12 Elliot SMITH, Distribution of Mnn unification. 



the classical example 2 ; but I know of no other which has 

 been so critically studied and so fully recorded as Mrs. 

 Nuttall's case. 



But the difficulty may be raised — as in fact invariably 

 happens when these subjects come up for discussion — as 

 to the means of transmission. Rivers has explained what 

 does actually happen in the contact of peoples (68) and 

 how a small group of wanderers bringing the elements of 

 a higher culture can exert a profound and far-reaching 

 influence upon a large uncultured population (64 to 70). 



Lane-Fox's [Pitt Rivers'] memoir " on Early Modes 

 of Navigation " (21) not only affords in itself an admirable 

 summary of the definite evidence for the spread of culture ; 

 but is also doubly valuable to us, because incidentally it 

 illustrates also the actual means by which the migrations 

 of the culture-bearers took place. The survival into modern 

 times, upon the Hooghly and other Indian rivers, of boats 

 provided with the fantastic steering arrangement used 

 by the Ancient Egyptians 2000 years B.C., is in itself a 

 ,proof of ancient Egyptian influence in India ; and the 

 contemporary practice of representing eyes upon the bow 

 of the ship enables us to demonstrate a still wider exten- 

 sion of that influence, for in modern times that custom 

 has been recorded as far apart as Malta, India, China, 

 Oceania and the North-West American coast. 



But there is no difficulty about the question of the 



2 Tylor (" On the Game of Patolli," Journ. Anthrop. Inst. , Vol. VIII. , 

 1879, P- I2 8) cites another certain case of borrowing on the part of pre- 

 Columbian America from Asia. " Lot-backgammon as represented by tab, 

 pachisi, etc., ranges in the Old World from Egypt across Southern Asia to 

 Birma. As the patolli of the Mexicans is a variety of lot-backgammon most 

 nearly approaching the Hindu pachisi, and perhaps like it passing into the 

 stage of dice-backgammon, its presence seems to prove that it had made its 

 way across from Asia. At any rate, it may be reckoned among elements of 

 Asiatic culture traceable in the old Mexican civilization, the high develop- 

 ment of which . . . seems to be in large measure due to Asiatic influence." 



