Kinship of Man with Animals 159 
the legend, “the Creator began to raise up the people and nations 
that are in that region, making one of each nation of clay, and 
painting the dresses that each one was to wear; those that were to 
wear their hair, with hair, and those that were to be shorn, with hair 
cut. And to each nation was given the language, that was to be 
spoken, and the songs to be sung, and the seeds and food that they 
were to sow. When the Creator had finished painting and making 
the said nations and figures of clay, he gave life and soul to each 
one, as well men as women, and ordered that they should pass under 
the earth. Thence each nation came up in the places to which he 
ordered them to go’.” 
These examples suffice to prove that the theory of the creation of 
man out of dust or clay has been current among savages in many 
parts of the world. But it is by no means the only explanation which 
the savage philosopher has given of the beginnings of human life on 
earth. Struck by the resemblances which may be traced between 
himself and the beasts, he has often supposed, like Darwin himself, 
that mankind has been developed out of lower forms of animal life. 
For the simple savage has none of that high notion of the transcendant 
dignity of man which makes so many superior persons shrink with 
horror from the suggestion that they are distant cousins of the 
brutes. He on the contrary is not too proud to own his humble 
relations; indeed his difficulty often is to perceive the distinction 
between him and them. Questioned by a missionary, a Bushman of 
more than average intelligence “could not state any difference 
between a man and a brute—he did not know but a buffalo might 
shoot with bows and arrows as well as a man, if it had them?” When 
the Russians first landed on one of the Alaskan islands, the natives 
took them for cuttle-fish “on account of the buttons on their clothes*.” 
The Giliaks of the Amoor think that the outward form and size of an 
animal are only apparent; in substance every beast is a real man, 
just like a Giliak himself, only endowed with an intelligence and 
strength, which often surpass those of mere ordinary human beings‘. 
The Borororos, an Indian tribe of Brazil, will have it that they are 
parrots of a gorgeous red plumage which live in their native forests. 
Accordingly they treat the birds as their fellow-tribesmen, keeping 
them in captivity, refusing to eat their flesh, and mourning for them 
when they die‘. 
1B. J. Payne, History of the New World called America, 1. (Oxford, 1892), p. 462. 
2 Rev. John Campbell, Travels in South Africa (London, 1822), 1. p. 34, 
3 I. Petroff, Report on the Population, Industries, and Resources of Alaska, p. 145. 
4 L. Sternberg, “Die Religion der Giljaken,” Archiv fir Religionswissenschaft, vitt. 
(1905), p. 248. : 
5K. von den Steinen, Unter den Naturvilkern Zentral-Brasiliens (Berlin, 1894), 
Pp. 352 sq., 512. 
