390 ETHNOLOGY 



I shall conclude with the following quotation from my paper on Isle 

 Eoyale, to which I have already had occasion to refer : 



" The discoveries on Isle Eoyale throw a new light on the character 

 of the ' mound-builders ;' giving us a totally distinct conception of them, 

 and dignifying them with something of the prowess and spirit of adven- 

 ture which we associate with the higher races. The copjjer, the result 

 of their mining, to be available, must, in all probabilty, have been con- 

 v^eyed in vessels, great or small, across a stormy and treacherous sea, 

 whose dangers are formidable to us now, being dreaded by even our 

 largest craft, and often proving their destruction. Leaving their homes, 

 those men dared to face the unknown, to brave the hardships and perils 

 of the deep and of the wilderness, actuated by an ambition which we 

 to-day would not be ashamed to acknowledge." 



The question will not fail to suggest itself, Were these vast opera- 

 tions accomplished through slave-labor 1 That a conquered people were 

 kept at this isolated place by their victors, and in this thraldom obliged 

 to work the copper- mines,^ is an opinion, however, which " cannot be 

 received without. further confirmation." 



THE LEIPSIC *' MUSEUM OF ETHNOJiOGY." 



Condensed from " Extra- Beilage su No. i04 der wissenscliaftliclien Beilage der Leipdge)' 

 Zeitmig," (translated for the Smithsonian Institution by Mr. Arthur Schott,) and from 

 '^Erster Bericht des Museums fiir Volkerkunde in Lei])zig, 1873." 



By Otis T. Mason. 



The science which has man for its object stands in a relation to aux- 

 iliary sciences somewhat similar to that of a statue to its underlying 

 base ; it can be lifted to its position only after they are ready to receive 

 it, and then, though towering above them, is supported by them. Slowly 

 and with painful care must these foundation-stones have been wrought out 

 and set in place. Flaws in the material, faults in plan, and mistakes in 

 execution have more than once compelled the builders of the past to tear 

 down the whole structure and to commence anew. It is for us to inquire 

 whether we are even now prepared to make a systematic arrangement 

 of the facts respecting the human race, and to put in order those objects 

 which illustrate the somatical and psychical constitution of man as well 

 as his manners and customs. 



We are quite sure that neither an ethnological scheme nor a museum 

 of universal ethnology could have been possible at any previous age of 

 the world, although we have abundant evidence to prov<^. that thought- 

 ful men, bringing to the investigation the peculiar spirit of their times, 

 have always considered the study of man himself to be the worthiest of 

 all pursuits. 



Nor can we now hope to make an exhaustive arrangement of the 



