UPON THE SERIES OP PREHISTORIC CRANIA. 259 



other skulls, male and female, which differed from them greatly in 

 size, but in no way as to the archaeological surroundings ; and that 

 there is no reason for supposing, therefore, that their smaller size is 

 to be explained by reference to any inferiority of rank which amono- 

 savages has so often been observed to entail inferiority of bulk (see 

 'British Association Report,' Bristol Meeting, 1875, pp. 150-152). 

 We are prone, as I think, by a certain confusion of thought, to 

 imagine that savage life is as unvarying and monotonous, and as 

 little relieved by alternations, as is the ' dull grey life ' of the lowest 

 ranks of highly civilised communities, and that in consequence 

 greater uniformity of physical conformation is to be expected and 

 to be found among all the members of wild and prehistoric races. 

 The assumption, and the inference based upon it, are equally unsub- 

 stantial ; savages are exposed to greater vicissitudes in their battle 

 alike with inanimate and animate forces than are the veriest out- 

 casts of civilised society; and as regards the means of meeting 

 these emergencies, compared with savages ' our basest beggars are 

 superfluous/ ' The action of the environment,' ' l'influence des 

 milieux,' counts really for more instead of for less upon savage 

 than upon civilised man ; and as a matter of fact this more potent 

 working is as distinctly verifiable upon the living modern savage 

 as it is upon a series of bones from the stone-age barrows. Mr. 

 Bates, e.g. says, when (' Naturalist on the Amazons,' vol. ii. p. 129) 

 writing of a Brazilian tribe, the Mundurucus (whom, he says 

 indeed, p. 131, it would be a misnomer to call 'savages; their 

 regular mode of life, agricultural habits, loyalty to their chiefs, 

 fidelity to treaties, and gentleness of demeanour giving them a right 

 to a better title,' but who nevertheless, on his own showing as to 

 details such as dress, &c, p. 125, appear to have owed very little to 

 civilisation and the arts) : ' The great difference in figure, shape of 

 head, and arrangement of features amongst these people struck me 

 forcibly, and showed how little uniformity there is in these respects 

 amongst the Brazilian Indians, even when belonging to the same 

 tribe. The only points in which they all closely resembled each 

 other were the long thick straight jet-black hair, the warm coppery- 

 brown tint of the skin, and the quiet rather dull expression of 

 countenance. I saw no countenance so debased in expression as 

 many seen amongst the Mura tribe, and no head of the Mongolian 

 type, broad with high cheek bones, and oblique position of the eyes, 



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