THE RACES OF MAN. 176 



powers. The same observation has been made by archaeologists" 

 with respect to certain widely-prevalent ornaments, such as zig- 

 zags, &c.; and with respect to various simple beliefs and cus- 

 toms, such as the burying of the dead under megalithic struc- 

 tures. I remember observing in South America," that there, as 

 in so many other parts of the world, men have generally chosen 

 the summits of lofty hills, to throw up piles of stones, either as 

 a record of some remarkable event, or for burying their dead. 



Now when naturalists observe a close agreement in numerous 

 small details of habits, tastes, and dispositions between two or 

 more domestic races, or between nearly-allied natural forms, 

 they use this fact as an argument that they are descended from a 

 common progenitor who was thus endowed; and consequently 

 that all should be classed under the same species. The same 

 argument may be applied with much force to the races of man. 



As it Is improbable that the numerous and unimportant points 

 of resemblance between the several races of man in bodily struc- 

 ture and mental faculties (I do not here refer to similar customs) 

 should all have been independently acquired, they must have 

 been inherited from progenitors who had these same characters. 

 We thus gain some insight into the early state of man, before he 

 had spread step by step over the face of the earth. The spreading 

 of man to regions widely separated by the sea, no doubt, pre- 

 ceded any great amount of divergence of character In the several 

 races; for otherwise we should sometimes meet with the same 

 race in distinct continents; and this is never the case. Sir J. 

 Lubbock, after comparing the arts now practiced by savages in 

 all parts of the world, specifies those which man could not have 

 known, when he first wandered from his original birthplace; 

 for if once learnt they would never have been forgotten.^" He 

 thus shows that "the spear, which is but a development of the 

 "knife-point, and the club, which is but a long hammer, are the 

 "only things left." He admits, however, that the art of making 

 fir-e probably had been already discovered, for it is common to 

 all the^races now existing, and was known to the ancient cave- 

 inhabitants of Europe. Perhaps the art of making rude canoes 

 or rafts was likewise known; but as man existed at a remote 

 epoch, when the land in many places stood at a very different 

 level to what it does now, he would have been able, without the 

 aid of canoes, to have spread widely. Sir J. Lubbock further 

 remarks how improbable it is that our earliest ancestors could 

 have "counted as high as ten, considering that so many races 



^ Westropp, 'On Cromlechs,' &c., 'Journal of Ethnological Soc' as 

 given in 'Scientific Opinion,' June 2nd, 1869, p. 3. 

 ^ 'Journal of Researches; Voyage of the "Beagle," ' p. 46. 

 28 "Prehistoric Times,' 1869, p. 574. 



