212 METHODS AND RESULTS OF ETHNOLOGY iv 



are of great value for all those peoples whose 

 ancient state has differed widely from their present 

 condition, and who have the good or evil fortune 

 to possess a history. But on taking a broad 

 survey of the world, it is astonishing how few 

 nations present either condition. Respecting 

 five-sixths of the persistent modifications of man- 

 kind, history and archaeology are absolutely silent. 

 For half the rest, they might as well be silent 

 for anything that is to be made of their testimony. 

 And, finally, when the question arises as to what 

 was the condition of mankind more than a paltry 

 two or three thousand years ago, history and 

 archaeology are, for the most part, mere dumb 

 dogs. What light does either of these branches 

 of knowledge throw on the past of the man of the 

 New World, if we except the Central Americans 

 and the Peruvians ; on that of the Africans, save 

 those of the Valley of the Nile and a fringe of 

 the Mediterranean ; on that of all the Polynesian, 

 Australian, and central Asiatic peoples, the former 

 of whom probably, and the last certainly, were, 

 at the dawn of history, substantially what they 

 are now ? While thankfully accepting what 

 history has to give him, therefore, the ethnologist 

 must not look for too much from her. 



Is more to be expected from inquiries into the 

 customs and handicrafts of man ? It is to be 

 feared not. In reasoning from identity of custom to 

 identity of stock>the difficulty always obtrudes itself, 



