174 THE DESCENT OF MAN. 



skulls. If the races of man had descended, as Is supposed by 

 some naturalists, from two or more species, which differed from 

 each other as much, or nearly as much, as does the orang from 

 the gorilla, it can hardly he doubted that marked differences in 

 the structure of certain bones would still be discoverable in man 

 as he now exists. 



Although the existing races of man differ in many respects, as 

 in color, hair, shape of skull, proportions of the body, &c., yet 

 if their whole structure be taken into consideration they are 

 found to resemble each other closely in a multitude of points. 

 Many of these are so unimportant or of so singular a nature, 

 that it is extremely improbable that they should have been inde- 

 pendently acquired by aboriginally distinct species or races. The 

 same remark holds good with equal or greater force with respect 

 to the numerous points of mental similarity between the most 

 distinct races of man. The American aborigines, Negroes and 

 Europeans are as different from each other in mind as any three 

 races that can be named; yet I was incessantly struck, whilst 

 living with the Fuegians on board the "Beagle," with the many 

 little traits of character, showing how similar their minds were 

 to ours; and so it was 'vith a full-blooded negro with whom I 

 happened once to be intimate. 



He who will read Mr. Tylor's and Sir J. Lubbock's interesting 

 works-* can hardly fail to be deeply impressed with the close 

 similarity between the men of all races in tastes, dispositions and 

 habits. This is shown by the pleasure which they all take in 

 dancing, rude music, acting, painting, tattooing, and otherwise 

 decorating themselves; in their mutual comprehension of ges- 

 ture-language, by the same expression in their features, and by 

 the same inarticulate cries, when excited by the same emotions. 

 This similarity, or rather identity, is striking, when contrasted 

 with the different expressions and cries made by distinct species 

 of monkeys. There is good evidence that the art of shooting 

 with bows and arrows has not been handed down from any 

 common progenitor of mankind, yet as Westropp and Nilsson 

 have remarked,^'^ the stone arrow-heads, brought from the most 

 distant parts of the world, and manufactured at the most remote 

 periods, are almost identical; and this fact can only be accounted 

 for by the various races having similar inventive or mental 



=* Tylor's 'Eaxly History oL Mankind,' 1865; with respect to gesture- 

 language, see p. 54. Lubbock's 'Prehistoric Times,' 2nd edit. 1869, 



^ 'On Analogous Forms ol Implements,' in 'Memoirs of Anthropolog. 

 Soc.,' by H. M. Westropp. 'The Primitive Inhabitants of Scandi- 

 navia,' Eng. translat. edited by Sir J. Lubbock, 1SB8, p. 104. 



