320 THE ARYAN QUESTION. vi 



prejudice. Because the human "biped differs from 

 all other bipeds and quadrupeds, in the tendency 

 to put his dead out of sight in various ways; com- 

 monly by burial. It is a habit worthy of all respect 

 in itself, but generative of subtle traps and griev- 

 ous pitfalls for the unwary investigator of human 

 palaeontology. For it may easily happen, that the 

 bones of him that " died o' Wednesday/' may thus 

 come to lie alongside the bones of animals that 

 were extinct thousands of years before that Wed- 

 nesday; and yet the interment may have been 

 effected so many thousands of years ago that no 

 outward sign betrays the difference in date. In all 

 investigations of this kind, the most careful and 

 critical study of the circumstances is needful if 

 the results are to be accepted as perfectly trust- 

 worthy. 



In the case of the remains found in a cave of the 

 valley of the Neander, near Diisseldorf, half a 

 century ago — the characters of which gave rise to 

 a vast amount of discussion at that time and subse- 

 quently — the circumstances of the discovery were 

 but vaguely known. The skeleton was met with 

 in a deposit, the loess, which is known to be of 

 quaternary age; there was no evidence to show 

 how it came there. Consequently, not only was 

 its exact age justly and properly declared to be a 

 matter of doubt; but those who, on scientific or 

 other grounds, were inclined to minimise its im- 

 portance could put forth plausible speculations 



