Chap. VII. 
THE RACES OF MAN. 
233 
mankind, yet the stone arrow-heads, brought from the 
most distant parts of the world and manufactured at the 
most remote periods, are, as Nilsson has shewn , 24 almost 
identical ; and this fact can only be accounted for by 
the various races having similar inventive or mental 
powers. The same observation has been made by 
archaeologists 25 with respect to certain widely-prevalent 
ornaments, such as zigzags, &c.; and with respect to 
various simple beliefs and customs, such as the burying 
of the dead under megalithic structures. I remember 
observing in South America , 26 that there, as in so many 
other parts of the world, man has generally chosen the 
summits of lofty hills, on which to throw up piles of 
stones, either for the sake of recording some remarkable 
event, or for burying his dead. 
Now when naturalists observe a close agreement in 
numerous small details of habits, tastes and dispositions 
between two or more domestic races, or between nearly- 
allied natural forms, they use this fact as an argument 
that all are descended from a common progenitor who 
was thus endowed ; and consequently that all should be 
classed under the same species. The same argument 
may be applied with much force to the races of man. 
As it is improbable that the numerous and unim- 
portant points of resemblance between the several races 
of man in bodily structure and mental faculties (I do 
not here refer to similar customs) should all have been 
independently acquired, they must have been inherited 
from progenitors who were thus characterised. We 
thus gain some insight into the early state of man, 
24 < The Primitive Inhabitants of Scandinavia/ Eng. translat. edited 
by Sir J. Lubbock, 1868, p. 104. 
25 Hodder M. Westropp, on Cromlechs, &c., 4 Journal of Ethno- 
logical Soc/ as given in ‘Scientific Opinion/ June 2nd, 1869, p. 3. 
26 ‘ Journal of Researches : Voyage of the “ Beagle/’ ’ p. 46. 
