646 THE ORIGIN OF AFRICAN CIVILIZATIONS. 



with the exception of Egypt, so woefully limited in extent of territory, 

 never developed a civilization peculiarly its own, because it lacked a 

 hinterland. The Sahara interposed its desert barrier. Mediterranean 

 forms of civilization failed to exert influence upon the Sudan races for 

 the same reason that the Hottentots lacked many an African element 

 of East Indian civilization. In the latter case, too, a Sahara interferes, 

 the Kalahari Desert. The east side, then, is the open door of the 

 African continent. If it was so hard to penetrate to the interior from 

 the west, while the east side never offered real difficulties, it was because 

 advance from the west was tantamount to " swimming against the tide." 

 So the picture of the contraction or repression of the area of Malay o- 

 Negrito culture dispersion as a mechanical process stands clearly 

 revealed before us. 



But the essential factor in these processes lies deeper, in the nature 

 of the civilization, in its physiologic structure. If we consider the 

 peculiarity of the Malayo- Negrito culture elements dependent upon 

 the material, we see vegetable substances everywhere. Witness 

 the shields, the bow, the drums, the stringed instruments, the cos- 

 tumes. But the prominence of vegetable material in all the manifesta- 

 tions of Malayo-Negrito culture is less noteworthy than the lack of 

 animal substances. The only exceptions are shells, fish bones, feathers, 

 and lizard skins, that is to say, material of minor consequence, such as 

 is within the reach of all island races. On the other hand, look at the 

 culture forms of East, North, and South Africa — everywhere decidedly 

 preponderating use of hides, sinew, hair. We can discern the deeper 

 law of the distribution of these two forms of civilization; wherever 

 Malayo-Negrito culture still exists, cattle breeding is not carried on to 

 any great extent. (Goats need not enter into the account.) However 

 we have not yet reached the fundamental explanation. 



An examination of Malayo-Negrito characteristics with a view to 

 origin and development points to definite plants. It is not possible 

 for me to substantiate this statement here, lacking, as I do, space and 

 illustrations. Among weapons the bow, among smoking utensils the 

 Malayo-Negrito pipe indicates evolution from the bamboo. This 

 material, which plays so gigantic a role in the economy of Malayo- 

 Negrito Oceania, is replaced in Africa, often very inadequately, by ribs 

 of banana leaves and leaf stems of the bamboo palm, or Raphia vinifera. 

 Study of plant geography accordingly leads to the region where the 

 use of the bamboo is pronounced in the manufacture of objects illustra- 

 tive of native culture, that is, to Indo-China and the Malay archipelago. 



Again, the iron blade used on the Malayo-Negrito ax of the Africans 

 we found to be a derivation from shell blades, such as are met to this 

 day in Melanesia. Valuation in kauris (cowry shells) — that is, those of 

 East Indian origin — disappears in the Kongo Basin, and here and there 

 we meet with ropes of shell coins made, like the Melanesian divarra, 

 of Achatma monetaria* On the island of Fernando Po and in Angola 



