80 
OUR RACE AND ITS ORIGIN. 
in his migratory wanderings, as it cut him off more and 
more from the rest of the human family, diminished the 
stock of civilized habits he had to draw upon, and made him 
so much the more destitute — as the man, whose pecuniary 
resources through mismanagement or misfortune gradually 
fail, is compelled to resign those luxuries and comforts which 
he formerly enjoyed ; so, many sections of the human family 
have thus fallen from civilization to barbarism^ 
Relics of a former civilisation are to be traced in the finely- 
wrought mats and elaborate embroidery, in the elegant lattice 
work of their houses, their canoes, and power of working the 
greenstone. The heitiki worn round their necks is remark- 
able for its Indian form, which closely accords with the 
figures sculptured in the rock temples of Salsette and Ele- 
phanta. Many of their words are Sanscrit, and much of the 
character of the language. So, likewise, are some of their 
customs to be traced to India. The complicated tapu, 
evidently instituted to enable the higher to control the 
lower classes, marks deep design and wisdom beyond that 
of the present day. 
Even the debased inhabitants of Australia and Tasmania 
retain some few marks of ancient knowledge and civilisation. 
They possess the boomerang, now viewed as a scientific 
missile which could only have been invented by an enlight- 
ened people ; and the idea is supported by its being found 
on the pictured walls of Egypt, and even preserved in its 
tombs. The mystic rite of corrobory also betokens that 
their ancestors once had a more complicated system of 
religion, somewhat corresponding with that of ancient 
Egypt. 
There is not only a great diversity of colour amongst the 
different sections of the human family, but likewise of feature 
and size. The diminutive form of theSamoede and Esqui- 
maux, tenants of the frigid zone, and of the Azteck, the 
inhabitant of tropical America, compared with the larger 
specimens of the Celtic, Saxon, and Patagonian races, must 
be attributed not only to the effects of climate, but also to 
other causes, for if much be owing to extremes of cold. 
