6 Timehn 



after floods or dug up in gold-washing, thus proving that even here the 

 people existed for ages before thearrival of Europeans. It is, however, 

 plain that the migrations must have been numerous, and that some were 

 by land and others by water. There are suggestions that the general 

 course from north to south was sometimes reversed, for Humboldt speaks 

 of tribes then in Venezuela having come from the Essequebo and Serbice. 

 We may safely state that man was first a nomad everywhere, but at the 

 same time there must have been a high civilisation in some part of 

 tropical America to allow of the inventions connected with cassava, 

 which, of course, could not have been developed by wandering tribes who 

 grew nothing. What they were like when they had no cassava or maize 

 is told by some of the early voyagers wrecked on the shores of what is 

 now the Argentine ; the natives were far worse ofF than the Caribs for a 

 scanty supply of natural game, roots and fruits, necessarily meant a small 

 population and little meat. Even foes to conquer were few and far 

 between, and if these people had found villages like what there were in 

 our North-west they would have danced for joy as they feasted. Few of 

 us can appreciate the conditions under which a feast was so rare that it 

 could be memorised for life. Those who get regular meals forget what 

 they had for dinner a few days ago, but if the feast came once only in a 

 life-time it would not only be something to remember by the individual 

 but to be told to his children. Even nowadays a feast is remembered 

 by a child in connection with a party where there is often dancing. 

 Many poor children remember best occasions where they have eaten their 

 fill, but such starvation as was once common is now quite unknown. 

 And this was not like present conditions when one man feasts and 

 another suffers from want, but universal want over large areas. All our 

 progress has been due to the better distribution of food, and we have to 

 look forward to a time when there will be no need for a feast because 

 everyone will get regular meals. 



Those who want to formulate reasons for the pictured rocks are liable 

 to forget that they do not stand alone. We must group together all 

 the carvings, modellings and paintings, as well as the textile work and 

 ask why pictures are made at all. Much of the Indian work can be 

 admired, and even where it is grotesque it is not very different from the 

 gargoyles of English Churches and the old carvings on church benches. 

 Indian tattooing is well-done and I have been informed that there is 

 Borne meaning in it ; the man is marked as a great drinker ami the 

 woman as expert in making the drinks. If this be so we have here a 

 suggestion of memorising feasts. Face and body painting is elaborate 

 and the figures as plain as those on queyus and baskets. These are, 

 however, geometrical, but we have figured pottery and carved benches 

 where human and animal forms are recognisable. As for colour the 

 aprons and feather work show that they were artists in conventional 

 ways. Even the stone implements are sometimes carved with heads of 

 game beasts suggesting possible ideas of overcoming an animal by 

 striking it with a figure like itself. There is no need for any elabor- 

 ate theory for pictured rocks that will not include carving, moulding and 



