88 PRIMEVAL MAN. 



we may from other sources, all our know- 

 ledge of their origin and growth, how much 

 more is this true of far distant lands over 

 which the advancing tide of human population 

 had rolled, or was then rolling its mysterious 

 wave ? If the most ancient and the most 

 sacred literature in the world tells us so 

 little of the early history of the men who 

 lived and flourished on the banks of the 

 Euphrates, the Tigris, or the Nile, what 

 information can we expect to find in it 

 respecting those who were probably already 

 settled on the Indus and the Ganges, or 

 were spreading along the banks of the 

 Brahmaputra and of the Yellow River ? 

 What of those tribes who were following 

 the Volga and the Oxus, or the Danube 



