THE SCAFFOLDING LEFT IN THE BODY 105 



buffalo-skin into a bundle, and suspending it about 

 a foot from the floor. At first this seemed to 

 suit it admirably, as it could sprawl its legs about 

 and always find some hair, which it grasped with 

 the greatest tenacity." ^ 



Whatever the value of these facts as evidence, 

 they form an interesting if slight introduction to 

 the part of the subject that lies before us. For 

 we have now to explore the Body itself for actual 

 betrayals — not mere external movements which 

 might have come as well from early Man as from 

 later animal ; but veritable physical survivals, the 

 material scaffolding itself — of the animal past. And- 

 the facts here are as numerous and as easily 

 grasped as they are authentic. As the traveller, 

 wandering in foreign lands, brings back all manner 

 of curios to remind him where he has been — clubs 

 and spears, clothes and pottery, which represent 

 the ways of life of those whom he has met — so 

 the body of Man, emerging from its age-long 

 journey through the animal kingdom, appears 

 laden with the spoils of its distant pilgrimage. 

 These relics are not mere curiosities ; they are 

 as real as the clubs and spears, the clothes and 

 pottery. Like them, they were once a part of 

 life's vicissitude ; they represent organs which have 

 ^ Malay Archipelago^ 53-5. 



