TTTK ETHXOLOO\ OP THE 10DIAN ARCIUTSLAOO. W 



in food 

 relative*, 

 food on - 



of chief and consequent use of new word*, fetich*'* b Hainan*, 

 human sacrifice*, cannibalism, tutelary animals and plant* of 

 tribi-s Sec. But At Asianesian trails of all kinds hring its tribes 

 much nearer to Africa than to America or N. E. Asia, apart from 

 the decisive evidence of language 



I have only noticed some of the more striking of the trail* 

 common to the eastern islands and Africa* To enter into the 

 subject fully would require a volume. >Vc cannot take up a 

 work on Africa without finding an abundance of Asianesian 

 characteristics. Every notice which we have recently received 

 of the interior of the" great terra incognita of South Africa reveals 

 new ones, and furm«hes additional' proof that Madagascar is 

 ethnically an integral portion of Africa in every respect, and 

 that both have the moat extensive conneciixi *R n the Asiatic 

 islands.* To obtain a comprehensive notion of the nature of the 

 eastern connection of Africa, let the reader torn to a map and 

 view the Indian Ocean as a single ethnic basin, having ita eastern 

 side extending from the Iltdus to Van Dieman* s Land, and it* 

 western foi-mcd l»v r he whole east coast of Africa. In the middJe 

 are Arabia arid Persia entering imo the great Asiatic ethnic region, 

 and the latter constituting, from the remote** times, an integral 

 portion or the middle table land, ami lifted by its position and 

 physical geography, out of the Oeranic basin. The whole western 

 «do of The "basin is occupied by tribes having a well-marked 

 rharacter in every respect, and who have generally attained a 

 considerable material civilwilion, although their intellectual culture 

 hat alwavs remained comparatively low. If we now turn to the 

 eastern smc and view it as a whole, we find that there is hardly a 

 single trait in its archaic language physical and mental character, 

 relh'ion, arts, institutions and customs, that is not reflected by it 

 from the western side. We do not find that considerable approxi- 

 mation to uniformity of culm re which prevails in Africa, and we find 

 abundant new elements pointing to a different connection, but we 

 find sufficient explanation of this in the respective position and 

 characters of the two regions. Africa lias, fa a great measure, 

 though by no means wholly, been left to an indigenous development,! 

 her physical geography having repelled instead of inviting foreign 

 conquest, which has generally exhausted itself on her northern or 

 Mediterranean bssins. The eastern region, on the contrary, 



i ffai fin Instatue Mr Kolbe'a sketch of the Damara coautrj. 

 • Thii has resulted from ber qiuui-la«lar |MMlilan. hut bMUtioa is InnpofSiQte. 

 Wlien wecomirter thit Semitic- Papuan idea* aenradad all Africa, tli<u Pu*nioia 

 humtv sXwiej the northern tribe* that Hunyariilc and Arabic influence, ww ■ 

 W!y nervadad twn the central anl wastem trfbaa, wa amirattdoabt that ava.T 

 rac* that, io more archaic time*, oocapted Arabia and the ad>eau« bad*, iafla«w»d 

 African athnologr ^ 



rA t) 



