134 PRIMEVAL MAN. 



have been, and as many think, probably have 

 been, not Primeval but Medieval, that is to 

 say, the result of time and of development, 

 and that development a development of cor- 

 ruption. To assume that they were original, 

 or that they were even better or less bar- 

 barous than others which preceded them, 

 is to assume the whole question in dispute. 

 Yet this assumption runs through all Sir J. 

 Lubbock's arguments. Wherever a brutal or 

 savage custom prevails it is at once assumed to 

 be a sample of the original condition of Man- 

 kind. And this in the teeth of facts which 

 prove that many of such customs not only 

 may have been, but must have been, the result 

 of corruption. Take cannibalism as one of 

 these. Sir J. Lubbock seems to admit that 



