THE MIND OF SAVAGES. ^6^ 



J^O 



life of wild savages and of children.^^ At the lowest 

 stage of human mental development are the Australians, 

 some tribes of the Polynesians, and the Bushmen, Hotten- 

 tots, and some of the Negro tribes. Language, the chief 

 characteristic of genuine men, has with them remained at the 

 lowest stage of development, and hence also their formation 

 of ideas has remained at a low stage. Many of these wild 

 tribes have not even a name for animal, plant, colour, and 

 such most simple ideas, whereas they have a word for every 

 single, striking forifYi of animal and plant, and for every 

 single sound or colour. Thus even the most simple 

 abstractions are wanting. In many of these languages 

 there are numerals only for one, two, and three : no Austra- 

 lian language counts beyond four. Very many wild tribes 

 can count no further than ten or twenty, whereas some very 

 clever dogs have been made to count up to forty and even 

 beyond sixty. And yet the facvdty of appreciating number 

 is the beginning of mathematics ! Nothing, however, is per- 

 haps more remarkable in this respect, than that some of the 

 wildest tribes in southern Asia and eastern Africa have no 

 trace whatever of the first foundations of all human civiliz- 

 ation, of family life, and marriage. They live together in 

 herds, like apes, generally climbing on trees and eating 

 fruits ; they do not know of fire, and use stones and clubs as 

 weapons, just like the higher apes. All attempts to intro- 

 duce civilization among these, and many of the other tribes 

 of the lowest human species, have hitherto been of no 

 avail'; it is impossible to implant human culture where 

 the requisite soil, namely, the perfecting of the brain, is 

 wanting. Not one of these tribes has ever been ennobled 

 by civilization ; it rather accelerates their extinction. 



