214 METHODS AND RESULTS OF ETHNOLOGY. 



like contrivances; at any rate, so long as the need 

 to be met and conquered is of a very simple kind. 

 That two nations use calabashes or shells for drink- 

 ing-vessels, or that they employ spears, or clubs, or 

 swords and axes of stone and metal as weapons and 

 implements, cannot be regarded as evidence that 

 these two nations had a common origin, or even 

 that intercommunication ever took place between 

 them; seeing that the convenience of using cala- 

 bashes or shells for such purposes, and the advan- 

 tage of poking an enemy with a sharp stick, or 

 hitting him with a heavy one, must be early forced 

 by nature upon the mind of even the stupidest sav- 

 age. And when he had found out the use of a 

 stick, he would need no prompting to discover the 

 value of a chipped or whetted stone, or of an an- 

 gular piece of native metal, for the same object. 

 On the other hand, it may be doubted, whether the 

 chances are not greatly against independent peo- 

 ples arriving at the manufacture of a boomerang, 

 or of a bow; which last, if one comes to think of it, 

 is a rather complicated apparatus; and the tracing 

 of the distribution of inventions as complex as 

 these, and of such strange customs as betel-chew- 

 ing and tobacco-smoking, may afford valuable eth- 

 nological hints. 



Since the time of Leibnitz, and guided by such 

 men as Humboldt, Abel Eemusat, and Klaproth, 

 Philology has taken far higher ground. Thus 

 Prichard affirms that " the history of nations, 



