4 o THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



traffic." And other statements suggest that, when exchange begins, 

 there is little idea of equivalence between the things given and received. 

 Speaking of the Ostiaks, who supplied them " with plenty of fish and 

 wild-fowl," Bell says, " Give them only a little tobacco and a dram of 

 brandy, and they ask no more, not knowing the use of money." Re- 

 membering that at first no means of measuring values exists, and that 

 the conception of equality of value has to grow by use, it seems not im- 

 possible that mutual propitiation by gifts was the act from which bar- 

 ter arose ; the expectation that the present received would be of like 

 worth with that given being gradually established, and the exchanged 

 articles simultaneously losing the character of presents. One may, in- 

 deed, see the intimate connection between the two in the familiar cases, 

 instanced at the outset, of presents from European travelers to native 

 chiefs; as where Mungo Park writes, "Presented Mansa Kussan [the 

 chief man of Julifunda] with some amber, coral, and scarlet, with which 

 he appeared to be perfectly satisfied, and sent a bullock in return." 

 Such transactions show us both the original meaning of the initial 

 present as propitiatory, and the idea that the responsive present should 

 have an approximately-like value, implying informal barter. 



Leaving this speculation, however, we have here to note the way in 

 which the propitiatory present becomes a social observance. Like 

 every other kind of ceremony which begins as an effort to gain the 

 good-will of some feared being, visible or invisible, gift-making descends 

 through successive stages, until it becomes an act of civility between 

 those who, while not actually subordinate one to the other, please one 

 another by simulating subordination. That along with the original 

 form of it, signifying allegiance to a chief or king, there goes the spread 

 of it as a means of insuring the friendship of powerful persons in general, 

 we see in ancient Peru, where, as already said, " no one approached 

 Atahuallpa without bringing a present in token of submission," and 

 where also " the Indians . . . never thought of approaching a supe- 

 rior without bringing a present." And then in Yucatan the usage ex- 

 tended to equals. " At their visits the Indians always carry with them 

 presents to be given away, according to their position ; those visited 

 respond by another gift." In Japan, so rigorously ceremonious, the 

 stages of the descent are well shown : there are the periodic presents 

 to the mikado, expressive of loyalty; there is the fact named by Mitford 

 that " the giving of presents from inferiors to superiors is a common 

 custom ; " and there is the further fact he names that " it is customary 

 on the occasion of a first visit to a house to carry a present to the owner, 

 who gives something of equal value on returning the visit." Among 

 other peoples we see this mutual propitiation between equals taking 

 other forms. Markham, writing of Himalayan people, states that ex- 

 changing caps is " as certain a mark of friendship in the hills as two 

 chiefs in the plains exchanging turbans." And, referring more espe- 

 cially to the Iroquois, Morgan says, " Indian nations, after treating, 



