SECT. IV.] DESCENT FROM A SINGLE PAIE. 201 



Sea and the Indus ; the Finns as autochthons on both sides of 

 the Ural ; the Turks as autochthons on the Altai and in the 

 north-west of Thibet. 



Though the above theories are inadmissible, we must be careful 

 not to fall into the opposite error of deriving all human races from 

 one spot, the paradise usually placed in south-western Asia, 

 and attempting to indicate the course of their original migra- 

 tions. We can only speak of the relatively oldest migrations, 

 without asserting whether or not the countries to which they 

 emigrated were already populated before their arrival. Liiken 1 

 has committed this error; nor has Latham, cautious as he 

 usually is, remained free from it. It is under the influence 

 of such ideas that he makes the Austral-Negroes and the 

 Par/uas occupy their present districts in remote times ; makes 

 the Australians migrate across Timur from south Asia into New 

 Holland; lets the Polynesians and Micronesians follow them 

 in the South Sea from the present Malay regions, and is much 

 inclined to consider all these different stocks identical in 

 their origin. He deserves consideration, however, when he 

 observes, 2 that primary migrations of peoples are always pro- 

 bable where we as, for instance, with the Hottentots, Lapps, 

 Celts in Ireland have extreme localities before us which are 

 very remote from the supposed centre and starting point of 

 the migration. 



As it was formerly traditionally assumed that mankind de- 

 scended from one pair, it was but natural to look for the cradle 

 of humanity, to inquire how the original stocks became divided, 

 and what roads they took when they left their original dwelling 

 place to search for new localities. In modern times many au- 

 thors have attempted positive counter-proofs. Eudolphi 3 has 

 pointed out the difficulties under which the assumption laboured, 

 that the distribution of mankind over the globe had only pro- 

 ceeded from one spot. These difficulties are manifestly nowhere 

 so great as in the South Sea ; and yet even there it can be 

 satisfactorily shown that they are not unsurmountable. Not 

 to become tedious, we would here only mention that Japanese 



1 " D. Einheit des MenschengescnL," 1845. 



2 " Man and his migrations," p. 157, 1850. 



3 " Beitrage zur Anthropol./' p. 150, 1812. 



