DIFFERENCES IN WEAPONS. 449 



used slings ; and the New Zealanders, besides very effec- 

 tive clubs, had numerous and extensive fortifications. It 

 is certainly most remarkable that tribes so warlike, and in 

 many respects so advanced, as the New Zealanders and 

 Caffres, should have been ignorant of bows and arrows, 

 which were used by many very low races, such as the 

 Fuegians, the Chinooks, the Andamaners, and Bushmen; 

 particularly as it is impossible to doubt that the New 

 Zealanders at least would have found bows of great use, 

 and that any of their tribes, having invented them, would 

 have had an immense advantage in the " struggle for exist- 

 ence." Other similar contrasts will strike any one who 

 examines the table ; but perhaps it may be said that some of 

 these cases may be explained by the influence of more civi- 

 lised neighbours ; that the comparison above-made, for 

 instance, might be regarded as unfair, because the New 

 Zealanders were an isolated race, while the Chinooks might 

 have derived their knowledge of bows and arrows from the 

 eastern tribes, and these again might have acquired the art 

 of making pottery from the semi- civilised nations of the 

 south. No one can deny that this may be true in some 

 instances, because we know that at the present day most 

 savages possess hatchets, knives, beads, etc., which they have 

 received from traders, and which they cannot yet manufac- 

 ture for themselves. 



It is certainly possible that the Chinooks may have derived 

 their knowledge of the bow from their northern neighbours ; 

 but we can hardly suppose that they did so from the Red 

 Indian tribes to the east, because in that case it is difficult to 

 understand why they should not also have learnt from these 

 the much simpler, and almost equally useful, art of making 

 pottery. Moreover there are some cases in which any such 

 idea is absolutely out of the question ; thus, the throwing 

 stick is used by the Esquimaux, the Australians, and some 



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