GROWTH AND DECLINE OF CULTURE. 167 



wliicli still remain witli tlieir bearas^ planks, and panels, as it 

 were turned from wood into stone, Mr. Fergusson remarks 

 upon tlie value of suck monuments as records of tke beginning 

 of stone arckitecture among tke people wko built tkem. 

 "... wkerever tke process can be detected, it is in vain to 

 look for earlier buildings. It is only in tke infancy of stone 

 arckitecture that men adkere to wooden forms, and as soon as 

 kabit gives tkem familiarity with tke new material, tkey aban- 

 don tke incongruities of tke style, and we lose all trace of tke 

 original form, wkick never reappears at an after age.^^^ 



Tkere could kardly be a better illustration of an etknological 

 argument derived from tke mere presence of an art, tkan in 

 Marsden's remark about tke kon-smelters of Madagascar. It 

 is well known tkat tke Madagascans are connected by language 

 witk tke great Malayo-Polynesian family wkick extends kalf 

 round tke globe; but tke art of smelting iron kas only been 

 found in tke islands of tkis vast district near Eastern Asia, and 

 in Madagascar itself. Even in New Zealand, wkere tkere is 

 good iron ore, tkere was no knowledge of iron. Now at tke 

 time of oui' becoming acquainted witk tke races of Africa, in 

 central latitudes and far down into tke soutk, tkey were iron- 

 smelters, and kad been so for we know not kow long, and 

 Africa is only tkree or four kundred miles from Madagascar, 

 wkereas Sumatra is tkree or four tkousand. Nevertkeless, 

 Marsden^'s observation connects tke art in Madagascar witk tke 

 distant Eastern Arckipelago, and not Avitk tke neigkbouring 

 African continent. Tke process of smelting in small furnaces 

 or pits is muck tke same in tkese two districts, but tke bellows 

 are different. Tke African bellows consist of two skins witk 

 valves worked alternately by kand, so as to give a continuous 

 draugkt, muck tke same as tkose of modern India. Tkese 

 were not only in use among tke ancient Greeks and Eomans, 

 but are still to be found in Soutkern Europe ; I saw a wander- 

 ing tinker at work at Pee stum witk a pair of goatskins witk 

 tke kair on, wkick ke compressed alternately to drive a current 

 of air into kis fire, opening and skutting witk kis kands tke 



^ Fergnsson, ' Illustrated Handbook of ArcMtecture ; ' Loudou, 1835, toI. i. 

 pp. 148, 208, 220, etc. 



