xviii LIST OF WORKS QUOTED. De Hell, Steppes of the Caspian Sea. Dobrizhoffer, History of the Abipones. Dunn, The Oregon Territory. D'Urville, Voyage au Pôle sud. Earle, Residence in New Zealand. Ellis, Three Visits to Madagascar. Polynesian Researches. Erman, Travels in Siberia. Erskine, Western Pacific. Eyre, Discoveries in Central Australia. Farrar, Origin of Language. and 'Beagle.' XX LIST OF WORKS QUOTED. Smith A., Theory of Moral Sentiments, and Dissertation on the Origin of Languages. G. (Bishop of Victoria), Ten Weeks in Japan. I. History of Virginia. W., Voyage to Guinea. Smithsonian Reports. Snowden and Prall, Grammar of the Mpongwe Language. New York. Speke, Discovery of the Source of the Nile. Spencer's Principles of Biology. Squiers, Serpent Symbol in America. Stevenson, Travels in South America. Tacitus. Tanner, Narrative of a Captivity among the North American Indians. Taylor, New Zealand and its Inhabitants. Tertre, History of the Caribby Islands. Tindall, Grammar and Dictionary of the Namaqua (Hottentot) Language. Transactions of the Americ. Antiq. Soc. Transactions of the EthnologicalSociety. Waitz, Anthropologie der Naturvolker. Wake, Chapters on Man. Wallace, Travels in the Amazons and Rio Negro. Wallace, Malay Archipelago. Watson and Kaye, The People of India. Wedgwood, Introduction to the Dictionary of the English Language. Origin of Language. Whately (Archbishop of Dublin). Political Economy. Whipple, Report on the Indian Tribes. Wilkes, United States Exploring Expedition. Williams, Fiji and the Fijians. Yate, New Zealand. Erratum. P. 317, line 19, for 'Umklanga' read Uthlanga.' THE ORIGIN OF CIVILISATION &c. THE CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTION. HE study of the lower races of men, apart from the direct importance which it possesses in an empire like ours, is of great interest from three points of view. In the first place, the condition and habits of existing savages resemble in many ways, though not in all, those of our own ancestors in a period now long gone by:1 in the second, they illustrate much of what is passing among ourselves, many customs which have evidently no relation to present circumstances; and even some ideas which are rooted in our minds, as fossils are imbedded in the soil: while, thirdly, we can even, by means of them, penetrate some of that mist which separates the present from the future. In fact, the lower races of men in various parts of 1 I am very glad to find that so able and cautious a critic as Mr. Bagehot has expressed his assent to the line of argument here used, and the general conclusions at which I have arrived. See his Physics and Politics, 1872, especially the excellent chapter on 'Nation-making.' 2 IMPORTANCE OF THE SUBJECT. the world present us with illustrations of a social condition. ruder, and more archaic, than any which history records as having ever existed among the more advanced races. Even among civilised peoples, however, we find traces of former barbarism. Not only is language in this respect very instructive; but the laws and customs are often of very ancient origin, and contain symbols which are the relics of former realities. Thus the use of stone knives in certain Egyptian ceremonies points to a time when that people habitually used stone implements. Again, the form of marriage by coemptio among the Romans indicates a period in their history when they habitually bought wives, as so many savage tribes do So also the form of capture in weddings can only be explained by the hypothesis that the capture of wives was once a stern reality. In such cases as these the sequence is obvious. The use of stone knives in certain ceremonies is evidently a case of survival, not of invention; and in the same way the form of capture in weddings would naturally survive the actual reality, while we cannot suppose that the reality would rise out of the symbol. now. It must not be supposed, however, that the condition of primitive man is correctly represented by even the lowest of existing races. The very fact that the latter have remained stationary, that their manners, habits, and mode of life have continued almost unaltered for generations, has created a strict, and often complicated, system of customs, from which the former was necessarily free, but which has in some cases gradually acquired even more than the force of law. In order, then, to arrive at a clear idea of this primitive con |