145 
in the Highlands of Scotland; traps for catching animals, 
&c., &c.—have all been so very permanent from age to age, 
and some of them of identical patterns, are so widely spread 
over the globe as to render it probable that they were all, at 
least in some degree, derived from one source. 
“The African traditions, which seem possessed of the same 
unchangeability as the arts to which they relate, like those of 
all other nations, refer their origin to a superior Being, and 
it is much more reasonable to receive the hints given in 
Genesis, concerning direct instruction from God to our first 
parents or their children in religious or moral duties, and 
probably in the knowledge of the arts of life (Gen. i. 21-23, 
‘Make coats of skins and clothe them.’. ‘Sent him forth to 
till the ground,’—implying teaching), than to give credence 
to the theory that untaught savage man subsisted in a state 
which would prove fatal to all his descendants, and that, in 
such a helpless state, he made many inventions, which 
most of his progeny retained, but never improved upon, 
during some thirty centuries.” 
Charles Brooke, afterwards Rajah of Sarawak, in his 
work, Ten Years in Sarawak (pp. 48-51), says, with regard 
to the Dyaks of Borneo, ‘‘ Among their present habitats the 
remains of former villages, possessing inhabitants of a far 
higher state of civilisation, are frequently being found. 
“Several have been dug up since the publishing of Mr. 
St. John’s book, in which he describes a few antiquities * 
which had been disinterred near Sarawak, and not only have 
they been found there, but also far in the interior, showing 
that a high state of civilisation once existed. The natives 
also employ a very ingenious mechanical contrivance for 
creating fire by means of the exhaustion of air called a 
‘ besi api.’ 
“One is surprised,’ says Mr. Brooke, ‘to meet with this 
and other scientific appliances in common use amongst the 
inhabitants of these lands, who even eat with their fingers, and 
possess other habits which give them the name of demoniacal 
cut-throats. 
“They are far superior to the New Zealanders in many of 
the useful accomplishments ; anda question often arises in the 
mind whether it be the dusky remains of olden civilisation or 
the dawning of day consequent on an improved and progress- 
ing state of spontaneous development. If I were to reason on 
the subject, the facts produced would tend to support the 
previous idea—namely, that these tribes are the offshoots of 
* Chiefly gold ornaments. 
v & 
