INDEPENDENT INVENTIONS. 451 



Many, again, of the ruder arts, as for instance the manu- 

 facture of pottery and of bows, are so useful, and at the same 

 time, however ingenious in idea, so simple in execution, as to 

 render it highly improbable that they would ever be lost, 

 when they had once been acquired. Yet we have seen that 

 the New Zealanders and Caffres had no bows, and that none 

 of the Polynesians had any knowledge of pottery ; though 

 it is evident from their skill in other manufactures and their 

 general state of civilisation, that they would have found no 

 difficulty in the matter, if the manner had once occurred to 

 them. Again "bolas" are a most effectual weapon, and there 

 is certainly no difficulty in making them, yet the knowledge 

 of them appears to be confined to the Patagonians and the 

 Esquimaux. There can be no doubt that the art of pottery 

 has frequently been communicated by one race to another. 

 Nevertheless, there are cases, even among existing races,* in 

 which we seem to find indications of an independent dis- 

 covery; at any rate, in which the art is in a rudimentary stage. 



On the whole, then, from a review of all these, and other 

 similar facts which might have been mentioned, it seems to 

 me most probable that many of the simpler weapons, imple- 

 ments, etc., have been invented independently by various 

 savage tribes, although there are no doubt also cases in which 

 they have been borrowed by one tribe from another. 



The contrary opinion has been adopted by many writers on 

 account of the undeniable similarity existing between the 

 weapons used by savages in very different parts of the world. 

 But however paradoxical it may sound, though the imple- 

 ments and weapons of savages are remarkably similar, they 

 are at the same time curiously different. No doubt the 

 necessaries of life are simple and similar all over the world. 

 The materials also with which man has to deal are very much 

 alike ; wood, bone, and to a certain extent stone, have every - 



* See, for instance, p. 394. 



