TRANSACTIONS OF THE SECTIONS. 167 



irrational as to suppose that so peculiar a weapon as the boomerang, for example, 

 could have been invented independently in as many diffdrent localities as there are 

 different names for it ; nor is it reasonable to suppose that such extremely simple 

 weapons as those in use by the Australians should have spread from a common 

 centre, subsequently to the establishment of the various languages as they are now 

 spoken. The weapons of the Australian, as I have shown in my paper on Primitive 

 Warfare, published in the ' Journal of the Royal United Service Institution,' are 

 all traceable, like the languages, to primitive forms, which are the natural forms of 

 stumps and stems of trees ; like the languages they have also varied and diverged ; 

 but whilst the names for them have changed so completely as to present no signs 

 whatever of connexion in the different tribes, the weapons themselves have varied 

 so slightly as to be recognized at a glance in all parts of the Continent. Even in 

 modern times, since the introduction of vvTiting has given permanence to the lan- 

 guages and ideas of the people amongst whom it has been introduced, we find 

 instances of the comparative stability of the material emblems and forms of things 

 in the retention of pagan emblems in our own religions and those of other coun- 

 tries, and notably the employment of tire and water in our religious ceremonies, 

 which have survived with so much vitality as to be living sources of controversy 

 amongst parties, one and all of whom would utterly repudiate the ideas with which 

 these emblems were associated at their birth. 



If, then, it is evident that much of the history of our prehistoric ancestors has 

 been for ever lost to us, we may console ourselves with the refiection that in their 

 tools and weapons and other relics of their material arts the most .reliable somce 

 of evidence as to their intellectual condition has continued to our time. As to the 

 myths, religions, superstitions, and languages with which they were associated, we 

 may content ourselves by devoutly thanking Providence that they have not been 

 preserved. As it is, anthropological studies are said to have their fiiir share in the 

 creation of lunatics ; and we can easily believe that no sane intellect would have 

 survived the attempt to unravel such a complex and tangled web of difficulty as 

 the study of these subjects would have presented to our minds. 



Two other examples, with your permission, I will give for the pui-pose of illus- 

 trating the principle of variation and continuity as applied to the customs and arts 

 of savage races, and the relative superiority of material evidence in tracing the 

 changes effected by these means. The customs associated with the practice of 

 human sacrifice amongst the Konds of India have received prominent notice of 

 late years, owing to the steps which have been taken by the Government to put 

 them down. From the reports presented to the Government of India by various 

 officers, we learn that these customs vary considerably in minor points in 

 different localities. Amongst those who have written on the ethnology of India, 

 there is no one from whose accurate and scientific observation of the 

 habits of the aborigines we have derived more valuable information than Sir 

 Walter Elliot. From him we learn that similar customs prevail in every 

 village in Southern India. The village customs, however, differ from the 

 Kond rites in this important particular, which we can easily understand is the 

 reason why the resemblance between them has never been noticed by former 

 writers namely, that the practice of human sacrifice has been abandoned, and a 

 butFalo is substituted for a human victim ; in the mode of sacrificing and disposing 

 of the flesh and other matters connected with the rites, we see that these village 

 customs are in reality the modern representations of the more ancient Kond sacri- 

 fices, and that whilst an immense step has been made in the civilization of the 

 people by the abandonment of the barbarous practice of human sacrifice, the 

 parallel to which is probably seen in the account of Abraham's sacrifice in the Old 

 Testament, the continuity has been kept up by the preservation of some of the minor 

 customs which are associated with the more ancient rites. Now Sir Walter 

 Elliot tells us that these modified village sacrifices, like the older human sacrifices, 

 vary in the details in every village of S mthern India. I need hardly say how much 

 the value and accuracy of tliese studies would be promoted if we could obtain detailed 

 accounts of the varieties of these customs as they are now practised in the several 

 villages, with the causes of variation in each case ; we should by this means obtain 

 an insight into the process of development of these customs as they are now seen 



