ORIGIN OF THE AMERICAN NEGRO. 



127 



ious things in the lands that have never been visited, although very 

 likely if we were to go there we would find things quite as natural 

 as they are here. But that was the way the ancient geographers 

 displayed their ignorance, and their acceptance of all sorts of tra- 

 ditions and travelers' tales that circulated from mouth to mouth 

 very freely. 



Even the stories of Gullivers travels, with his dwarfs and 

 giants and talking horses, found believers, where, on the other hand, 

 the stories of Marco Polo, Sir John Mandeville, and other earliest 



THE ELEPHAJS^T AND RHINOCEROS. 



travelers to the Orient, who reported things which are now known 

 to be mostly true, were hardly believed at all. 



Strangely enough, there are discoveries made at times, with 

 the advance of exploration in the present day, which go far to 

 verify some of the most extravagant stories of the past. Africa 

 has done much to justify some of these old-fashioned myths. 



In Africa, for instance, was found the rhinoceros, which, with 

 its horn, is a clumsy sort of substitute for the unicorn of the ancients. 

 Tn Africa, too, have been discovered races of man extremely back- 



