vin THE HUMAN EACES 355 



living in cold climates have learnt to protect themselves against 

 thejloss of heat by means of clothes. The famous ethnologist, 

 F. Ratzel, tells us that the comparison of races living in a state 

 of nature in cold countries and the inhabitants of the temperate 

 zones does but show how seldom necessity that greatest of 

 teachers has succeeded in making these primitive peoples under- 

 stand how to counteract the effects of their unfavourable environ- 

 ment. The inhabitants of the east coast of Tierra del Fuego wear 

 cloaks of lama skins, and those of the west coast seal skins, 

 whereas the tribes of Wollaston Island wear no other protection 

 against an equally cold climate than the skin of beaver or 

 some other small animal, about the size of a pocket-handkerchief, 

 which they fasten across the chest with straps, and many do not 

 even wear this very primitive garment. Darwin saw inhabitants 

 of Tierra del Fuego in canoes a woman amongst them who were 

 absolutely naked. It was raining fast, and they were drenched 

 with the rain and the water dashed up by the oars. Ethnologists 

 consider that the use of clothes originated more for the gratifica- 

 tion of psychic requirements or tendencies than for protection 

 against cold, and more from a desire to adorn the body (an 

 aesthetic sense found everywhere and deeply rooted in human 

 nature) than from the desire to conceal the sexual organs (a sense 

 of modesty). 



We now pass on to the consideration of the means of nutri- 

 tion used by the human race in various countries. As we 

 have already seen in Chapter III. of this volume, man may be 

 regarded as omnivorous ; and the more we consider the various 

 substances eaten by different races the more applicable does this 

 adjective appear. 



C. Letourneau (1880) considers that man began by being 

 frugivorous ; he became omnivorous as soon as he learnt the 

 use of fire and how to cook his food. In our day, when man is 

 cosmopolitan, the savage is frugivorous in the tropics, and tends 

 to become carnivorous the farther north he goes. Even in the 

 Arctic regions, however, the liking for vegetable food does not 

 disappear, for we find that the Eskimo regards the undigested 

 vegetable food found in the stomach of the reindeer as a great 

 delicacy. 



Whilst the Hottentots and Bush peoples devour animals which 

 have only just been killed, and are sometimes even still alive, 

 without cooking them, many other uncivilised peoples are in the 

 habit of cooking their food. This habit has developed gradually 

 amongst different races quite independently of one another, as is 

 seen by the widespread use of pots and pans. 



The art of bread-making, for instance, the greatest of all 

 culinary inventions, arose independently in different parts of the 

 world ; some races to whom agriculture is still unknown yet make 



