples whence they ranged gradually over all the southern contitleht. {The Origin of the Bantu : Cape Town, 1907.) The theory, based exclusively on weak and far-fetched linguistic arguments, would scarcely call for notice but for the fact that it bears an official character, having been prepared with the aid of the Cape Govern- ment and presented as a " Report to both Houses of Parliament." These Bantu tongues are spoken by probably over 50,000,000 natives, who may be grouped in four main geographical divisions : I. East Cetitral Africa, from about the equator to the Zambesi delta : Waganda, Wanyoro, Wapokomo, Wagiryama, Waswahili, Wazambaro, Wanyamwezi, Makua. 2. The Congo basin and Nyasaland : Babanda, Bangala, Manyuema, Bakuba, Tushilange, Balolo, Warunga, Wafiba, Manganja, Wayao. 3. West Central Africa, from the Kamerun to Angola : Batanga, Duala, Bubi, Mpongwe, Ashango, Oshebo, Bateke, Cabinda, Eshi-Kongo, Abunda. 4. Africa south of the Zambesi: Zulu-Xoa (Zulu Kafirs), Bechuana and Basuto, Mashona, Makaranga, Ova-Mpo, Ova-Herero. The Eastern Bantus Before the recent extension of the British rule from the Indian Ocean to the Ruwenzori highlands, the Bantu peoples grouped round the shores of Lakes Victoria and Albert Nyanza were con- stituted in a number of separate kingdoms, the most powerful of which were Uganda, Unyoro, and Karagwe. But these states traditionally formed part of the vast Kitwara empire which com- prised the whole of the lacustrine plateau now partitioned between England and Germany. The mythical founder of this mighty monarchy was Kintu, the " Blameless," at once priest, patriarch, and potentate, who came from the north ages ago with one wife, one cow, one goat, one hen, one banana-root, and one sweet potato, and thus was the wilderness soon peopled, stocked, and planted with these things which still form the staple food of those lands. Then the people waxed wicked, and Kintu, weary of their evil ways, disappeared one night, though nobody believed him dead, and a long line of his shadowy successors spent most of their time in looking for him. One of these was Kimera, a mighty giant who left his footprints on the rocks where he trod, and with him was the magician Kibaga, who could fly aloft and kill people by hurling stones down upon them. Then came King Ma'anda, The African Negroes and Negritos 115 in whose time a peasant, obeying the directions of a thrice-dreamt dream, went to a place in the forest where was an aged man on a throne between two rows of armed warriors, all fair as white people and clothed in white robes such as are still worn in Uganda. Then Kintu, for it was he, sent for Ma'anda, who in a fit of passion speared an innocent man to the heart, whereupon Kintu again vanished with all his warriors and was never seen again. But in .Stfi Photo by Rev. J. B. Purvis FIG. 66. — TESSO WOMEN NORTH OF MOUNT ELGON, UGANDA A branch of the Nandi nation near Lake Salisbury some places Kintu alternates with Mulungu as the name of the Supreme Being, the great ancestor of the people. Then follows other legendary matter till authentic history is reached with the ferocious Suna (1836-60), father of the scarcely less ferocious M'tesa, whom Stanley describes as one of the most capricious potentates that ever ruled in Africa. After his death in 1884 Uganda and the neighbouring lands passed rapidly through a series of astonishing political, religious, and social vicissitudes resulting in the present pax Britannica and the conversion of large numbers, some to Islam, others to one form or another of Christianity. ii6 The World*s Peoples Since the establishment of harmony amongst the various sects, real progress has been made, and the Waganda especially have displayed a remarkable capacity for acquiring a knowledge of letters and of religious doctrines both in the Protestant and Catholic communities. Printing presses, busily worked by native hands, are needed to meet the increasing demand for a vernacular litera- ture in a region where blood had flown continually from the disappearance of ".Kintu" till the British occupation. Yet the people are still to some extent in the tribal state, being divided into clans each with its animal crest or totem, and with their exogamous (exfra-trihsl) marriage rites and restrictions, just as amongst the Australian savages. There are the " Grasshoppers," the "Sheep," the "Crocodiles," and many others, while the king's clan is the royal tribe of the " Princes," that is, the Wahuma, or " Northerners," as the term is understood in Uganda. Although despised by the masses as being wandering herdsmen, these " Princes " enjoy royal privileges, such as that of wearing brass or copper anklets, and their social position supplies another proof that their forefathers came from Gallaland as conquerors, and only gradually merged with the black aborigines, a process still every- where going on throughout East Central Africa. The Wahuma have reminiscences of a higher civilisation, and apparently of Christian traditions, derived no doubt from Abyssinia. They say they had once a sacred book, the observance of whose precepts made them the first of nations. But it was left lying about, and so got eaten by a cow, and since then when cows are killed their entrails are carefully searched for the lost volume. In the eastern protectorate between Uganda and the coast, the Wakikuyu, Wapokomo, Wagiryama and other Bantu tribes stand generally at a low stage of culture, with a loose tribal organisation, a fully-developed totemic system, and a universal faith in magic. But there are no priests, no idols or temples, or even distinctly recognised hereditary chiefs or communal councils. Special interest attaches to the Wagiryama of the district below Mombasa, whose crude religious notions throw some light on the origin and nature of ancestor-worship and other primitive beliefs. There is a vague entity called a " Supreme Being," who ranges all over East Bantu- land under the name of Mulungu and several other contracted forms of Mimkiilunkulu ., "Great Grandfather," a great or aged person, eponymous hero or the like, growing out of ancestor-worship The African Negroes and Negritos 117 and deified in various ways as the Preserver, the Disposer, and especially the Creator. The Wagiryama suppose that from his union with the earth all things have sprung ; that human beings are Mulungu's hens and chickens, and that the de- parted souls are potent for good or evil. Hence to keep them friendly, honours are paid to the " elder relatives," and the souls of the whole nation are worshipped on public occasions. They may appear in dreams and ex- press their wishes to the living. They ask for offer- ings at their graves to appease their hunger or thirst, and such offerings are often made with a little flour and water poured into a coconut shell let into the ground, the fowls and other victims being so killed that the blood shall trickle into the grave. Then the dead are called on by name to come and partake, and bring their friends with them, these also being mentioned by name. Or when beer is a-brewing some is poured out on the graves with the prayer that the dead may drink, and when drunk fall asleep, and so not disturb the living with their brawls and bickerings. They are all in fact still human beings, subject to the same feelings, passions, and whims as in this life, are even poor weaklings on whom offerings are wasted. Shade of So-and-so's father is of no use at all ; it has tinished From '' Tlie Uganda Protectorate," hy permission of Sir Harry Johnston, K.C.M.G., K.C.B. FIG. 67. — ALURU WOMAN AND CHILD ]-ROM WAUEI.AI Akin to the Madi of the Bahr-el-Jebel Some The ii8 The World*s Peoples up his property and yet he is no better," was a native's comment on a series of sacrifices a man had vainly made to his father's shade to regain his health. Mulungu was originally a malevolent deity, and though now harmless or indifferent to mundane things, his votaries still pray, not as Christians do to be remembered of the saints and heaven, but to be forgotten by him, so that they may live and prosper. Far removed from such crass anthropomorphism are the kindred Waswahili (" Coast people," from Arab Wz^/= coast) of Zanzibar and the opposite mainland, who by long contact and intermingling have become largely Arabised in dress, religion, and general culture. They are a seafaring, barter-loving race of slave-holders and slave- traders, strewn in a thin line along a thousand miles of creeks and islands ; inhabitants of a coast that has witnessed incessant political changes, and a succession of monarchical dynasties in various centres. Although numbering scarcely a million altogether, the Waswahili have in recent times acquired almost greater prominence than any other Bantu group, thanks mainly to their adoption of Islam, which has supplanted the old Bantu ancestor-worship and profoundly affected the whole family life. Like the northern Nubians they have identified themselves with the Arabs, whose traders and raiders have overrun half the continent. But the Arabs have never succeeded in imposing their language on any of the Bantu peoples, and the result is that, not Arabic but Ki- Swahili has become the great medium of intercourse throughout East Central Africa. Nor have Arab civilising influences penetrated very deeply into the seething mass of heathendom, the gross superstitions, and utter savagery that still prevail in German East Africa between the Swahili coastlands and Lake Tanganyika. No more startling contrasts can be imagined than those, for instance, that have been observed between the Moslem coastlanders and their western neighbours, the pagan Wazarambo of the Rufiji River, who still go naked but for a fringe of grassy fibre, slash their cheeks with deep gashes (their method of tattooing), knead their hair with clay and grease into towering head-dresses, use poisoned arrows, burn the wizard and all his family, throw twins to the bush, or expose to wild beasts children bom on unlucky days. I20 The World's Peoples The Central Bantus If we add cannibalism in some of its most repulsive forms to this picture of human brutality, the description will apply equally well to the Ba-Bisa of Lake Bangweulu, to the Manyuenia, and most of the other Bantu aborigines of the Congo basin (Fig. 70). But there are some notable exceptions, such as the semi-cultured Balolo ("Men of Iron"), whose territory is enclosed northwards by the great horseshoe bend of the Congo, and especially the Tushilange nation about the Lulua nfifluent of the Kassai River. These are the [ people whom • Wissmann de- scribes as " a na- tion of thinkers with the inter- rogation ' why ' constantly o n their lips." They are thoroughly honest, brave to foolhardiness, faithful to each other, and one of the few Afri- can tribes that show genuine affection for their wives and children. Their territory, signifi- cantly called Lubuka, the " Land of Friendship," is the theatre of a remarkable social revolution, carried out independently of all European influences, in fact before the advent of any whites on the scene. It was started by the secret brotherhood of the Bena- Kianiba ("Sons of Hemp") about 1870, when the nation became divided into two factions over " the Tariff Question," that is, whether the country should be thrown open to free foreign trade or not. The king having sided with the " Progressives," the " Conservatives " were worsted with much bloodshed, whereupon the "open-door" policy was adopted. Trading relations being thus established with the outer world, the custom of riamba (bhang) smoking was unfortunately revived through the Svvahili packmen Pholo by Miss Palmer I. — NYASA CHILDREN The African Negroes and Negritos 121 from Zanzibar. The practice soon became associated with strange mystic rites followed by a general deterioration of morals through- out Tushilangeland. In Nyasaland the most characteristic peoples are the Wayao, Livingstone's Ajawa, and the Ma;igaitja (A-Nyanja) aborigines. Having acquired a certain degree of culture from long contact with the Mussulman peoples, the 'W'ayaohave sometimes passed for Moham- medans, and during the slave-raiding days they generally acted From a native photograp't per Miss M. Kingsley FIG. 70. — NATIVES OF FREN'CH CONGO Are all pagan Bantus and mostly cannibals as a sort of middlemen between the inland populations and the Arab and Swahili traders on the seaboard. But most of them still adhere to the old pagan practices, and at the funerals of chiefs a few women and slaves are said to be secretly sacrificed or buried alive. It is even stated that cannibalism is still indulged in by the great chiefs, who often hold feasts of human flesh in secret. One headman is mentioned who made feasts of this kind and then invited Moham- medans and other strangers to partake of the fare, telling them that it was goat's meat, of which the coast people are very fond, Chuma, Livingstone's faithful attendant, was an Ajavva. 122 The World's Peoples Although the Scottish missionaries of Blantyre have laboured for many years amongst the Manganja, the bulk of the nation are still addicted to heathenish practices of all kinds. The atrocities connected with witchcraft, the cruel ordeals and hurran sacrifices, are of course no longer tolerated by the British Administration. But the belief in gods not always distinguishable from demons, in their manifestations, omens, portents, oracles, divination, magic, and end- less other superstitions, knows little abatement. The treatment of sickness is largely by charms accompanied by much senseless mummery intended to thwart the arts of the sorcerer, to whom all diseases are attributed. The diviner is the great adviser of the people in all their troubles. In giving their responses they shake a small gourd filled with pebbles, and inspect bits of sticks, bones, claws, shards which are kept in another gourd. The witch-detective is at the head of the divining profession, and is referred to in almost every case of death. The spirits of the dead are the gods of the living, and their temples are the great trees that overshadow the dead men's houses ; and if no trees grow there, then they erect a little shrine where they perform their simple rites. But these gods are not confined to one place. In answer to prayer they may escort a man on a dangerous journey and see him safe back. When driven from their homes by war, the manes may go with them to their new homes. They may be found in the village, in the fields, in the dark forests, and the spirit of an old chief may have a whole mountain to himself, but will dwell chiefly on the cloud-capped summits, to receive the worship of his votaries and send down the refreshing showers in answer to their prayers and offerings. He may appear to the people in dreams, or reveal himself to the prophetess, perhaps his former chief wife, and communicate his wishes at night, and these oracles she may deliver in a state of ecstasy, when the midnight stillness is broken by her wild shrieks and ravings. Or the god may appear in an animal form, as a lion, a panther, and especially a snake ; and if a man happen to kill such a snake, he apologises to the offended deity, saying, " Please, please, forgive me, I did not know it was your snake." But the gods are approached only by the headmen, who are at once temporal rulers and the recognised high priests of the community, and if from home the chief wife may act, or if both be away, the younger brother, for the worship is more a public than a private iijatter, Naturally the people prefer The African Negroes and Negritos 123 their petitions presented through the village chief, who is more closely related to the village god, and may be expected to have more influence with him than a stranger. Thus the chief repre- sents and is responsible for all his subjects both here and in the next world, which is conceived to be peopled the same way as is this. The departed rulers have their wives, and slaves, and companions as before, and after death the natives are literally " gathered t o their fathers." - ^ . F o rmerly the offerings included h u - m a n beings, who were securely bound 10 a tree, and if devoured by a wild beast during the night, the offer- ing had been accepted. Or else they were tied hands and feet andthrown into the lake or river with a large stone round their neck, so that they were either drowned or seized by the crocodiles. Xow the offerings are confined to a goat, a fowl, a bale of cloth, flour, bhang, tobacco, or beer, which is both food and drink. It is a thin gruel extracted from maize or millet, and a wholesome beverage if not drunk to excess. But, like Porson, the natives will drink anything, even stagnant water, which they throw into the mouth by the handful. Maize and millet serve also for a kind of porridge, which takes the place of bread, and is eaten with beans or meat, but without salt. The men despise both ornaments and clothes, except perhaps a square foot of cloth or a bunch of foliage, or a leopard's skin. But the women deck themselves with beads FIG. 71. — WOMAN AMj CHILDREN OF THE CONGO 124 The World*s Peoples and bangles, brass or iron armlets and anklets, and the universal pelele, a wooden disc, worn in the upper lip. A small hole bored FIG. 72.— CONGO MEN in the lip is gradually widened by the insertion of thicker and thicker stalks of grass till large enough to receive the ring, which may be three or four inches round. In fact, they say the bigger the better, as it makes them look " pretty." The African Negroes and Negritos 125 The Western Bantus On the west coast the only historical people are the Eshi- Kotigo, who had founded a powerful state south of the Congo estuary before the advent of the Portuguese in 149 1. The term " Kongo," from which the great river, formerly called Zaire, takes its present name, has not been explained, but appears to be the title of one member of a " Trinity," of which the other two are Nzambi, " Mother of Congo," and Detsos, evidently a Portuguese formation. The idea of this native trinity may thus have been derived from the Catholic religion, which was at first preached by the missionaries with great success, many thousands being baptized, including the Mfumu (" Emperor ") himself. His capital, Mbanza, was re-named San Salvador, as it is still called, and on him were lavished titles and honours which are also still borne by his degenerate descendant, the Portuguese State pensioner, " Dom Pedro V., Catholic King of Kongo and its Dependencies." But Christianity never took hold of the people, and heathenish practices of the worst description everywhere survive on both banks of the Congo estuary jointly with the crucifixes, banners, and other religious emblems handed down as heirlooms and regarded as potent fetishes by their owners. The Cathedral of San Salvador is in ruins, but the memory of the Passion is kept alive by the Cabinda people, north of the Congo, who to the other atrocities inflicted on witches and wizards have added crucifixions as described and illustrated by R. E. Dennett. The execution is presided over by the Badungo, a mysterious being disguised in a hideous double-faced mask and enveloped in a loose garment of dried banana or plantain leaves, and armed with a long wooden sword, while the victim is nailed hands and feet high above the ground to a large tree, the torture being increased by a heavy slave-stick looped round his neck. Yet these Cabindas are really an intelligent, active, and even enterprising people, and such shrewd traders that they have been called the Jews of West Africa. After the fall of the Congo empire, the Sonho people south of the Congo estuary, and most of the other surrounding aborigines, asserted their independence and revived all their old pagan practices intermingled with European customs introduced by the traders. The neighbouring Mushi-Coiigos, who claim to have sprung from the trees, have but few domestic idols in their huts, but nearly all 126 Tke WofId*s Peoples natural objects are real fetishes, that is, are animated by indwelling spirits, and every unexplained natural phenomenon seems to them some supernatural prodigy, or the work of some potent magician. Women often devote their firstlings to the service of the fetishes, and from their childhood these future priests are taught by the great fetishists the occult arts, as how to beat the magic drum, to utter the spells and incantations, to make the proper gestures and From "The Uganda Protectorate," by permission of Sn Huiiy Johnston, K.C.M.G.. K.C.B. FIG. 73. — NATIVES OF THE UPPER CONGO, NEAR THE ARUWIMI (SHOWING CICATRISATION AND TEETH-SHARPENING) Are pagan Bantus and cannibals contortions required for conjuring the spirits or dispelling bodily ailments. ' Amongst the Bauibas the puberty rites are attended by a long period^^ trials for initiation into the state of manhood. During this period the young men, formed into temporary republics in the recesses of the forests, dwell entirely apart from the rest of the tribe, absorbed in the study of the magic virtues of the herbs, trees, and animals, and in concocting the various "medicines" which they are required carefully to preserve during their whole life as a protection against all misfortunes. The king of the Bambas, whose The African Negroes and Negritos 127 ancestors were invested with the office of commander-in-chief by the Emperor of Congo, is said to be now the keeper of the great fetish who dwells in a sacred grove inaccessible to all strangers. This mysterious being remains invisible even to his worshippers themselves, and although he is supposed to be mortal, his priests gather up his remains, and from these the god springs ever into new life, just as the Tibetan Dalai Lama is supposed never to die. Still more remarkable is the theory that all the members of the tribe have in the same way to pass through a temporary death, and it is reported that when the priest shakes his calabash, full of all sorts of charms, the young men are thrown into a cataleptic sleep, falling like dead bodies on the ground. They remain in this comatose state for three days, then returning to the life which they henceforth consecrate to the worship of the fetish by whom they are supposed to have been resuscitated. Some, however, wake up in a drowsy state, and only gradually recover the memory of their previous existence. But, whatever be the practices of the Bamba magicians, it seems probable that they really possess this power of throwing the young men into a cataleptic state outwardly resembling death. Those who have not passed through this ceremony of the new birth are universally despised and forbidden to join in the tribal festivities. Strange traditions are reported by Magyar about the Bitiuia people, a large nation who occupy the uplands extending south from the Cuanza River. They appear to have come from the north-east about the middle of the sixteenth century. Their ancestors, who were fierce cannibals, were constantly waging war against all the surrounding tribes in order to procure human flesh, and when they had no longer any enemies to fall upon, they began to kill and devour each other. The whole race was thus threatened with extinction by these everlasting butcheries, when, according to the legend, there was constituted the secret society of the e/iiJ>acasstiro$, or "buffalo-hunters," who pledged themselves no longer to eat any flesh except that of the wild beasts of the forest. The members of this association were distinguished by a buffalo-tail tied round their head, and rings formed by the dried entrails of the same animal coiled round their arms and legs. In course of time the confederates became powerful enough openly to revolt against the cannibals, Conservatives of the old usages. But being compelled to quit the country, the Liberals crossed the Upper Cuanza towards the 128 The World's Peoples west, and settled in the territory of the Bailundos and neighbouring districts, where they gradually learned the art of husbandry and became fast friends of the Portuguese. Their numerous bands, numbering at times as many as 30,000 warriors armed with bows and arrows, took part with them in the early " black wars " by which Angola, with its extensive dependencies, was gradually brought under Portuguese jurisdiction. The cannibal Conservatives who remained behind were now too weak to maintain their superiority over the surrounding populations, by whom they appear to have been slowly Photo by the Trappist Mission, Mariannhill, Natal FIG. 74. — ZULUS GRINDING CORN absorbed. But the Buffalo-hunters are another instance of an internal revolution brought about by an intelligent Bantu people without the aid of European or other outside influences. Farther inland the most numerous and still perhaps the most powerful nation are the Batigalas of the Quango River, who also acquired some of their religious notions from the Roman Catholics of the Congo empire. This is shown, for instance, in the word santo, which is the Portuguese " saint," but is now applied in a general way by the Bangalas to an inferior order of invisible beings, such as our spooks, trolls, and hobgoblins. These Bangalas are The African Negroes and Negritos 129 noted for the great respect which they show to the dead, and especially to their departed chiefs, whom they honour with solemn obsequies which often last several days. Dr. Biichner has given us a graphic account of such a "state funeral" which he witnessed in the year iSSo. Belenge, eldest son of the head chief, had been suddenly taken ill and carried off in two days, although the fact was not announced in the first instance by the officials. This ■was because it is not etiquette for them to be the first to utter the ominous words " death " or " dead." Hence the news is only given Phoio by Trappist Mission, Mariannhill FIG. 75.— ZULU-KAFIRS on some question being put, as, for instance, " How is So-and-so ?" To this the courtier will shrug his shoulders with troubled, downcast look, whereupon the inquirer will ask, "Dead?" Then the answer will be " Dead," and the fact officially announced with the explana- tion, as in this instance, that the chief's son had lost his life through the wicked forest fiend Kosh, probably aided and abetted by some malicious wizard in human form. Now came the relatives from near and far, and the whole neighbourhood fell into a state of intense commotion with meanings and waitings interrupted by interludes of uproarious hilarity. All the drums and other noisy 9 i3c> The World*s Peoples instruments that could be procured were now requisitioned ; pigs, goats, and cattle were sacrificed, beer and spirits flowed freely, and whoever had a gun brought it with him in order from time to time to blaze away over the heads of the seething masses. The whole night long till the grey dawn these wild scenes are kept up, increasing in intensity in the flickering and lurid glare of great bonfires. Only during the forenoon there is a little respite, but towards the evening it all breaks out again, all are once more on their legs, and the r-evelry grows fast and furious. After the tom-toming, yelling, singing, dancing, and shooting had lasted two nights, arrangements were made for the burial on the third day. Each evening at sunset the deceased had been brought out before the door of his hut, bound fast in a sitting posture to a chair-like frame of rough stakes, the idea being that he also should have a share in the festivities got up in his honour. Then shortly before sunrise he was again withdrawn into the hut. Now the chief gave a reception to two famous medicine-men to give his orders about the burial. But they would have nothing to do with the body, as they seemed to fear the wicked Kosh might destroy them too. They, however, had to yield and obey the chief's orders. In the open space facing the hut of the deceased, the chief's relatives sat in groups, the scene presenting some picturesque effects of parti-coloured robes, ornamental head-dresses, and a cheerful gossiping crowd, but not a trace of mourning except on the part of the women —his mother and two waves — who sat together moaning and groaning close to the bier. The two medicine-men had meantime irjade a mysterious brew of roots and herbs in two pots, in which they now dipped bunches of foliage and sprinkled the dead and the living groups with the mystic concoction, as against the plottings of Kosh and the wizards. Now the bier appeared, borne by four youths, who were presently directed to the back of the hut, where a dental operation had to take place. For Belenge had been a great hunter, and to prevent his skill from perishing with him, one of his incisors had to be secured and used as a hunting charm. This done, the body was again brought forward and subjected to a searching " cross-examination," to find out by its own confession the real cause of its death, whether Kosh alone or some sorcerer, or any of the " santos," or all combined. The deceased seemed to show very great reluctance to speak out, and the assembly, 132 The "Wofld*s Peoples growing impatient, began to abuse him, and ask, " Are you going to keep us here all day ? You see the storm is rising in the distance ; the clouds are banking up, it is beginning to rain, and we shall get wet. Come, speak out and tell us who caused your death." At last it was generally agreed, or at least tacitly understood, that Belenge had declared from first to last that he had been killed neither by witchcraft alone, nor yet by Kosh alone, but both had worked together to compass his end. A fetishist or magician had given Kosh power over him, and so he was then struck down. Thus was concluded the questioning, which had lasted about three hours. After a last farcical exhibition, in which the body was made to sway backwards and forwards in tune with some funeral music, which meant that it was dancing itself to the grave, or, as we should say, following the " Dead March in Saul," the assembly dispersed, and Belenge was carried off to be interred in a neighbouring grove, which had been set apart as the village cemetery. Here again we plainly see how even these more cultured Bantus have not yet quite realised the nature of death. They do not under- stand that man must die ; hence at each demise the question always is, Of what did he exactly die ? Who brought about his death ? As much as to say, but for such and such a fiend, such and such a wizard, he might be living now, he might never die I The Southern Bantus South of the Zambesi the Bantu populations comprise three main sub-groups : Zulu-Xosa in the south-east ; Bechua7ia with the kindred Basido in the centre; and the Ova-Herero and kindred Ova-Mpo in the west. The Zulu-Xosas, that is, the Ama-Zulus of Natal and the Ama-Xosas of Cape Colony, are now commonly called " Kafirs," from the Arabic word Kafir (" Infidel ") applied by the Moham- medans to all the non-Moslem peoples of East Africa. Of all the Bantu peoples they are certainly the most warlike, and socially perhaps the most advanced, hence are usually regarded as typical Bantus in a pre-eminent sense. They are comparatively recent arrivals in their present territory, whence they expelled the Bushmen and the Hottentots probably not more than 500 or 600 years ago. During the long wars with the English (181 1-77) this territory extended much farther round the coast than at present. But the lost ground in this direction was amply compensated after the The African Negroes and Negritos ^33 establishment of the Zulu military power under Dingiswayo and Chaka (i 793-1828), when disciplined Zulu bands ranged northwards to Lake Tanganyika, and in several places founded aggressive states on the model of the terrible despotism set up in Zululand. Such were, beyond the Limpopo, Matabililand, established about 1838 by Umzilikatsi, father of Lobengula, who perished in a hopeless struggle with the English in 1894, and Gazaland, whose last ruler, Gungunhana, was deposed by the Portu- guese in 1896, while Cetywayo, last of Chaka's successors, was o v e r - thrown and Zululand at- tached to Natal in 1879. Since then the Zulu-Xosas have ceased to be a political force in South Africa (Figs. 76, 77, 79). And now all have re- turned to their peaceful agricultural and other pursuits, beguiling the long intervals of enforced idleness with social dis- tractions like other folks. The patriarch stands at the head of his family and maintains order by the tribal customs. The matrons are busy pre- paring the breakfast of the children, who take their porridge direct from the pot (Fig. 78). The warriors, still mindful of past glories and armed with their knob-sticks and assegais, make their visits to friendly kraals according to prescribed usage. Much time is given to local gossip at the springs and wells, where the young water- Pholo by Trappist Mission, Mariaiiiihill, Natal 77. — ZULU-KAFIRS, POLELA RIVER, NATAL FIG. 134 The World*s Peoples carriers, always full of boisterous spirits, explode in hilarious laughter over nothing. Hut-building, always an elaborate process, is carried on in a leisurely way, relieved perhaps with a bout-at-arms by two friendly rivals. Music and the dance, wooing and wedding, and the formerly much-dreaded, now comparatively harmless witch-doctor or fortune-teller, help to fill up the rest of the time. Nowhere have patriarchal institutions been more highly developed than amongst them. Nearly all claim direct descent from some real or mythical founder of the tribe, Chaka from a legendary Phoio by Trappist Mission, Ma/ iannlnll, Natal FIG. 78. — ZULU CHILDREN AT BREAKFAST chief, Zulu; the Galekas, Gaikas and others of Kaffraria from Xosa, the Ama-Tembu from Tembu, an elder brother of Xosa and so on. Thus each tribe formed a sort of patriarchal state ruled by a hereditary feudal chief independent within his own jurisdiction, but controlled by a powerful aristocracy, who met in council and established precedents and a code of common law, such as is met in no other Bantu community. For the administra- tion of the law there were subordinate^courts from any of which appeals might be taken to the Supreme Council presided over by the paramount chief, who was both the ruler and the father of 5 ^ 136 The World's Peoples his people. Although the Zulu-Xosas have been unable to shake off the trammels of the primitive superstitions associated with witchcraft and ancestor-cult, these social institutions give proof of high mental powers which correspond with some of the physical characters, such as nose and features often quite regular, short black hair rather fr i z z 1 y than woolly, colour sometimes of a light or clear brown (Ama- Tembu), though also almost blue- black ( A m a - Swazi), mean height nearly six feet, shapely and muscular frame, though seldom approaching the ideal standard of beauty spoken of by some ob- servers. With the B e c hu a n a s , whose territory extends from the Orange River to the Zambesi, and includes Basutbland, the Orange Colony and most of Transvaal, we again meet a people at the totemic stage of culture. Here the eponymous heroes of the Zulu-Xosas are replaced by baboons, fishes, elephants, antelopes, crocodiles, and other animals from whom the Barolong, Bakwena, Bamangwato, Barotse, and the numerous other Bechuana tribes claim descent. A section of the Barotse (Marotse), who are recognised as the elder branch of Photo by Trappist Mission, MariamihiU, Natal FIG. 80. — A ZULU BEAUTY The African Negroes and Negritos 137 the family, migrated early in the nineteenth century to the Zambesi above the Victoria Falls, where they founded the " Barotse Empire," whose present ruler, Lewanika, attended the coronation of Edward VII., and has accepted the British protectorate. For a time the Barotse dynasty was superseded by that of the renowned Makololo chief Sebituane, who reached the Zambesi from Basuto- land about the year 1835. But in 1870 the Barotse suddenly revolted, exterminated the JSIakololo almost to a man, and restored the empire on a stronger footing than ever. But the Makololo rule had lasted long enough (1835-70) to impose their language on the vanquished. Hence the curious phenomenon now witnessed about the jNIiddle Zambesi, where the Makololo have disappeared, while their Sesuto tongue remains the common medium of inter- course throughout the Barotse state. Christianity has made some progress both amongst the Basuto and the Bamangwato under their chief Khama, and the Bechuana nation generally has given up its more barbarous heathenish customs. Several tribal groups are now merged in industrious pastoral and agricultural communities, and may claim to be regarded as integral parts of Christendom. The Pilgrinis Progress has been accurately translated by a native into one of the southern dialects. In German South-w^est Africa, the northern section is occupied by the closely related Ova-Hercro and Ova-Mpo Bantu peoples, who range from the Cunene river on the Portuguese frontier to Walfish Bay, where they meet their hereditary foes, the Nama, Hottentots of Great Namaqualand. But since they have felt the heavy weight of the German rule both Hereros and Hottentots have settled their local feuds and joined hands against the common oppressor. The Hereros, that is, " Merry Folk," are often wrongly called Damaras ("Cattle Damaras," or " Damaras of the Plains"; "Hill Damaras" of the Coast range), and their q.o\xx\\.x)' Damara- la?id, for which the Germans have now rightly substituted Hereroland. "Damara" is a Hottentot word meaning the "two Dama women," but was applied to the country by the first explorers, to whom, on asking its name, their guide answered " Damara," thinking they referred to two Dama women passing at the time. Both the Hereros and their cattle show a singular dislike for salt, which may be due to the heavy vapours slightly charged with saHne particles which hang so frequently over the coastlands. These Bantus are physically a tine race, tall, robust, with regular 138 The Wofld^s Peoples features and bright expression, bespeaking a ilarge degree of in- telligence (Fig. 8i). This applies especially to the Ova-Mpo branch, one of whose tribes has dethroned its hereditary " kings " and adopted a republican form of government. As amongst the Hottentots, the national garb is the kaross, a short mantle of lion, leopard, deer, or goat skin, to which some add fifty to eighty fathoms of leather thongs coiled round the hips, and a long leather pouch hanging down the back. Their cooking utensils are never washed but lapped clean by the dogs, as the cows would run dry were any other cleansing process adopted. Dead chiefs are buried with much for- mality, the body being first broken with a large stone, then doubled up chin to knee, wrapped in the hide of an ox killed for the occasion, and deposited in the grave with its face turned northwards in remembrance of the land whence they came. All his effects, arms, clothes and the like, are then suspended from a pole or the branch of a tree overshadowing the grave. But on the death of a poor woman all her little children are buried with her to save them from further suffering. They have a strange notion of a ghostly survival after death, a spectre which takes the form of a dog with ostrich legs, and the sight of which is fatal to the living. In case of illness the Hill Damara women lop off a joint or two of their little finger, and if that fails they send for the magician, who inverts a milk-pail on the breast of the patient and bangs it with a stick, shouting and capering round and round to scare the demon of sickness. H^ Photo by Mr. W. C. Palgrave, in the collection of the Royal Geographical Society FIG. 8l. — HILL DAMARA Bantu of Hottentot speech The African Negroes and Negritos 139 then takes the pail, blows into it, and always finds a clot of blood, a scrap of flesh, or a bone, which is supposed to be extracted from the patient, and is buried in the ground, when he is sure to recover. The Bushmex and Hottentots There is good reason to believe that both of these races, who are now confined to the south-west corner of the continent— mainly Bechu^aland, German South-west Africa, and Cape Colony — formerly ranged as far north as Lake Tanganyika and even Victoria Nyanza. In the Kwa-Kokue dis- trict west of Blount Kilimanjaro dwell the WasaJidawi people who are not Bantus, but show distinct Hottentot physical characters, and speak a language full of clicks like that of the Bushmen. Even the prefix Kiva answers to the Hottentot postfix qua, as in Kora-qua, JVama-qua, meaning "men," "people." Rounded stones with a hole in the centre like those used by the Bushmen for weighting their digging-sticks have been picked up in the Tanganyika and Xyasa lands, and widely diffused geographical terms attest the former presence of these primitive races all over South Africa from the Zambesi to Xatal and the Cape. At present full-blood Hottentots are chiefly confined to Great Namaqualand, those of Cape Colony — Griquas, Koraquas, Gonaquas — being all Hottentot-Boer, or Hottentot-Bantu half-breeds of Dutch speech. Here the tribal organisation ceased to exist in 1 810, when the last Hottentot chief was replaced by a European Photo by Mr. W. Hermann FIG. 82. — A BDSHMAN YOUTH Note the tufted hair and triangular face 14° The "World's Peoples Magistrate. South of the Orange River there are scarcely 180,000 altogether, and of these the great majority are half-castes employed by the whites as menials in various capacities (Fig. 83). Although their ethnical relations have not yet been clearly deter- mined, most observers regard the Bushmen and Hottentots as fundamentally connected both in physical type and speech, the Bushmen being perhaps the primitive stock, the Hottentots a cross between them and the Negroid Bantus. Both have a yellowish colour distinguishing them from the true Negro, very prominent cheek-bones giving the face a triangular shape, and the remarkable tablier and steatopygia of the women. In other respects the Hottentots are relatively taller (5 ft. 4 in. and 4 ft. 8 in. respectively), with feeble muscular development, very broad flat nose, slightly oblique and deep-sunk eyes set wide apart, pointed chin, large lobeless ears, large mouth with thick pouting lips, projecting jaws, very long head with low cranial capacity (1299 c.c.) and tufted black woolly hair (Fig. 82). The " Hottentot Venus " was really a Bushman woman who " had a way of pouting her lips just like the Orang-utan. Her movements had something abrupt and fantastic like those of an ape ; her lips were monstrously large. I have never seen a human head more like an ape's than that of this woman " (Cuvier). The Bushman language is distinguished beyond all others by the so-called " clicks," inarticulate sounds unpronounceable by Europeans, of which there are as many as nine, perhaps more. Of these four passed into the remotely related Hottentot, and three into the wholly unconnected Zulu-Xosa. Before the advent of the whites the Khol-Khoin, " Men of Men," as the Hottentots call themselves, were rude stock-breeders with a rudimentary tribal organisation and some crude religious notions, whereas the Bushmen have always been typical nomad hunters, with no tribal institutions and apparently no religious beliefs. Even the family tie has become extremely loose, and in fact they stand almost at the lowest level of culture compatible with existence. But some recent observers have suggested that the Bushmen may have suffered degradation in their present environment, vyhere they have been hunted down by Boers and Bechuanas alike, and where they find little to live upon except game, snakes, lizards, locusts, roots, berries, and bulbs. At times they pass several days without food, on which, when found, they gorge themselves, five persons devouring a whole zebra in a couple of hours. Their weapons are the bow '-f.:- ^ . FIG. bj. — A BUSHMAN AND HIS FAMILY These are semi-civilised, as shown by their European dress 142 The World's Peoples and poisoned arrow ; their dress the raw hides of wild beasts ; their dwellings the cave, rock-shelters, or a kind of "nest" formed by bending round the foliage of the bosje (bush), whence their name. Supporters of the theory of decadence point to two remarkable qualities — a considerable sense of pictorial art and an astonishingly rich oral folklore — such as is met with amongst no other primitive peoples. Their artistic taste is shown by the rock-paintings and drawings of men and animals true to life which are found in their caves and recall similar scenes of the Palaeolithic cavemen in the south of France. Some are caricatures rudely but spiritedly drawn in black paint ; while others represent fights and hunts, or figures and incidents among natives and whites, or even suggest actual portraiture with correct perspective and foreshortening. The folklore comprises myths, legends, fables, and especially animal stories in which the animals talk each with its proper click, or else use the ordinary clicks in some way peculiar to themselves. In the Cape Town Library there are no less than eighty-four thick MS. volumes of such Bushman literature. These folklore and animal tales are extremely interesting from the fact that they seem like still surviving reminiscences of the childhood of mankind, when the distinction between man and animals was not yet clearly understood, and when the real nature of death was not yet realised. The Bushman, remarks one observer, could make no distinction between man and beast, and only knew that a buffalo could shoot just as well as a man with a bow and arrow if he had any. Bearing this in mind, the reader will be able to follow the train of thought running through the following myth about Cagn and his surroundings, which might otherwise seem so childish and incoherent. At the same time this view of the case would appear to be fatal to the theory of decadence from a higher state, since it represents the Bushmen rather as children still in their teens : Cagn was the first in the world ; he gave orders and caused all things to come forth ; he made the sun, the moon, stars, wind, and mountains. His wife's name was Coti. He had two sons. The elder was a chief, and his name was Cogaz ; the name of the younger was Gewi. There were three great chiefs, Cagn, Cogaz and Quanciquchad (hereinafter printed " Q. ") who were very strong, but Cagn gave his orders through the other two. Cagn's wife Coti took her husband's knife and used it to sharpen a digging- The African Negrozs and Negritos 143 stick, and she dug roots to eat. When Cagn found her she had lost his knife ; he scolded her and said misfortune Vould come upon her. Then she got a h'ttle eland calf and brought it up in the fields and told her husband. She said she did not know what kind of child it was, and he ran to see it ; and when he came back he ordered Coti to rub kanna (magic) that he might learn what it was. She did so, and he went and spread the magic charm over the animal, and asked it : "Are you this animal? Are you the animal ? " But it re- mained silent, till he asked : " Are you an eland?" Then it said, " Yes." Then he clasped it in his arms, went off and brought a calabash in which he put it, and took it to a secluded cleft in the rock which was surrounded by hills and precipices. Here he let it grow up. At the same time Cagn made all animals and things, and made them useful for man, and he made snares and weapons. He made the partridge and the striped mouse, and made the wind ; and he took three sticks, sharpened them, and threw one at the eland Photo by Mr. W. Hermann, Cape Town FIG. 84.— BUSH 144 The Wofld^s Peoples and it ran off; and he called it back and missed with all of the sticks, and each time he called it back again. Then he went to his nephew to get poison for the arrows, and he was three days away. While he was away his sons Cogaz and Gewi went out with young people to hunt, and came upon the eland which their father had hidden. But they knew nothing about it ; for them it was a new animal. Its horns had just grown, and they tried to surround and stealthily shoot it. But it always broke through the circle, and when it got back it lay down in the same place. At last, while it was asleep, Gewi, who could shoot well, stuck it through, and they cut it up and took the flesh and blood home. But after cutting it up they saw Cagn's traps and snares ; and they knew he had made them, and were afraid. But on the third day Cagn came back, and he saw the blood on the ground where the eland was killed ; and he was very angry, and when he came home he told Gewi he would punish him for his audacity and disobedience, tore his nose off and flung it into the fire. But he said, " No, I won't do this," and put his nose on again and said : " Now try to make good again the harm you have done, for you have destroyed the elands when I was making them fit for use." Photo by Mr. W. C. Palgra Geographical Society Jm Cullnction of the Royal FIG. 85. — DAMARA Hottentot Bantu half-breed The African Negroes and Negritos T45 So he ordered him to take some of the eland's blood, put it in a pot, and stir it with a small Bushman stick which he turned round in the blood, and it was changed into snakes. But Cagn told him he must not make such horrid things ; so he stirred again and made hartebeests. Then Cagn said : " I am not satisfied ; this is not yet what I want. You can do nothing at all. Throw the blood away. Coti, my wife, clean this pot, and bring some more of the blood and stir it." She did so and added the fat from the heart, and then it became male elands, and Cagn said : " You see how you have destroyed the elands," and he drove them out. Then they stirred again and made a great many elands ; and the earth was covered with them, and he told Gewi to go out and hunt them and try to kill one. And Gewi ran and did his best, but came back tired and worn out, and next day the same. Then Cagn sent Cogaz to drive them towards him, and Cagn shouted and the elands came running close behind him, and he hurled throwing-spears and killed three bulls. Then he sent Cogaz, who killed two, and Gewi, who killed one. There were giants called Oobe who had battle-axes, and were cannibals, who cut off men's heads, killed the women and sucked their blood. Cagn sent Cogaz to rescue a woman from them and lent him his tooth, for it was toothache that made him send Cogaz. Cogaz went, and when he came back Cagn saw the dust and sent the little bird which says tee-tee, but it said nothing. Then he sent another bird, the ti/iki-ti?iki, and it brought back no news. Then he sent a third, the qeip, a black-and-white bird which sings in the early morning ; and he rubbed kanna on its bill, and it flew in the dust, and came back with the news that the giants were coming. The giants seized Cogaz several times, but he had only to apply Cagn's tooth, when he grew so tall that they were unable to reach up to him. He generally cooked his food up there, and then he used to blow on a reed flute, and this put them to sleep. At last he killed some of them with poisoned arrows, and Cagn drove them off and killed them because they were cannibals ; and he took off" his kaross (cloak) and sandals and changed them into hounds and wild dogs, and set them at the Oob^ giants and destroyed them. 146 The Wofld*s Peoples [These Oobe were no doubt the tall Bantus who invaded the Bushman territory two or three thousand years ago, and were all at that time cannibals, as so many still are.] The head-chief Q. lived alone. He had no wife, as the women would not have him. Some little boys were sent to cut sticks From " The Uganda ProtLttoraU ' \ 1 tiiiu^swii oj bii Haii) Jthn ,011, fj- C M G , K C B. FIG. 86. — A GROUP OF BAMBUTE PYGMIES Momad hunters who attack the elephant with poisoned arrows for the women, and one complained because her stick was crooked and the others straight. That night she dreamed that a baboon came to take a young girl for his wife, the one that had refused Q. Next day when she was digging alone the ape came in a great rage, for he had overheard the remark about the crooked stick and thought she was jeering The African Negroes and Negritos 147 at his crooked tail, and and told the girl about Q. Then the girl sank into the ground and came up again in an- other place, and this she did three times until she reached Q.'s home. He asked why s h e came, and she said she was frightened at the ape. Then he lifted her on his head and hid her in his hair, and the ape smelled where she had sunk in the ground, and so came to Q. with his k i r r i (throwing-club), and asked, " Where is my wife ? " Q. said he had not got her. Then the ape quarrelled with Q. and fought him. But Q. conquered him and struck him down with his own kirri. Then Q. banished him to the mountains, say- ing : "Go and eat scorpions and roots, which are good enough for baboons." And he went awa}-, shrieking, and his shrieks were heard by all the women in the place where he threw a stone at her. She ran home her dream, and told her to escape to From " Tiu _ . Protectorate," b\ permission of Sir Harry Johr.slon, G.C.M.G., K.C.B. FIG. 87. — A PYGMY WOM.\X OF THE BABIRA GROUP Very fine Negrito type came from, and so all the apes were banished to the hills where they now are. 148 The "World's Peoples The Negritos We have seen that the African pygmies had probably reached Europe during the Stone Ages, and were certainly frequent visitors at the Courts of the Pharaohs. At pre- sent they are all denizens of the woodlands, every- where keeping to the shelter of the Welle, 1 1 u r i, Ruwenzori, Congo, and Ogoway forests within the tropics. To this may be due the fact that they are not black but of a yellowish colour, with reddish-brown woolly head, some- what hairy body, and extremely low stature ranging from about 3 ft. (Lugard) to perhaps 4 ft. 6 in. at most. The hir- suteness and dwarf- ish size were already noticed two thou- sand five hundred years ago by the Carthaginian A d - m i r a 1 Hanno, to whom we owe the term " gorilla," applied by him, not to the anthropoid ape so named by Du Chaillu, but to certain hairy little people seen by him on the west coast — probably the ancestors of the dwarfs still surviving in the Ogoway district. Here they are called Abongo and Obongo, and elsewhere are From " The Uganda Protectorate," bv permission of Sir Harry Johnston, G.C.M.G., K.C.B. FIG. 88. — TWO BAMBUTE PYGMIES Roam the East Congo woodlands The African Negroes and Negritos 149 known by different names — Tikitiki, Akka, or Wochua in the Welle region, Dume in Gallaland, Wandorobo in Masailand (Fig. 65), Batwa south of the Congo, and many others. Dr. Ludwig Wolf con- nects the Batwa both with the northern Akka and the southern Bush- men, all being the scattered fragments of a primeval dwarfish race to be regarded as the true aborigines of equatorial Africa. They live exclu- sively by the chase and the preparation of palm-wine, hence are regarded by their Bantu friends as benevolent little people whose special mission is to provide the surrounding tribes with game and palm-wine in exchange for manioc, maize, and bananas. Many are distinguished by sharp powers of observation, amazing talent for mimicry, and a good memory. Junker describes the comic ways and nimble action of an Akka who imitated with marvellous fidelity the peculiarities of persons he had once seen — Moslems at prayer, Emin Pasha with his " four eyes " (spectacles), another in a towering rage, storming and abusing everybody, and Junker himself, "whom he took off to the life, rehearsing down to the minutest details, and with surprising accuracy, my anthropometric performance when measuring his body at Rumbek four years before." The Vaalpens Along the banks of the Limpopo between Transvaal and Southern Rhodesia there are scattered a few small groups of an extremely primitive people who are generally confounded with the Bushmen, but differ in some important respects from that race. They are the " Earthmen " of some writers, but their real name is Kattca, though called by their neighbours either Ma-Sanva (" Bad People '") or Vaalpetis ("Grey Paunches"), from the khaki colour acquired by their bodies from creeping on all fours into their underground hovels. But the true colour is almost a pitch black, and as they are only about 4 ft. high they are quite distinct both from the tall Bantus and the yellowish Hottentot-Bushmen. For the Zulus they are mere " dogs " or " vultures," and are certainly the most degraded of all the aborigines, being undoubtedly cannibals, eating their own aged and infirm like some of the Amazonian tribes. Their habitations are holes in the ground, rock- shelters, or caves, or lately a icw hovels of mud and foliage at the foot of the hills. Of their speech nothing is known except that it is absolutely distinct both from the Bantu and the Bushman. 150 The World*s Peoples There are no arts or industries of any kind, not even any weapons beyond those procured in exchange for ostrich feathers, skins, or ivory. But they can make fire, and are thus able to cook the offal thrown to them by the Boers in return for their help in skinning the captured game. Whether they have any religious ideas it is impossible to say, all intercourse with the surrounding peoples being restricted to barter carried on with gesture language, for nobody has ever yet mastered their tongue. A "chief" is spoken of, but he is merely a headman who presides over the little family groups of from thirty to fifty (there are no tribes properly so called), and whose purely domestic functions are acquired, not by heredity, but by personal worth, that is, physical strength. Altogether the Kattea is perhaps the most perfect embodiment of the pure savage still anywhere surviving. For the Malagasy see Chap. VI. They are a Negroid people (Fig. 141, A Sakalava Group of the East Coast) of Malayo-Polynesian speech. CHAPTER V MOXGOLIC OR YELLOW DIVISION Primeval Home, the Tibetan Plateau (p. 151) — Early Migratory Movements (p. 152) — The Akkado-Sumerians (p. 152) — The Hyperboreans : Chukcki ; Yukaghirs ; Korjaks ; Gilyaks ; Kamchadales (p. 154) — The Mongolo- Tatars : Mongols proper ; Tunguses and Shamanism; Manchus (p. 156) — The Koreans and Japanese (pp. 163-5) — The Turki Peoples (p. 172) — The Yakuts, Kirghizes, and Turkomans (p. 17S) — The Ugro-Finns (p. 181). Primeval Home TO the view advanced at p. 18, that the Tibetan plateau was the primeval home of the MongoHc division, no serious difficulty is presented by the present configuration of the land. That region, now cut off by the great Himalayan ramparts, could easily be reached in late Pliocene times, when early man began to range northwards from his Malaysian cradle. We know that the lacustrine plateau, now the highest on the globe, was still a marine bed in the Chalk Age, that is, towards the close of the Secondary epoch, and since then it has been gradually raised to its present level. Somewhat later the Tertiary era witnessed the slow upheaval of the Himalayas with their western and eastern extensions, the Suleiman and x\rakan ranges, which did not attain their present altitude probably before the Pleistocene age. Consequently the way was open from Malaysia to the heart of the continent at the very time when Pliocene man began to spread northwards over the Asiatic mamland. In Tibet as then constituted, were found all the natural conditions favourable to the development of a new variety of the human, as of so many other varieties of animal species ■ — dog or wolf {lupus laniger), fox {vulpes Jiavescens), ox (yak), horse (kiang), besides two or more peculiai forms of deer, antelopes, sheep and goats, in fact a fauna more distinct than in any other continental area of equal extent. Here therefore the Pleistocene precursor 152 The World's Peoples also may well have assumed those physical characters which con- stitute the typical Mongol as described at p. i8. Early Migrations V From this central tableland the early Mongol groups spread 1 during the Stone Ages in all directions over the continent, where / were formed several sub-varieties, such as the now extinct Akkado- I Sumerians of Babylonia ; the nearly extinct Hyperboreans of North I Siberia ; the Motigolo-Tatars stretching from Japan across Central i Asia to Europe ; the Tibeto-Indo-Chinese of Tibet, Indo-China, and I China ; and the Oceanic Mongols (Fig. 89) of Malaysia, Madagascar, I the Philippines, and Formosa, We thus see that this great division » of mankind has occupied nearly the whole of the Asiatic continent since the Pleistocene era, and consequently takes the name of Homo Asiaticus — " Asiatic Man " in a very special sense. The Akkado-Sumerians Although not yet placed beyond all doubt, the Mongol origin of these founders of the ancient Babylonian civilisation is the view now generally held by those most competent to form an opinion on this obscure question. The argument is mainly linguistic, and it has been shown that the language of the early Cuneiform texts has strong affinities especially with the Ugro-Finnish branch of the Mongol stock language. There are the same vowel harmonies ; similar forms of nouns, numerals, pronouns, and verbs, and a large number of identical words, all of which cannot be accidental. The Akkads, or " Black Heads," are generally located on the northern uplands, the Sumerians on the lowland plains about the head of the Persian Gulf, which at that time penetrated over one hundred miles farther inland than at present. But both came at an early date into the closest contact with Assyrian and Amorite Semites, by whom they were eventually conquered and merged in a single Semitic nationality, so that the original Mongol element has long been effaced throughout Mesopotamia. During the process of fusion the Semites borrowed their Cuneiform script, their literature, and general culture from the Sumerians, and this explains the striking resemblance that exists between their common myths of the Creation, the Deluge, and other legendary matter. Thus an inscription found at Agade records how a royal princess, mother 154 The World's Peoples of Sargon I. (about 3800 B.C.), concealed his birth by placing him in a rush basket closed with bitumen and sending him adrift on the stream, from which he was rescued by Akki the water- carrier, just as Moses was rescued by the Egyptian daughter of the Pharaoh. So also " Chedorlaomer, King of Elam," routed by Abraham (Gen. xiv.) has been identified with Khudur-Lagamar, King of Elam, who conquered the Akkads and extended his sway westwards to Syria in Abraham's time. The Hyperboreans Before the development of their numerous pantheon, with its trinity of Merodach, Ea, and Anu, gods of the sea, land, and sky, the Babylonians were pure animists, attributing a soul to such objects as trees, the winds, stones, rocks, mountains, rain, the running waters, the sea and all the monsters that therein dwell. Such are still their remote kindred, the so-called "Hyperboreans" — Chukchi, Yukaghirs, Koryaks, Gilyaks, Kainchadales, and others — of North- east Siberia — who have recently been again studied and described by the various members of the Jesup expedition. A detailed description would here be out of place; but reference may be made to the curious birch-bark style of writing in which the Yukaghirs record incidents of the chase and young folk carry on their amatory correspondence. This primitive writing system is carved with a sharp knife out of soft fresh birch-bast, and with such crude materials a disconsolate maiden writes to her parting lover, " Thou goest hence and I bide alone, for thy sake still to weep and moan." Another, with a touch of jealousy, " Thou goest forth thy Russian flame to seek, who stands 'twixt thee and me, thy heart from me apart to keep. In a new home joy wilt thou find, while I must ever grieve, as thee I bear in mind, tho' another yet there be who loveth me." Or again, "Each youth his mate doth find ; my fate alone it is of him to dream who to another wedded is, and I must fain contented be, if only he forget not me." And with a note of wail, " Thou hast gone hence, and of late it seems this place for me is desolate ; and I, too, forth must fare, that so the memories old I may forget, and from the pangs thus flee, of those bright days which here I once enjoyed with thee." Although now reduced to scarcely 1,500, the Yukaghirs Mongolic or Yellow Division 155 were formerly a numerous people, and the popular saying that their hearths on the banks of the Kolyma at one time outnumbered the stars in the sky seems a reminiscence of more prosperous days. Of the neighbouring Chukchi there are two branches, the "Fishing Chukchi" with permanent stations along the shores of the Arctic Ocean, and the " Reindeer Chukchi," who roam the inland districts, shifting their camping-grounds with the seasons. Although nominal Christians, they continue t o sacrifice animals to the spirits of the rivers and mountains, and also believe in an after-life, but only for those who die a violent death. Hence the eagerness with which the infirm and aged submit, when the time comes, to be despatched by their friends : " The doomed one takes a lively interest in the proceedings, and often assists in the preparations for his own death. The exe- cution is always pre- ceded by a feast, where seal and walrus meat are greedily devoured, and whiskey consumed till all are intoxicated. A spontaneous burst of singing and the muffled roll of walrus-hide drums then herald the fatal moment. At a given signal a ring is formed by the relations and friends ; the executioner (usually the victim's son or brother) then steps forward, and placing his right foot behind the back of the condemned, slowly strangles him to death with a walrus thong " (H. de Windt). Of the Kamchadales, whose real name is Itclme, we read that FIG. 90.— GILYAK Bear-worshipper of the Lower Amur 156 The "World's Peoples they are now mostly Russified in speech and religion, but still secretly immolate a dog now and then to pacify the malevolent beings who throw obstacles in the way of their hunting and fishing expeditions. Noteworthy is the cleanliness of their houses, the walls, roof, and floor being planked over with birch boards, while the windows are draped with chintz curtains and the walls hung with pictures from the American and English illustrated papers; but the doors are so low that ingress has to be effected on all fours. A branch of the Tungus race are the bear-worshipping Gilyaks of the Amur delta, whom Mr. Landsell regarded as mentally the lowest of any people he had met in Siberia. Despite the zeal of the Russian missionaries, they remain obdurate Shamanists, and even fatahsts, so that "if one falls into the water the others will not help him out, on the plea that they would thus be opposing a higher power, who wills that he should perish. . . . The soul of the Gilyak is supposed to pass at death into his favourite dog, which is accordingly fed with choice food; and when the spirit has been prayed by the Shaman out of the dog, the animal is sacrificed on the master's grave. The soul is then represented as passing underground, lighted and guided by its own sun and moon, and continuing to lead there, in its spiritual abode, the same manner of life and pursuits as in the flesh" (Landsell). The Gilyaks and all the surrounding tribes wear a peculiar costume made from the skins of two kinds of salmon, hence are called by the Chinese " Fish-skin-clad-people." The skin is stripped off very cleverly, then pounded with a mallet to remove the scales, and so made supple. The material thus prepared is waterproof, hence is also used for making bags and other purposes. One of their chief gods is the bear, who when captured in winter is kept a long time in confinement, and, when well fattened, torn to pieces and devoured with much feasting and jubilation. Some make many excuses for thus maltreating him, explaining that it is for his good and their own. The Mongolo-Tatars This great branch of the Mongol division is not the most numerous, but by far the most widespread, since, proceeding westwards, its various sub-groups occupy the whole of Japan, Mongolia or Yellow Division 157 Korea, Manchuria, Mongolia, most of Siberia, Eastern and Western Turkestan, North Irania, and Asia Minor, besides considerable sections of Caucasia, the Balkan Peninsula, East Russia, Finland, Lapland, and Hungary. There are two well-marked primary sections : the Mongols proper — with their numerous offshoots, Tunguses, Manchus, Koreans, Japanese, and others — in the east ; Phoio by M. F'unc Fau, Fa,^^ FIG. 91. — K.^LML'KS, WESTERN MONGOLS Are full-blood Mongols of Zungaria and the Lower Volga and in the west the still more numerous Turki peoples, Uzbegs Turkomans, Kirghizes, Osmanli with the aberrant Ugro-Finns, all wrongly grouped as "Tatars," or "Tartars." Tata (plural Tatar) was the name, not of a Turki but of a Mongol people who were fused into one nation by Jenghiz Khan, a Mongol on his father's side, and a Tata on his mother's. Tatar, corrupted to Tartar through association with the Tartarus of classic mythology, prevailed in the west, because the Tatas generally formed the van of the 158 The WofId*s Peoples Mongol expeditions, and thus it happened that Tatar was gradually transferred to the western section whose proper name always has been and still is Ttirkt. Hence the collective name of the whole division should be Mongolo-Turki, or the alternative geographical expression Ural-Altaic. Although the Mongols proper are all physically very much alike (see p. 1 8), they form three historically distinct groups — Kalmuks in the west (Zungaria, Kashgaria, Astrakhan) ; Sharras in the east (Gobi, Koko-nor, Ala-shan and inshan heights); and the Siberian Buryats on both sides of Lake Baikal. Mostly nominal Buddhists, they are still at heart nature-worshippers and Shamanists, that is to say, they appeal to the deified forces of nature — hills and valleys, rivers and lakes, sky, rain, and thunder-storm — not directly but through the Shaman, who is their intercessor, their medicine-man, priest, and magician, all in one. In Mongolia all the still and running waters are worshipped as gods, and legends are associated with every mountain, whose highest peak always bears the title of khan or king. One much-feared divinity, the " Goat Face," is figured with the head of a goat, or else of an ox, wearing a crown of human skulls, vomiting flames, and in his twenty hands grasping human limbs or instruments of torture. He is painted a dark blue and his wife a light blue, and the people themselves are "Blue Mongols," because azure is the sacred colour of the sky, while they are the lords of the earth. But if they at one time ruled from the China seas to Europe, all recent observers are unanimous in describing them as now a decadent people, who have lost all political coherence and reverted to the state of barbarism that prevailed before they became world- wide conquerors under Jenghiz Khan and his immediate successors. As a nation they have even become poltroons, and are now extremely indolent and apathetic, while their filthy habits and disgusting gluttony pass all belief. In burials the decent Chinese rites are followed for the nobles, who are placed in coffins, before which the family sacrifices are offered at the prescribed times. The Buddhist prelates and rich lamas also are cremated with solemn obsequies, and their ashes covered with little mounds or cairns. But the poor lamas and all the common folk are thrown to the dogs or to the wild beasts or carrion birds, as in Tibet. Hence the ravens, called by the Chinese the " graves of the Mongols," seldom quit the nomad steppe lands where they fatten on human Mongolic or Yellow Division 159 remains, while the dogs habitually follow the funeral processions of the low classes beyond the camping-grounds. All are still nomad stock-breeders, depending on their horses, camels, oxen, and fat- tailed sheep for their sustenance. Tea and kumiss or mare's milk are the only drinks, as they never touch water, to which are attributed malignant effects. They are endowed with robust constitutions capable of resisting the extremes of temperature and enduring hardships which would kill most Europeans. But although they will remain fifteen hours at '^ W ' ^ a stretch in the saddle, they will complain of having to walk a few yards from their tent, and even feel ashamed to be seen on foot. " Our empire," they say, " was won on horse- back," and on horseback they may be said still to pass their lives. Hence they de- spise the dance and all foot ex- ercises, but dis- play extraordi- nary skill in every kind of horsemanship. They are ex- cessively fond of racing, in which young and old all take part, and it is on record that nearly four thousand riders once competed for the prize at a great race held in honour of a much venerated Mongol Buddha. ;^l' Photo per Dr. R. W. Shufddt FIG. 92. — TWO REINDEER TUNGUSES Range over the East Siberian steppe-lands i6o The World's Peoples The Tunguses -»*fcaf»~r;-SS^!!¥S':^^iw*«>^^ East and north of the Mongol domain proper the vast region comprising the Amur basin and most of East Siberia is occupied by the kindred Tungus family, of whom the historical Manchus are the most famous branch. The Tunguses themselves, who are thinly scattered over an area of perhaps a million square miles, are fishers on the Arctic sea- board, hunters and trappers in the East S i b e r i a n woodlan ds, and for the most part settled agri- culturists and stock-breeders in the fertile valleys of the Amur and its affluents ; hence the current Russian expressions Horse, Cattle, Eeindeer {¥\g. 92), Dog, Steppe, Forest, and Fishing Tunguses. The type, although essentially Mongol ic in its somewhat flat features, prominent cheek-bones, slant eyes, lank hair, yellowish colour Photo by J. Dazario, Moscow FIG. 93. — TATARS OF SIBERIA A degraded group of the Obi basin, West Siberia Mongolic or Yellow Division i6i and low stature, seems to betray admixture of a higher strain in its shapely frame, active figure, and quick intelligent expression. To this higher strain of early Caucasians, arriving from Europe during the Stone Age, may perhaps be credited the great moral qualities by which the Tunguses are distinguished above most primitive peoples. "Full of vivacity and natural impulse, always cheerful under most depressing conditions, respecting both themselves and others, of gentle manners and courteous address, obliging without servility, unaffectedly proud, scorning false- hood, and indifferent to suffering and death, the Tunguses are unquestionably an heroic people " (Reclus). A few attend the Orthodox service, others claim to be Buddhists, but the great bulk of the people are still Shamanists, and the very word Shaman is said to be of Tungus origin. Although often called priests and sometimes acting as such and taking part in the public sacrifices, the shamans are rather medicine-men, healing by magic processes, or soothsayers, uttering oracles through communion with the invisible world, or exorcists with power to expel demons and control or even coerce the good and evil spirits on behalf of their votaries. The system, of which there are many phases reflecting the difl'erent cultural states of the people, still prevails amongst all the Siberian aborigines, and generally amongst all the uncivilised Ural-Altaic and North American natives. It does not constitute a special caste like the Christian hier- archies, since some are hereditary, some elected, while everything depends on their personal merits, on their greater or less pro- ficiency in the performance of their functions. This of course gives rise to much jealousy as between the " Whites '' and the " Blacks," that is, those who deal with the good and bad spirits respectively. Their wranglings often result in bloodshed, and amongst the Buryats the two factions throw axes at each other, the duel generally ending in the death of a black or a white. Many, perhaps all, claim miraculous powers, and often act up to their pretensions by performing almost incredible conjuring tricks, in order to impose on the credulity of the ignorant, or outbid their rivals for the public favour. Richard Johnson, of the Chancelour expedition to Muscovy, records how he saw a Samoyad shaman stab himself with a sword, then make the sword red-hot and thrust it through his body, so that the point pro- truded at the back and Johnson was able to touch it with h's 1 1 i62 The World^s Peoples finger. Then they bound the wizard tight with a reindeer rope, and went through some performances curiously like those of the Davenport Brothers and other modern paid mediums. Though yielding to higher influences in some places, the system still holds its ground in the more remote districts, where even the Moslem and Buddhist preachers have to become shamans in order to win the confidence of the natives. Of the historical Manchus the authentic records date certainly from the twelfth century, when the renowned Khitan warriors who had reduced a great part of China (Liao dynasty, 925-1125) were vanquished by the Niu-chi ( Yu-chi) ancestors of the Manchu race. Under the national hero Aishiu-Gioro they acquired great power in the Amur lands, and he may be regarded as the true founder of the Manchu dynasty, since it was in his time (about 1350) that this name came into general use. After the overthrow of the Chinese Ming dynasty by a rebel chief (1643), the Manchus were invited by the imperialists to restore order in Pekin, where they have remained ever since. But this very political expansion, this assumption of the imperial r61e in China, has brought about the ruin of the Manchu race in the homeland. The constant drain of its best manhood to support the dynasty and supply trustworthy garrisons for all the strongholds of the empire, has sapped the vitality of the nation at the fountain- head, and the rich alluvial plains of Manchuria have now been mainly repeopled by industrious Chinese immigrants. Thus Manchuria has poured itself into China for a vainglorious object, and China has reversed the process for the more practical purpose of garnering the fruits of the earth, and now " the Manchu nationality is destroyed beyond recovery, and except a few nomad groups nobody speaks Manchu" (Abbe Hue). Like its Mongol sister, Manchu is a cultivated language, and both are written in a modified form of the Uiguric (Turki) script, which is based on the Syriac, introduced by the Nestorian mission- aries in the seventh century. The letters, connected together by continuous strokes, are disposed in vertical columns from left to right, an arrangement due no doubt to Chinese influence. Both languages are typical members of the agglutinating Ural-Altaic family, in which an indefinite number of particles are glued (agglutinated — postfixed or loosely attached) to an unchangeable nominal or verbal root. Then the whole, which may be a very Mongolic or Yellow Division 163 long word of ten or twenty syllables, acquires coherence, unity, by the principle of progressive vowel harmony, a kind of vocal con- cordance requiring the vowels of all the postfixes to harmonise or agree with the unchangeable vowel of the root. If the determining or controlling root-vowel is strong, all the following vowels of the combination, no matter what its length, must be strong ; if weak — weak, and so on. Thus, in Turki the plural postfix is lar with adaiii, man : adam-lar, men, but ler with ev^ house : ev-ler, houses ; so with bar, go, we have bar-ina-mak, not to go, but with sev, love, sev-me-mek, not to love, and so on. Something analogous to this is seen in the old Aryan concordance, as in Latin doininus mens, my lord ; doinina mea, my lady. The Koreans In the adjacent Korean Peninsula the Caucasian element is even more marked than among the Tunguses. European features — light eyes, large nose, hair often brown, full beard, fair and even white skin, tall stature — are conspicuous especially amongst the upper classes and in the south (Fig. 94). The presence of Neolithic Caucasians from the Far West is also attested by their works, megalithic structures which look like duplicates of the European dolmens and cromlechs. The Koreans take their present name from the Koryo dynasty (918-1392 a.d.), which marks the most flourishing epoch in the national records. For about five hundred years they were the dominant people in North-east Asia ; trade and the industrial arts were highly developed, and it was in Korea that the Japanese first acquired that skill in porcelain and bronze work which they afterwards brought to such great perfection. But after the fall of the Koryo dynasty the Koreans, although endowed with excellent natural qualities, entered on a long period of decadence, and were reduced by constant misrule to a state of degradation and barbarism, from which they have not yet recovered. Before the reforms introduced after the Japanese war with China (1895-96), " the country was eaten up by ofificialism. It is not only that abuses without number prevailed, but the whole system of government was an abuse, a sea of corruption, without a bottom or a shore, an engine of robbery, crushing the life out of all industry " (Mrs. Bishop). As in China, Korea possesses two or three state religions, ancestor-worship and Buddhism, besides the ethical codes of 164 The Wofld^s Peoples Confucius and Lao-tse. But no lofty ideals have ever been incul- cated, so that it is not perhaps surprising that the Koreans betray less of the religious sentiment than almost any other people. This strange lack of veneration is shown even in the very children, who are often seen kicking about the bronze statuettes of Buddha on the public highways. Seul, the capital, is perhaps the only city in the world outside Korea which till recently possessed neither temple nor Photo by Sir W. C. Hillier, K.C.M.G. FIG. 94. — VILLAGE SCENE, KOREA White flowing robes and broad-brimmed hats form the national garb church. But the primitive ideas still survive; offerings are made to the spirits of the forests and mountains ; all natural deaths are attributed to the invisible agencies, and there is even a " Children's Feast," when all put on new clothes, probably a reminiscence of Buddhism. It is also to their credit that, amid much moral and material squalor, coarse and repulsive habits, the Koreans possess at least the sterling quality of honesty. A recent Mongolic or Yellow Division i6s German traveller tells us that in the villages along his route his effects had to remain on the highroads for want of room in the wretched little hovels, but he never lost anything, and his watch, after passing round for general inspection, always came back to the owner. Pkolo by Sir W. C. HUlier, K.C.M.G. FIG. 95. — BUDDHIST TRIESl-S OF KORE.\ Have fallen on evil days, and are now Kttle respected The Japanese In the Japanese constitution there enter three distinct elements : the Caucasic acquired from the Ebisu (Ainu) aborigines of Hondo ; the Mongolic from the mainland through Manchuria and Korea ; and the Malayan from Malaysia through the Philippines and Formosa. One of the most remarkable peoples in the whole world is thus the outcome of the gradual fusion of these elements, a 1 66 The WoyId*s Peoples process which, according to the national records and traditions, may have begun seven or eight hundred years before the new era. At least the native chronicles tell us that the present Mikado is the one hundred and twenty-first in direct descent from Jimmu Tenno, reputed founder of the empire, who flourished about 660 B.C. and was fabled to be fifth in descent from the Sun- Goddess Amaterasu, the great divinity of the national Shinto religion. The Mongol physical cha- racters are the most pronounced, being clearly indicated by the low stature (5 ft. 4 or 5 in.), small nose with no perceptible root, somewhat prominent cheek- bones, exposed skin yellowish brown, in- clining to a light fawn and certainly less yellow than the Chinese ; eyes also less oblique, but hair equally black, lank, and quite round in cross-section. On the other hand the Caucasic factor is shown more in the mental qualities, but is also plainly revealed in the surprising light, in fact white, colour of the unexposed parts of the body. This important feature, overlooked by nearly all observers, has been established by Dr. F. H. H. Guillemard, who writes : "In the course of two visits Photo by J. TF. McLcUan FIG. 96. — JAPANESE WOMAN Wears a loose kimono (robe) with wide sleeves 1 68 The World*s Peoples to Japan I saw many hundreds of naked Japanese, and I was struck particularly by the fact that their bodies were whiter than those of English men and even English women" {Letter to A. H. Keane, Aug. 2, 1895). But early man is also represented, as in Korea, by numerous dolmens ; by extensive kitchen middens like those of Denmark, **^%*! 1 f ' '^^P ^ '^fe! »,^^^ % PAoto by 7. W. McLellan FIG. 98. — TWO JAPANESE MEN AND A GIRL Wear a plain kimono with very narrow obi standing twenty to thirty feet above the present sea-level ; by a vast number of caves, formerly inhabited, like those of the European Palaeolithic men ; and by the pits in the island of Yezo, which were occupied ages ago by the so-called Koro-pok-guru, " People of the Hollows," who lived in huts built over holes in the ground and may have been the ancestors of the present Ainus. Eike other peoples the Japanese have their own moral codes ; Photo by J. W. McLcllan FIG. 99.— A JAPANESE I.AD'Y Wears a rich loose kimono with very wide obi (sash) lied in an immense bow at tiie back 1 7° The ^"01*1(^*8 Peoples but they stand intellectually at the head of all Mongolic races without exception. In this respect they rank with the more advanced European nations, being highly intelligent, versatile, progressive, quick-witted, and brave to a degree of heroism un- surpassed by any other race. The sense of personal honour, so feebly developed amongst other Asiatics, became a passion under the mediaeval feudal system, and led to astounding acts of devotion and self-sacrifice of almost daily occurrence. This sentiment, combined with a strange contempt of death, led to the peculiar institution of the hara-kiri or " happy despatch," a cruelly refined method of self-immolation now falling into desuetude and abolished as an official punishment. But beneath many genial and amiable qualities there is often betrayed a spirit of treachery and revenge, which will for years pursue its victim under the cloak of the most seemingly cordial friendship. Unbridled licentiousness, a mercenary spirit, and lack of fair dealing in business matters are amongst the darker shades of the picture. But their better parts, taken in connection with an intense loyalty and a blind, almost fanatical spirit of patriotism, sufficiently account for the triumphant issue of their recent wars with China (1894-5) and with Russia (1904-5). Thus is also explained the rapidity with which the Mongolo-Caucasic Japanese, the barriers of exclusion once broken down, have taken their place in the comity of the Western nations, and struck alliances with Great Britain on a footing of absolute equality. Of Shinto, the national religion, the earliest form survives best amongst the neighbouring and closely related natives of the Liu-Kiu islands. Here, as originally in Japan, it is a rude system of nature- worship, the normal development of which was arrested by Chinese and Buddhist influences. Later it became associated with spirit- worship, the spirits being at first the souls of the dead ; and although there is no longer ariy cult of the dead strictly so called, the Liu-Kiu islanders probably pay more respect to the departed than any other people in the world. In Japan Shintoism, as reformed in recent times and almost merged in the Bushidoism now affected by the educated classes, has become much more a political institution than a religious system. The Ka?ni-?to-michi, ox "Way of the Gods," or "Spirits," is inseparably bound up with the political interests of the reigning dynasty sprung from the Sun-Goddess. Hence its three cardinal Mongolic or Yellow Division 171 virtues are : i. Honour the Kami (spirits), of whom the emperor is the chief representative on earth ; 2. Revere him as thy sovereign ; 3. Obey his will, and that is the whole duty of man. There is no moral code, and loyal expositors have declared that the Mikado's will is the supreme or only test of right and wrong. There are dim notions about a supreme creator, immortality, and even rewards and penalties in the after-life. Some even talk vaguely of a sublime being or divine essence pervading all nature, too vast or ethereal to be personified or addressed in prayer, identified with the tenka, (heavens), from which all things emanate, to which all return. Yet there are Shinto temples for the worship of the Kami (spirits, or invisible agencies), of which there are "eight millions," conceived as spiritual forces and self-existing personalities. Buddhism, introduced about 550 a.d., had great vogue under the miUtary rule of the Shogun usurpers of the Mikado's functions (i 192-1868 A.D.). The land was covered with Buddhist shrines and temples, some of vast size and quaint design, filled with hideous idols, huge bells, and colossal statues of Buddha. But with the supersession of the Shoguns Buddhism fell on evil days, and the temples, spoiled of their treasures, have become the resort of pleasure-seekers rather than of pious worshippers. To the larger shrines are attached regular shows, playhouses, panoramas, besides lotteries, sports, and games of all kinds, including the famous fan- throwing, kite-flying, and shooting galleries, where the bow and arrow and the blow-pipe take the place of the rifle. The accumulated wealth of the priests has been confiscated, the monks driven from their monasteries, and the temple bells sold for old metal. The Siza^ sometimes called a third " religion," is a sort of refined materialism based on the ethical teachings of Confucius. Always confined to the learned classes, it has in recent years found-a formid- able rival in the "English Philosophy," represented by such writers as Buckle, Mill, Herbert Spencer, Darwin, and Huxley, most of whose works have been translated into Japanese. This language, long cultivated under Chinese influences, and written either with Chinese hieroglyphics or with a local syllabary derived from them, is remotely related to Korean, and both still more remotely connected with the Ural-Altaic family. But the kinship is very obscure, and some hold that they are stock languages radically distinct from all others. This would imply an immense antiquity for early man in the extreme East, and such antiquity is pointed at by the 172 The Wofld^s Peoples presence of the Caucasic element, which must date back to the Stone Ages. The Turki Peoples A sharp distinction is drawn by anthropologists between the eastern (Mongolic) and the western (Turkic) sections of the Mongolo- Tatar division. Both are undoubtedly sprung from the parent Mongol stock cradled on the Tibetan tableland. But while the eastern section has with few exceptions (Koreans, Japanese) FIG. 100. — TURKISH LADY WI'J'JI SON AND SERVANT Wears the veil discarded by her servant preserved its racial purity, the western has been so long in contact with Caucasic peoples that its original Mongol descent is now often revealed more by its Ural-Altaic speech than by its blurred or profoundly modified physical characters. Who would suspect that, for instance, the present Magyars, one of the handsomest races in Europe, were a thousand years ago coarse-featured Ugrian Finns but for their Finno-Turkic speech (Figs. 107, 108). And so also with the Finns themselves, the Anatolian and Osmanli Turks, and the Bulgarians (Fig. 106), these last being now grouped as Aryan Slavs, because they have lost their Ugro-Finnic mother-tongue. 174 The "World^s Peoples Intelligent observers have often been impressed by this progressive conformity of the Turki branch to the European type. The point has been well brought out by Captain Younghusband, who during his westward journey through Central Asia "noticed a gradual, scarcely perceptible, change from the round of a Mongolian type to a sharper and yet more sharp type of feature. As we get farther away from Mongolia we notice that the faces become gradually longer and narrower, and farther away still, among some of the inhabitants of Afghan Turkestan, we see that the Tatar or Mongol type of feature is almost entirely lost." Hence also Peschel's remark that the western Turks have absorbed so much Aryan and Semitic blood that the last traces of their original physical characters have been lost, and their language alone indicates their previous descent. The Turks, whose primeval home was the Altai uplands, had reached Europe, probably in straggling bands, before the new era, for they are mentioned by name both by Pomponius Mela {Ttircae) and by Pliny {Tyrcae) as already seated on the banks of the Tanais (Don) about that time. Later the great Khan of the Altai Turks was visited by the Byzantine envoy Zimarchus (569 a.d.), who describes the " Turkoi " as nomads who dwelt in tents mounted on waggons, cremated the dead, and raised monuments to their memory, statues and cairns with a stone for every man killed by the deceased in battle — the more they killed the more the after- glory. Then came the renowned Uigurs, who were early split into two sections, the O n- Uigur {^^T&n Uigurs") in the south and the Toghuz-Uigur ("Nine Uigurs") in the north; and when the 0ns disappeared in the west, lost amongst the Volga Finns, there remained only the Toghuzes, henceforth known in history simply as Uigurs. One of their seats was Turfan at the foot of the Tian-shan range, and it was here that in t 905-6 A. von Lecoq explored several places long swallowed up in the sands and brought away manuscripts in ten different languages. A gruesome discovery was also made of the closely packed bodies of Buddhists still clothed in their monkish robes, who had all been massacred by the fanatical Moslem Uigurs during the fierce wars waged by them against Buddhism. They were amongst the first to join the devastating hordes of Jenghiz Khan's successors, and their name thus became perpetuated as the " Ogres " of fable and nursery tales. Near the Uigurs dwelt the kindred Ughuz, who are now Mongolic Of Yellow Division 175 represented in Bokhara and surrounding lands by the Uzbegs, in Western Turkestan by the Turkomans, and in Asia Minor by the Osmanli, so named from Othman, founder of the present Ottoman empire, which has alone survived the shipwreck of all the historical Turki states. Those who, following the fortunes of the Othman dynasty, crossed the Bosporus, captured Constantinople (1453), and founded new homes in the Balkan Peninsula, now prefer to call FIG. 102. — TURKISH LADY The more obese the more admired are the ladies of the harem themselves " Osmanli," even repudiating the national name " Turk" still retained with pride by the ruder peasant classes of Asia Minor. They number scarcely one-tenth of the population of Turkey in Europe, and here they have entered on a period of decadence which must lead to their ultimate extinction as a separate Moham- medan nationality. There may be some truth in the remark of Chateaubriand that the Turks have but camped in Europe, and expect some day to return to the steppe lands whence they came. 176 The World's Peoples In any case they are being outstripped in all pursuits — retail trade, commerce, the industrial arts, and even agriculture — by their Christian fellow-subjects. Being the dominant class, they look more to the sweets of office than to personal efforts for a livelihood. Being naturally indolent and of a sluggish temperament, they rarely take the trouble to learn foreign languages, and thus find themselves at a great disadvantage compared with the other races — Greeks, Armenians, Slavs — most of whom usually speak two or three. The fatalism of the Koran has also deprived the Turk of the spirit of enterprise, while polygamy and slavery have a distinctly demoralising effect. No doubt the rich alone can indulge in the luxury of a harem ; but from them the poor learn to despise women, a first step towards racial decay (Fig. 102). In Asia Minor the relations are somewhat different, and here many of the intruders from Central Asia continue to lead the same pastoral life as their nomad forefathers. Thus the Yuruks, members of the " Black Sheep " horde, are still nomads, migrating with their flocks between their summer and winter camping-grounds. Some have fixed abodes, but most of them live in black goat-hair tents, or in huts made of branches, entered on all fours and nearly always full of smoke. They are Mohammedans only in name, and their women go unveiled, even raising their heads to salute the passing wayfarer. Amongst the first arrivals were the Zeibeks of the Misoghis uplands, who cherish the memory of their ancestral glories, and display a great love of finery and costly weapons. They fancy- the whole world is theirs by right, and the authorities have in vain endeavoured to assimilate them to the rest of the population by interdicting their gorgeous national costume. The Turks properly so called are seen to much greater advantage than their Osmanli cousins, and are highly spoken of for the moral qualities of uprightness, truth, manliness, courage, and hospitaHty. But without being indolent they dislike hurry, refuse to be hustled and declare that "haste is the devil's, patience Allah's." In the home they display the true spirit of kindness and justice, which is extended even to the domestic animals. Monogamy is the rule, and the wife, mistress in her home, is treated with real affection. The Anatolian Turks are now the last mainstay of the race, both in numbers and vitality. Yet even, amongst them the ominous cry of " Back to the steppe ! " has already been raised. In Siberia the Turki race is represented chiefly by the nominal 178 The World*s Peoples Christian Yakuts of the Lena basin and the Moslem Kirghizes of the western steppes. The Yakuts, who number about 200,000, are almost the only progressive aborigines in this region. They not only exist but display a considerable degree of energy and enterprise, in the very coldest part of the inhabitable world. In a temperature at which the mercury freezes their children may be seen gambolling naked in the snow, and these "men of iron," as they have been called, will lounge about with the glass marking — 70° F. airily arrayed in a shirt and sheepskin cloak. Although baptized as Orthodox Christians, they are all Shamanists at heart, still con- juring the powers of nature, but offering no worship to a supreme deity, of whom they have a vague notion, though he is too far off to hear, or too good to need their supplications. Thanks to their commercial spirit the Yakut language, a very pure Turki idiom, has become a general medium of intercourse throughout East Siberia from the Chinese frontier to the Frozen Ocean. Of the Kirghizes there are two main sections, the Kara-Kirghiz (Black Kirghiz) of the Pamir and Tian-shan uplands, and the Kirghiz-Kazaks (Riders), whose domain comprises a great part of West Siberia. AH present very much the same physical features, square and somewhat flat Mongol face, oblique eyes, large mouth, feet and hands, yellowish brown skin, short stature, and ungainly obese figures. The real national name is Kazak (Riders), and as they were originally mounted marauders, the term was gradually extended to all nomad horsemen, and was in this sense adopted by the Russians in the form of Kossack. The Kazaks are grouped in four historical sections — the Great, Middle, Little, and Inner Hordes — whose joint domain reaches from Lake Balkhash round the Caspian Sea down to the Lower Volga. They have all long been nominal Mussulmans, but free from fanaticism, without mosques or mollahs, their whole religion being limited to a few simple rites strongly tinged with the traditions of the old Shamanism. Every Kirghiz is attended throughout life by two invisible spirits — a guardian angel perched on his right shoulder who inspires him with good thoughts, and on his left a devil who tempts him to evil, and according as he hearkens to one or the other he is rewarded or punished in the next world. All are essentially stock-breeders, living mainly on the produce of their herds, and dwelling in large round tents with no partitions and little furniture (Fig. 104). The universal drink ku?niss, fermented mare's milk, kept i8o The W Of ld*s Peoples in skins, is very wholesome, and said to be a specific against all chest diseases. Before their reduction by the Russians (i 88 1-2), the Turkomans of West Turkestan had been a predatory nomad race throughout historic times. They are distinguished from other Asiatics by a bold penetrating glance de- veloped by the dangers of the alainans or ma- rauding excur- sions which had been their chief pastime since the days of their fierce Parthian ancestors. In these alamans every precau- tion was taken against ftiilure, and as they usually took place about dawn, they were nearly always successful. The Persian caravans were constantly taken by sur- prise, all who showed any re- sistance being cut down and the "rest carried off to supply the slave markets. The settled districts in Persia itself were frequently raided, so that a perpetual struggle was kept up between the barbaric predatory hordes of the northern steppe, and the cultured agricultural peoples of the fertile southern lands. Hence in the national records Iran (Persia) was the Land of Light, and Turdn (Turkestan) the Land of Night, Phoio by Mr. E. Delmar Morgan FIG. 105. — SARTS Tajak and Uzbeg traders and artisans Mongolic or Yellow Division iSi and out of the everlasting conflict arose the two principles of Good and Evil, ever contending for the upper hand in the ancient Zoroastrian religion, as still in the later Christian systems. The Ugro-Finns From their original seats on the Altai uplands near their Turk FIG. I06.— MAN AND WOMAN OF BULGARIA Finns assimilated in physique and speech to the Slavs relatives the proto-Finns moved ages ago down the Irtish and Obi rivers to the Ural Mountains, where they made a long sojourn, and also acquired some degree of culture, and especially that skill in working the precious and other metals to which repeated reference is made in the songs of the Ka/ei« ^,^i£™lm^ FIG. 107. — HUNGARIAN WOMAN Magyar stock Mongolic or Yellow Division t83 go well with him, he is a Christian ; but should his reindeer die, or other catastrophe happen, he immediately returns to his old God Nti77i or Chaddi. He conducts his heathen services by night and in secret, and carefully screens from sight any image of Chaddi.' FIG. I08. — HUNGARIANS . The dominant Magyars of Caucasic type and Finno-Ugrian speech The wooden cross on the Samoyad graves is supplemented by an overturned sledge to convey the dead safely over the snows of the under-world ; and although Chaddi is no longer honoured with human victims, only a few years ago a young girl was sacrificed to him in Novaia Zemlya. Similar beliefs and practice? still prevail even amongst the Volga 184 The Wofld*s Peoples Finns, and in 1896 some Votyaks were convicted of the murder of a passing mendicant whom they had beheaded to appease the wrath of Kiremet, Spirit of Evil and author of the famine then raging in Central Russia. Besides Kiremet, the Votyaks also worship Inmar, God of Heaven, to whom they sacrifice animals and even hu- man beings whenever it can be safely done. These super- stitions are not even confined to the Volga Finns, and many of the surrounding Orthodox Rus- sians are occa- sionally guilty of almost incredi- ble deeds of violence inspired by the old heathen beliefs. Such a case oc- curred in August 1907, in the village of Suso- yeff, near Liady, where a peasant named Michai- loff had an ex- ceedingly clever little son, who became famous as a prodigy, and was almost believed to be a miraculous being. In the neighbourhood there lived a rich and very devout peasant called the "Saint," who was supposed to be a prophet. This saint grew jealous of the child's popularity, and began to spread rumours that should he be allowed to grow up he would become the Anti- christ and bring untold woe upon the peasants. FIG. 109. — LAPP Finnish stock and speech Mongolic or Yellow Division 185 On July 30 the prophet called a meeting of the thirty richest peasants in the district, and explained to them that if the boy was killed they would be made happy and prosperous, and the village Photo by K. E. Stahlberg, Helsingjors FIG. 1 10. — FINNS PLAYING RUSSIAN KARELIA Finns are now of European type, but still speak their Finno-Ugrian mother-tongue would become the capital of the country. It was agreed to sacrifice the child, 'and two days later the saint gave orders to the men, took an _ikon (holy image) in his hands, and distribyt^cl lighted i86 The World's Peoples candles amongst his followers. He headed the procession to the child's home at night and demanded that the parents should hand the boy over, as he wanted to pray with him. The prophet washed the youngster, saying prayers meanwhile, and then choked him by placing his foot on his neck in front of the parents. Subsequently he ordered the terrified father to help him to tear the child to pieces, and as he refused the body was chopped up with a hatchet. The remains were then put into a basket which was attached to the tail of a white mare. The saint Photo by K. E. Stahlberg, Helsingfors FIG. III.- -FINNISH WOMEN mounted the horse and declared that it was the will of God that the body should be buried at a spot where the horse would volun- tarily stop. The horse started, and the peasants, still burning their candles, followed. At a certain point the animal halted, and there the remains were buried with the hatchet and the basket. Then the saint turned to the father, who had in superstitious fear witnessed the ceremony without protest, and told him that on the following morning two golden hairs would have grown on his head, while the grave would be transformed into a well throwing out boiling water and liquid sulphur. Mongolic or Yellow Division ^187 In this atrocity no less than twenty-eight men Avere implicated and arrested by the police {Daily Press). Of the Mongol physical characters the Lapps, who are politi- cally divided between Russia, Sweden, and Norway, still retain the round low skull (index 83°), the salient cheek-bones, somewhat flat features, ungainly figure, and low, almost dwarfish, stature, but not the yellow skin, which is now white, nor the black hair, which is now brown. In temperament also they are more Asiatic than European — somewhat sullen, obstinate, and apathetic, lacking enterprise, and still fishers, hunters, and reindeer herdsmen, as described by King Alfred in his Orosius. Alfred calls them all "Finns," as the Norwegians always do, the term Lapp being confined to the Swedes and Russians. In pagan times Shamanism was highly developed, a striking feature of the system being the " rune- trees," made of pine or birch bark, inscribed with figures of gods, men, or animals, which were consulted, and their oracular responses interpreted, by the shamans. Even foreign potentates hearkened to the voice of these world-famed magicians, and in England the expression " Lapland witches " became proverbial, although it appears that there never were any witches, but only wizards, in Lapland. The old notions of a' material after-life just like the present still survive, although the Lapps are all now either Lutheran or Orthodox Christians. Money and other treasures are often hid away, the owners dying without revealing the secret in the hope of thus making provision for the next world. Yet there are periodical retreats and revivals, accompanied by the same hysterical excesses as in Wales and Liberia. CHAPTER VI MONGOLIC DIVISION {continued) THE TIBETO-INDO-CHINESE AND MALAYANS The Tibetans (p. i88) — The Indo-Chinese Aborigines (p. 192) —The Burmese (p. 198) — The Tai Nation : Shans and Laos (p. 202) — The Siamese (p. 203) Tiie Anamese (p. 205) — The Chinese (p. 206) — The Oceanic or Malayan Mongols (p. 212) — The Cultured Malayans (p. 213) — The Javanese (p. 214) — The Borneans (p. 215) — The Battas and Nias Islanders (p. 216) — The Malays Proper (p. 218) — The Philippine Natives (p. 220)— The Formosans (p. 222) — The Malagasy (p. 223). The Tibetans IN Tibet, primeval home of Homo Asiaticus (see p. 18), we have to distinguish three well-marked groups : i. The Bod-pa, (Bod-men), the dominant and more cultured section who occupy the fertile southern provinces of which Lhasa is the capital, who till the land, live in towns, and have passed from the tribal to the civic state. 2. The Drupa, peaceful semi-nomadic pastoral tribes, who live in tents on the central tableland 14,000 or 15,000 feet above sea-level. 3. The Tuftguts, restless predatory tribes, who roam the north-eastern borderlands between Tsaidam (Koko-nor district) and China. All are true Tibetans, speak the Tibetan language, and profess one or other of the two national religions, Bonbo and Buddhism. But the original type is best preserved, not amongst the somewhat mixed Bod-pa, but amongst the ruder Dru- pa, who are undersized (5 ft. 4 or 5 in.) and round-headed, with long black hair, brown or hazel eyes, slightly prominent cheek-bones, thick nose depressed at the root and narrow, but with wide nostrils, large-lobed ears, broad shoulders, large feet and hands, light brown, rough and greasy skin nearly the colour of the American Indians. l88 Mongolic Division 189 Most contradictory estimates have been formed of the mental qualities of the Tibetans — knavish, treacherous, lying, deceitful, cringing to the strong, arrogant to the weak (Desgodins), or kind- hearted, affectionate, and law-abiding (Rockhill). Their own opinion of themselves is not flattering, their admitted shortcomings being explained by the curious national legend that they sprang from a king of monkeys and a female hobgoblin. From the king (now an incarnate god) they have religious faith, kindheartedness, Pholo by Mr. H. V. C. Hunter, F.R.G.S. FIG. 112. — TIBETANS OF LADAK In these Ladakis there is a strong Caucasic strain intelligence, and devotion ; from the hobgoblin cruelty, lustfulness, the commercial (or mercenary) spirit, and carnivorous tastes. They are certainly the victims of a depressing priestly rule, a vast organised system of hypocrisy, with a veneer of Buddhism above the old pagan beliefs, and above this another most pernicious veneer of lamaism or grasping priestcraft, under which the natural develop- ment of the people has been almost completely arrested. The burden has been borne with surprising endurance, finding occasional relief in secret or even open revolt against the more irksome ordinances, prescribing, for instance, a strict vegetarian diet in the formula " eat animal flesh, eat thy brother." Yet not only laymen, 1 9° The World's Peoples but most of the lamas themselves supplement their frugal diet of milk, butter, barley-meal, and fruits with game, yak (beef), and mutton. The public conscience, however, is saved by a few extra turns of the prayer- wheel, and by the general contempt in which the hereditary caste of butchers are held. Amongst the ruder nomad tribes, who wear the religious cloak very loosely, the taste for liquid blood is insatiable. They have been seen to fall prone on the ground to lap up the blood flowing from a wounded beast, and the very children and horses are fed on a horrible mess of cheese, butter, and blood. Tibet is one of the few regions where polyandrous customs still persist almost in their pristine vigour. The husbands are usually all brothers, the eldest being the putative J>afer familias, while the others are regarded as "uncles." But polygamy is preferred by the wealthy classes, while monogamy is the rule among the poor pastoral nomads of the steppe lands. The dead are disposed of in divers ways at the pleasure of the lamas, who see that the head of the deceased is first shaved to facilitate the transmigration oT the soul, and then order the body to be cremated, buried, or cast into the river, or, as in Mongolia, thrown to beasts of prey or carrion birds. The old Shamanism, here called Bonho, still persists in many districts side by side with^the ofificial lamaism. From the colour of the priestly robes it is called the sect of the " Blacks," in contradistinction to the orthodox " Yellow " and dissenting " Red " lamaists. There are also red and black demons, the snake devil, and the fiery tiger-god, head of this truly diabolical pantheon. Reference is often made to the remarkable " coincidences " between the Tibetan and Christian systems — the cross, the mitre, choir singing, exorcisms, incense-burning, celibacy, the rosary, fasts, processions, litanies, spiritual retreats, holy water, scapulars, relics, pilgrimages, music, bells, invocation of saints. As the Roman Church controlled all knowledge in mediaeval times, so the Tibetan lamas still hold a monopoly of all science, letters, and arts. The block printing-presses are all kept in the huge lamaserais (monasteries) which cover the land, and from them are issued only orthodox works and treatises on magic. Religion itself is mainly a system of magic, the sole aim of all worship being to baffle the machinations of the demons who at every turn beset the path of the wayfarer. Hence the ubiquitous prayer-wheels^a clever 192 The "World's Peoples contrivance by which innumerable supplications may be offered up night and day to the powers of darkness — are incessantly kept going all over the land. They are set up in all the houses, by the river-banks or on the hillside, and are turned, not only by the hands of the de- vout, but even me- chanically by the winds and running waters, and some are so large — thirty to forty feet high and fifteen to twenty in diameter — that at each turn of the wheel they can repeat the contents of whole volumes of litur- gical essays stowed away in their capa- cious receptacles. And meanwhile slag- nation reigns supreme over the most priest- ridden land under the sun. For a moment it was roused from its torpor by the British expedition to Lhasa (1904), but appears to have fallen asleep again. The Indo-Chinese Aborigines From the lofty Tibetan plateau early man found his way down the great rivers — Irawadi, Salwin, Mekhong— to the Indo-Chinese Peninsula, where Photo by Kapp & Co. FIG. 114. — BHUTIAN WOMAN, TIBET Fine Tibetan type Mongolic Division 193 many of the first arrivals, such as the Mishmi, Abors, Kuki, Lushai, Chins, Nagas, Kakhyens, Karens, Khas, and Moi, have remained in the pristine savage state, and now constitute the aboriginal elements of that region. But others have, under Hindu and Chinese influences, become cultured peoples and founders of well-organised political states, of which the most powerful were Burma, now a British possession, Siam, still autonomous, Camboja, Cochin-China, Anam, and Tongkin, all French dependencies. From the infantile notions of the aborigines, we may learn much h'lom " The Silken East," by pcnnisslon of the Author, Mr. V. C. Scott O'C^vhi'-j FIG. 115. — THE KAREN' MISSION AT PHA-PUN The numerous Karen tribes occupy the uplands between Barma and Siam regarding the cosmologies and " philosophies " of primitive peoples. Thus the Kuki and their Lushai relatives have a curious theory of the Creation, according to which the face of the earth was originally covered with one vast sea inhabited by a gigantic worm. One day the Creator, striding across this worm, dropped a handful of clay, saying, " Of this I mean to make a land and people it " ; to which the worm : " What ! you think to make a habitable land out of this bit of soil ! Why, it is absurd. Look here, I can swallow it." But the lump, immediately passing out of his body, 13 tQ4 The World's Peoples grew and grew until it became the world we now see. Then man sprang out of the ground by the will of the gods, of whom there are three : Lambra the Creator, without whose consent nothing can be done by the others ; Golarai, god of death ; and the beneficent Dudukal with his wife Fapite. Some of the Chins of the Chindwin valley think they were formerly very powerful, but were ruined by their insane efforts to capture the sun. With a sort of Jacob's ladder they mounted higher and higher, but growing tired, quarrelled Photo by Wn/i. c- ^kd-ii FIG. Il6. — KAREN WOMEN, SOUTH-EAST BURMA Akin to the Burmese ; many are now Christians among themselves, and one day, while half of them were aloft and just about to seize the sun, the others below cut down the ladder and all were dashed to pieces. They never recovered from that blow and are now a feeble folk. Many believe in a head god, or rather demon, to whom they sacrifice, but do not expect any favour from him except immunity from the plagues and misfortunes he is apt to inflict on those that offend him. The real objects of worship are the innumerable nafs or spirits of the house, family, clan, fields, who also swarm in the 196 The Woi:'ld*s Peoples =^" air, the streams, the jungle, and the hills. None can bestow bless- ings, but all are imps of mischief who can and will do harm unless appeased with offerings. Cholera and small-pox are reckoned amongst the nats, and when cholera broke out amongst the Chins who visited Rangoon in 1895, they kept their knives drawn against the nat and hid away under bushes to prevent him from finding them. Another great trouble is the evil eye, and some of the tribes think all their neighbours are wizards, whose single glance can bewitch them and make lizards enter their body -^ and devour the entrails. The departed go to " Dead Man's Village," which is divided into a pleasant abode for those who die a natural death, and a wretched abode for those killed in a fray. Here they must bide till avenged by blood ; and the ven- detta thus acquires a re- ligious sanction, since the slain becomes the slave of the slayer in the next world. Whether a man has been honest or not in this world does not matter ; but the more people he has killed the better, since he will have more slaves to serve him in the after- life. The same applies to the quarry, for all that he kills on earth are his for ever. Hunting and drinking still go on as in the flesh, but whether fighting and raiding also is a point not settled by the native theologians. It appears that all these aborigines who revelled in blood were formerly, as some still are, head-hunters, and the Murram Nagas have a legend dealing with the practice. They alone of all the Nagas have two hereditary chiefs, a greater and a lesser, which is thus explained : a former chief had two sons, the younger of whom, being From " The Silken East." by permission of the Author, Mr. V. C. Scott O'Connor VIG. 118. — A MASTER BUILDER OF PAKOKU, LOWER BURMA Mongolic Division 197 the greater warrior, wanted his father to give him the succession. But being unable to deprive the elder of his birthright, the aged chief first told him to go and secretly bring home the head of some foe; then he sent both on a like expedition on the understanding that he who came back first should be heir. The elder of course was first with From " The Silken East." ''.i l^amissiou of Ihc Aii'hor, Mr. ]\ C. -: >/• FIG. 119. — THE MAGISTRATE OF HOMALIN AND HIS FAMILY the head he had already secured and hidden in the neighbouring bush. But the younger still persisting, a compromise was made by which both should succeed, one as the big, the other as the little chief, and so it has been ever since. A pleasanter trait is their devotion to the game of polo, which is played much in the same way as by the Baltis and others at the opposite extremity of the Himalayas. igS The World*s Peoples The Burmese Even the cultured Burmese people, although now all Buddhists, have their old-time legends, and in the national records we read how two thousand years ago the land was overrun with fabulous monsters and other terrors, which to this day are called " the five enemies." These were a fierce tiger, a huge boar, a flying dragon, a prodigious man-eating bird, and an enormous trailing pump- kin, which threatened to entangle the whole country. The race, how- ever, has outlived these dangers, and the Bur- mese now form a well- defined nationality, whose type has been de- scribed as somewhat intermediate between the Chinese and the Malay. The features are softer and more rounded than either, with a yellowish brown or olive complexion, often showing very dark shades, full black and lank hair, no beard, small but straight nose, weak extremities, pliant figure, and average height (5 ft. 5 or 6 in.). Softness and a distinctly refined air also give the keynote to the national temperament, which is marked by a bright, genial "^9mi^^H^^i^^H PI^K.,1 .$>-: "^ iH^^H Ip^ SSSBBHBBhIHI ^W ' '■-■"■" n. ' ,i " Front " The Sillcen East," by permission of the Author' Mr. V. C. Scolt O'Connor FIG. 120.— BURMESE WOMAN AND CHILD The Wofld's Peoples disposition, natural kindness, and extreme friendliness towards strangers. Such traits more than outweigh a certain listlessness and apathy which hurts nobody but them- selves, and a little vanity or arro- gance inspired by the still remem- bered glories of a nation that once ruled over a great part of the penin- sula. But per- haps the most remarkable trait is the almost demo- cratic indepen- denceand equality of all classes, who mingle together with perfect ease and freedom. This feature, so remarkable in Asiatics, is due partly to the ab- sence of social or racial castes, partly to the level- ling influence of Buddhism, which is of an entirely different com- plexion from that of Tibet and Siam, its true beneficent spirit having been better preserved in Burma than elsewhere. Here the priesthood is not a specially privileged or exclusive class, since everybody is or has been From " The Silken East," by peimission of the Author, Mr. V. C. Scott O'Connor FIG. 122. — A YOUNG BURMESE LADY Mongolic Division a priest for some period of his life. All enter the monasteries, which are the national schools, not only for instruction but actually as members of the sacerdotal order. They submit to the tonsure, take "minor orders," so to say, and wear the yellow robe, if only for a few months or weeks. But for the time being they must renounce " the world, the flesh, and the devil," and must play the mendicant, that is, make the round of the village at least once or twice with the begging-bowl hung round their neck in company with the regular members of the community. These have no spiritual powers whatever, and all they do for the alms lavished on them by the laity is to instruct their children in reading, writing, and the rudiments of religion (J. G. Scott). It is a pleasant social picture in which the women also have their full share. Nowhere else do they enjoy a larger measure of freedom, with the result that they are far more virtuous, thrifty, and intelligent than any other Asiatic women. In all the markets young girls may be seen squatted behind stalls laden with all kinds of wares, the price of every article being known to them ; and such is their probity that buyers never expect to be cheated. Most of the retail trade is in their hands, and "they may be said to be men's companions and not their slaves " (Bishop Bigandet). In Burma tattooing has become a fine art unsurpassed even in Japan or Polynesia. The most elaborate designs are executed only on the men, who are covered from waist to knees with heraldic figures of animals and intervening traceries, so that at a little distance the effect is that of a pair of dark- Photo by Wa4ls & Skeeii KIG. 123. — A TSAWKOO C.1RI., INUO-CHINA 202 The World*s Peoples blue breeches. The pigments are lamp-black or vermilion, and the pattern is first traced with a fine hair pencil and then worked in with a pointed brass style. The Tai Nation : Shans and Laos Between the Burmese in the extreme west and the Anamese in the extreme east the whole land is occupied by one of the most numerous and widespread peoples of Asia, the Tai or TWiai (" Free," I'liolo by I'rof. James McCaiiliy FIG. 124. — PUEN LAO GROUP, LUANG-PRABANG DISTRICT Dominant on the Middle JMekhong', but now subject to France " Noble "), as they call themselves, the Shans and Laos, as they are respectively called by the Burmese and Siamese. They are the Fai of the Chinese, and Prince Henry of Orleans tells us that Pai groups are met all along the route followed by him between Indo-China and China. But their primitive domain extended far into China itself, and some hold that they constitute a chief element in the present Chinese race, which as it spread southward amalgamated with the Tai aborigines, and thus became prot'oundly modified both in type and speech, the modern Chinese language containing over 30 per cent, of Tai ingredients. This process Mongolic Division 203 of fusion has been going on for ages, not only with the southern Chinese but also with the Caucasic aborigines who had reached South-east Asia in the Stone era, and are still found scattered in small groups all over the uplands between Tibet and Cochin-China. Hence the Tai are generally of finer physique than either the kindred Siamese and ^Malays in the south or the more remotely allied Chinese in the north. The colour is much lighter, the features more regular, the expression more intelligent, and the Burmese Shans especially have " a nobler head than the Chinese ; the dark eyes are about horizontal, the nose is straight, the whole appearance approaches that of the Caucasic race " (Dr. Kreitner). The Siamese Owing to their singular lack of political cohesion, none of the numerous Tai groups ever succeeded in founding a powerful state, except the Siamese branch, which forms the bulk of the population in the more favoured Menam basin. Here they appear to have been preceded by the Caucasic Cambojans, from whom, and not directly from India, they received their Hindu culture. Mingling fact with fiction, the Siamese records refer to the miraculous birth of the national hero, Phra-Ruang, who threw off the Cambojan yoke, and declared the " Sayamas " (our Siamese) henceforth " Thai,"' or " Freemen," although domestic slavery has from time immemorial been a social institution amongst them. Ayuthia, north of the present capital Bangkok, and now in ruins, was for a long time the great centre of national life, when the empire acquired its greatest expansion, and comprised the whole of Camboja, Pegu, Tenasserim, the Malay Peninsula, and even extended its conquests across the narrow inland waters to the island of Java. A part of the Malay Peninsula is still held by Siam, although she herself has been almost dismembered and since 1S96 hemmed in, propped up, as it were, between Great Britain on the west and France on the east side. Slavery or serfdom was not restricted, as mostly elsewhere, to a particular class, but extended to all the king's subjects, so that the sense of personal dignity was lost, and any one from the highest to the lowest citizen might at any moment lapse into bondage. Like most Mongoloid peoples they are incurable gamblers, and before the recent reforms a freeman of any rank 204 The Wofld^s Peoples might stake all his effects, his wives, children, and self, on the hazard of the die. Even Buddhism, introduced about 638 a.d., offered no relief, as in Burma, but on the contrary, with its rigid precepts and senseless formularies, served only to tighten the bonds of body and soul. So numerous, absurd, and exacting are the monastic rules that but for the aid of the novices and temple servants the monks would find existence impossible. They must not dig or delve, plant or sow ; boil rice, as it would kill the germ — eat corn for the same reason ; climb trees, lest a branch get broken ; kindle a flame, as it consumes the fuel — put it out, as that also would extinguish life ; forge iron, as sparks would fly out and perish ; breed pigs or poultry ; wear red, black, green, or white garments; mourn for the dead ; in a word, neither do nor not do anything, and then despair of attaining Nirvana. But beneath it all spirit or devil-worship is still rife, and in many districts pure animism is the only religion. Even temples have been raised to the countless gods of land and water, woods, mountains, hamlets and house- holds. To these gods or fiends are credited all evils, and, to prevent them from getting into the " bodies " of the dead, these are brought out, not through door or window, but through a breach in the wall which is afterwards carefully built up. Incredible sums are impartially lavished both in offerings to these agencies and in support of the Buddhist establishments. The public, however, get some return for their money in the endless round of feasts By permission of the Professor of Anthropology , Natural History Museum, Paris FIG. 125. — A SIAMESE MAN Mongolic Division 205 and revels to which the expenditure gives rise, and of which the shrines and convents are the chief centre. Such is rehgious hfe in Siam. The Anamese In Anam and Tongkin we seem to breathe another, though scarcely a better atmosphere. Here Chinese have replaced Hindu in- fluences, with the result that from the dry moral precepts of Confucius the educated classes have acquired a scoffing, sceptical spirit unhampered by theological dog- mas, and combined with a lofty moral tone not always in harmony with daily conduct. But this undisguised materi- alism has not pene- trated to the masses, for whom the family is still the true base of the religious and social system, the head of the house- hold being not only the high priest of the ancestral cult, but also a kind of patriarch exercising almost absolute control over his children. Besides this ancestor-worship and the Confu- cian teachings, a national form of Buddhism is prevalent, and, as in China, some even profess all three of these so-called " religions." But the people still cling to their old belief in spirits, and especially the supernatural powers of the professional magicians, really Shamanists under another name. While the Buddhist temples are neglected, and the bo7izes (priests) despised, offerings are every- By permission of the Professor of Ant'iropology, Natural History Museum, Paris FIG. 126. — ANAMESR WO.MAN Plain inanimate features 2o6 The "W"orId*s Peoples where made to the genii of agriculture, of the waters, the tiger, the dolphin, peace, war, sickness, whose rude effigies in the form of dragons or other fabulous monsters are set up in the pagodas. Yet in this unpromising field the French missionaries have made some progress, and in 1900 the converts were estimated at about one million. The Tongkinese, Anamese, and Cochin-Chinese, three closely connected branches of one race, are of a somewhat coarse Mongoloid type, characterised by a high broad forehead, salient cheek-bones, small crushed nose, rather thick lips, black straight hair, scant beard, round head (index 83° to 84°), coppery colour, mean height, hard fiat features and ungainly figures corresponding to a harsh, unsympathetic temperament. Few observers have a good word to say for the mental or moral qualities of the Anamese, who are generally described as arrogant, deceitful, and dead to all the finer feelings of human nature, so that after years of absence the nearest relatives will meet without any outward show of pleasure or affection. Mr. J. G. Scott completes the picture with the remark that " the fewer Anamese there are, the less taint there is on the human race." But all peoples have some good qualities, and the Anamese are noted for an intense love of personal freedom strangely contrasting with the slavish spirit of the Siamese. The feeling extends to all classes, so that servitude is held in abhorrent, and, as in Burma, a democratic sense of equality permeates the social system. A marked physical trait is the way the great toe is opposed to the others, as noticed ages ago by the Chinese, who from this formation call them Giao-shi, or " Cross-toes." The Chinese To China the Anamese owe almost everything, their arts and industries, their letters, philosophies, general culture, and even a considerable part of the population. Hence the transition is easy from this "attenuated China," as it has been called, to the real China, the Middle Kingdom — that is, the centre of the universe — whose teeming multitudes look upon themselves as the flower of humanity, and stigmatise the Caucasic Europeans as " Western Barbarians." The term China, probably from the native word Jin (Men), is of some antiquity, already occurring in the early Hindu writings, whence it passed westwards in the modified forms Sincp, n 7: 2o8 The World's Peoples ThtncB, there being no ch or / in Greek or Latin. On the origin of the race there are two views, some holding that they are the direct descendants of the aborigines who during the Stone Ages entered the Hoang-ho valley from Tibet, and there developed their peculiar culture independently of foreign influences, others that they are comparatively late intruders from Mesopo- tamia. This ( ' ,;. view assumes that they did not arrive as rude aborigines, but already as a civi- lised people with a considerable knowledge of letters, science, and the arts, all of which they acquired from the cultured Ak- kado-Surq^erian inhabitants of Babylonia. Cer- tain analogies and even iden- tities are pointed out between the two cultures, and even between the two lan- guages, sufficient to establish a common origin of both, Meso- potamia being the fountain-head whence the stream flowed to North China by channels not yet clearly defined. The theory is plausible, but still a long way from being established. But if not of Babylonian origin, Chinese culture is still the oldest in the world, having persisted with little change for about four thousand five hundred years, whereas all other early civilisations have perished. This persistence, however, is not due to any general spirit of Photo by Mr. j. Madsen, Copenhagen FIG. 128. — A CHINAMAN AND HIS FAMILY Mongolic Division 209 national sentiment, which does not exist, nor to any community of speech, since many of the provincial dialects differ profoundly from each other, but mainly to a prodigious power of inertia, which has hitherto resisted all attempts at change either by pressure from without or by spontaneous impulse from within. But it may be inferred from the Japanese wars, the development of railway enter- Photo bv .li/. FIG. 129. — CHINESE WOMEN Notice the small feet prise, the reform movements both political and social, that the leaden masses have at last begun to throw off their lethargy and to move with the times. Meantime the Chinese still remain what they always have been, a frugal, peace-loving, hard-working people occupied almost ex- clusively with tillage, trade, and a few industries, such as weaving, dyeing, porcelain (" china ") and metal work, all of which they have 14 2 lb Ttie World^s Peoples brought to extraordinary perfection. A knowledge of letters is also widely diffused and dates from remote times, although the hiero- glyphic writing system still remains at the cumbrous ideographic stage, in which each character is a symbol, representing, not sounds like our letters, but ideas like our ciphers. Yet the system has the advantage of enabling those speaking mutually unintelligible idioms to converse together, using the pencil instead of the tongue, just as Photo by Mr. E. Delmar Morgan FIG. 130. -DUNCANS, KASHGARIA AND ZUNGARIA Are Moslem Chinese half-breeds our numerals i, 2, 3 can be read by all Europeans, each pro- nouncing them in his own way. Although next to the Koreans perhaps the least religious people in the world, the Chinese possess no less than three "State Churches," as they might be called : ju-kiao or Confucianism ; tao- kiao, or Taoism, dix\d fo-kiao, or Buddhism, besides the old ancestor- worship and universal belief in invisible agencies of all kinds. Confucianism is not a religion, but a frigid ethical code based on Mongolic Division 211 the moral and matter-of-fact precepts of Kiin^:;-fii-tsc, " The Eminent Teacher," a social reformer who taught that conduct should be regulated not by rewards and penalties hereafter, but by well or ill- being in this life. Hence his system is summed up in the ex- pression " worldly wnsdom," as embodied in such popular sayings as : Don't do what you would not have known ; plates and dishes may get broken in the washing (not too much zeal) ; thatch your Photo by Mr. E. Delmar Morgan FIG. 131. — DUNCANS OF KULJA IN ZUNGARIA roof before the rain ; dig the well before you thirst ; the gamblers' luck is his ruin ; money cloaks many faults ; win your suit, lose your money. Taoism, a sort of pantheistic mysticism called by its founder Lao-tse (600 b.c.) the Tao, or " Way of Salvation," was embodied in the formula — "Matter and the visible world are merely manifesta- tions of a sublime, eternal, incomprehensible principle." Later it degenerated to a mere system of magic, associated with the never- 212 The Wofld^s Peoples dying primeval superstitions, and practised by an organised brothef- hood of astrologers, Shamanists, somnambulists, " mediums," "thought-readers," charlatans, and impostors of all sorts. Buddhism also has completely conformed to the national spirit, and is now a curious blend of Hindu metaphysics with the primitive Chinese belief in spirits and a deified ancestry. Thus the old animism is still manifest in a multitude of superstitious practices, which aim at beguiling the bad and securing the favour of the good spirits. Everything depends on maintaining a perfect balance between the two principles represented by the " White Tiger " and the " Azure Dragon," who guard the approaches of every dwelling and whose opposing influences have to be nicely adjusted by the well-paid professors of the magic arts. In social life appearance, outward show, " face," as it is called, is everything, and the essential point the observance of the "eleventh commandment." The question is never of facts but always of form, and Mr. A. H. Smith, who has best treated this subject^ adds that the most telling qualities of the Chinese in their competition with other races are " a matchless patience and forbearance under wrongs and evils beyond cure, a happy temperament, no nerves, and a digestion like that of an ostrich." Although an extremely courteous people among them- selves, an unpleasant trait is their attitude of aggressive superiority displayed towards strangers. " After the courteous, kindly Japanese, the Chinese seem indifferent, rough, and disagreeable, except the well-to-do merchants, who are bland, complacent, and courteous. Their rude stare, and the way they hustle you in the streets and shout their 'pidjun ' English at you is not attractive" (Mrs. Bishop). The Oceanic or Malayan Mongols In their Oceanic domain the Mongol peoples collectively called Malayans range from Madagascar through Malaysia to Formosa, but are found in compact masses chiefly in the Malay Peninsula, in Sumatra, Java, Borneo, Celebes, Bali, Lombok, Billiton, Bangka, Nias, the Spice Islands, and the Philippines. Even here they have mingled in many places with other races, such as the Negritos in the Malay Peninsula and the Philippines, Papuans in Flores and the other islands east of Lombok, Caucasic Indonesians in most parts of Malaysia, and African Negroes or Bantus in Madagascar. Hence full-blood Mongolic Malayans are not numerous, except Mongolic Division 213 perhaps in the densely peopled island of Java, and the term " Malay " is itself a misnomer. It belongs originally and properly to a small tribe who rose to power about one thousand years ago in the Menangkabau district of Sumatra, and rapidly spread thence all over the Eastern Archipelago. Here these Orang-Maldyu ("Malay men"), as they call themselves, have ac- quired 'a 'surprising pre- dominance socially if not politically since their con- version to Islam under the renowned Sultan Mahmud Shah (about 1250), and their language, a member of the great Malayo-Polyne- sian (Oceanic) family, has long been the chief medium of intercourse throughout Malaysia. The Cultured Malayans All the other mixed Ma- layan (properly Mongoloid) peoples, who never call themselves Malays, form socially two very distinct classes — the Orang-Bemia (" Men of the Soil "), rude, uncivilised aborigines numerous in the interior of nearly all the large islands ; and the cultured natives, formerly Hindus (Brahmans and Buddhists), but since the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries nomi- nal Christians or Mohammedans except in Bali and Lombok, where Hinduism still persists. These have long been constituted in large communities and nationalities, with historical records, a rich written literature over a thousand years old, and many flourishing arts and industries. They speak cultivated Malayo- Polynesian languages which were early reduced to wriiicn form by From Dr. Meyer's "Album " FIG. 132. — WOMAN OF CELEBES Moslem Malayan 214 The World*s Peoples the Hindu missionaries, and are much better preserved than the simplified modern speech of the Orang-Malayu. Such are the Sundanese, Madurese, and Javanese proper of Java ; the Achinese, Rejangs, and Passumahs of Sumatra; the Bugis, Mangkassaras, and Minahasans of Celebes ; the Tagalas, Bisayas, and many others of the Philippines, and the Hovas of Madagascar. To call any of these " Malays " would be like calling the Dutch, Prussians, and Saxons " English," because of their common Teutonic descent. The Javanese Amongst the cultured peoples the first place must be awarded to the Javanese, who were a highly civilised people while many of the Sumatrans were still savages, perhaps head-hunters and cannibals, like the neigh- bouring Battas and Bornean Dyaks. Although now al- most exclusively Moham- medans they had already adopted some form of Hin- duism over two thousand years ago, and under the guidance of their Indian teachers had raised monu- ments, such as the pro- digious temple of Boro- Budor, which are still the wonder and the admiration of the world. The arts of peace and war were brought to great perfection, and the natives of Java became famous throughout the East as accomplished musicians and workers in gold, iron, and copper. Most curious are the survivals of the primitive beliefs from stone and tree worship through Hinduism to the present Moslem veneer. The mosques may be still frequented, but in times of trouble Allah is forgotten and resort From Dr. A. B. Meyer's " Album " FIG. 133. — WOMAN OF CELEBES Mongolic Division 215 had to the ancient shrines and offerings made to the old Hindu deities, or to the sacred fig-trees beneath whose shade the natives often gather to worship the old earth-gods. Respect is also paid to the turtle-doves and to the monkeys that have their homes in the spreading branches of these trees, and even to certain strangely shaped rocks, carrying the mind back to the stone-cult of primeval times. When the Hindu gods were expelled from Java by the Moslem in- , vaders, they took | refuge in Bali, where they had to contend with the local de- mons, who fiercely resented the intru- sion. Then new thrones had to be erected for the refu- gees; but there being no mountains at that time in Bali, the four nearest hills in Java were brought over and set down in the four quarters and assigned to the different gods ac- cording to their pm,,, M'oW .mi,, E,l,uoi^ual ^!usn.>„, Rotladam respective ranks. i.ig, 134.— jAVANiisii woman The Borneans Neither Islam nor Hinduism ever made much progress in Borneo, so that most of the Dyaks and other aborigines are still in the wild state, addicted to head-hunting, cannibalism, and human sacrifices often attended with shocking barbarities. The object was to send messages to their dead relatives, and for this purpose the victim was tied up to p, tree, and after some preliminary singing 2l6 The 'Wofld*s Peoples and dancing one after another would stick a spear an inch or so into his body, each sending a message to his deceased friend as he did so. The Borneans are saturated with superstitions; every pool, every tree, every rock is the home of some demon, and all mysterious noises in the forest are ghostly whisperings. But head- hunting is the most indispensable of all social and religious ob- servances. No girl will look at a wooer before he has laid a head or two at her feet ; no house is blest which is not sanc- tified with a row of skulls ; and nobody need hope for bUss hereafter unless he or some friend has added to the collection. In the native cosmogony there was no- thing at first but sky and water, when a huge rock fell from above, and got covered with soil on which grew a great tree, and this was fol- lowed by a coiling vine which twined round the tree. The result of the union were a man and a woman, parents of all the natives, and also of Tokong, father of head- hunting. The after-world is underground and, like the Greek Hades, has its Charon and its Styx, a deep wide ditch swarming with worms and crossed by a big tree-stem, which is guarded by the great demon Maligang. By him all comers are challenged, and if they have no record of bravery, no store of captured heads, the tree is shaken until they fall into the ditch, to be tormented for ever by the worm that dieth not. Photo by Mr. Henry D. Ridley FIG. 135. — ^JAVANESE BOY (MALAYAN) The Battas and Nias Islanders Perhaps the acme of cruelty is reached by the Sumatran Battas, who open hostilities by burying a little boy up to \m neck in the Mongolic Division 217 ground as an offering to their war-god. After stuffing him with a mixture of ginger, red pepper, and salt until he is nearly raving mad with thirst, they induce him by the offer of a litde water to promise to plead the tribal cause in the next world, and then instead of water pour molten lead down his throat. These Battas are pagan cannibals, who have developed the doctrine of soul to its utmost limits. Their tendi is a second ego, a sort of double, which may leave and return to the body in life, and at death PAoto &>• J/r. C. B. K FIG. 136. — BATTAS OF LAKE TOBA, SUMATRA Are pagans and cannibals of low Malaj-an type becomes a begii (spirit or shade) on earth, or a dibatta (god) in the aerial spaces. There may be as many as seven such tendis, one of which after death is resolved into breath, or becomes wind returning to the universal soul of the world. Not only man, but animals and even plants have their tendis, and the rice tendi is a goddess who plays a great part in the creation myth. She is the maker of man, the creative and sustaining power of the universe, the All-life, the gracious mother of nature, these sublime cosmic notions being no doubt due to early Hindu teachings. The neighbouring Nias Islanders are both idol- and devil- 2i8 The World's Peoples worshippers. But having no idea of a pure bodiless spirit, they make numerous stone and wooden statuettes as tutelar deities, or else guardians against sickness or other troubles. The chief god, Luhii-langi, dwells in the air, and is conceived as a tree blowing about and shedding fruits which become either spirits or men, according as they fall in space or on the ground. In fact he is the origin of everything, and from him comes nothing but good. But there are countless demons, authors of all woes, and in case of illness the wizard is sent for to " smell out " the particular spook who has caused the trouble. If he cannot be got rid of with the offering of a fowl, stronger measures are taken, and all doors are closed except one, through which he is expelled by cutting and slashing in all directions and making a tremendous uproar with much shouting, tam-tamming, and beating of pots and cans. South of Nias follow the Mentawey Islands, whose inhabitants are also plagued with demons ; and some of them have a curious notion that after death they go to a neighbouring islet called " Devil Island," because here all the souls become devils. Hence after the burial everybody makes off in great haste, fearing the return of the new- made demon. There are no religious rites beyond the inspection of birds' entrails to forecast the future, but much dancing ac- companies all festive gatherings, which appear to have a sacred character, since they wind up if possible with a human sacrifice, the victim being obtained by raiding a neighbouring island. Earth- quakes, the tides, eclipses, and other natural phenomena are due to sinister influences ; even the rainbow is a net cast out to ensnare mortals, and comets are ordinary stars with long tails to which devils cling, careering through space to strew the world with woes. The Malays Proper In the Malay Peninsula, where Hinduism never gained a footing, Islam is directly imposed on the old heathendom, which still often comes to the surface. Educated Malays themselves say that the people are the slaves of many strange customs and superstitions utterly opposed to Mohammedan teaching, and savouring strongly of devil-worship. Buffaloes are still slain near the mosques with much ceremony on religious occasions, and at the births, circum- cisions, marriages, and head shaving of the better classes. But the most striking survival from pagan times is the universal belief in Mongolic Division 219 the were-wolf superstition, which here of course becomes the were- tiger (see p. 93). In Borneo there are wooden idols of tigers with indwelHng souls, real fetishes. But in Malacca the tiger himself is worshipped, and the belief that men assume his form at night is inextinguishable. Here we are still in the Middle Ages. " Magic and evil spirits, witchcraft and sorcery, spells and love-potions, charms and incantations are as much a matter of everyday life as are the miracle of growing rice and the mysteries of the repro- duction of species. The existence of the Malayan Loup Garou to the native mind is a fact and not a mere belief The Malay knoivs that it is true " (H. Clifford). One of the ways by which the Malay gets magic is to meet the ghost of a murdered man, for which a mystic ceremony has to be performed at his grave on a Tuesday at full moon. Then the person needing help conjures the departed spirit and states his case, and after a time an old man appears, to whom the request is repeated and is supposed to be ultimately granted. Physically the Malays proper may be described as of a modified Mongol type, softened by their oceanic environment, rather brown than yellow, with round head (index 78° to 85°), slightly projecting jaws and cheek-bones, rather small nose, often quite straight, with widish nostrils ; eyes black, straight or slightly oblique, with the Mongol fold, thickish and slightly protruding lips, rather small, slender, and delicate extremities, figure shapely, wiry, and under- sized (5 ft. to 5 ft. 4 or 5 in.). The temperament is very marked, being normally quiet, reserved, and taciturn, but under excitement subject to sudden fits of blind fury {amok) ; fairly intelligent, polite, and ceremonious, but uncertain, untrustworthy, and even treacherous ; daring, enterprising, and reckless ; musical ; callous and indifferent to physical pain in others. (For Malayo-Papuan mental contrasts, see p. 36.) The Malay is passionately fond of opium-smoking and a reckless gambler, betting over cock-fighting, the national pastime, and, as in Siam, often staking his personal freedom on the issue. But he is extremely frugal and most temperate, so that in Malaya the eating-house takes the place of our public-houses and is the chief place of resort. Here the modest bill of fare includes little more than dry rice, capsicums, bits and- scraps of meat and fish, cooked vegetables, and sweetmeats handed round with a cup of hot water. When they run amok and freely use the murderous kris, a short curved knife or dagger, they may 220 The World*s Peoples seem " the worse for drink," but are not so, being simply carried away by an unaccountable frenzied impulse. The Philippine Natives In the Philippine Archipelago, which passed from Spain to the United States in 1898, the Negrito aborigines (p. 67) have been nearly replaced by later Ma- I ^,__™.^._ _.^. ..„^.-.,^, ..„ layan intruders. Except in Mindanao, which is still mainly Moslem or heathen, the bulk of the settled populations — Tagalas, Bisayas, and many others — have long been nomi- nal Roman Catholics, who before the arrival of the Americans were administered more by the priests and regu- lars (Augustinians, Domini- cans, Jesuits) than by the civil ofificials. One result has been such a transformation of the subtle Malay character that those who know them best have described their tempera- ment as unfathomable. From the irksome Christian obser- vances they sought relief either by turning the many feast-days of the calendar into occasions of revelry and dissipation, or by secretly cherishing the old pagan beliefs. The native, wrote one of the padres, is an in- comprehensible phenomenon, the guiding motives of whose con- duct have never yet been and perhaps never will be discovered. He will serve a master faithfully for years, and then join a brigand band to murder the family and plunder the house. No kind of sympathy existed between the natives and their rulers, and the very children were taught to look on the whites as demons. The natives were officially classed as Jftdios, Infieles, and Moros, an Photo by Mr. Diamond, by permission of Mr. William Allen Reed FIG. 137. — NEGRITO OF PHILIPPINE ISLANDS Mongolia Division 221 ecclesiastical rather than a racial grouping. The Indios comprised the more or less cultured Christian populations of all the towns and settled rural districts, speaking several distinct Malayo-Polynesian languages, and numbering about 5,500,000. By Infieles were understood all the aborigines who were neither Christians nor Moros, that is, pagans generally in the wild state, and variously described as " savage," " degraded," "warlike," " ferocious," " blood- thirsty," "treacherous," or else "wild but timid," "peaceful," "docile and harmless," some Oraiig Benue (Malayan aborigines), some Caucasic Indo- nesians, some very much mixed, and col- lectively estimated at 250,000. Under Moros (" Moors ") are com- prised all the Moham- medans of Mindanao, Palawan, and the Sulu Archipelago, some still independent and little removed from the savage state, numbering altogether perhaps 500,000. Some of the Sulu Islanders get bap- tized now and then, but still keep their harems, and when asked how many gods are there, reply/?///-, meaning the Christian Trinity and Allah. Formerly fierce rovers and corsairs, the Sulu people are now kept in order by the American authorities, with whom the Sultan has made a treaty of peace. In Mindanao the Moslem contacts are not with Christianity, but with the old pagan beliefs, and here the genealogies of the Moro dynastic families are interwoven with curious legendary matter. One orthodox Sultan claims descent from unions with houris sent down from heaven, and another from a native princess found Photo by Mr. Martin, by pc-rmissioit of Professor Alherl Ernest jenks, Chief of the Ethtwlogical Survey, Manila FIG. 138.— A FILIPINO Malayan stock 222 The WofId*s Peoples inside a bamboo stalk. Some bamboos were being cut down to build a fish corral, and when the last was felled, out stepped a little girl whose finger was wounded by the axe which had cut through the stem. From her is sprung the present Bwayan dynasty. These Moros also believe in the Balbal vampire, a huge night bird, who is really a human being who is thus transformed at night and devours dead people, but does not prey on the living like . . the European vampires. But ,_-™.,™_, „ ^^ detested is the monster that in the local code any one calling another balbal is heavily fined (N. M. Saleeby, Moro History, etc., Manila, 1905). The Formosans In Formosa the relations are again changed, and here, besides numerous Chinese settlers on the west side, the central and eastern uplands are occupied by Indonesian and Malayan aborigines classed in three social divisions : i. The PepohwanSj called " Bar- barians," although quite as civilised as their Chinese neighbours. They are a fine race, very tall and " fetishists," though the mysterious rites are left to the women. 2. The Sekhwans (" Tame Savages "), Photo by Mr. Diamond, by permission of Mr. William Allen Reed FIG. 139. — NEGRITO OF THE PHILIPPINE ISLANDS The same in profile as Fig. 137 also half-civilised agriculturists, but physically distinct from all the other natives, with remarkably long and prominent teeth, large mouth, thick lips, and light colour. Amongst them were found some old (Dutch ?) books and other curious documents, which perhaps suggested to the impostor George Psalmanazar his spurious " Formosan Grammar." 3. The Chinhwans (" Green Barbarians "), utter savages, who resemble the Japanese so closely that when dressed like them one cannot be distinguished from the other. Mongolic Division 223 The vendetta is rife amongst the ruder tribes, some of whom are suspected of cannibah'sm, while others are predatory head-hunters. Such is the traditional hatred of their former Chinese rulers that no one can either be tatooed or allowed to wear a bracelet until he has carried off a Celestial head or two. In all the houses these heads are mounted on frames or brackets, and some of the warriors can point to over seventy of such trophies. With their new Japan- ese rulers (since 1895) they have sworn friendship, regarding them as their " brothers and sisters." The oath of eternal alliance 11;. 140. — nOVA SCHOOLBOYS, >rADAGASCAR The cultured Hovas are all Christians is taken by digging a hole in the ground, putting a stone in it, throwing earth at each other, and then covering the stone with the earth, which means that "as long as the stone in the ground keeps sound, so long shall we keep our word unbroken." The Malagasy In Madagascar the relations are altogether unique. Here we have a great mass of Negro or Bantu peoples leavened in varying proportions by a Malayan element, and all without exception speaking closely related dialects of a common Malayo-Polynesian language. How this came about, how the immigrants from 224 The World^s Peoples the adjacent mainland should have completely forgotten their expressive Bantu tongues, and adopted the speech of a few intruders from across the Indian Ocean, it is no longer possible to say, but the fact is unquestioned and firmly established by all competent ob- servers. The Hovas of the north central districts are the do- minant people, and also show the largest infusion of Malay blood ; in fact are inclined to resent the suggestion that there is a black strain at all in their compo- sition. But it reveals itself both in their dark colour, tall stature, suspiciously frizzly hair, which should be quite straight, and round head (85°), which should be long. Their claim, how- ever, to be regarded as a civilised people professing the Pro- testant religion can- not be contested. The Hovas live in large towns con- structed on the European model or else in well-appointed farmsteads, where they till the land with much skill, and have also made considerable progress in the industrial arts. All are educated, and the majority can read both their own and the English language, and the An- tananarivo Annual, an excellent English periodical, is entirely set up and printed by native craftsmen (Fig. 140). FIG. 141.— SAKALAVA \\ARRIORS, MADAGASCAR Dominant along the West Coast Mongolic Division 225 Of the other Malagasy peoples a few are also Christians, but the great bulk are still pagans often little removed from the savage state. In fact the Ibaras and others are described as "Africans pure and simple " in everything except their speech, large-boned and muscular, very tall (average 6 ft.), with flat nose, thick lips, and hair invariably crisp or woolly. They have a rich oral literature, comprising legends, fables, songs, riddles, and a great mass of folklore often showing close analogies with the European, so much so that one might be called a variant of our " Beauty and the Beast." In their religious notions they reflect both Malay and African contacts. From Malaysia was probably introduced the belief in a Supreme Being worshipped in association with the Gods of the Four Winds. In Robert Drury's time (eighteenth century) these deities were invoked in all solemn oaths, thus : "'I swear by the great God above, by the Four Gods of the Four Quarters, by the spirits of my forefathers, etc' At their meals they took a bit of meat and threw it over their heads, saying, * There's a bit for the Spirit ' ; then they cut four more little bits, and threw to the Lords of the Four Quarters of the Earth " (Drury). 15 CHAPTER VII AMERICAN {AMERIND) OR RED DIVISION Nomenclature (p. 226)— Origia and Antiquity (p. 226) — Independent Evolution of Amerind Culture (p. 227) — The Common Amerind and Asiatic Mytho- logies (p. 229) — American Shamanism (p. 230) — The Amerind Pantheons : no Supreme Being (p. 231) — The Amerind's After-life (p. 233) — The Amerind Temperament (p. 235)— Cannibalism (p. 237) — The Wampum (p. 238) —Gesture Language (p. 240) — Habitations (p. 241) — Architecture (p. 244). Nomenclature WHEN Columbus reached the New World he thought he had circumnavigated the globe and thus arrived at India by a new (western) route, hence called the land " India" and the people " Indians." This is why we still speak of the " West Indies " and of the " American Indians." But ethnologists have always felt that this last was an absurd expression, and as they could not quite get rid of it, the contracted form Amerind, that is, " American-Indian," has recently (1899) been proposed as a compromise, and, owing to its convenience, has met with general favour, hence is here also adopted at least as an alternative for the really more correct " American aborigines," or "American natives." It has the further advantage of lending itself to much-needed derivatives, such as Amerindia, Amerindian, and several others, which are already in current use, and seem indispensable, especially since America and American have become almost synonymous with the United States and its citizens. Origin and Antiquity As we have seen that the Human Family is one, with one centre of dispersion (Australasia), it follows that the Amerinds are not true aborigines, but must have reached their present insular 226 American (Amerind) or Red Division 227 home (for America is an island) from some part or parts of the Eastern Hemisphere in very remote pre-glacial or inter-glacial times. Amid a great uniformity in the physical and a greater in the mental characters, there are considerable differences in the details — round and long heads, tall and short figures, red-brown or yellow colour (see p. 22) — that seem to imply at least two original elements, the partial fusion of which has resulted in the present Amerind race. Thus in Patagonia F. P. Outes has recently (1904) described several Old Stone stations and two Pleistocene types — a long-headed arriving from the north-east and a round-headed from the north-west. The routes and the races thus indicated could scarcely be any other than the palaeolithic long-heads from Europe by the since vanished land-connections between Britain, the Orkneys, Shetlands, Faroes, Iceland, and Greenland, and the neolithic round-heads from Asia by the narrow Bering Strait with its insular stepping-stones formerly more extensive than at present. The x^siatics appear to have arrived a little later, but in larger bodies, which explains the predominance of round heads and low stature along the Pacific seaboard from Alaska to Chili. But inter- minglings were inevitable, and the result is that the Amerinds as a whole are a composite race, in which the Mongolic (Asiatic) traits are scarcely more marked than the Caucasic (European). On this important point Dr. Paul Ehrenreich, speaking with special authority, remarks that the American blend is a product of the soil, a race siii ge?ieris, in any case differing no more from Europeans than from Asiatics. The most outstanding characters are threefold — the very long black hair of the horsetail type, universal and due to the Mongol connection ; the large, straight, and even aquiline nose, also very general and due to the Caucasic connection ; and the so-called polysynthetic order of speech (see p. 23) locally evolved from germs everywhere common to early man in Pleistocene times. Independent Evolution of Amerind Culture If therefore the Amerind race has been developed from these rude beginnings in their present home, it would seem necessarily to follow that their arts and industries and general culture were also developed in the same region independently of all extraneous influences. Yet since the time of A. von Humboldt, who here blundered, no question has been more hotly disputed than this of 228 The Wofld's Peoples the origin and sources of the native cultures. The "Asiatic School," as it has been called, traces everything to the East, from the Central American calendric systems to the Mexican pyramids, from the northern Sha- manism to the Peruvian Sun- worship, from Plato's Atlantis to the ten tribes of Israel, "I am fully con- vinced," wrote Humboldt, " that the art of time- reckoning, the cosmogo- nies, and many native myths present striking analogies with the notions pre- valent in East Asia." This was the starting- point, and on the authority of the great naturalist a theory of Eastern origins has been built up which crum- bles to dust at the touch of sober criticism. Thus there is no resemblance at all between the American and Mongol or Tibetan calendars, or between the Egyptian and Mexican pyramids, which are not pyramids at all in the Egyptian sense. The legend of the fabulous land of Fusang visited by Chinese Buddhists is exploded, and a few Chinese or Japanese Photo per Dr. R. W. Shufeldi, New York FIG. 142. — SIOUAN SQUAW The hard masculine look is characteristic American (Amerind) or Red Division 229 junks stranded at long intervals on the western seaboard could have obviously had no kind of influence on the already civilised peoples of the interior. The junks are important in another way, for they bring out the fact that the natives had no ships, boats, outriggers, or any other sailing craft, at all comparable to those of the East, and without them how did they cross the oceans in their crazy rafts, dug-outs, and birch-bark canoes, and reach the New World in historic times, as is the supposition ? In America there were no Old World domestic animals such as sheep, goats, poultry, pigs, cattle, or horses ; no cereals such as wheat, barley, rice, or oats, nothing but maize ; no silk, tea, coffee, iron, not even a lamp except that borrowed by the Eskimo from the Norsemen, or any other Eastern cultural appliances whatever. Did the civilised Asiatic immigrants leave all these indispensable commodities behind them, and start fresh as from the Stone Ages ? Such a voluntary relapse into savagery is unthinkable ; but even so the racial types must have persisted, and one asks, where in America are these early or late Phoenician, Egyptian, Malay, Chinese or other civilised and specialised Asiatic settlers? Where, too, the linguistic affinities, the loan words (not one has been found), the Egyptian or Chinese hieroglyphs, the Babylonian cuneiforms, the Phoenician alphabet, or other Oriental scripts ? Not one tangible link has ever come to light to connect the cultures of the Old and New Worlds. May we not safely conclude with the late J. W. Powell, an honour to American science, that "there is no evidence that any one of the arts of the American Indians was borrowed from the Orient " ; that "stone implements and many other things are found in the latest Pleistocene deposits of valleys and plains everywhere throughout America " ; " that the industrial arts of America were born in America, America was inhabited by tribes at the time of the beginning of the industrial arts. They left the Old World before they had learned to make knives, spear and arrowheads, or at least when they knew the art only in its crudest state. Thus primitive man has been here ever since the invention of the stone knife and the stone hammer." The Common Amerind and Asiatic Mythologies But when Powell adds that the Amerind did not derive his mythological notions from the Old World but developed them in 230 The "World's Peoples the New, the statement can be accepted to its fullest extent only by shifting the ethnological parting line with Franz Boas so as to take in the section of North-east Asia " extending from the lower part of the Kolyma river to Gishiga bay." From the Chukchis, Koryaks and other aborigines of this region Mr. Bogoras of the Jesup expedition has collected and published over five hundred oral documents which place beyond doubt the identity of the great body of folklore and mythologies on both sides of the Bering waters. The agreement extends to the minutest details, and on the American side ranges down the coast as far as British Columbia. In the creation myth it is Kutk, the Raven, that everywhere plays the chief part. On both sides, he is creator of the world and of man ; he is the Lucifer, the light-bearer, from whom spring sun, moon, and stars ; he has made the rivers and the seas, and peopled the earth with animals. And when his work is done, he becornes the Thunder-bird, who lives in heaven wrapt in clouds. Such appears to be the real genesis of the Thunder-bird, who dominates in the lake region and about the headwaters of the Missouri and Mississippi valleys, and is also heard of as far north as Alaska. But farther east, amongst the Iroquoian and east Algonquian tribes, he becomes the beneficent Thunder-people, human in form and mind, usually four in number, and always staunch friends of mankind (J. N. B. Hewitt). American Shamanism In America the Asiatic term Shaman, although freely used by popular writers, does not occur. But the system exists, and is repre- sented by the tungaks in Alaska, and elsewhere by many other names. But compared with his Asiatic brother, the tungak is an inferior being, little more than a conjurer, or medicine-man, like those who in Africa " smell out " the witches and other evil-doers. Although sometimes regarded as mediators with the invisible world, it is difficult to say whether any of the Amerinds believe in the actual control of spirits by the conjurers. Along the north-west coast they are credited with the power of charming away life by the use of certain spells and incantations, though they may also be called upon to drive out the evil spirit which haunts the sick man. Other functions are the removal of the scalp of the slain in battle, or the carrying out of the death sentence, by bewitching or poisoning the American (Amerind) or Red Division 231 condemned person. In some districts the office appears to be inherited, and cases are reported of Shamans so thoroughly ashamed of their equivocal position as to warn their sons from accepting the discredited office. All observers assure us that they never take part in, conduct, or preside at sacrificial rites to gods or ancestors, or venture to propitiate evil spirit, whereas this, as we have seen, is one of the essential functions of the Siberian Shaman. But many are adepts at conjuring tricks, and F. Boas describes a scene in which a female performer invites the people to kill her, when " she is placed on a seat behind the fire and one of her attendants complies with her request. He will appear to drive a wedge through her head from one temple to the other. The wedge is first shown to the people, and then secretly exchanged for another which con- sists of two parts attached to a wooden band that is slipped over her head and covered with hair. Thus it seems that the butt is standing out on one side, the point having passed through her skull. At the same time bladders containing blood, which are attached to the band, are burst, and the blood is seen to flow down the face." One baneful effect of the system was the support given by its members to the delusion that sickness was always caused by invisible agencies, or by witchcraft. Their so-called medical practice was a horrible system of sorcery, and to such superstition human life was sacrificed on an enormous scale. The sufferers were given over to priest-doctors, to be tormented, bedevilled, and destroyed ; and a universal belief in witchcraft led to the killing of all suspected people, and engendered blood-feuds on a gigantic scale. In the treatment of ailments the medicine-men were left very much to their own devices ; nor were the Shamanist functions anywhere very clearly defined. On the whole the American tungak, to generalise the word, may be regarded as a sort of Asiatic Shaman in embryo, arriving, hke the mythologies, in the late Stone Age, and afterwards diverging in various directions from his Siberian prototype. The Amerind Pantheons. No Supreme Being As a rule the native pantheons are not numerous, and almost since the Discovery the question has been discussed whether any of these pantheons culminated in a Zeus, a Jove, a real Supreme Being. In the Maya codices Dr. P. Schellhas could find only about fifteen figures of gods in human form, and about half as many in animal 23: The World*s Peoples form — the Death-god, the Moon, Night, Sun, War, Snake, Water, and Storm-gods, but no chief god, and this picture is also largely applic- able to the Aztec Olympus, heightened by an extra element of terror- ism. Yet these ruthless barbarians, who had developed the most sanguinary ritual of which there is any record, are credited with the lofty concept of a King of Kings, TonacatecutH, the one true god, maker of the world, the Supreme Lord, to whom no offerings were made because he needed none. But in so de- scribing him the early in- terpreters appear to have been biassed in this as in several other matters by Christian influences, and it is more probable that Tonacatecutli was a later invention of the Aztec sceptics, the out- come of philosophic speculation. The more primitive systems cannot boast of more than five or six gods, and in 1616 the Virginian Algonquians told Captain Argoll that they had only five gods in all. " Our chief god appears often unto us in the form of a mighty great hare ; the other four have no visible shape, but are indeed the four winds which keep the four corners of the earth." Frequent reference is made to these four invisible powers, bringers of rain and sunshine, rulers of the seasons and the weather, with a fifth greater than all, who is the Manito of the early writers, and is described by the missionaries as the Creator, the Supreme Being, the true god of these " monotheistic " aborigines. But this Manito is the Devil of the New Jersey natives, and in the Delaware Walam Oluiti there are all kinds of manitos, especially an evil manito, who makes evil beings only — monsters, flies, gnats, and Photo by Dr. R'. W. Shufeldt FIG. 143.— ALGONQUIAN INDIAN American (Amerind) or Red Division 233 such like. In fact the word simply means ghost or spirit, but served to translate the God or Jehovah, and in its plural form, the gods of the Bible. Appeal is made to the IVakanda of the Dgtkotans, who is also supposed to rank as head of their pantheon. But Mr. W. J. McGee has made it clear that he is not a personality at all, much less a deity, but a vague essence or subtle force like the Polynesian Afana, which inheres in certain objects, and makes them efficacious for good or evil. Even a man, especially a Shaman, may be wakanda ; so too the fetishes, and the ceremonial objects and decorations, various animals, the horse among the prairie tribes, many natural objects and places of striking character, such as frowning cliffs, roar- ing torrents, gloomy gorges, snowy crests. In the far south the only claimant to supremacy is the Sun worshipped by the Peruvian Incas, and here it is curious to note that one of the Incas had his doubts about the divinity of the solar orb which might only be an emblem, as held by the Persian Zoro- astrians. There was, however, a mysterious being, an " Unknown God," worshipped under the name of Pachacamac, and perhaps comparable to the Aztec Tonacatecutli. Their Araucanian neigh- bours of the extreme south (Chili), most independent of mortals, scorned the control of supernatural agencies, although they had a dim notion of two principles of Good and Evil which regulated mun- dane affairs between them. But the Araucanians had developed one binding force rooted in a profound veneration for their forefathers, who after death were translated to the Milky Way, and from that vantage-ground continued to watch over the conduct of their children. And this simple belief amply sufficed to keep them in good order, and to maintain the tribal customs in full vigour. For who would dare to offend in these matters under the peering eyes of their revered forefathers? Thus were dispensed with the rewards and punishments which supply the motive of conduct in so many more developed religious systems. The Amerind's After-life But this view of the after-life was quite exceptional, and the almost universal notion was that the life beyond the grave was a purely natural continuation of the present, generally freed from its cares and troubles. Cloudland is not a supernatural abode, 234 The World*s Peoples but only a distant part of this world, which is better than the tribal territory, and in which the departed continue to live in a state of absolute material comfort and happiness, exempt from all present anxieties, and, so to. say, without a thought for the morrow. Thus the natives of British Guiana " look on the spirit-world as exactly parallel to, or more properly as a part of, the material world known to them. Spirits, like material beings, differ from each other only in their varying degrees of brute force and brute cunning, and none are distinguished by the possession of anything like divine attributes. Indians therefore regard disembodied spirits not otherwise than the beings still in the body whom they see around them " (Sir Everard im Thurn). The essential point is that men remain men in the after-world, where they continue to follow their ordinary pursuits under more pleasant conditions. Thus the Eskimo has his cayak, his harpoons, and great schools of seals and whales ; the prairie Indian his tomahawk, his bows and arrows, and countless herds of bisons, and so on. This is the original view, common to all the more primitive peoples. But with the elevation of the moral order, the distinction between right and wrong, there arises the notion of rewards and penalties, from which follows the recognition of two separate depart- ments — one for the good, who are usually left in cloudland ; the other for the wicked, who are more often consigned to the nether world, while both are at times despatched to the same shadowy region of difficult access beyond the grave. Thus the Saponi (Eastern Siouans) hold that after death both good and bad people are conducted by a strong guard into a great road, along which they journey together for some time, till the road branches into two paths, one extremely level, the other rugged and mountainous. Here they are parted by a flash of lightning, the good taking to the right, while the bad are hurried away to the left. The right-hand road leads to a delightful warm land of perennial spring, where the people are bright as stars and the women never nag. Here are deer, turkeys, elks, and bisons innumerable, always fat and gentle, while the trees yield delicious fruits all the year round. The stony left-hand path leads to a dark and wintry land covered with perpetual snow, where the trees yield nothing but icicles. Here the wicked are tormented a certain number of years, according to their several degrees of guilt, and then sent back to the world American (Amerind) or Red Division 235 to give them a chance of meriting a place next time in the happy hunting-grounds of the good people (James Mooney), Here Buddhist influences might be suspected if Buddhist preachers could have ever reached these parts. As it is, the parallelism must be regarded as a mere coincidence. The Iroquois after-world has recently been glorified by the inspired verse of Miss Pauline Johnson, herself an Iroquois (Tekehionwake), who thus sings of the departed Amerinds' Happy Hunting-grounds : Into the rose-gold Westlaiid its yellow prairies roll, World of the bison's freedom, home of the Indian's soul. Roll out, O seas, in sunlight bathed, Your plains wind-tossed, and grass-enswathed. . . . Who would his lovely faith condole? Who envies not the Redskin's soul Sailing into the cloudland, sailing into the sun. Into the crimson portals ajar when life is done ? {The White Wampum, 1906.) The Amerinds' Temperament In their mental qualities, as illustrated by their industrial arts, social institutions, and ethical standards, the Amerinds stand even wider apart from their Eurasian progenitors than is the case with their physical characters. In these respects the ruder northerners show to great advantage over the more cultured peoples of Central and South America, while the uncultured natives of these regions stand at the very lowest depths of savage life. Our general impression of the northern " Redskins " is that of a kind of human demon or wild animal, never to be trusted, unable to keep a compact, and always thirsting for blood. But this is a distorted picture, and if treated fairly they will be generally found loyal to their pledged word. The Iroquois League maintained the 'covenant chain " with the English unbroken for over a century; the Delawares never broke faith with Penn ; and for two hundred years the Hudson Bay Company have traded all over the northern part of the continent without a serious rupture with the Chippewyan, Kree, and the other rude Athabascan and Algonquian tribes. " We are blind to our own shortcomings and exaggerate those of the Amerind. In estimating their traits we do not regard them enough from their own standpoint, and without so regarding 236 The Woi:'ld*s Peoples them we cannot understand them.. His daily Kfe in the earUer days was by no means bloodthirsty, and the scalping-knife was no more the emblem of pre-Colombian society than the bayonet is of ours. In most lo- calities he achieved for all what all are with us still dream- ing to obtain — liberty and a living — and his methods of government pos- sessed admirable qualities " (Dellen- baugh). Outstanding fea- tures of the racial temperament, which are everywhere con- spicuous from Alaska to Argentina, are a grave demeanour, slow action, few words, wariness in the face of danger, and a pulse less rapid. The ideal hero of romance is grave, solemn, cau- tious, reserved, ob- servant beneath an outward show of in- difference, steeled by long inheritance and discipline to inflict or endure the most terrible of fates, death by slow and excruciating torture. "We saw four Indians," writes Mr. E. F. Knight, " come stealthily down to the bank [of the Paraguay] armed with long lances. Then, lying down among the reeds^ Photo per Dr. R. W. Shufeldt FIG. 144. — SrOUAN CHIEF In full " war paint " Ameficari (Amerind) oi* Red Division 237 they gazed silently into the water till they saw some big fish pass by, when, with wonderful skill, they speared them one after the other; then lit a fire, roasted the fish and devoured them. This done, they picked up their weapons, and crept back into the woods as noiselessly as they had come. The whole time — some three hours — not one of these men spoke a word." Cannibalism As the question of Cannibalism is often raised, it may be stated that in the north it was never very prevalent, and even in Mexico assumed a somewhat ceremonious aspect. But in South America and the West Indies it was widely practised by many of the Carib, Colombian, Amazonian, and Brazilian tribes without any such rehgious motive. Thus the Catios of the Atrato river were re- ported by the early observers to " fatten their captives for the market." Their Darien neighbours stole the women of hostile tribes, cohabited with them, and brought up the children till their fourteenth year, when they were eaten with much rejoicing, the mothers ultimately sharing the same fate. The Cocomas of the Upper Amazons ate their own dead, grinding the bones to drink in their fermented liquor, and explaining that " it was better to be inside a friend than to be swallowed up in the cold earth." The very word cannibal is a variant of caribal derived from the man-eating Caribs, and so universal was the custom in New Granada that " the living were the grave of the dead; for the husband has been seen to eat his wife, the brother his brother or sister, the son his father; captives also were roasted and eaten. But the lowest depths of the horrible were reached by the widespread East Brazilian Tapuya savages, Botocudos and others, as well as by some of the primitive Guarani tribes of Paraguay. The details, which are too repulsive to be recorded here, will be found in ^tQinraetz^s, Endokanfiibalis7nus,-p. 19. But it would seem that the practice is or was far more prevalent amongst the northern Amerinds than has been suspected, and the Slaves, the Dog-Ribs and the Hares of the Athapascan family have a specially bad reputation in this respect. John McLean mentions the case of a member of the Slave tribe, who, having first destroyed his wife, packed up her remains as so much pro- visions for his journey, helping himself regularly to part of them as he went along. The supply running short, one of the children 238 The World^s Peoples was next sacrificed, and eventually only one boy of seven or eight years remained, whom he was afterwards found devouring just as help was being brought to him. Another Slave is mentioned who had eaten twelve or thirteen persons including his own parents, one wife and the children of two. Once a native becomes a man-eater, perhaps through necessity, he acquires an unwholesome taste for his new diet, and then he is a marked man even among his tribesmen, who will often get rid of him in his sleep, or by a stray bullet or an arrow from behind. The Dog-Ribs were reputed to be originally cannibals who on any scarcity arising would at once cast lots for victims, and one of them returning from a day's hunting found his mother busy roasting the body of her own child, his younger brother (F. A. G. Morice, The Great Dene Race). The Wampum Although the Northern Amerinds possessed no writing system in the strict sense, certainly nothing comparable to the pictorial documents of the Aztecs and Mayas, nothing in fact beyond the rude " winter counts " of the Dakotas and others, nevertheless they had a means of recording events, signing treaties, and applicable to other purposes, which has the merit of being of absolutely native origin. Nothing has elsewhere been discovered at all resembling the wampum, which was originally a mere ornament, a kind of girdle or belt made of strings of shell-beads varying in number and colour, and put together horizontally in divers ways. Later different patterns and designs were worked into the layers, and the wampum thus became a valuable object which could be used as money, or as documentary evidence in tribal transactions, as, for instance, the treaty between the Uelawares and William Penn, and might jeven acquire magic virtue, as in Longfellow's character — invulnerable because "Clad from head to foot in wampum." Hiawatha, TX. Once when two hostile tribes, exhausted with a long war, met to make peace, the welcoming chief, producing a wampum, thus addressed his late opponent : " Brother, with this belt I open your ears that you may hear ; I take care and trouble from your hearts ; I extract from your feet the thorns which pierced them when you rode hither ; I cleanse American (Amerind) or Red Division 239 the seats of the assembly-hall that you may sit comfortably ; I wash your head and your bodies that you may be refreshed; I bewail with you the loss of the friends that have died since the last time we came together ; I wash away all the blood that may have been shed between us." This courteous opening, in which the delicate and dignified feelings of the Amerind are conspicuous, was followed by the usual deliberations, and the interchange of wampums that served as a perpetual memorial of the event. The various colours of the shell-beads may at first have led to their being put together as personal badges, so to say, as proofs of ownership of the belt, and as a means of identifying the wearer. Exchanges also may very likely have taken place to cement friend- ship, as here to conclude a treaty. In any case, it is certain that the wampum had acquired an extraordinary degree of importance, that from it was in those days evolved a certain kind of script, that the in-wrought patterns could, so to say, be read, although the meaning of these curious "texts" had for the most part been lost before Europeans began to study and interpret them. Lafitau reproduces a scene in which two parties to the signing of a treaty are seated each in a row on two sides of an open space. In the background between them is seen a chief, who is addressing the assembly while holding a wampum in his hand. Three others lie at his feet, and in the foreground is a fifth, much larger than the others, but less legible. Xo doubt the incidents themselves were worked in ornamentally, and when the belts were interchanged, each party carried off a documentary proof of the transaction, just as with our treaties and other agreements analogous documents are interchanged bearing the signatures of both contracting parties. Morgan tells us that amongst the Iroquois there was a " custodian of the archives,' a chief who held the hereditary oflice of wampum- keeper, and whose duty it was not only himself to preserve the meaning of each belt, but also to take care that this knowledge should be kept alive among the people. For this purpose at a fixed time of the year the belts were brought out of the "Record- office,"' and exhibited to the whole community. Then the history and the meaning of each were again read over ; and this custom is still observed. Nor was it always belts alone that carried these records. .\t times simple cords or strings of beads not wrought into wampums 240 The Wofld's Peoples were used for the purpose. Thus, when a new chief was installed he was handed ten rows of white beads as a record of the event. On the other hand, when a chief died, the people wore mourning which consisted of ten rows of black strings. But if he was only a subordinate chief, ten short rows sufficed. Gesture Language Besides articulate speech and the wampum, the Amerinds had another means of communication — gesture language, which is more or less common to all peoples, but was carried to greater perfection by the North Americans than by any other uncultured aborigines. There can be no doubt that articulate and gesture language were simultaneously evolved, since one differs from the other only in this, that the former appeals to the sense of hearing, the latter to that of vision. Primitive man, always a social being congre- gating in family and tribal groups, expressed his thought by speech and gesture, and as speech expanded with the infinite capabilities of the vocal organs, gesture fell more and more into abeyance, and now survives only amongst the lower and some of the more emotional higher races. In this respect it is interesting to notice the wide difference that exists between the Englishman, who has almost lost the art, and the Italian, especially the Neapolitan, who can perform a stage pantomime without words that will be perfectly intelligible to his audience. So also the Northern Amerind can keep up a wordless con- versation with a stranger, and make communications to people of whose language he is ignorant, without opening his mouth. Thus Dr. Hoffmann tells that in this way the Hidatsa chief " Lean Wolf" informed him that "four years ago the American people contracted friendship with us ; but they lied. Finished ! " This was expressed with six gestures, thus : 1. On the left side of his forehead he placed his closed hand with the thumb resting on the middle of the index finger, palm downward, and then raised the thumb a little way to the right above his head. That meant " White man." 2. About fifteen inches before the right side of the body he placed the naturally outspread hand, fingers and thumb a little apart and pointed to the left, and moved it at a short distance from himself. That meant "With us." American (Amerind) or Red Division 241 3. He stretched out the palm of the right hand, as if he wanted to grasp the hand of some other person. That meant " Friends." 4. The right hand, with all fingers apart save the thumb, he brought back to the front of the body, to within eighteen inches of the right shoulder. That meant " Four." 5. He shut the right hand, leaving the index and middle finger a little apart and outstretched. He placed it with the back turned outwards about eight inches before the right side of the body, and with it rapidly made a slight downward curve. That meant " Lies." 6. He brought the clenched fists together before his breast, palms down- wards, and then, separating them, brought them with an outward curve to both sides. That meant " Finished." Habitations Photo per Dr. R. W. Shufcldi, New York FIG. 145. — ALGONQUIN Still numerous in Quebec Province Amongst the Northern Amerinds there are two distinct types of dwellings, the single or family house, and the communal house. The latter, such as that of the Iroquois tribes, was 50 to 100 feet long by 16 to 18 feet wide, with frame of poles, and with sides and triangular roof covered with bark, usually of the elm. The interior was divided into compartments, and a smoke-hole left in the roof. A Mohican 16 242 The 'W"orId*s Peoples house similar in form, 60 by 14 feet, had the sides and roof made of rushes and chestnut bark, with an opening along the top of the roof from end to end. The circular communal house of the Mandans was usually about 40 feet in diameter, and sup- ported by two series of posts and crossbeams, while the wide roof and sloping sides were covered with brush or willow matting and earth, with the fireplace in the centre. The oblong round-roof houses of the Virginia and Carolina houses described by Captain John Smith appear to have been of the communal order, since it is dis- tinctly stated that some of them accommodated a number of families. To the same class probably belonged the circular dome-shaped earth lodges of Sacramento Valley and the L-form, tent-shaped, thatched lodges of the high grounds in California. But the most conspicuous examples of communal dwellings are the large, sometimes massive, many-celled clusters of stone or adobe of the Puebloans in New Mexico and Arizona. These dwellings vary in form, some of those built in prehistoric times being semicircular, others oblong enclosing a court or plaza. They were usually in terrace form, the lower having a one-storey tier of apartments, the next two storeys, and so on to the uppermost tier, which sometimes constituted a seventh storey. The outer walls of the lowest storey, sometimes 5 to 7 feet thick, were pierced only by small openings, access to the interior being gained by means of ladders and a hatchway in the roof, this hatchway serving the double purpose of entrance and flues, as chimneys were unknown in North America before the advent of Europeans. The Thlinkits, Haidas and others built substantial rectangular abodes with sides and ends formed of planks and the fronts elabo- rately carved and painted with symbolic figures. Directly in front of the house a totem pole is placed, and near by a memorial pole. These houses are sometimes 100 by 40 feet in the Vancouver and Salish (Flathead) districts, and are occupied by several families. The most primitive abodes were those of the Pai-utes and the Cocopas, consisting simply of brush shelters for summer, and for winter a framework of poles bent together at the top and covered with brush, bark, and earth. The circular wigwam, with sides of bark or mats, built over a shallow excavation in the soil, and with earth thrown against the base, appears to have been the usual form in the Ohio valley and neighbouring Mississippi districts in pre- historic and early historic times. Another form in Arkansas before American (Amerind) or Red Division 243 the discovery was a rectangular structure with two rooms in front and one in the rear ; the walls were of upright posts thickly plastered with clay on a sort of wattle. Buildings of stone or adobe were unknown except among the Puebloans. The dwellings of the Siouans, Arapahos, Comanches, Kiowas and other prairie tribes were generally portable skin tents or tipis \ but those of the Omahas, Osages and some others were very sub- stantial, the Omaha tipis being built by setting stout poles together and binding them firmly with willows, then backing them with dried grass, and covering the whole with closely packed sods. The roof, made in the same way, had an extra support of an ad- ditional circle of posts, while a circular opening in the centre served both as a flue and to give light to the interior. An important type is the Wiahita grass hut, circular, dome-shaped, with conical top. The frame was built somewhat in panels formed by ribs and crossbars covered with grass tied on shingle fashion. They varied in diameter from 40 to 50 feet. Formerly caves and rock-shelters were used in some districts, and in the Pueblo region houses were constructed in natural recesses Phoio per Dr. R. W. Shufeldi FIG. 146. — XAVAJO INDIAN MANUFACTURING BUCKSKIN A branch of the Southern Athapascans .244 The "World's Peoples or shelters in the cliffs, whence the expression cliff-dwellings. Similar refuges are still met amongst the Mexican Tarahumaras. Gavale houses with several rooms were also hewn in the sides of soft volcanic cliffs, and in parts of New Mexico and Arizona the cliff face is honeycombed with them for miles. In the Southern States mounds were often erected as foundations for council houses, for the chief's dwelling, or for other official struc- tures. The erection of houses, especially those of a per- manent character, was an important event attended with much ceremony. Thus the construction of the Navajo hogdti was done in accordance with fixed rules, as was the cutting and sewing of the tipi among the plains tribes. Although the better types of houses were symmetrical and well-proportioned, the use of the square, the plumb-line, or a unit of measure was apparently unknown. Even in the best specimens of the ancient Pueblo masonry the joints of the stonework were not " broken " (Cyrus Thomas). Architecture In Mexico, and especially in Mayaland (Yucatan), architecture in the strict sense of the term acquired a remarkable development no- where rivalled in the New World except in the Peruvian empire. In Mexico proper ruined cities are not numerous, and all the more imposing monuments, such as the pyramids of Cholula and Teoti- . huacan, are referred by the Aztecs themselves to their mysterious Photo per Dr. R. W. Shufeldt FIG. 147.— SIOUAN INDIAN American (Amsrind) or Red Division 245 Toltec forerunners. In Yucatan, on the contrary, the whole land is thickly strewn with monumental remains — nearly seventy have already been described — all stamped with a certain individuality beneath a generally uniform character, and betraying an exuberance of orna- mental work carried to such an excess as sometimes to mask the main design and outlines of the structure. Cholula, which is regarded as the oldest work of the kind in the New World, rises near the city of Puebla to a height of 177 feet and covers a square space of about 44 acres, being 1,423 feet on all four sides at the base. It is solidly built of adobe, and now presents the aspect of a huge terraced mound clothed with vegetation and crowned with a twin-towered church of the usual Spanish-American type. This church replaces an old teocalli — that is, " God's House " — or pagan temple, such as surmounted all the truncated pyramids in Central America and were the scenes of the frightful butcheries accompanying the Aztec " religious " services. Teotihuacan, comprising the two pyramids of the " Sun and Moon " about thirty miles north of Mexico City, is said to date from the ninth century of the new era. The pyramid of the Sun has a base of 682 feet square and a height of 180 feet, that of the Moon somewhat less, and both are connected by the " Path of the Dead," which was followed by a long procession either of the victims being led to the sacrificial altars, or of the dead being borne to their graves, in the numerous barrows still thickly strewn over the plain. Scattered about are also myriads of tiny clay heads, one to three inches long, which, like those at Mitla, present a great diversity of human types, and are the puzzle of ethnologists. Negro, Mongol, European, and Amerind features are detected by experts, and all in association with chert or obsidian implements of the Stone Ages. The Maya remains, which are variously described as temples, palaces, citadels, " nunneries," and teocalli, are not confined to Yucatan proper, but also occur in Honduras, Chiapas, and other surrounding districts. Merida, the present capital, stands on the site of TihoOy a former capital, the materials of which have been used up in the building of the new town. The sculptures and carvings of a bygone age are still to be seen embedded in the walls of the present houses, and most of the stone buildings in the province have in the same way drawn their materials from the nearest ruins of ancient Amerind structures. Amongst the best preserved of these ruins are those of Uxmal, 246 The "World*s Peoples which hes forty miles south of Merida and covers about a square mile, now mostly overgrown with rank vegetation. The so-called " Governor's House," grandest of all the edifices, forms a narrow parallelogram 322 feet long, built entirely of dressed stone and ornamented on all sides with a deep, richly sculptured frieze. In front are eleven doorways leading into a double series of chambers, the wooden doors of which have long disappeared. The frieze is very effective with its abundance of rich details, including figures of warriors, kings, or priests seated in thrones over the doorways, and decked with a towering head-dress of large plumes. Very striking is the great pyramid of Ake, twenty-five miles east of Merida, which is approached by a gigantic flight of steps, and was originally topped by thirty-six pillars (twenty-nine still standing) each 4 feet square and 14 to 16 feet high. Round the central pyramid at Chichen-Itza on the east coast are grouped several other piles, such as the " Nunnery," the "Tennis Court," and various temples or palaces all profusely adorned with rich friezes, statues, pillars, and carvings in relief. Perhaps the most extensive group of monuments are those near Paleiique in Chiapas, the largest of which has been named the " Palace," and was apparently a royal residence standing on a raised terrace facing the river. At Menche, on the upper course of the Usumacinta, has lately been discovered the so-called " Phantom City," which is now known as " Lorillard City," so named in honour of the American gentleman who generously defrayed the expenses of the discoverer, M. Charnay, in 1882. Here the very river-banks are carved into flights of steps, which give access to the great temple and other structures in their main features resembling those of Palenque. In the temple court was found perhaps the most remark- able specimen of the sculptor's art yet brought to light in the New World — a solemn Buddha-like figure sitting cross-legged, hands resting on the knees, and brow encircled by a jewelled diadem decked with large waving plumes. Apart from the megalithic monuments of Tiahuanaco, there is nothing in South America comparable to these Maya structures except the oft-described Peruvian palaces, fortresses, and temples of the Sun, and the little-known remains of the Chimu or Yunca people. These are not the real names of the mysterious race, whose name is now forgotten, but whose culture was antecedent to that of the Peruvians. In pre-Inca times their empire extended for over six American (Axaerind) or Red Division 247 hundred miles along the west coast, and a vast space was occupied by their capital, Chimu, which was captured and destroyed by the Inca, Yupanqui. The ruins of this great city extend from the Monte Capana southwards to the Rio Moche, covering an area of nearly fifteen miles in this direction, and from five to six east and west. It thus occupied an area of nearly one hundred square miles, and must Pkoio par Dr. R.W. Shufddi FIG. I4S. — SIOUAX have been about as large as London north of the Thames. '• In every direction for an extent of several leagues, long lines of massive walls, huacas (burial places), palaces, aqueducts, reservoirs of water, and granaries can be made out. Everything proves the power and wealth of a people, the very name of whom has remained uncertain "' (de Xadaillac). Of these remains the largest, as well as the most characteristic, are the truncated pyramids here called huacas, one of 248 The World's Peoples which stands on a base 580 feet square, and is still 150 feet high. Larger still is the " Temple of the Sun," at the present village of Moche, a rectangular structure 800 by 470 feet, 200 feet high, and covering an area of over 7 acres. Monuments of this type occur nowhere else in South America, and from certain details, such as the truncated pyramids, some archaeologists have referred them to the ubiquitous " Toltecs." Photos by permission of Dr. W. T. Grenfell, of the Royal Mission to Deep Sea Fishermen FIG. 149. — ESKIMO WOMAN AND MAN CHAPTER VIII AMERIND DIVISION {continued) The Eskimo and Aleuts (p. 249) — The Athapascans (p. 251) — The Algonquians (p. 252) — The Mound-builders (p. 254) — The Iroquoians (p. 255) — The Muskhogeans (p. 257) — The Siouans and Dakotas (p. 259) — The Flatheads and Snakes (p. 262) — The Pueblo Indians and Cliff-dwellers (p. 265) — The Tarahumaras (p. 270) — The Aztecs, Mayas, and Toltecs (p. 270) — The Zapotecs (p. 275) — The Tarascans (p. 277) — The Chiriqui Potters and Veragua Goldsmiths (p. 280) — The Muyscas and Eldorado (p. 281) — The Peruvians and Aymaras (p. 284) — The Calchaqui Culture (p. 288) — The Were-jaguar Beliefs (p. 288) — The Tupi-Guarani ; Caribs ; and Arawaks (p. 289) — The Botocudos (p. 290). — The Pampas Amerinds and Gauchos (p. 292) — The Patagonians (p. 297) — The Fuegians (p. 301). SO far we have dealt with the general characteristics more or less common to all the Amerindians. Further details will be noted in the subjoined account of the chief ethnical groups, for whose general distribution see pp. 24-5. The Eskimo and Aleuts Including the sub-group of the Aleutian Islanders the Eskimo domain follows the line of least resistance for about 5,000 miles from the Bering Sea along the Frozen Ocean to Labrador and Greenland, and formerly appears to have extended farther south to Newfoundland and New England. Here they came in contact with the Norse discoverers of the New World, who called them Skrdllinger, and described them as undersized, of swarthy colour and broad features, using skin canoes {hudh-keipr), and harpoons unknown to the other natives, and eating a mess of marrow and blood, and what looked like raw meat, whence no doubt the name Eskimantsic, corrupted by the French to Esquimaux, meaning 249 250 The WorId*s Peoples " Raw-flesh eaters," given to them by the neighbouring Algonquians. Their proper national name is hmuit, " Men " in Alaska; Yiiit of same meaning on the Asiatic side, where there is a small settlement of long standing; and in Greenland Karalit, a word which may be the native form of Skrdllinger. With some 2,000 of the kindred Aleuts, the Eskimo number (1907) about 28,000 alto- gether, and from one end of the narrow line to the other, which no- where recedes over about 150 miles inland from the sea- board, they all pre- sent a perfect picture of nearly absolute racial uniformity. Everywhere the same social institu- tions, tribal customs, speech, traditions, folklore, and phy- sical appearance, which is described as not dwarfish, but somewhat under- sized, though some- tim es tall, very strong and enduring, small and shapely Photo by permission of Dr T. Gtenfell, of the Royal Mission to Deep Sea Fishermen KIG. 150.— ESKIMO MAN AND WOMAN hands and feet, very broad face, narrow high nose, rather slant Mongoloid eyes, very high head increasing in length eastwards (Figs. 149-15 1). The temperament is also the same — peaceable, cheerful, honest and truthful, but with a very low standard of morals, as loose in fact as the tribal organisation, which scarcely exists. They Amerind Division 251 are exclusively fishers and hunters, chasing the caribou, musk ox, and birds in summer, seals and other sea mammals in winter. For the seasons there are three types of houses : deer- or seal-skin tents stretched on poles for travel in summer ; in winter either snow houses or shallow hollows covered with turf and earth laid upon a framework of wood or whale-ribs. These suggest the Koro-pok-kuru .pit-dwellings (p. 168), and there is no reason to suppose that the Yuits may not have once ranged down the coast to Yezo. They are thorough animists, holding that spirits inhabit inanimate as well as living beings. Yet the chief deity is an old woman who dwells Pholo by permission of Dr. W . T. Grenfell, of the Royal Mission to DeepSea Fishermen. FIG. 151. — A GROUP OF ESKIMOS in the ocean, and may cause storms and other mischief if any of her tabus are infringed. Her power over the marine animals is due to the fact that they are sections of her fingers cut off by her father at the time when she first took up her abode in the sea — one of the quaintest of theistic conceptions. The Athapascans The Athapascans, so named from the Athapascan waters traversing their domain, call themselves generally £)hie, Ttnneh, and by many other variants of a word meaning "Men," most primitive peoples claim- ing to be "men" in a pre-eminent or exclusive sense. They occupy 252 The ■WorId*s Peoples a divided domain, which is compact in the north, extending from the Eskimo fringe nearly to Port Nelson on Hudson Bay, and thence westwards to and beyond the Rocky Mountains. Here they are all traders, trappers, voyageurs (boatmen) mostly in the service of the Hudson Bay Company, but, as above seen, also addicted to cannibalism. Then follow at intervals along the west coast of Oregon and Washington a few small groups, which seem to indicate the track taken in prehistoric times during their southern migrations to the United States and Mexican borderlands. Here the great southern section of the Tinneh people is represented by the renowned Apache and Navajo warriors and marauders, most of whom have now been dispersed or gathered into reservations, whereby peace has been at last restored to this distracted region since about 1900. The Algonquians It may be stated that Powell's convenient plan of indicating the family, as distinguished from any particular member, by the final syllable -an, has been extended by Dr. P. Leon to Mexico and Central America, and by the present writer to South America. Thus we have here Algonquian as the collective name of the widely- ramifying group of which the Algonquins are a single though- conspicuous branch. Their domain is conterminous northwards with the Athapascan, and extends thence southwards between the Mississippi and the Atlantic to Georgia, the Carolinas and Tennessee, but in such a way as to leave a large part of the Laurentian basin to the Iroquoian nation, whom they enveloped on all sides. Since the advent of the first French and English settlers the various eastern branches — Delawares, Algonquins, Shawnees, Micmacs, Mohicans, Abnaki and many others — have been in continual contact with the whites, so that these names have become historical, and some of them household words in the pages of romance. Although greatly reduced, broken up, or gathered into reservations in the United States and the Dominion of Canada, the Algonquians still far out- number all North- American family groups. In fact over one-fourth of all the Amerinds belong to this division, which has a total population of at least 95,000 (60,000 in Canada, 35,000 in the States). Of the particular Algonquin tribe which gives its name to the family less than 5,000 still survive, all interned in the provinces of Ontario and Quebec. But of the Ojibwas (Chippeways) there remain 32,00© Amcfind Division 253 scattered round (Fig. 152) the Great Lakes, while of the Krees, the next most numerous, there are reckoned over 17,000, all in Manitoba and the region between Lake Winnipeg and Hudson Bay. The Kree language seems to approach nearest to the original mother- tongue, whence it has been inferred that the cradle of the race lay probably about the shores of Lake Winnipeg. Still the central tribes — Abnaki, Mohi- can, Delaware and Nati- coke — whose territory lay between the St. Law- rence and Chesapeake Bay, have always been regarded as the " Grand- fathers," that is, the pro- genitors of the whole stock. From this region they sent colonies in prehistoric times north- wards along the coast, driving back the Eskimo and probably the Beothuk of Newfoundland, whom some suppose to have been Eskimo; then west- ward and north-westward up the St. Lawrence and the lakes, and southward to Virginia and Carolina. Nor are the renowned Delawares (Leni Lenape), Sacs and Foxes, and Shawnees yet extinct, al- though now collected to the number of about 4,000 in reservations in Indian Territory, New York, and other places. But of the Massachusetts for whom Eliot translated the first Amerind Bible, the Narragansets, the Long Island Montauks, the Manhattans, the Powhattans, the Panticos, and the other Atlantic coast tribes, with whom the English settlers had first to do, none have survived the " wreck of nations." Photo by Zimmermann FIG. 152.— CHIPPEWAY A branch of the Algonquian family 254 The 'W"ofId*s Peoples In the Far West Chicago stands on the site of Fort Dearborn, which was built in 1804 to overawe the turbulent prairie Indians, and was in 1833 the scene of a memorable gathering of the Pottawatomis, a numerous branch of the formerly widespread Algonquian Miamis. At this gathering they ceded to the United States Government a vast domain of some 20,000,000 acres com- prising the present States of Illinois and Wisconsin now supporting millions of thriving white settlers, while the original owners of the land are reduced to about 1,500 souls distributed in small groups amongst the Indian Territory, Kansas, and other Agencies. Thus must the feeble go to the wall, for there is no resisting the relentless laws of Evolution, which in the struggle for existence always favour the fittest. In these Agencies the natives have still their compensations, and instead of the scalpings, lingering tortures and other nameless horrors of Indian warfare, some have taken to mystic observances which they have developed to a surprising extent. In 1898 the Pottawatomi chief Simon Pokagon held a " seance '' to show how communication may still be kept up with the spiritual world. Poles ten to twelve feet high were set in the ground to form a circle six to eight feet in diameter. The top of the lodge was left open, the sides tightly covered with birch-bark or skins of animals. All being ready, a low tinkling sound is heard, like several small bells at a distance, when with a rush on comes the " medium-in- chief" carrying a magician's little flat rattle-box like a tambourine. He sits down by the camp fire, and begins to explain how he can call up the spirits of the dead, as well as those yet living in the world, and invites any present to ask questions, and then sings a song which can scarcely be understood. He then either crawls into the lodge or sits outside with the audience. Immediately the lodge begins to shake, as if stricken with an ague chill. Then a sound is heard from within, like that of a distant high wind soughing through leafless trees, and intermingled with strange noises. The questions asked by any one present are always answered in an unknown tongue, but among the spirits there is always a special interpreter to explain what the spirits say. The Mound-builders To the Algonquian tribes are often attributed those strange monuments of an unknown past, the earthworks and sepulchral Amerind Division 255 mounds, which are strewn over the Mississippi basin, and are thickly crowded together especially in the Ohio valley, which always formed part of the Algonquian territory. Few now believe that the builders were a different race from the present Amerindians, since there is nothing in these monuments that the natives could not have done. Many have in fact been erected or continued in post-Columbian times, that is, by the present aborigines, so that there is no reason for attributing any of them to other races of which we have no knowledge. They may have possibly originated amongst the Seminoles and other early inhabitants of Florida, whose council- house and vast shell- - mounds present some peculiar features. They are made with definite purpose, and carried up symmetrically into large mounds comparable in size with those of the Ohio region. They originated with pile-dwel- lings in shallow water, where the shells and other kitchen refuse ac- cumulate and rise above the surface, when the building appears to stand on posts in a low mound, and such structures are then taken as the normal for house-building every- where (F. H, Gushing). The Iroquoians It is popularly supposed that the Algonquians, as well as their hereditary foes the Iroquoians, were predatory nomads living entirely by the chase and the scalping-knife. Some may have been driven to the nomad state by pressure from the white settlers Photo per Dr. R. W. Shufeldi FIG. 153 SIOUAN INDIAN 256 The WofId*s Peoples on the Atlantic seaboard. But they were originally for the most part sedentary and agricultural, maize being the staple food product, and in swampy districts wild rice. Heavy crops of beans, pumpkins, and tobacco were raised, and they understood the use of fertilisers such as fish, shells, and ashes worked in with wooden spades and hoes. To the Algonquians the Europeans are indebted for their hominy, succotash, samp, maple-sugar, Johnnycake, and some other preparations. These things imply a settled domestic life, as do also the mounds, which could not be erected by restless nomads, here to-day, away to-morrow. Much of this applies also to the Iroquoians, who stand somewhat apart, and were noted at all times for their haughty bearing, warlike spirit, and highly developed military system, whence they were called " the Romans of the New World." Despite their Hmited numbers and long-standing inter-tribal feuds, and although every- where surrounded by hostile Algonquians, such was their superiority over the other Amerinds that a great Iroquois empire might have been established between the Atlantic and the Mississippi had the advent of the whites been delayed a few generations longer. In the Laurentian region, probably their primeval home, they formed originally two hostile sections, the Huron-Eries ( Wyandots), and the Iroquois proper, that is, the historical league of the " Five Nations" — Mohawks, Oneidas, Cayugas, Onondagoes, and Senecas — who bectime the "Six Nations "when joined in 17 12 by the kindred Tuscaroras from North Carolina. After the destruction or dispersion of the Eries by the League in 1650, all the Wyandots disappear from history, and survive now only in the names of the two great lakes Huron and Erie, so called from these aborigines who roamed their shores. Separated from the body of the nation were the southern Cherokis, who, although they have made no name in history, are recognised as amongst the most intelligent of all the northern Amerinds. It was a Cheroki, Segwoya, better known as George Guest, who in 1824 performed the remarkable intellectual feat of analysing the sounds of his intricate polysynthetic tongue, and pro- viding symbols for a complete syllabic system by various ingenious modifications of the capital letters of an English primer. He could himself neither read nor write; yet his syllabary, which is still in use and serves its purpose well, supplies 85 signs or full syllables made up of 15 consonants generally combined with six vowels, as Amerind Division 257 with k : ka, ke, ki, ko, ku, ki. The Cherokis have all been removed from their original homes in Virginia and the Carolinas to Indian Territory, where they hold, the most important of all the reservations, numbering with their Choktaw friends rather over 27,000. All the rest of the once powerful Iroquoian nation are now reduced to probably less than 20,000, distributed in about equal parts between the United States and Dominion Agencies. All are educated Christians, generally read and write English and the books printed in their several dialects, and join the Church services in both languages. The Muskhogeans At the time of the Discovery the Gulf States east of the Mississippi — Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Georgia and parts of South CaroHna and Tennessee — were occupied by a number of nations, such as the Creeks, Choktaws, Chikasaws, and Seminoles, who differed greatly in speech and physical appearance, but were held together by certain loose confederacies, of which the Musk- hogean was the most stable and important. Hence this name, for want of a better, has been conventionally applied in a collective sense to all the nations who had little in common except a peculiar organisation which was not tribal but rather civic, like that of the Greek polls. This of course implies a distinct advance beyond the primitive tribal state, and consequently lends a special interest to the study of the social institutions of these early Amerindians. Thus we have to speak of "towns," and not kraals or camping- grounds, and notice that each town had its independent government, its council, say, its forum, being a miniature of that of the con- federacy, in fact a number of local municipalities under a general central administration (Fig. 154). All the large towns were provided with a public square formed of four blocks of equal size facing the cardinal points, and each divided into three apartments. The structure on the east side was set apart for the chief councillors, who probably represented the government ; that on the south side belonged to the warrior chiefs, that on the north to the inferior chiefs, while the west side was used for miscellaneous purposes, state and religious or social observances, the ceremony of the "black drink," war medicine, and so. on, the religious and secular life being still interwoven. The 17 258 The World^s Peoples general policy of the confederacy was not arbitrary, but controlled by a supreme council, say, a parliament in which each borough was represented, and which met annually, or as occasion required, at a time. or place fixed by the chief, or head mico. The con- federacy itself, that of the Creeks for instance, was a political organisation __ . __-- ., 7^.,.,.._ -j based on blood ■ relationship, real or fic- titious, its chief object being mutual de- fence, and the power wielded by its parlia- ment was purely ad- visory. The struggle be- tween the Crown and the Peers had clearly not yet been fought out. The towns again were disposed in two classes — the White or Peace towns, whose function was concerned whose officers PUio per Dr. R. W. Skufeldt, New York FU 154. — MUSKHOGEAN MAN South-east United States with civil matters, and the Red or War towns, assumed the control of military affairs. The central square was a real piazza or market-place devoted to the transaction of all public business, and to public ceremonials. Here was situate the sweat-house, the uses of which were more religious than medicinal or sanitary ; and here also was the Chunkey-yard, devoted to the game from which it takes its popular name, and to the busk, or so-called " Green-corn Dance." Such Amerind Division 259 games, though not strictly of reh'gious significance, were affairs of public interest, and were attended by rites and ceremonies of a religious character. In these squares strangers were permitted to encamp as the guests of the town. Occasional members of the confederacies appear to have been the Natchez people of the Mississippi, who were destroyed by the French, and whose history and traditions were enveloped in a cloud of romance by Chateau- briand. In T905 about 57,000 Muskhogeans were still residing on the Indian Territory reservations, the most numerous being the Choktaws (26,000); the Creeks (16,000); the Chikasaws (11,000); and the Seminoles (3,000). At the Discovery they were estimated at 50,000. The Siouans and Dakotas The term Sioux, a French corruption of Nadowe-ssi-wag, " Snakes " or " Enemies," has been adopted by Powell as the collective name of the great Amerind nation of which the Dakotas (" Allies ") are the chief branch. Their domain, the largest next to the Athapascan and Algonquian, was not confined to the plains west of the Mississippi, which were reached from the Pacific sea- board, as was at one time supposed, but extended south to the Gulf of Mexico, and east to the Atlantic. They certainly ranged over wide tracts in Virginia and the CaroHnas, where in fact is now sought their primeval home. Here were the Monacan confederates, with the Saponi, the Catawbas, Woccons and others, who were centred chiefly on the James River above the falls at Richmond, and spoke highly archaic forms of the Siouan stock language. From Virginia they were driven over the Appalachian range westward to the plains of the Mississippi basin, where they may have rejoined the kindred Dakotas after a separation which has been estimated at about 1,500 years. Amongst the Catawbas the early traveller Lederer found the " Fire-dance" still flourishing, as in ancient Italy, Fiji, India, and so many other parts. " These miserable wretches," he writes, " are strangely infatuated with illness of the devil; it caused no small horror in me to see one of them wrythe his neck all on one side, foam at the mouth, stand barefoot upon burning coal for near an hour, and then, recovering his senses, leap out of the fire without hurt or sign of any." 26o The ^01-1(1*8 Peoples Although they have disappeared from the Gulf and Atlantic coastlands, the Siouans occupied till lately a vast if somewhat fluctuating domain in the heart of the continent. These typical prairie nomads roamed from the Saskatchewan basin in Canada south to Arkansas, and from the Mississippi over the Missouri basin west to Montana and Wyoming. A distinction should, however, be drawn between the true predatory hordes, banded together in the famous "Seven Council Fires " of the Dakotas, and the other branches of the Siouan family — Assinaboins, Omahas, Ponkas, Kaws, Osages, Quapaws, lowas, Otoes, Missouris, Winne- bagoes, Mandans, Minnetaris, Crows (Absarokas) and others. All these formed independent national groups, often hostile to the Dakotas, and presenting many distinct features in their speech, tribal organisation, religious beliefs, social usages, and even in their physical appearance. So marked are some of these characters, as amongst the Assinaboins, Omahas, Osages, and Mandans, that the Siouan family may be regarded as a widespread people who, in pre-Columbian times, were already undergoing a process of dis- integration tending to the development of several distinct families. But of course the chief interest attaches to the "Seven Council Fires," constituting the formidable confederacy of the Santees, Sisse- tons, Yanktons, Yanktonnais, Tetons and Wahpetons, in whose social system the clan, the gens, the phratry are carefully distinguished, and traces still detected of the original matrilineal state, which generally preceded the present patrilineal. The difference between the clan of savagery and the gens of barbarism is important and fundamental. The clan is a group of people reckoning kinship in the female line, while the gens is a group of people reckoning kin- ship in the male line. In barbarism patriarchies are found as concomitant with nomadic tribes, but in savagery the patriarchy does not exist. Hence the first great revolution in tribal society is the transition from the clan to the gens, the consolidation of power in the hands of the few, and the organisation of the gentile family. At the time of the Discovery most of the Siouan tribes had apparently passed into the gentile organisation, so that amongst them man is the head of the family, and the squaw sinks to a sub- ordinate position in the household. Since the final revolt of 1876, when General Custer's party was cut off" on the Little Bighorn, the Dakotas have been dispersed amongst the Indian Territory, Dakota and other Agencies, where in 1904 they numbered about 29,000. Photo per Dr. R. W. Shufeldt FIG. 155.— SIOUAN Typical prairie Amerinds, chiefly in the Missouri basin 262 The "W"orId*s Peoples They are generally allowed to rank higher physically, mentally, and perhaps morally, than any of the western nations. In the reserves they are educated in their own language, in which papers are issued regularly, and many books have been printed by the missionaries (Figs. 147, 148, 153, 155). The Flatheads and Snakes The term " Flathead " has been applied especially to several of the western tribes between the Rocky Mountains and the Pacific owing to their custom of flattening the heads of their children artificially. But the practice was by no means confined to this region, and not only extended all along the western seaboard from British Columbia to Chili, but was also prevalent amongst some of the eastern tribes, such as the Catawbas and Choktaws, who were sometimes even called Flatheads. It also extended in early times to nearly all the members of the Muskhogean con- federacies, as well as to the Natchez and Tonikas. This strange custom, whatever its origin and motive, has also prevailed from remote times in other parts of the world, although it has certainly been more widely diffused in America than elsewhere. On the north-west coast the Chinooks of the Columbia River, many of the Vancouver natives, and most of the Salishans of Puget Sound and British Columbia were addicted to the practice, and the term has been applied to all collectively, and to some particular groups in a more special manner. But it is a singular fact that the people now known in official reports as " Flatheads," that is to say, the Salish proper, never flatten the head. This is said to be due to the fact that amongst them were found slaves with deformed heads belonging to other tribes, and so all came to be called TStes-Flates by the early French-Canadian voyageurs. Deformation is not always intentional, but sometimes due to compression resulting from prolonged contact of the occiput with a hard support in the cradle-board. Of the artificial treatment there are two varieties, one in which the forehead is flattened by means of a board or kind of cushion, while the sides of the head undergo compensatory expansion. In the second, known as macrocephalous, or conical, the pressure of bandages applied about the head, passing over the frontal region and under the occiput, produces a somewhat conical or truncated shape with low forehead, narrow sides, and imei'in d D 1 VIS ion 263 protruding occiput. Both of these varieties are found in North America, the first generally in the east, the second in the west. They probably began with the unintentional form, and then by force of habit be- came fixed by long practice, hence came to be considered a tribal duty and were thus eventually re- garded as a mark of distinction and superiority over their neighbours. The eifects on brain function and growth, as well as on the general health, appear to be insignificant. The tribes ad- dicted to the practice show no superiority or inferiority over others, or any larger percentage of imbeciles, in- sane, or neuro- pathic subjects, nor are any he- reditary effects perceptible, al- though the defor- mity once ac- quired persists throughout life. Amongst the Northern Amerinds the custom is falling into disuse, and will probably disappear in a few generations. The Snakes, properly Shosho/iea?is, formerly ranged over a wide domain in the present States of Montana, Idaho, and Oregon, Photo per Dr. R. If. Shufeldt, New York FIG. 156. — SHAHAPTIAN INDIAN The Nez Perces of the Franco-Canadians 264 The "W"orld*s Peoples down into Utah, Texas, and California. At the advent of the whites they even extended eastwards to the Missouri basin (Dakota), but with the general displacement of the plains tribes, they were gradually pressed westwards to and beyond the main range of the Rocky Mountains. Although many suppose that to the Shoshonean stock belonged those barbaric hordes that under the name of Nahuas poured into Mexico and overthrew the " Toltec " civilisation on the Anahuac tableland, they have never betrayed a warlike spirit in historic times, and are generally despised by their more bellicose Apache and Navajo neighbours. Till lately they eked out a gorry existence on their arid upland plains, often reduced to great distress, and saved from actual starvation by being gathered into the reserva- tions. To the Snake family belonged most of those degraded and almost black aborigines of the Californian plains who were subject to goitre or rickets, and were commonly known as " Diggers," from their habit of grubbing in the ground either in search of edible roots or to make themselves half underground hovels. Yet like most of the Shoshoneans these Diggers are extremely skilful at wicker-work, and make baskets which are not only waterproof but serve as cooking utensils, holding water which is boiled by means of red-hot stones. Members of the Snake family are also the Utahs (Yutes, Utes, Pah-Utes), who give their name to the present State of Utah. These aborigines of the Wahsatch uplands have no claim to the grave and dignified demeanour with which they have been credited. On the contrary they have for the most part an excessively mobile physiognomy, and converse with great animation and volubility. Their language, like all the other Shoshonean idioms, shows certain phonetic affinities to the Aztec, and is one of the. most harmonious of Amerind tongues. It was on these affinities that Buschmann based his well-known theory of a great American race stretching from Mexico along the Pacific seaboard northwards to Alaska. The Utahs are amongst the most talented artists of all the Amerind tribes. In almost every lodge are seen clever representa- tions of men, animals, tents, and divers objects, which are intended to commemorate battles and other important events, and are thus analogous to the wampums of the eastern nations. The Pah-Utes {Fiuies), who dwell or dwelt farther south on the plateaux and in the river gorges tributary to the Colorado, belong to the same con- nection as the Utahs. But in the more arid districts they are Amerind Division 265 reduced to the same wretched condition as the Diggers, and hke them are everywhere steadily disappearing. Another branch of the widely ramifying Snake family are the Comanches (properly Nayuni, or " Neighbours "), who were formerly conterminous with the Utahs on the east side towards the sources of the Colorado, but also ranged southwards along the middle course of the Rio Grande del Norte and the Peers Valley. But the Comanches are a very mixed people, due to their habit of organising warlike and plundering expeditions for the purpose of sweeping from the surrounding plains women and children, that is to say, wives and future companions in arms. During these raiding excursions the Comanches covered a vast area, sometimes ranging from five hundred to eight hundred miles over the prairie. Hence it is that they were so often heard of at immense distances from their proper domain, as far east as Arkansas, and far down in Chihuahua and even Durango in Central Mexico. For nearly two hundred years they waged fierce war against the Spaniards, but were generally friendly to the Anglo-Americans except the Texans, by whom they were dispossessed of their best hunting-grounds, which brought about relentless hostilities lasting for nearly forty years. Since 1875 ^hey have been settled in the Kiowa Agency, where they were reduced to about 1,400 in 1904. When they were not raiding, the Comanches, being pure nomads, occupied themselves with buffalo-hunting, following the track of the great herds on their swift mounts. They were long noted as the finest horsemen of the plains, and bore a well-earned reputation for dash and courage. They were also credited with a high sense of honour, and held themselves superior to the other tribes with which they were associated. In person they were well built, and presented the normal physical characters of the plains Amerinds, though somewhat inclined to corpulence. Their language has become a sort of lingua franca, more or less understood, if not spoken by all the tribes with whom they formerly came in contact. Like most Shoshonean tongues, it is sonorous and flowing, its chief characteristic being a rolling r (J. Mooney). The Pueblo Indians and Cliff-dwellers Passing from the Thlinkits and art-loving Haidas of British Columbia through the Flatheads and widely diffused Shoshones 266 The World*s Peoples ("Snakes") of Washington, Oregon, and California, we reach the New Mexico and Arizona tablelands occupied by a considerable group of Amerinds, who are collectively known as "Pueblo Indians." They are so named from the Spanish word pueblo, village or town- ship, because they live in permanent village or rural settlements of a pecular type scattered over the mesas ("tables," or flat rocky heights) of the plateaux. They do not form a single ethnical or linguistic family but rather a number of distinct communities speaking several stock languages, and in one instance a Shoshonean dialect. A certain uniformity, however, is imparted to the whole group by their common usages, traditions, religious rites, habitations, and general culture. In this respect the Puebloans stand on a much higher level than any of the other Northern Amerinds, and hence the suggestion that they represent an intermediate stage in a continuously progressive cultural zone beginning with the northern mound-builders and culminating with the Aztec, Maya, and Peruvian civilisations of Central and South America (Fig. 157). With the Puebloans must be grouped the neighbouring Cliff- dwellers, who are no longer looked on as a separate race, and whose sub-aerial abodes are regarded as only a phase of Pueblo architecture adapted to a different environment. All are independent local developments, and it is now shown that the characteristic Pueblo casas grandes — huge stone buildings or fortresses large enough to shelter the whole community — grew out of the local conditions and had no prototypes elsewhere. One feature is highly instructive, that is the so-called estufas or kivas, circular chambers in groups of rectangular spaces which are the council-houses and temples in which the government and religious affairs of the people are trans- acted. The kivas are in fact survivals of the "medicine-lodges " of the prairie Indians, and point to a time when the Puebloans dwelt on the plains, whence they were driven to their present upland homes by the incursions of the Apaches, Navajos, and other pre- datory hordes. The unit of Pueblo construction is always this single round estufa even in the large many-storied villages, and thus the whole system of Pueblo architecture is shown to be a natural product of the country and of the conditions of life known to have affected the people when they took refuge on the uplands. The clanship system prevails everywhere, and the clan names comprise such ridiculous objects as the calabash, various kinds of maize, grass, salt, the swallow, ant, and humming-bird. Such totems Photo per Dr. A'. Leon FIG. 157. — PUEBLO INDIANS, NEW MEXICO Live in great communal houses (Casas Grandes), and are the most cultured of all the Northern Amerinds 268 The World's Peoples could not have originally been deified beings, but merely distinctive badges, which only later acquired genealogical or religious import. Can it be supposed that any aborigines can at any time have been at once so intelligent as to group themselves in a really intricate system of clanship, and so stupid as to think themselves of grass, maize, ant, or salt pedigree ? These Puebloans are specially noted for a highly elaborate sym- bolism, manifested in their recurrent seasonable festivities, snak£- dances, imposing processions, and other religious ceremonies, some, it must be confessed, of a revolting character. In reference to the snake-worship, which extends from the plains of the Mississippi to the ancient cities of Mexico, Central America, and Peru, and is illus- trated in some of the puzzling carvings, paintings, and inscriptions of the Aztec-Maya peoples, it is pointed out that the Puebloans worship a plurality of deities to whom various potencies are ascribed. These zoic deities, or beast-gods, are honoured by highly elaborate rites, and, where possible, the mystic zoic potency is bodily repre- sented by a living animal of the same species, or else by an artificial symbol. Prominent amongst the animal representatives of the zoic pantheon is the serpent, and especially the venomous and hence mysteriously potent rattlesnake. Intimately associated are the swift- striking viper and the lightning with its attendant rain and thunder, also, from another standpoint, the moisture-loving reptile of the wilderness and the life-giving storms and freshets ; and so the native rattlesnake plays an important part in the ceremonies, and especially in the invocations for rain, the want of which is always felt through- out the arid upland plateaux. This symbolism thus awakened is extended to the industrial arts, as in th.e feather symbol of the ancient Hopi designs which forms a leading motive in the decorated pottery found in all the old Pueblo ruins. It is in fact a sort of picture-writing often highly symbolic and complicated, revealing certain phases of Hopi thought in the dim past. Thus we see that the ornamentation of ancient pottery was something more than an effort to embellish this fragile material. The ruling motive was always rehgious, and to elaborately decorate a vessel without introducing a religious symbol was for the ancient potter an inipossibiUty. Besides the Hopi or Moki there are three other nations — the Tanoan, Keresan, and Zu?u — each speaking a stock language of the ftiwij>ii^-*juhAi.ga^.*rfiiaiw&4igi