December 19, 1884. 



SCIENCE. 



547 



present traces of the same phenomena with which- 

 one is so familiar in old-world life. Imagine us 

 sitting in a house just inside California, engaged in 

 what appeared to be a fruitless endeavor on the part 

 of Professor Moseley to obtain a lock of hair of a 

 Mojave to add to his collection. The man objected 

 utterly. He shook his head. When pressed, he ges- 

 ticulated and talked. No: if he gave up that bit of 

 hair, he would become deaf, dumb, grow mad; and, 

 when the medicine-man came to drive away the 

 malady, it would be of no use, he would have to die. 

 Now, all this represents a perfectly old-world group 

 of ideas. If you tried to get a lock of hair in Italy 

 or Spain, you might be met with precisely the same 

 resistance; and you would find that the reason would 

 be absolutely the same as that which the Mojave ex- 

 pressed, — that by means of that lock of hair one can 

 be bewitched, the consequence being disease. And 

 within the civilized world the old philosophy which 

 accounts for disease in general as the intrusion 

 of a malignant spirit still largely remains; and the 

 exorcising such a demon is practised by white 

 men as a religious rite, even including the act 

 of exsufflating it, or blowing it away, which our 

 Mojave Indian illustrated by the gesture of blowing 

 away an imaginary spirit, and which is well known as 

 forming a part of the religious rites of both the Greek 

 and Koman church. How is it that such correspond- 

 ence with old-world ceremonies should be found 

 among a tribe like the Mojaves, apparently Mongo- 

 lian people, though separated geographically from 

 the Mongolians of Asia ? Why does the civilization, 

 •the general state of culture, of the world, present 

 throughout its whole range, in time and space, phe- 

 nomena so wonderfully similar and uniform ? This 

 question is easy to ask; but it is the question, which, 

 in few words, presents the problem which, to all an- 

 thropologists who occupy themselves with the history 

 of culture, is a problem full of the most extreme 

 difficulty, upon which they will have for years to 

 work, collecting and classifying facts, in the hope 

 that at some time the lucky touch will be made which 

 will disclose the answer. At present there is none of 

 an absolute character. There is no day in my life, 

 when I am able to occupy myself with anthropological 

 work, in which my mind does not swing like a pen- 

 dulum between the two great possible answers to 

 this question. Have the descendants of a small 

 group of mankind gone on teaching their children 

 the same set of ideas, carrying them on from genera- 

 tion to generation, from age to age, so that when they 

 are found in distant regions, among tribes which have 

 become different even in bodily formation, they rep- 

 resent the long-inherited traditions of a common 

 ancestry? Or is it that all over the world, man, 

 being substantially similar in mind, has again and 

 again, under similar circumstances of life, developed 

 similar groups of ideas and customs ? I cannot, I 

 think, use the opportunity of standing at this table 

 more profitably than by insisting, in the strongest 

 manner which I can find words to express, on the 

 fundamental importance of directing attention to this 

 great problem, the solution of which will alone bring 



the study of civilization into its full development as 

 a science. 



Let me put before you two or three cases, from ex- 

 amples which have been brought under my notice 

 within the last few days, as illustrating the ways in 

 which this problem comes before us in all its diffi- 

 culty. 



This morning, being in the museum with Major 

 Powell, Professor Moseley, and Mr. Holmes, looking 

 at the products of Indian life in the far west, my 

 attention was called to certain curious instruments 

 hanging together in a case in which musical instru- 

 ments are contained. These consisted simply of flat, 

 oblong, or oval pieces of wood, fastened at the end to 

 a thong, so as to be whirled round and round, caus- 

 ing a whirring or roaring noise. The instruments in 

 question came, one from the Ute Indians, and one 

 from the Zuilis. Now, if an Australian, finding him- 

 self inspecting the National museum, happened to 

 stand in front of the case in question, he would stop 

 with feelings not only of surprise, but probably of 

 horror; for this is an instrument which to him repre- 

 sents, more intensely than any thing else, a sense of 

 mystery attached to his own most important religious 

 ceremonies, especially those of the initiation of youths 

 to the privileges of manhood, where an instrument 

 quite similar in nature is used for the purpose of 

 warning off women and children. If this Australian 

 were from the south, near Bass Strait, his native law 

 is, that, if any woman sees these instruments, she 

 ought immediately to be put to death ; and the illus- 

 tration which he would give is, that, in old times, 

 Tasmania and Australia formed one continent, but 

 that one unlucky day it so happened that certain 

 boys found one of these instruments hidden in the 

 bush, and showed it to their mothers, whereupon the 

 sea burst up through the land in a deluge, which never 

 entirely subsided, but still remains to separate Yan 

 Dieman's Land from Australia. And, even if a Caffre 

 from South Africa were to visit the collection, his at- 

 tention would be drawn to the same instruments, and 

 he would be able to tell that in his country they were 

 used for the purpose of making loud sounds, and 

 warning the women from the ceremonies attending 

 the initiation of boys. How different the races and 

 languages of Australia and Africa! yet we have the 

 same use cropping out in connection with the same 

 instrument; and, to complete its history, it must be 

 added that there are passages of Greek literature 

 which show pretty plainly that an instrument quite 

 similar was used in the mysteries of Bacchus. The 

 last point is, that it is a toy well known to country- 

 people, both in Germany and in England. Its English 

 name is the 'bull-roarer;' and, when the children 

 play with it in country villages, it is hardly possible 

 (as I know by experience) to distinguish its sound 

 from the bellowing of an angry bull. 



In endeavoring to ascertain whether the occur- 

 rence of the 'bull-roarer' in so many regions is to 

 be explained by historical connection, or by inde- 

 pendent development, we have to take into consider- 

 ation, first, that it is an apparatus so simple as 

 possibly to have been found out many times; next,* 



