282 



PHYSICAL HISTORY OF MAN, 



furthest remove from the geographic centre ; as, in the case of a 

 pebble dropped into the water, the earliest wave keeps most distant 

 from the point of origin. 



If then we could go back into the early history of the East Indies, 

 we might find there a condition of society approximating to that of 

 the Polynesian Islands. And we can readily understand, how cus- 

 toms may continue in remote situations, after having become obsolete 

 at the place where they originated. 



They, who send ships over every sea, and who live where inven- 

 tions from different sources become common property at once, may not 

 readily appreciate the state of things in the absence of such universal 

 intercourse. But on the other side of the globe, in the vast space 

 between Arabia and the coast of America, traces of successive waves 

 in society, seem actually to exist. 



a. The East Indies. 



Thus, in the East Indies, in the northeastern or the heathen part 

 of Celebes,* we observe many striking coincidences with the state of 

 society among the ancient Greeks. We have the spear, the shield, and 

 the sword ; and these weapons, are even almost identical in pattern. 

 Altars and sacrifices, so generally obsolete at the present day, are 

 here extant. Auguries, continue to be drawn from the entrails of 

 offered victims; and also, from the flight of birds. A separate litera- 

 ture, has become an object of national pride. While the proa of the 

 surrounding seas, approaches in many respects the ancient row-galley 

 of the Mediterranean. A further analogy, may even be found in the 

 custom of putting to death strangers arriving by sea ; which, it ap- 

 pears, was not unknown among the ancient Greeks. 



A little to the west of Celebes, the literature of the Malay Nation, 

 contains a translation of the Fables of JEsop : who, according to the 

 unsatisfactory accounts we have of him, was one of the earliest of the 

 Greek writers. And further, the fact may be noted, that the ^Esopian 

 style of composition, is still in vogue at Madagascar.! 



Superstitions also, appear to be subject to the same laws of progres- 

 sion with communicated knowledge: and the belief in ghosts, evil 

 spirits, and sorcery, current among the ruder East Indian tribes, 



* See the accounts, by D'Urville and others. f See Ellis's Madagascar. 



