TRANSACTIONS OF THE SECTIONS. 125 



iand shaken by some invisible being ; equally natural is the impulse to appeal for 

 aid to some other invisible being more powerful than the first. Mr. Haliburton 

 admits that a sneeze is " an omen of impending evil ; " but it is more — it is evi- 

 dence vrhich, to the savage mind, would seem conclusive that the sneezer was 

 possessed by some evil-disposed spirit. Evidently, therefore, this case, on which 

 Mr. Halibui'ton so muck relies, is by no means an " arbitrary custom," and does 

 not therefore fulfil the conditions which he himself laid down. He has inciden- 

 tally brought forward some other instances, most of which labour under the disad- 

 "^■antage of proving too much. Thus he instances the existence of a festival in 

 honour of the dead, "at or near the beginning of November." Such a feast is 

 very general, and as there are many more races holding such a festival than there 

 are months in the year, it is evident that in several cases they must be held to- 

 gether. But Mr. Haliburton goes on to say, " The Spaniards were very natm-ally 

 surprised at finding that, while they were celebrating a solemn mass for All Souls 

 on the 2nd of November, the heathen Peruvians were also holding their annual 

 commemoration of the dead." This curious coincidence would, however, not 

 only prove the existence of such a festival "before the dispersion" (which Mr. 

 Haliburton evidently looks on as a definite event, instead of a gi-adual process), 

 but also that men were at that epoch sufficiently advanced to form a calendar and 

 keep it unchanged down to the present time. This, however, we know was not 

 the case. Mr. Haliburton again says, " The belief in Scotland and Equatorial Africa 

 is found to be ahnost precisely identical respecting there being ghosts even of the 

 living, who are exceedinglv troublesome and pugnacious, and can be sometimes 

 killed by a silver bullet." -Here we certainly have what seems to be an arbitrary 

 belief, but if it proves that there was a belief in ghosts of the living before the 

 dispersion, it also proves that silver bullets were then in use. This illustration is, 

 I think, a very interesting one, because it shows that similar ideas in distant 

 coimtries owe their origin, not " to an era before the dispersion of the human race," 

 but to the original identity of the human mind. While I do not believe that 

 similar customs in difierent nations are " inherited from a common source," or are 

 necessarily primitive, 1 certainly do see in them an argument for the unity of the 

 human race, which, however, be it remarked in parenthesis, is not necessarily the 

 same thing as the descent from a single pair. 



. In conclusion, then, while I do not deny that there are cases in which nations 

 have retrograded, I regard these as exceptional instances. The facts and argu- 

 ments which I have here very briefly indicated might have been supported by many 

 other illustrations which I could not bring before you without unduly extending a 

 communication already somewhat too long. They, however, I think, afford strong 

 grounds for the following conclusions — namely, that existing savages are not de- 

 scendants of civilized ancestors ; that the primitive condition of man was one of 

 utter barbarism ; that from this condition several races have independently raised 

 themselves. These views follow, I think, from strictly scientific considerations. 

 We shall not, however, be the less inclined to adopt them on account of the cheer- 

 ing prospects which they hold out for the future. If the past history of man has 

 been one of deterioration, we have but a groundless expectation of future improve- 

 ment ; but, on the other hand, if the past has been one of progress, we may fairly 

 hope that the future will be so too ; that the blessings of civilization will not only 

 be extended to other countries and other nations, but that even in our own land 

 they wiU be rendered more general and more equable, so that we shall not see before 

 us always, as now, multitudes of our own fellow-countrymen living the life of 

 savages in our very midst ; neither possessing the rough advantages and real, though 

 coarse, pleasures of savage life, nor yet availing themselves of the far higher and 

 more noble opportunities which lie within the reach of civilized man. 



The Physical Oeography of Nicaragua with reference to Interoceanic Transit. 



'By Capt. M. F. Mauef. 

 The great importance of one or more good commercial highways across Central 

 America being admitted, the question resolved itself, besides cost, into a ques- 

 tion of the facilities of ingress and egi'ess by sea, to and from the opposite ter- 



