ORIGIN OF MECHANICAL ARTS. I4I 



the Mandans had " raised themselves " from 

 a more savage condition, without any teaching 

 from more civiHzed races, there could be no 

 record of the fact. The same objection 

 applies to the demand made by Whately as 

 regards all other races among whom different 

 mechanical arts have been found established. 

 It is impossible by counter assertions to settle 

 dogmatically the origin of such arts, and the 

 absence of recorded cases of indigenous ad- 

 vance is itself rather favourable than adverse 

 to the theory of those who assert that such 

 advance is possible, and has actually taken 

 place. It is precisely when this advance has 

 been most strictly indigenous that the pre- 

 servation of the fact by record would become 

 impossible. 



