142 THE DA WN OF MIND. 



ways, were mere food for the curious. Now the 

 study of the lower native races has risen to the first 

 rank in comparative psychology ; and the student of 

 beginnings, whether they be the beginnings of Art 

 or of Ethics, of Language or of Letters, of Law or of 

 Religion, goes to seek the roots of his science in the 

 ways, traditions, faiths, and institutions of savage 

 life. 



This leads us, however, to the fourth of the sources 

 from which we were to gather a hint or two with 

 regard to the past of Mind — the savage. No one 

 should pronounce upon the Evolution of Mind till 

 he has seen a savage. By this is not meant the 

 show savage of an Australian town, or the quay 

 Kaffir of a South African port, or the Reservation 

 Indian of a Western State ; but the savage as he is 

 in reality, and as he may be seen to-day by any who 

 care to look upon so weird a spectacle. No study 

 from the life can compare with this in interest or in 

 pathos, nor stir so many strange emotions in the 

 mind of a thoughtful man. To sit with this incal- 

 culable creature in the heart of the great forest; to 

 live with him in his natural home as the guest of 

 Nature, to watch his ways and moods and try to 

 resolve the ceaseless mystery of his thoughts — this, 

 whether the existing savage represents the primitive 

 savage or not, is to open one of the workshops of 

 Creation and behold the half-finished product from 

 which humanity has been evolved. 



The world is getting old, but the traveller who 

 cares to follow the daybreak of Mind for himself can 

 almost do so still. Selecting a region where the 

 Wand of western civilization has scarcely reached, 



