EuTLAND. — History of the Pacific. 23 



of wild roots and fruits they consume; and in Africa the 

 Damaras", Bosjesmans, and other rude tribes that do not 

 cultivate the soil subsist largely on pig-nuts and other wild 

 vegetable products. Thus, owing to the natural conditions of 

 existence amongst the primitive races, some lived chiefly on 

 animal, others on vegetable, food. In their progress towards 

 civilization the former probably passed directly from the hunter 

 to the pastoral state, the latter to the agricultural state. 



In the long barrows or burial-places of a small Iberian 

 people who anciently occupied the western coast of Europe 

 and the British Islands, and whose descendants are still seen 

 in the Spanish Basque and amongst the people of the western 

 counties of Ireland, along with human remains and with rude 

 stone implements the bones of various wild animals are found 

 interred, the only domestic species being the dog. In the 

 round barrows containing the remains of the large Keltic 

 people, by whom the Iberians were supplanted, bones of 

 cattle and goats, as well as dogs, have been discovered, but 

 from neither the Iberian nor Keltic tombs have any traces of 

 agriculture been obtained, acorns, hazel-nuts, and other wild 

 fruits being the only vegetable products disinterred.! 



The pastoral nomads of Central Asia, who until very re- 

 cently used stone implements and subsisted almost exclusively 

 on the produce of their flocks and herds, cultivating no species 

 of plant, furnish a living example of the ancient Keltic 

 societies. :|: From the tombs of the ancient Peruvians many 

 cultivated plants have been obtained, but these people could 

 never have passed through the pastoral state, the llama, 

 alpaca, dog, and guinea - pig being the only domesticated 

 quadrupeds the Peruvians possessed at the period of the 

 Spanish intrusion. § New Guinea, Borneo, and other portions 

 of the tropical world furnish abundant examples of peoples 

 who have adopted the practice of agriculture while still retain- 

 ing many of their savage customs. || 



The rudest attempt at agriculture of which we have any 

 knowledge is that made by the aborigines of northern Aus- 

 tralia, and to which reference has already been made, the 

 only plant cultivated by this people being the native yam 

 {Dioscorea hastifolia) ; all they can have received from with- 

 out is the idea to increase by planting the root they already 

 used for food. 



In its very early stages it is probable that this is how the 

 practice of agriculture extended itself. Before the process of 



* " Narrative of an Explorer in South Africa." F. GaUon. 

 t " Origin of the Aryans." Isaac Taylor. 



I " Russian Central Asia." Rev. H. Lansdell. 

 § " Conquest of Peru." Prescott. 



II " Pioneering in New Guinea." James Chalmers. 



