PEIMITIVE AGEICULTURAL RACES 163 



the use of the plough does not spread towards the west, south of 

 the latitude of Lake Chad ; towards the east it extends farther 

 south, and on this account the Gallas, Somalis, and Abyssinians 

 can scarcely be considered as representative of the second group 

 of races. ^ The pecuharity of the Oceanic region is that many of 

 the races now found there undoubtedly migrated from some 

 point on or close to the Asiatic coast after Eur- Asiatic culture had 

 reached a high degree of development. Nevertheless they are 

 for the most part ignorant of the use of metal and of the plough. ^ 

 The Dyaks are metal users and the plough is known in parts of 

 Borneo. We shall not on this account, however, exclude the 

 Dyaks from consideration here. The true Malays on the other 

 hand will be excluded ; they are Mohammedans and, originally 

 located in Sumatra, spread in the twelfth century over a large 

 part of this area. On the fringe of Asia are a number of races 

 which, though in a broad survey are of no great importance, 

 may be noticed here. Such are the Ostiaks, Yakuts, Chuckchees, 

 Samoyeds, and so on.^ What races are dealt with here may be 

 made more clear by a reference to those which will be considered 

 in Chapters X and XI. In those chapters we shall consider the 

 ancient empires, the classical races, mediaeval and modern Europe 

 and its derivatives as well as the chief races of Asia, whether 

 pastoral such as the Arabs or existing by a higher form of agri- 

 culture than that practised by the races to be noticed here. In 

 this manner we shall obtain a broad view of the conditions both 

 before and after the rise of Eur- Asiatic civiHzation. 



It is obvious that we have before us a very large mass of material 

 — too large, in fact, to be dealt with without further subdivision. 

 It might seem that the only reasonable course is to distinguish 

 between various grades of agricultural progress, and to consider 

 in turn those races which fall into each grade. Such distinctions 

 have been made by Professor Hobhouse and his collaborators, 

 who recognize three grades of agriculture and two grades of 

 pastoral nomadism. As has already been indicated, we do not 



• The influence of different phases of Eur-Asiatic culture upon the races of 

 Africa must be borne in mind. Early Egyptian civilization exerted great influence 

 and so at a later date did the Semitic — especially on the east coast ; since the time 

 of Mohammed the influence of Eur-Asiatic culture has been marked among the 

 more northern of the negroid races. The inhabitants of Bomu were, for instance, 

 converted to Islam in the eleventh century. 



^ They may have had a knowledge of iron before the migration (see Thomson, 

 Fijians, p. 11). ' The Samoyeds formerly worked iron but have now lost the 



art — obtaining what they want from the Russians. 



L 2 



