150 REPORT — 1869. 



magic rattle," whicli is indeed the usual emblem of authority in the American 

 pictographs. I know no case of a savage infant using the rattle as a plaything. 



Tossing halfpence, as dice, again, which used to be a sacred and solemn mode of 

 consulting the oracles, is now a mere game for children. 



So again the doll is a hybrid between the baby and the fetish, and exhibiting 

 the contradictory characters of its parents, becomes singularly unintelligible to 

 grown-up people. 



Mr. Tylor has pointed out other illustrations of this argument, and I would 

 refer those who feel interested in this part of the subject to his excellent works. 



Dancing is another case in point. With us it is a mere amusement. Among 

 savages it is an important and, in some cases, religious ceremony. " If," says 

 Robertson*, "any intercourse be necessary between two American tribes, the ambas- 

 sadors of the one approach in a solemn dance, and present the calumet or emblem, of 

 peace; the sachems of the other receive it with the same ceremony. If war is 

 denounced against an enemy, it is by a dance, expressive of the resentment which 

 they feel, and of the vengeance which they meditate. If the wrath of their gods 

 is to be appeased, or their beneficence to be celebrated, if they rejoice at the birth 

 of a child, or mourn the death of a friend, they have dances appropriated to each of 

 these situations, and suited to the different sentiments with which they are then 

 animated. If a person is indisposed, a dance is prescribed as the most effectual 

 means of restoring him to health ; and if he himself cannot endure the fatigue of 

 such an exercise, the physician or conjuror performs it in his name, as if the vii-tue 

 of his activity could be transferred to his patient." 



But it is unnecessary to multiply illustrations. Every one who has read much 

 on the subject wiU admit the remarkable similarity which 'exists between savages 

 and children. It explains the capricious treatment which so many white men have 

 received from savage potentates ; how they have been alternately petted and 

 illtreated, at one time loaded with the best of everything, at another neglected 

 or put to death. 



This close resemblance existing in ideas, language, habits, and chai-acter between 

 savages and children, though generally admitted, has usually been disposed of in 

 a passing sentence, and regarded rather as a curious accident than as an impor- 

 tant truth. Yet from several points of view it possesses a high interest. Better 

 understood, it might have saved us many national misfortunes, from the loss of 

 Captain Cook down to the Abyssinian war. It has also a direct bearing on the 

 present discussion. 



The opinion is rapidly gaining ground among naturalists, that the development 

 of the individual is an epitome of that of the species, a conclusion which, if fully 

 borne out, will evidently prove most instructive. Already many facts are on record 

 which render it, to say the least, highly probable. 



Birds of the same genus, or of closely allied genera, which, when mature, differ 

 much in colour, are often very similar when young. The yoimg of the Lion and 

 the Puma are often striped, and fcetal whales have teeth. 



Leidy has shovra that the milk-teeth of the genus Equus resemble the perma- 

 nent teeth of Anchifherium, while the milk-teeth of Anchithcritim again approxi- 

 mate to the dental system of Meri/chippus^ . Rutimeyer, while calling attention 

 to this interesting observation, adds that the milk-teeth of Eqims cahallus in the 

 same way, and still more those of E. fossilis, resemble the permanent teeth of 

 Hippariun J. 



Agassiz, according to Darwin, regards it as a "law of nature," that the young 

 states of each species and group resembles older forms of the same group ; and 

 Darwin himself says § , that "in two or more grotips of animals, however much 

 they may at first differ from each other in structure and habits, if they pass 

 through closely similar embryonic stages, we may feel almost assured that they 

 have descended from the same parent form, and are therefore closely related." 

 So also All-. Herbert Spencer says||, "Each organism exhibits, within a short 



* Eobertson's America, bk. iv. p. 133. 



t Proc. Acad. Nat. Soc. Philadelphia, 1858, p. 26. 



+ Beitrage zur kenntniss der fossilen Pferde. Basle, 1863. 



§ Origin of Species, 4th edition, p. 532. || Principles of Biology, vol. i. p. 349. 



I 



