118 ON THE SANTIIALS OF NORTHEASTERN BENGAL. 



mation. I believe in the existence of man for tens of 

 thousands of years, and that he first appeared in the 

 neighborhood of Central Hindustan, on the southern slopes 

 of the Himalayas, or in some island in the Arabian gulf or 

 bay of Bengal, the Lemuria of Sclater now sunk beneath 

 the sea — in other words, in or very near the latitude and 

 longitude indicated by many old traditions ; that, if he ap- 

 peared by evolution, the missing links are many, for the gap 

 is very great, between what we know of the highest apes 

 and the lowest man of whom we have any evidence. I 

 suppose that, whether created or evolved, most would ad- 

 mit that primitive man was comparatively low in his mental 

 and moral development ; though of course the theological 

 assumption is that he was created "a little lower than the 

 angels," which is perhaps the only one admissible on the 

 creation theory. We know, in fact, that man's condition 

 has not always been one of growth ; history shows many 

 remarkable and indisputable cases of degradation ; the 

 Santhals are a case in point. I will only hint at the belief 

 that the mysteries of Peru, Central America, .Mexico, and 

 the mound-builders (perhaps), of the pyramids of Egypt, 

 the temples of India, and the gigantic structures of Easter 

 island and the Ladrones, point to immensely distant pe- 

 riods of time, and migrations rendered possible, and now 

 apparently impossible or improbable, by great geograph- 

 ical changes in the earth's surface : and that these archaeo- 

 logical secrets will never be revealed to him who studies 

 solely man as he exists actually or in history, or by any 

 marks he has left behind him, except language. 



