476 THE PRIMITIVE CONDITION OF MAN. 



a succession of fruits, and have lived as the monkeys do now. 

 Indeed, according to Bates, this is the case with some of the 

 Brazilian Indians. "The monkeys" he says "lead in fact 

 a life similar to that of the Pararauate Indians." Directly, 

 however, our ancestors spread into temperate climates, this 

 mode of life would become impossible, and they would be 

 compelled to seek their nourishment, in part at least, from 

 the animal kingdom. Then, if not before, the knife and tne 

 hammer would develop into the spear and the club. 



It is too often supposed that the world was peopled by a 

 series of " migrations." But migrations, properly so called, 

 are compatible only with a comparatively high state of or- 

 ganisation. Moreover, it has been observed that the geo- 

 graphical distribution of the various races of man curiously 

 coincides with that of other races of animals : and there can 

 be no doubt that man originally crept over the earth's sur- 

 face, little, by little, year by year, just for instance as the 

 weeds of Europe are now gradually but surely creeping 

 over the surface of Australia. 



The preceding argument assumes, of course, the unity of 

 the human race. It would, however, be impossible for me 

 to end this volume without saying a few words on this great 

 question. It must be admitted that the principal varieties 

 of mankind are of great antiquity. We find on the earliest 

 Egyptian monuments, some of which are certainly as ancient 

 as 2400 B.C., " two great distinct types, the Arab on the east 

 and west of Egypt, and the Negro on the south; and the 

 Egyptian type occupying a middle place between the two. 

 The representations of the monuments, although conven- 

 tional, are so extremely characteristic that it is quite impos- 

 ble to mistake them." These distinct types still predominate 

 in Egypt and the neighbouring countries. Thus, then, says 

 Mr. Poole, in this immense interval we do not find " the least 

 change in the Negro or the Arab ; and even the type which 



