DIFFERENCES OF WEAPONS. 551 



and arrows might, perhaps, be plausibly accounted for by the 

 absence of game, the scarcity of birds, and the isolation of the 

 little island, which rendered war almost impossible. But such 

 an argument cannot be applied to other cases which are indi- 

 cated in the table. Let us compare, for instance, the Atlantic 

 tribes of North American Indians, the Australians, Kaffirs, 

 Bushmen, New Zealanders, and Society Islanders. All these 

 were constantly at war, and the two first lived very much on 

 the produce of the chase. They at least had therefore similar 

 wants. Yet spears, and perhaps clubs, were the only weapons 

 which they had in common ; the North Americans had good 

 bows and arrows, the Society Islanders and Bushmen had bad 

 ones in fact, those of the former were so weak as to be use- 

 less in war; the Australians, Kaffirs, and New Zealanders, 

 had none. On the other hand, the Australians had the throw- 

 ing-stick and the boomerang ; the Society Islanders used 

 slings ; and the New Zealanders, besides very effective clubs, 

 had numerous and extensive fortifications. It is certainly 

 most remarkable that tribes so warlike, and in many respects 

 so advanced, as the New Zealanders and Kaffirs, should have 

 been ignorant of bows and arrows, which were used by many 

 very low races, such as the Fuegians, the Chinooks, the 

 Andamaners, and Bushmen ; particularly as it is impossible 

 to doubt that the New Zealanders at least would have found 

 bows of great use, and that any of their tribes, having invented 

 them, would have had an immense advantage in the " struggle 

 for existence." Other similar contrasts will strike any one 

 who examines the table ; but perhaps it may be said that 

 some of these cases may be explained by the influence of 

 more civilized neighbours ; that the comparison above made, 

 for instance, might be regarded as unfair, because the New 

 Zealanders were an isolated race, while the Chinooks might 

 have derived their knowledge of bows and arrows from the 

 eastern tribes, and these again might have acquired the art of 



