THE ORIGIN OF TRADITION 425 



tradition. The remarkable change which at a certain period 

 supervenes in the organization of society and to which reference 

 has been made above, has as far-reaching effects in affecting 

 stimulus to skill as it has in facilitating the transmission of 

 tradition. Again we may leave the consideration of this point 

 until we have described the nature of this change. It is clear, 

 however, that the presence of other men is on the whole a stimulus, 

 though not in itself an important stimulus, so long as tradition is 

 fairly uniform. Nevertheless the more contact there is, on the 

 whole the more stimulus there is. ' There be thoughts ', wrote 

 Maitland, ' which only come to men when they be tightly packed.' ^ 

 But it is when traditions of different quality come into contact 

 that the stimulus becomes important. Where this happens, we 

 have to distinguish two things. There is the passing over of the 

 elements peculiar to each tradition to the other tradition and 

 there is the stimulus which the mere contact affords. 



The passing over of elements of one tradition to another and 

 the stimulus afforded go more or less together. Under certain 

 circumstances there is no passing over and there is no stimulus, 

 or at least they are reduced to a minimum. This sometimes 

 happens when two cultures varying very markedly one from 

 the other come into contact — one being distinguished by the 

 possession of a far higher degree of skill than the other. The less 

 skilled race is driven from its territory, and if it survives it is 

 because certain areas of its territory are relatively infertile to 

 the higher skill of the conquering race. A remnant of the less 

 skilled race survives in some corner of its former territory and 

 reaches a modus vivendi with the dominant race. This modus vivendi 

 may take the form of an almost complete disregard of one race for 

 the other; no influence is exerted by one on the other; little, if any- 

 thing, is absorbed from the other tradition. Some such condition 

 was reached as between the Veddahs, the Todas, the Central 

 African pygmies, and the races respectively surrounding them. 



In order that the contact should be effective it is necessary 

 that the differences between the cultures should not be too great. 

 It is most effective in such a region as Western Asia where in 

 close proximity there are several areas varying markedly one from 

 another. In such a region there will grow up, owing to the 

 variations in fertility, somewhat different traditions. These 



» Quoted by Fisher, Soc. Rev., vol. i, p. Gl. 



