204 ' THE DESCENT OF MAN. 



has been made by archaeologists * with respect to certain 

 widely-prevalent ornaments,, such as zig-zags, etc.; and 

 with respect to various simple beliefs and customs, such as 

 the burying of the dead under megalithic structures. I 

 remember observing in South America f that there, as in 

 BO many other parts of the world, men have generally 

 chosen the summits of lofty hills to throw up piles of 

 stones, either as a record of some remarkable event, or for 

 burying their dead. 



Now when naturalists observe a close agreement in 

 numerous small details of habits, tastes, and dispositions 

 between two or more domestic races, or between nearly 

 allied natural forms, they use this fact as an argument that 

 they are descended from a common progenitor who was 

 thus endowed; and consequently that all should be classed 

 under the same species. The same argument may be 

 applied with much force to the races of man. 



As it is improbable that the numerous and unimportant 

 points of resemblance between the several races of man in 

 bodily structure and mental faculties (I do not here refer to 

 similar customs) should all have been independently 

 acquired, they must have been inherited from progenitors 

 who had these same characters. We thus gain some insight 

 into the early state of man, before he had spread step by 

 step over the face of the earth. The spreading of man to 

 regions widely separated by the sea, no doubt, preceded any 

 great amount of divergence of character in the several 

 races; for otherwise we should sometimes meet with the 

 same race in distinct continents; and this is never the case. 

 Sir J. Lubbock, after comparing the arts now practiced by 

 savages in all parts of the world, specifies those which man 

 could not have known, when he first wandered from his 

 original birthplace; for if once learned they would never 

 have been forgotten.^ He thus shows that "the spear, 

 which is but a development of the knife-point, and the 

 club, which is but a long hammer, are the only things left/' 

 He admits, however, that the art of making fire probably 

 had been already discovered, for it is common to all the 



* Westropp, " On Cromlechs," etc., " Journal of Ethnological Soc.," 

 as given in " Scientific Opinion," June 2, 1869, p. 3. 



f "Journal of Researches; Voyage of the ' Beagle,' " p. 46. 

 "Prehistoric Times," 1869, p. 574. 



