1870.] Notices of Scientific Works. 507 



that have never been tried. Two fish-nets are never put together, 

 for fear they should be jealous. The story of the natives of Tahiti 

 who sowed some iron nails given them by Captain Cook, hoping 

 thus to obtain young ones, reminds the writer of the story of a little 

 boy of his own family, who planted his hair in his garden expecting 

 it would bring forth a crop of little boys like himself. The ability 

 or inability to draw seems to vary in one and the same tribe of 

 aborigines; the absence of perspective is also very general, and 

 extends to many people otherwise in a highly advanced state of 

 civilization, such as the Egyptians, Assyrians, and the modern 

 Chinese. 



The earliest traces of art yet discovered belong to the Stone 

 age — to a time so early that the Reindeer was abundant in the 

 south of France, and that probably, though on this point there is 

 some doubt, even the Mammoth had not entirely disappeared. 

 These works of art are sometimes sculptures, if one may say so, and 

 sometimes drawings or etchings made on bone or horn with the 

 point of a flint. 



The Esquimaux etchings of the present day appear to approach 

 most nearly to these early relics from the caves of France, but they 

 lack the spirited style of execution of the latter. 



Upon the marriage rites, if such they may be called, much 

 information is collected, but, as the author truly observes, many of 

 the facts which he has recorded are very repugnant to our feelings, 

 although it was impossible not to mention them in such a work. 

 Marriage by capture appears to be very general all over the world, 

 and where not attended by real violence the pretence of using force 

 and even blows is kept up in form. The practice of carrying off 

 the bride to the woods may yet linger among civilized nations, as, 

 for example, in our own custom of the wedding tour. 



The position of women among savage nations generally is very 

 deplorable, nor can any amount of romance render savage life other- 

 wise than revolting to an educated and civilized man. 



Notwithstanding our advanced state of civilization, it is impos- 

 sible, however, to deny the fact that — 



" In many of our ideas and tastes we are still influenced by the 

 condition of our ancestors in bygone ages." 



" What that condition was," says the author, " I have in this 

 work endeavoured to indicate, believing as I do that the earlier 

 mental stages through which the human race has passed are illus- 

 trated by the condition of existing or recent savages. The history 

 of the human race has, I feel satisfied, on the whole been one of 

 progress. I do not of course mean to say that every race is neces- 

 sarily advancing: on the contrary, most of the lower ones are 

 almost stationary ; and there are, no doubt, cases in which nations 

 have fallen back ; but it seems an almost invariable rule that such 



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