THE UNITY OF THE HUMAN SPECIES. 563 



animal figures — monkeys and crocodiles. The tapirs were rudely exe- 

 cuted. Other vases had Grecian decoration, like meanders, and com- 

 binations of lines entirely strange to the Indians of South America, 

 and, if one is permitted a comparison, it is necessary to go as far north 

 as Yucatan to find them. 



Finally, the human bones colored red are encountered frequently in 

 tbe ancient sepulchers of Australia,^ and we know that this usage was 

 general among a great number of tribes belonging to the Papuans and 

 the Melanesian group. 



The conclusion of this part of our study is easy. The accumulated 

 proof renders it incontestable that the funeral rite of cleaning the bones 

 and coloring them red was practiced in different countries widely sepa- 

 rated by sea or desert. Thucydides says the history of a people is to 

 be sought in their tombs. In the cases cited, the tomb has responded 

 and has thrown a clear light on the earliest origin of" the rite, and at 

 the same time on the common origin of man. A question arising from 

 these facts is, whether they relate to religious or funeral rites. But 

 this is comparatively of small importance. It was surely a custom of 

 the unknown ancestors of these peoples, transmitted from generation to 

 generation. These facts do not allow us to say that primitive life was 

 everywhere the same, nor that if the productions of men are every- 

 where the same, they are always to satisfy the same needs. In the 

 strange rite that we have recounted, a rite which has required much 

 thought and multiplied cares and which one can believe were strange 

 to barbarous and nomadic races, it is not a question of similar needs 

 growing out of similar creations. In order to find a solution it is neces- 

 sary to seek higher and farther; it is the identity of the genius of man 

 in all times and in all regions that should be inquired of, and it is only 

 there tliat it can be found.^ 



The mysterious Swastika sign, born in undefined regions and rapidly 

 extended over the entire world, goes to support this hypothesis. We 

 will seek the lessons it teaches. 



For a long time the Swastika (the croix gammee, a greek cross, with 

 arms bent to the right at right angles) has been regarded as an Aryan 

 sign, even the Aryan sign par excellence. From this, or from its 

 apparent place of origin, the name Indian (East Indian) has been given 

 it, a name difficult at present to maintain because of the daily dis- 

 coveries of its diffusion or spread among absolute strangers to the 

 Aryan race.^ 



'Cartailhac, Mat(^riaux, 1886, p. 441. 



"J. McGuire, Classification and Development of Primitive Implements. Amer. 

 Anthrop., July, 1896. 



^The literature upon the Swastika has increased in late years until it has become a 

 library. In 1889 Count Goblet d'Alviella made a communication to the Eoyal Acad- 

 emy of Belgium entitled La croix gammee, or Swastika. It has since been enlarged 

 and published under the title La migration des Symboles, Paris, 1891. An English 

 translation ai^peared with an introduction and note by Sir C Birdwood. Among 



