ISOLATION OF SAVAGES. 553 



making pottery from the semi-civilized nations of the south. 

 No one can deny that this may be true in some instances, 

 because we know that at the present day most savages possess 

 hatchets, knives, beads, etc., which they have received from 

 traders, and which they cannot yet manufacture for them- 

 selves. 



It is certainly possible that the Chinooks may have derived 

 their knowledge of the bow from their northern neighbours ; 

 but we can hardly suppose that they did so from the Bed 

 Indian tribes to the east, because in that case it is difficult to 

 understand why they should not also have learnt from these 

 the much simpler, and almost equally useful, art of making 

 pottery. Moreover, there are some cases in which any such 

 idea is absolutely out of the question ; thus, the spear-caster 

 is used by the Esquimaux, the Australians, the New Cale- 

 donians, and some Brazilian tribes ; the bolas by the Esqui- 

 maux and the Patagonians; the boomerang is peculiar to the 

 Australians.* The " sumpitan," or blow-pipe of the Malays, 

 occurs again in the valley of the Amazon. Again, different 

 races of savages have but little peaceful intercourse with one 

 another. They are almost always at war. If their habits are 

 similar, they are deadly rivals, fighting for the best hunting- 

 grounds or fisheries ; if their wants are different, they fight 

 for slaves, for women, for ornaments ; or if they do not care 

 about any of these, for the mere love of fighting, for scalps, 

 heads, or some other recognized emblems of glory. In this 

 condition of society, each tribe lives in a state either of isola- 

 tion from, or enmity with, its neighbours. Delenda est Car- 

 thago is the universal motto, and savages can only live in 

 peace when they have a little world of their own. Sometimes 

 a broad sea or a high range of mountains, at others a wide 



* The ancient Egyptians had, and which are thrown in war. But these 

 the Negroesof Niam Niamhave,iron do not appear to possess the peculiar 

 crescents resembling boomerangs, properties of the boomerang. 



