44 "^HE COMING OF MAN 



lowest existing men. The thigh-bone shows that pithecanthro- 

 pus could have stood and walked erect quite comfortably. 

 There has been and still is much difference of opinion as to 

 the exact position of this interesting being. Opinion was 

 long divided nearly equally between those who considered 

 it as the highest ape and others who held it to be the very low- 

 est man. 



Whether we think that pithecanthropus was approaching 

 or had already passed the threshold of manhood depends much 

 upon where we draw the line between ape and man, a line 

 largely artificial and as difficult to fix as the day and hour 

 when the youth becomes of age; and what .human characteris- 

 tics we select to mark it. In his erect posture and some other 

 physical traits he seems already to have attained manhood, 

 mentally he was probably inferior to even the lowest savage 

 races of to-day. 



Says Osbom: '^ Certainly Java was then a part of the 

 Asiatic continent and herds of great mammals roamed freely 

 over the plains from the foot-hills of the Himalaya Moun- 

 tains to the borders of the ancient Trinil River while simi- 

 lar apes inhabited the forest. At this time the orang may 

 have entered the forests of Borneo, which are at present its 

 home." ^ 



We have seen that the anthropoid apes went southward into 

 the Malay Peninsula or turned westward and then southward 

 into Africa. The Negritos, the most primitive human peoples, 

 are found to-day in India and the islands of the Malay Archi- 

 pelago; v/hile another branch became the pigmies of the forests 

 of central Africa. The negroid tribes seem to have followed 

 the same courses. It was the line of least resistance leading 

 to lands where food was abundant, climate kindly and life 

 easy. To this environment and its modes of life and few de- 

 mands they cheerfully conformed. 



Migration from the Iranian Plateau is open in all directions.^ 



^24:77. 

 H. 676. 

 4 55 •■ 18. 184. 



