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 CORNELL 
 
 UNIVERSITY 
 
 LIBRARY 
 
 FROM 
 
 President Farrand 
 
DATE DUE 
 
 AUG x * 1965 MP, 
 
 
 GN400 .S7°9 ne " UnlVerS " y Ubrary 
 
 rogress / by 
 
 olin 
 
 3 1924 029 860 032 
 
Cornell University 
 Library 
 
 The original of this book is in 
 the Cornell University Library. 
 
 There are no known copyright restrictions in 
 the United States on the use of the text. 
 
 http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924029860032 
 
Id Ok s 
 
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THE CHAUTAUQUA LITERARY AND SCIEN- 
 TIFIC CIRCLE. 
 
 jfoun&eS in 1878. 
 
 This volume is apart of the course of home reading the 
 essential features of which are: 
 
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 11. Pedagogical Course for secular teachers. 
 
 12. Young People's Reading Course, to stimulate the reading 
 
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 For all information concerning the C. L. S. C. address 
 
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 THE REQUIRED LITERATURE FOR 1895-6. 
 
 The Growth of the American Nation (illus- 
 trated). H. P. Judson, Professor of Political Sci- 
 ence, University of Chicago $ 1.00 
 
 The Industrial Evolution op the United 
 States (illustrated). Colonel Carroll D. Wright, 
 United States Commissioner of Labor . . . 1.00 
 
 Initial Studies in American Letters (with 
 portraits). Henry A. Beers, Professor of English 
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 Some First Steps in Human Pro&ress (illus- 
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 Thinking, Feeling, Doing (illustrated). E. "W. 
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llt'l, ,1 
 
 
 
 
 
Cbautauqua IRea&tng Circle ^Literature 
 
 SOME FIRST STEPS 
 
 IN 
 
 HUMAN PROGRESS 
 
 BY 
 
 FREDERICK STARR 
 
 Of the University of Chicago 
 
 FLOOD AND VINCENT 
 €.i>e Sftautauqua^Srentutp ipxt$$ 
 
 MEADVILLE PENNA 
 
 150 FIFTH AVE. NEW YORK 
 
 1895 
 
 T 
 

 
 -A-* 
 
 44/3577 
 
 Copyright, 1895 
 By Flood & Vincent 
 
 The Chautauqua- Century Press, Meadville, Pa., U. S. A. 
 Electrotyped, Printed, and Bound by Flood & Vincent. 
 
 t : \ VIM 
 
 M 
 
THIS LITTLE BOOK 
 
 IS AFFECTIONATELY DEDICATED TO 
 
 REV. RICHARD S. HOLMES, 
 
 MY FIRST CHAUTAUQUA FRIEND 
 
 AND ONE-TIME TEACHER OF LATIN. 
 
The required books of the C. L. S. C. are recommended by a 
 Council of six. It must, however, be understood that 
 recommendation does not involve an approval by the Coun- 
 cil, or by any member of it, of every principle or doctrine 
 contained in the book recommended. 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 The word "anthropology" from its derivation means, of 
 course, a discourse concerning man. It has been denned by 
 the great French naturalist, De Quatrefages, as "the natural 
 history of man. " It is, then, scientific study of man of the same 
 sort as the scientific study which a botanist pursues concerning 
 plants and the zoologist concerning animals. In its most com- 
 prehensive meaning it includes the study of the physical man 
 and of his mental, social, and religious natures. It is a broad 
 field ; not easily limited. It includes a number of subordinate 
 sciences, such as somatology or physical anthropology, ethnol- 
 ogy, prehistoric archaeology, and culture history. It is not the 
 intention of the author in writing this book to discuss the whole 
 field of anthropology, but simply to consider some points in 
 culture history. It shall be our aim to trace simply some few 
 of the first steps in human progress. 
 
 Primitive man, whatever his capacity for learning and achieve- 
 ment, faced an unknown world. He was to subdue nature ; to 
 do so he must solve many problems. If we look at the great 
 progress and advancement which we, in America, have made 
 within one hundred years we may see how the solution of 
 one problem aids to solve a new problem ; how the ground 
 gained to-day serves simply as a point from which to advance 
 to occupy new ground to-morrow. This progress is now 
 marked and rapid ; when it began it was slow and feeble. 
 
 A part of this book was originally presented in the form of 
 lectures to a Chautauqua audience. These lectures have been 
 
Introduction. 
 
 taken as a foundation ; they have been expanded ; new topics 
 have been discussed. The work as a whole has been developed 
 with the Chautauqua audience in mind. From the character 
 of the work It has been deemed inadvisable to encumber the 
 pages with references and notes. There are many books to 
 which the author is indebted ; there are many persons to whose 
 inspiration and suggestion he owes much of what is here con- 
 tained. The absolutely new and original content of the work 
 either in matter or in form is small. It is believed, however, 
 that to a certain degree the mode of treatment is fresh and 
 somewhat original. While it is impossible to acknowledge 
 every source from which material or suggestion has been drawn, 
 there will be found at the close of the work a list of the books 
 which have been found most helpful and to which the interested 
 reader is referred for further detail and for fuller discussion. 
 
 The great importance of the study of anthropology in its 
 various divisions is beginning to attract wide attention. But 
 a few years since there were no institutions of learning in which 
 the subject was really taught ; to-day there are several colleges 
 and universities in which there is a teacher of anthropology in 
 the faculty, and there are many more where anthropology is 
 taught as a subordinate subject by some one whose special 
 work lies in another field. Our leading magazines devote ever 
 greater amount of space to articles dealing with anthropological 
 questions. Books in this field are more and more numerous ; 
 where they were counted singly a few years ago they may now 
 be seen by dozens. The author himself has attempted to in- 
 crease the public interest in this important subject by means of 
 the Anthropological Series of which he is the editor, some num- 
 bers of which have already been published. This interest is 
 hopeful. Surely there can be no more important field in which 
 to study than the science which treats of our own kind. We 
 may hope for better teachers, better preachers, better mission- 
 
Introduction. 
 
 aries, better fathers, better mothers, when a scientific knowl- 
 edge of what man has been, what he is, and what we may 
 reasonably hope he will be, shall be common property of all in- 
 telligent people. 
 
 No one is better aware than the writer of the fact that the 
 book is by no means complete ; that there are very few lines of 
 progress even sketched from beginning to end ; that in many 
 places there are only vague indications ; that there are whole 
 lines of study, most interesting in character, which are com- 
 pletely omitted. This is in part the result of limitations ; it is also 
 in part intentional. We would much rather send forth a book 
 whose incompleteness shall exasperate to further study and 
 reading than not. We wish to suggest, to kindle thought, to 
 arouse interest. If this is done we shall be satisfied. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 PAGE. 
 13 
 
 CHAPTER. 
 
 I. Fire-making - 
 
 II. Fire-making (Continued) 
 
 III. Food-getting 
 
 IV. Food-getting (Continued) 
 V. Basketry and Pottery 
 
 VI. Hunting 
 
 VII. Cultivation of Plants 
 
 VIII. Cultivation of Plants ; Origin of Fruits 
 and Vegetables 
 
 IX. Domestication - 
 
 X. The Man of the Stone Age 
 
 XI. The Man of the Stone Age (Continued) 
 
 XII. Metal-working 
 
 XIII. Weapons 
 
 XIV. Dress and Ornament 
 XV. Houses 
 
 XVI. Boats, Carts, and Sledges 
 
 XVII. Gesture and Speech 
 
 XVIII. Gesture and Speech (Continued) 
 
 XIX. Gesture and Speech (Continued) 
 
 XX. Gesture and Speech ; Ethnic Peculiarities 185 
 
 XXI. Writing 192 
 
 XXII. Tales and Traditions - 208 
 
 XXIII. Marriage and Family 221 
 
 XXIV. Religion - 237 
 
 22 
 3° 
 
 44 
 50 
 58 
 73 
 
 So 
 84 
 96 
 in 
 116 
 128 
 136 
 
 149 
 159 
 
 169 
 
 175 
 180 
 
Contents. 
 
 CHAPTER. PAGE. 
 
 XXV. Religion ; The Dead Man 250 
 
 XXVI. Custom and Law 269 
 
 APPENDICES. 
 
 Appendix A. What is Anthropology? 283 
 
 Appendix B. Sign Language in Print 294 
 
 Appendix C. List of Books for Reference 297 
 
 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 
 
 Group of Indians Flaking out Stone Implements. From 
 a group of figures constructed by W. H. Holmes for 
 the Field-Columbian Museum, Chicago, after an origi- 
 nal design to be published by the Bureau of Eth- 
 nology Frontispiece. 
 
 FIGURE. PAGE. 
 
 1. Eskimo Bow-Drill. Field-Columbian Museum, 
 
 Chicago 15 
 
 2. Alaskan Indian Basketry. American Museum of 
 
 Natural History, New York 33 
 
 3. Coahuilla (California) Baskets. Collection of David 
 
 P. Barrows, Claremont, California . . . . 34 
 
 4. Cocoanut Vessels in Cord Carriers. South Sea 
 
 Islands. Collection of Appleton Sturgis, New 
 York . j! 
 
 5. Pottery. Fiji. Collection of Appleton Sturgis . . 52 
 
 6. Spoons of Horn. Alaska. American Museum of 
 
 Natural History 61 
 
 7. Mold and Handle-Shaper used in Making Spoons 
 
 of Horn. Alaska. American Museum of Natu- 
 ral History . , 6 2 
 
 8. Eskimo Spear-Thrower. Field-Columbian Museum 87 
 
 9. Eskimo Bird-Spear. Field-Columbian Museum . 87 
 
 10. Ceremonial Axe of Stone, Mounted. Paraguay. 
 
 Field-Columbian Museum 87 
 
 11. Pellet Bow. Paraguay. Field-Columbian Museum 87 
 
 12. Hook of Wood, with Iron Prong, used in Catching 
 
 Halibut. Alaska. American Museum of Natu- 
 ral History , , gj 
 
List of Illustrations. 
 
 FIGURE. PAGE. 
 
 13. Chipped Stone Blades. Missouri. Collection of 
 
 Andrew E. Douglas, New York 107 
 
 14. Berry-Pounder of Stone. Alaska. American Mu- 
 
 seum of Natural History 108 
 
 15. Grooved Axe of Stone. Collection of Andrew E. 
 
 Douglas 125 
 
 16. Bird Amulet of Striped Slate. Collection of Andrew 
 
 E. Douglas 126 
 
 17. Sioux Indian Stone War-Clubs, Mounted. Field- 
 
 Columbian Museum 139 
 
 18. Ceremonial Axe of Stone, Mounted. New Cale- 
 
 donia. Field-Columbian Museum 139 
 
 19. Ceremonial Axe. Mangaia Islands. Collection of 
 
 Appleton Sturgis . 153 
 
 20. War-Pick. Alaska. American Museum of Natural 
 
 History 154 
 
 21. Loom and Implements used in Making Belts, with 
 
 Unfinished Work. South Sea Islands. Collec- 
 tion of Appleton Sturgis . 165 
 
 22. Ancient Peruvian Woman's Work-Basket. Field- 
 
 Columbian Museum 166 
 
 23. Beater and Stamps used in Making Tapa. Collec- 
 
 tion of Auburn (N. Y.) Theological Seminary 183 
 
 24. Garment of Tapa. South Sea Islands. Collection 
 
 of Appleton Sturgis 184 
 
 25. Necklace of Toucan Beaks. South America. Field- 
 
 Columbian Museum 201 
 
 26. Ceremonial Blanket. Chilcat Indians, Alaska. 
 
 American Museum of Natural History ... 211 
 
 27. Armlet Worn in Dances. New Guinea. Collection 
 
 of Appleton Sturgis 212 
 
 28. Ojibwa Birch-bark Canoe. Field-Columbian Mu- 
 
 seum 22 5 
 
 29. Mandan "Bull-Boat" or Coracle. Field-Colum- 
 
 bian Museum . 225 
 
 30. Shinto Priest. Japan. (From Japanese photograph) 241 
 
 31. Eskimo Grave-Box. (After Yarrow) 255 
 
 32. Kaffir Sorcerer's Necklace. Africa. (From origi- 
 
 nal specimen) . 271 
 
 33. Dancing Mask. New Britain Archipelago. Collec- 
 
 tion of Appleton Sturgis 287 
 
SOME FIRST STEPS IN HUMAN PROGRESS. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 Fire-making. 
 
 It is not easy to imagine fully what man must have been The use of fire, 
 - without the use of fire. There is no race now known but which is ancient. 
 has this most useful servant. As far back as we can trace man's 
 existence on the globe, almost, we find evidence that he knew 
 and used fire. In the cave dwellings of France stones are found 
 which show the effects of heat. The flints of Thenay, not uni- 
 versally accepted by scientific men as showing signs of human 
 handiwork but claimed by some to be human relics, show the 
 signs of fire action upon them. Yet it is certain that, although 
 no people are now known who know not fire and although the 
 antiquity of its use is great, there was once a time when man 
 did not know fire either in its use or in its making. 
 Without fire man had no means of cooking his food ; without 
 
 Condition of 
 
 it he had no convenient tool in the felling of trees or hollowing man without 
 
 fire. 
 
 of canoes ; without it he had no means of warmth in wintry 
 weather ; without it he had no protection against howling beasts 
 and evil spirits in the darkness of the night. 
 
 We may be sure that man learned what fire was and what it Fires kindled 
 could do from nature-kindled fires. At times nature kindles by nature - 
 fires. In certain regions from the mouths of volcanoes great 
 streams of melted rock descend, and as they flow down the 
 mountain side they set to blazing shrubs, bushes, trees, with 
 
 13 
 
14 
 
 Some First Steps in Human Progress. 
 
 Man feeds the 
 fire nature 
 kindles. 
 
 Discovery of 
 modes of fire- 
 making. 
 
 which they come in contact ; in other districts, where long 
 droughts prevail in summer and where the trees become dry 
 and shriveled, a sudden tempest rises and the lightning stroke 
 kindles the dry trunks, which burst into pillars of flame. It is 
 certain that such fires kindled by nature would attract to a 
 marked degree the attention of primitive man and would fill 
 him with wonder and terror. He could not long have seen 
 such fires without coming to look upon fire as a hungry 
 monster, licking with its red tongue the fuel which it consumes. 
 It would not be unnatural for him to feed the flame with fresh 
 food. Man nurses and feeds the fire which nature kindles, and 
 thereby in time he comes to realize its usefulness ; he enjoys its 
 warmth ; he delights in finding that the terrors of the night are 
 vanquished and he treasures the flame and keeps it burning 
 day after day until he looks upon its extinguishment by neglect 
 or other means as a misfortune to be carefully avoided. There 
 are peoples who to-day seldom make fires for themselves, but 
 who keep fire constantly fed and burning. Thus, Stewart 
 says that certain natives of North Australia go to neighboring 
 tribes for fresh light if theirs goes out ; Angus says that West 
 Australians do the same. It is no uncommon sight, in certain 
 parts of the great island, for travelers in the desert to come 
 upon a tribe migrating, and, when they do so, they find them 
 carrying blazing torches with them that they may have fresh 
 fires at their evening camp. 
 
 Sometime or other, after having known and fed fire, the prim- 
 itive man learns how to make it. If we look at the modes of 
 making fire which prevail over the world we find three great 
 methods widely spread: (a) by friction, (b) by percussion, (e) 
 by chemical means. Although by no means the simplest or the 
 easiest, it is perhaps true that the oldest mode of making fire 
 is by the friction of two pieces of wood one against the other. 
 Inasmuch as the story of progress in this direction neatly traces 
 
Fig. i.— Eskimo Bow-Drill. 
 
 Consisting of an upper rest held between the teeth, a shaft-drill, and a bow which whirls 
 
 the latter. This specimen is for drilling holes, but similar ones without 
 
 the iron point were used in fire-making. 
 
Fire-making. 17 
 
 a development step by step, we shall consider the making of Friction-made 
 fire by friction at some length. Tylor has a most interesting 
 chapter on the subject, and Mr. Hough at Washington has re- 
 cently conducted experiments in the making of fire by friction , a s Ru i,bin e 
 until he has become a veritable artist. A very simple means of out fire ; 
 making friction-fire is found among many of the Polynesian 
 islands and appears to be limited to that district. A stick per- 
 haps eighteen inches or so in length, bluntly pointed at one end, 
 is taken in the hands and rubbed rapidly back and forth in a 
 groove in a larger piece of wood set on the ground. In a few 
 seconds sufficient heat is generated by this process to give the 
 spark and a fire is kindled. Visitors to the South Sea Island 
 village on the Midway Plaisance at the Exposition at Chicago 
 might see this rubbing out of fire performed at any time by the 
 natives. Somewhat similar to this method of rubbing out fire 
 by a to and fro motion of a stick in a groove is the sawing out ^ sawing out 
 of fire which is found among the Siamese. So far as we under- fire; 
 stand this method, a notch is made in one piece of bamboo and 
 a second piece is cut to fit the notch and is moved rapidly across 
 the notch back and forth, as a saw is moved, until a spark is 
 secured. 
 
 Far more widely distributed is the making of fire by some 
 mode of drilling. This is found in Australia, Tasmania, Su- ^ F j re _(j r jn s ; 
 matra, Kamtschatka, India, through South and West Africa, 
 among the Guanches of the Canary Islands, among the Eskimo, 
 among many North American Indian tribes, South Americans, 
 old Mexicans; these indicate but a few regions which might be 
 mentioned. Of the Australians Captain Cook said: "They 
 produce fire with great facility and spread it in a wonderful 
 manner ; they take two pieces of dry soft wood ; one is a stick 
 about eight or nine inches long, the other piece is flat ; the 
 stick they shape into an obtuse point at one end and, pressing 
 it upon the other, turn it nimbly, by holding it between their 
 
18 Some First Steps in Human Progress. 
 
 hands, shifting their hands up and then moving them down 
 upon it, increasing the pressure. By this means they get fire in 
 less than two minutes." 
 
 Livingstone said of the Zambesi people : "These carry on a 
 long journey a sleeping mat and a wooden pillow, a pot and a 
 sack of meal, a pipe and a tobacco pouch, a knife and a bow 
 and arrow, as well a's two little sticks two or three feet long in 
 order to make fire if they are obliged to spend a night away 
 from human dwellings. Dry wood may always be found. In 
 one of the sticks, which has a very rough outside and a little 
 pitch within, is a notch cut and this notched stick is laid hori- 
 zontally upon a knife-blade placed on the ground. He who 
 will make the fire squats down, and in order to hold the stick 
 firm puts his great toes at each end. He takes the other stick, 
 which is of very hard wood and on which a very dull point is 
 cut, and puts it squarely in the notch. The upright stick is, 
 like a drill, rapidly whirled to and fro between the hands and at 
 the same time pressed firmly downward. In the course of 
 about a minute the friction ignites a part of the pitch of the 
 notched stick, which as glowing charcoal runs over into the 
 knife-blade and is brought into a handful of dried grass, which 
 by careful fanning is kindled. It is a sore task to make fire in 
 this way, and soon raises blisters on white hands." 
 
 This simplest method of drilling for fire has in some districts 
 been improved upon. If, instead of wearing blisters on the 
 (<f) Drill hands, one wraps a cord about the upright stick and then holds 
 
 rard ; it at the two ends with his hands, he may, by drawing the cord 
 
 first in one direction and then in the other, whirl the stick more 
 rapidly and regularly than he could do otherwise. A second 
 man holds the drill down with a block set against the other end. 
 Such a method of producing fire is known among the Brahmans, 
 Eskimo, and the Aleutian Islanders. As is easily seen, this 
 method requires two men to do the work. Some Eskimo 
 
Fire-making. 19 
 
 have gone a step further by using a mouth-piece to steady the 
 upper end of the revolving stick, and so dispense with the sec- 
 ond man's services. Sir Edward Belcher in referring to this 
 method says : "The thong being passed twice around the drill, 
 the upper end is steadied by a mouth-piece of wood held be- 
 tween the teeth. . . . Having once tried it myself I found 
 the jar or vibration on the jaws, head, and brain quite enough 
 to prevent my repeating it." 
 
 Other Eskimo have still further improved the method. In- (e) The bow- 
 stead of holding the two ends of the cord by their hands they 
 fasten them to the ends of a stiff bow, which by its elasticity 
 holds the cord taut. One man, taking the bow in one hand, is 
 able to revolve the upright rapidly, while with the other hand he 
 holds the block of wood against the upper end of the drill to 
 steady it. In this way neither blistered hands nor jarred head- 
 bones result from the process. The final development of the fire- 
 drill seems to be found in the pump-drill, such as Morgan describes W, The P um P- 
 among the Iroquois. Here the upright stick passes through a flat 
 piece of wood. Cords which are fastened to the end of the 
 upright stick are also fastened to the two ends of this horizontal 
 flat piece. If now the upright piece of wood is slowly turned, 
 the cords wind around it near its upper end. When one now 
 presses down upon the crossbar, the cords are untwisted and 
 the upright stick is whirled. When the cords have been en- 
 tirely unwound, the downward pressure on the crossbar is re- 
 moved, and the whirling stick again winds up the cords ; another 
 downward pressure continues the rotation. A disk of wood is 
 usually fastened to the upright stick near its lower end in order 
 to make the whirling movement of the drill more regular by 
 increasing the weight of the whole. 
 
 Tylor calls attention to the brace-drill, of the Guacho of ( , The brace . 
 South America, which is simply a slender stick eighteen inches ""■ 
 long. The upper end is rested against the chest while the other 
 
Some First Steps in Human Progress. 
 
 end fits into the notch in the block of wood. With the hand 
 the stick is whirled much as a brace and bit are worked, and a 
 spark is soon secured. So much for the different ways in 
 which people, in the past and present, have made fire by the 
 friction of two pieces of wood one against another. 
 The second method of making fire is by percussion. Of 
 percussion. 6 y course this method of making fire was in use among our own 
 ancestors not very long ago, and flints and steels are not so rare 
 but what most people have seen them and know the method of 
 their use. The Fuegians get a spark by striking a flint with 
 pyrite : pyrite is also used among many of the Indians of 
 North America, as it was among the Romans and the ancient 
 Greeks ; in fact, the word pyrite comes from the Greek word for 
 fire and means fire-stone. 
 
 Hough says that, to get a spark, the Eskimo places the piece 
 of pyrites on the pad held in the left hand over the curved 
 forefinger, the large end down and the thumb set in the cup- 
 shaped cavity at the top. The flap of the tinder-pocket is 
 turned back and held on the forefinger under the protecting pad. 
 The flint is held in the right hand, and by a scraping motion 
 little pieces of pyrites at a dull red heat fall down into the tin- 
 der. The pellet that glows is transferred to the pipe or fire, and 
 the flap of the tinder-pocket is turned down, serving to keep 
 the tinder dry and to extinguish it if necessary. 
 
 The Alaskans strike " together two pieces of quartz rubbed 
 with sulphur over some dry grass or moss, strewed with 
 feathers where the sulphur falls. ' ' The West Africans lay down 
 on their knees by a fire-stone, "took a little piece of wood in 
 their hands, and threw sand between the stone and the wood, 
 rubbing them so long against one another till the wood began 
 to burn." In some parts of Southeastern Asia bamboo splints 
 are struck together to make a spark, and in Burmah bamboo 
 and broken china. 
 
Fire-making. 
 
 The third method of making fire, namely, by chemical 
 means, is mainly the development of the present century. Making fire by 
 Various curious devices, such as the hydrogen and platinum action, 
 machine of 1823, known as the Dobritzhofer's lamp, were the 
 first experiments in this direction. In 1827 Walker's congreves, 
 which were wooden splints coated with sulphur, tipped with 
 sulphate of antimony, potassium chlorate, and gum, were intro- 
 duced. Eighty-four of these in a box, with a folded piece of 
 glass-paper upon which to strike them, were sold for one shil- 
 ling, English money. In 1833 matches first appeared in Amer- 
 ica upon a commercial scale, and their use has grown until at 
 present six matches a day is the average allowance for our 
 people, and in 1881 40,000,000,000 were manufactured, as shown 
 by the tax paid to the United States treasurer on their manu- 
 facture. 
 
 In closing this chapter upon fire-making we reproduce Mr. 
 Walter Hough's table of primitive modes of fire production : 
 Fire-making . 
 
 i. Fire-making by reciprocating motion. 
 
 1. Simple, two-stick apparatus : Americans, Ainu, Somalis, 
 
 Kaffirs, Veddahs, Australians. 
 
 2. Four-part apparatus: Eskimo, some Americans, Hin- 
 
 dus, Dyaks. 
 
 3. Weighted drill, with spindle-whorl : Iroquois, Chukchis. 
 ii. Fire-making by sawing. 
 
 Malays, Burmese, etc. 
 iii. Fire-making by plowing. 
 
 Polynesians, Australians, and Papuans, 
 jv. Fire-making by percussion. 
 
 1. With pyrites, or stone containing iron, and flint: Eskimo 
 
 and northern Indians of America. 
 
 2. With flint and steel: general. 
 
CHAPTER II. 
 
 Fire-making {Continued). 
 
 What method 
 of making fire 
 is oldest ? 
 
 Survivals in 
 culture. 
 
 It has already been stated that there is reason to believe 
 that man first made fire by friction of two pieces of wood ; it 
 seems far simpler to think of the earliest artificial fire being 
 produced by percussion. Primitive man in making his flint 
 tools must often have struck out a spark by accident. This 
 might suggest his using bits of flint as means of securing a 
 fire when he wished it. On the other hand, it seems as if the 
 discovery of making fire by friction of two pieces of wood 
 were a rather difficult and unlikely thing upon which to fall by 
 accident. If, therefore, we assume that the friction-made fire 
 is the older, we ought to suggest reasons for such a belief. 
 
 It is important that we should have before us plainly the 
 meaning of the expression "survival in culture." We find all 
 about us curious customs which have no present significance, 
 but which have come to us out of the past. For instance, 
 why are there buttons on the sleeve of a man's coat? Why 
 does a gentleman remove his glove when he shakes hands with 
 a lady ? There is absolutely no meaning in our present life for 
 either of these customs, but both had reasons in the past. We 
 may be sure that everything which man does was reasonable 
 when it began to be done, but after it once comes to be custom 
 it may last on indefinitely. Such a useless practice is called 
 "a survival in culture." We may remark in passing that while 
 survivals are found everywhere, they are most common in the 
 operations of the two conservative factors in society — among 
 
Fire-making. 23 
 
 The bow-drill 
 survives in 
 religious cere- 
 mony among: 
 Sacs and Foxes. 
 
 women and in religion. We find, in fact, in the lives of women 
 and in the ceremonies of religion and in the lives of the priests, 
 great numbers of such survivals. When there are found, side 
 by side, two ways of doing anything, one of which is con- 
 venient and in every-day use while the other is inconvenient 
 and found in religious ceremony or among priests, we may feel 
 quite certain that the religious form is the older usage and is 
 a survival in culture. A friend, a Japanese, tells us that in 
 Japan to-day every one uses matches, such as we use, except 
 the priests in the temples, who still go on using the flint, just as 
 they did one hundred years ago. It is an example of survival 
 in culture among religious leaders. 
 
 Some years ago it was our fortune to have frequent dealings 
 with a little remnant of the once famous Sacs and Foxes. Per- 
 haps four hundred of these Indians still live in central Iowa ; monyamong 
 they build their old style of houses, dress in their old garments, 
 keep up the use of their old language, observe their old re- 
 ligious practices. One day in the winter lodge of a medicine 
 man we saw some peculiar sticks hanging on the framework 
 of his hut inside. On our asking what they were, the old man 
 told us that he did not know — certain sign that they were in 
 some way religious. We thereupon asked a young man of in- 
 telligence about them. He told us they were fire-sticks, and 
 by his further explanation showed us that they were really a 
 bow-drill. After much discussion he agreed to make us the 
 apparatus, pledging us to secrecy, and demanding that we 
 should bring with us the material necessary. When we made 
 our next visit to the village we carried with us the desired 
 wood. We made an appointment with the Indian, finding our- 
 selves obliged to raise the already high price which he was to 
 receive for his work ; he was to come to our room at evening 
 and there make the drill. When night came our Indian came 
 also ; to suit him we improvised curtains for the window, 
 
24 Some First Steps in Human Progress. 
 
 locked the door, and then waited for him to proceed with his 
 operations. Taking his great knife from his pocket, he began 
 to whittle the stick, but at the first cut the knife fell from his 
 grasp as if he had been paralyzed, the veins stood out upon 
 his brow, and the great drops of sweat ran down his face. 
 He was the picture of complete and dreadful terror. Upon 
 inquiry he assured us that the act in which he was engaged was 
 one of great iniquity and that the God would be angry and 
 would punish his sacrilege. In vain I argued, stating that the 
 God would never care. Turning almost fiercely he said : 
 ' ' No, not your God, but my God. I full-blooded Indian, I 
 know." 
 
 In other words, among the Sacs and Foxes of to-day the 
 bow-drill for making fire by friction is used only in religious 
 rites. It is the property of the medicine man ; it is touched by 
 common men only as a matter of privilege or of necessity ; the 
 fire produced by it is sacred, "comes from heaven," " is a gift 
 of God," "is not common fire." We surely have here a re- 
 ligious survival in culture. Can we not be quite sure that the 
 fire-drill was once used by every one among the Sacs and 
 Foxes, when they wished to kindle fire? Easier and better 
 means being found for gaining the spark, the older method fell 
 out of use among the common folk but was retained by re- 
 ligious leaders in their ceremonials. We find among the Sacs 
 and Foxes to-day three different methods of making fire. 
 Common people, for all sorts of purposes, make fire with white 
 men's matches ; old men, conservative as old age ever is, 
 light their pipes with flint and steel, which they carry about 
 with them in their tobacco pouches ; the priests, conservative 
 of all conservatives, tise the bow-drill. And so, as we go the 
 world around, we find in many regions two or more methods of 
 making fire. When one of these is friction with a drill we find 
 it ever the sacred method. It is this reason that has led us to 
 
Fire-making. 25 
 
 believe that this quaint, difficult, patience and time-consuming 
 method is the oldest that man used. 
 
 In Japan we may find almost every type of old fire-making 
 still in use, the old methods being retained by religious conser- 
 vatism. At Kitzuki we have the simplest of drills rolled be- 
 tween the hands ; at \%€ the bow-drill ; almost anywhere the 
 flint and steel. Lafcadio Hearn, in his ' ' Glimpses of Unfa- 
 miliar Japan, ' ' says : 
 
 "The Guji removes the wrappings and I behold the most 
 primitive form of fire-drill known to exist in the Orient. It is 
 simply a very thick piece of solid white plank, about two and a 
 half feet long, with a line of holes drilled along its upper 
 edge so that the upper part of each hole breaks through the 
 sides of the plank. The sticks which produce the fire, when 
 fixed in the holes and rapidly rubbed between the palms of the 
 hands, are made of a lighter kind of white wood ; they are 
 about two feet long, and as thick as a common lead pencil. 
 . . . . Each year the temple receives a new fire-drill ; but 
 the fire-drill is never made in Kitzuki, but in Kumano, where 
 the traditional regulations as to the manner of making it have 
 been preserved from the time of the gods. For the first 
 Kokuzo of Izumo, on becoming pontiff, received the fire-drill 
 for the great temple from the hands of the deity, who was 
 the younger brother of the sun goddess, and is now enshrined 
 at Kumano." 
 
 Again, in speaking of the night lamps before the household 
 shrines, he says : 
 
 " But by the strictly orthodox this is held to be very wrong, 
 and even to light the lamps with a match is somewhat heretical. 
 For it is not supposed that matches are always made with pure 
 substances, and the lights of the Kami should be kindled only 
 with purest fire — that holy, natural fire which lies hidden within 
 all things. Therefore, in some little closet in the home of any 
 
26 Some First Steps in Human Progress. 
 
 strictly orthodox Shinto family there is always a small box con- 
 taining the ancient instruments used for the lighting of holy 
 fire. These consist of the hi-uchi-ishi, or fire-strike-stone ; the 
 hi-uchi-gane, or steel ; the ho-kuchi, or tinder made of dried 
 moss ; and the tsu-kegi, fine slivers of resinous pine. A little 
 tinder is laid upon the flint and set smoldering with a few 
 strokes of the steel, and blown upon until it flames. A slip of 
 pine is then ignited at this flame and with it the lamps of the 
 ancestors and the gods are lighted." 
 
 Friction-made ^ n our tracing of the geography of fire made by friction of 
 
 re in urope. twQ p; eces f WOO( j ( no mention was made of Europe. It 
 
 would, however, be a great mistake to think that this practice 
 
 has not prevailed in that continent as well as in those which 
 
 "Need fire." we have mentioned. "Need fire," or " wild fire, " was often 
 made in Germany as late as the seventeenth century. ' ' When 
 a murrain has broken out among the great and small cattle and 
 the herds have suffered much harm the farmers decide upon a 
 need fire; On the day no fire is kindled in any house, but 
 from each, brushwood, straw, and wood are brought. A stout 
 oak post is driven into the ground and a hole bored through 
 it ; into this a windlass is stuck, well smeared with tar and cart 
 pitch, and turned round so long that it gives forth fire. This is 
 caught, increased with straw, heath, and brushwood until a full 
 need fire ; this is brought out lengthwise between the walls and 
 fences and the cattle and horses hunted with sticks and whips 
 two or three times through it. ' ' The need fire was kindled as 
 late as 1826 near Perth in Scotland. A lady whose mother saw 
 this fire kindled, and who had often heard of it, told me the story 
 of it. It was kindled in the same way and for a similar pur- 
 pose. It is said, and no doubt is true, that within the last two 
 or three years, when the cholera has been raging throughout 
 Russia, that the need fire was kindled in many Russian villages 
 as a protection against, or as a means of getting rid of, the 
 
Fire-making. 27 
 
 plague. How shall we explain the making of the need fire 
 among civilized and Christian people at this late day ? 
 
 A friend who was in Japan at the time of the dreadful earth- 
 quake, a few years since, tells us that just before the earth- 
 quake he had occasion to go out over the public highroad. He 
 noticed all along the way the condition of neglect prevailing 
 among the little shrines and idols by the roadside. A few days 
 passed ; the earthquake came ; my friend again passed that 
 way. But what a change ! The shrines were neatly repaired ; 
 the idols set up and carefully repainted and freshly gilded. 
 What does this mean ? Why simply this, that, in these later 
 days, the old religious views of the Japanese are gradually 
 fading away. With the coming of western ideas, the native 
 religions are neglected. But deep down in the Japanese heart 
 there lurks a vague, uneasy feeling lest the neglected gods may 
 rise in vengeance. The earthquake comes. Hastily the dues 
 to the neglected gods are performed and danger is allayed. 
 
 It is probable that at one time in Europe fire was commonly 
 made by means of friction of wood. When the practice fell ^occurrence, 
 out of every-day use it was preserved in religious ceremonies 
 in a way similar to that which we have observed among the 
 Sacs and Foxes. Gradually it came to be considered a thing 
 pleasing to the gods in itself that fire should be made in this 
 way. When the European pagans became Christians it was as 
 natural for them in times of trouble to practice the old cere- 
 monial in order to propitiate the old gods, in time of misfor- 
 tune, as it was for the Japanese to paint up their shrines and 
 gild their images after the earthquake. In time this, which at 
 first was simply a performance intended to make peace with 
 the neglected gods, came to be considered a charm against 
 evil generally. And in this form it remains as the need fire in 
 Europe at the present time. 
 
 The uses to which man puts fire after he has learned its use 
 
28 Some First Steps in Human Progress. 
 
 and how to make it are varied. We have already incidentally 
 Uses of fire. referred to them. The fire supplies heat, cooks food, serves 
 as a tool in hollowing out canoes and in felling trees, drives 
 game, and scares away spirits. Lippert believes that the first 
 value of fire was as a guard against animals and spirits. He 
 quotes Judge Jury, speaking in regard to the Australians, as 
 follows : "Against all bad spirits fire is an effective means of 
 protection. There is no thought more fearful to the Australians 
 than the gloomy hours of the night, during which evil spirits 
 prowl about unless fire is present. So there burns through 
 winter and summer, before every leaf shelter and every hut, 
 the fire that is never allowed to go out, and a firebrand accom- 
 panies the Australian upon all his journeys." That this idea 
 of Lippert may be carried much too far is shown by this quo- 
 tation, taken from Tylor, referring to the natives of Fakaafo : 
 ' ' No fire is allowed to be kindled at night in the houses of 
 the people all the year around. It is sacred to the god, and so 
 after sundown they sit and chat in the dark. Two exceptions 
 are found in the cook-house for the cooking of fish caught 
 during the night, and in the house of confinement. Fire is not 
 always considered valuable on account of its warmth. Simpson 
 says of the Greenland Eskimo that ' ' they never seem to 
 think of fire as a means of imparting warmth. Their lamps 
 are used for cooking, lighting, melting ice, and drying clothes." 
 The fire has made the home. We have heard much in these 
 later days about woman's position. We are assured that she 
 has not all her rights. Now, there can be little doubt that the 
 primitive woman had all her rights. It is probable that she 
 was as free as her husband to kill the wild beasts, catch the 
 fish, fight her savage neighbors, eat the raw meat which she 
 tore by main strength from the carcass of the lately slain 
 beast. The beginning of woman's slavery was the discovery 
 of the fire. The value of fire known and the need of feeding 
 
 Influence of fire. 
 
Fire-making. 29 
 
 it recognized, it became necessary that some one should stay- 
 by it to tend it. Notwithstanding the fact that woman had all 
 her rights and was free to go and come as she would, it was 
 still true that, on account of children and certain physical 
 peculiarities, the woman was more naturally the one who 
 would remain behind to care for the feeding of the flame. 
 Before that, men and women wandered from place to place, 
 thoughtless of the night. After that, a place was fixed to 
 which the man returned after the day's hunt. It was the begin- 
 ning of the home. 
 
 It is not strange that many sentimental and beautiful ideas 
 have risen in connection with the fire on the hearth. Just as 
 the fire in the individual home meant comfort and rest, relax- 
 ation and enjoyment, safety and security at night, the national 
 fire, preserved in the temple of the tribe, came to have con- 
 nected with it all sorts of fond and tender thoughts. The fire 
 of the Greeks was carried by each colony from the old home 
 and ever tended. In later times, at least, it was a bond of real 
 connection between the mother-land and the hew settlement. 
 
CHAPTER III. 
 
 Food-getting. 
 
 The search for 
 food. 
 
 Range of food 
 materials. 
 
 Savage im- 
 providence. 
 
 One of the most remarkable things in the world is the never- 
 ending quest for food. Mankind has ransacked the whole earth ; 
 he has searched the animal, the vegetable, and the mineral king- 
 doms ; he has ascended to the very mountain tops, has gone 
 down into the valleys, has dredged the ocean bottom, in his hunt 
 for food. The quest began ages ago and it still continues with all 
 the keenness and anxiety of the past. It is marvelous what 
 curious things have been found to be palatable ; how many 
 sicknesses, how many poisonings, how many deaths, must have 
 taken place before mankind fully learned what nature gave for 
 such use ! 
 
 As we look over the list of things eaten we are frequently 
 horrified at the filthiness or disgusting character of some of 
 them. Thus, the Australian eats marsupials, all kinds of birds, 
 eels, fish, bats, frogs, lizards, snakes, and worms. The Bongo 
 or Dor negro eats rats, snakes, carrion kites, bats, land scor- 
 pions, ants, and caterpillars. Schweinfurth tells some stomach- 
 stirring tales about maggots. Tylor says : " The Andamanese 
 live upon wild food, gather fruits and honey, hunt wild pigs in 
 the jungles, and dig turtles and fish on the coast. The low 
 Rocky Mountain tribes gather birds and snakes, and catch liz- 
 ards from their holes with hooked sticks." 
 
 Of course, food at first was eaten raw. That goes without 
 the saying if man invented fire. Life was, with primitive man, 
 as it is still with many savages, alternate feasting and famine. 
 
 30 
 
Food-getting. 31 
 
 When game has been killed, a whole group of individuals squat 
 about it, tear the raw flesh from the carcass and eat it, gorging 
 themselves like pigs. Then, half stupid, they lie until digestion 
 has taken place. Later they resume the feast, and when the 
 carcass is completely gone journey until fresh food is killed. It storing of food, 
 was a great step from this to storing food ; to lay by what was 
 not absolutely necessary to-day for future use in time of need 
 or scarcity. It is a step which many people have taken, and 
 among most barbarians and some savages we find definite stor- 
 ing away of food. Belcher says that the Eskimo lay by meat 
 in store-rooms under their hut floors. The mass of raw bear, 
 whale, walrus, seal, swan, duck, and elk are "frozen into a solid 
 mass beneath, but loose from those on the surface, and seem to 
 be incorporated into a gelatinous snow which they scraped up 
 easily with the hand and ate with satisfaction. Fish oil pre- 
 dominated." All northern Indians in the United States lay by 
 seeds of zizania, or water rice, and it must have been a com- 
 mon thing, at an early day, along the present location of the 
 city of Chicago, to see the Indian women in their canoes bend 
 down the stalks of water rice and beat the grains into the boat. 
 The Indians of southern California and other western regions 
 make neat granaries in which they store away acorns in quantity. 
 Most tribes of eastern Indians raised corn and squashes ; the 
 corn, scraped from the cob, they dried for winter use, and the 
 squashes were cut into long strips, which were frequently woven 
 into mats and hung upon the walls of huts for drying. 
 
 Tribes that cook food are better off than eaters of raw meat. 
 
 . . . , , Cooked versus 
 
 They are more enterprising and energetic, as they have saved raw food. 
 
 energy, first, by sparing labor to their digestive organs, and, 
 secondly, by saving labor to those organs which would be con- 
 cerned in preparing the necessarily greater mass of food which 
 was consumed when eaten raw. Primitive cookery is an in- primitive cook- 
 teresting study. Perhaps the first was roasting or parching ; ery ' 
 
32 
 
 Some First Steps in Human Progress. 
 
 Roasting and 
 parching. 
 
 The boy is a 
 savage. 
 
 The law of 
 recapitulation 
 applies here. 
 
 then came baking ; then boiling. Roasting of meat by ex- 
 posure to the open flame and parching of grains or seeds are 
 common among all peoples. Lippert suggests that the latter 
 may have been suggested by burning grains out of their husks, 
 instead of laboriously beating them out. Every one knows how 
 readily steaks may be cooked by spitting them on sticks stuck 
 slantwise in the ground over fires, and how potatoes may be 
 baked in the hot coals or ashes. 
 
 He who does not remember how delightfully such things 
 tasted in his boyhood, and who cannot look back upon some 
 picnic party where he indulged in savage cookery, has lost a 
 real chapter from his life. It is curious, but true, that the real 
 boy enjoys such viands more than the choicest which the house 
 affords. Children everywhere delight in all sorts of raw 
 and indigestible foods ; artichokes, chestnuts, sweet canes — 
 these are some of the many delicacies that delight the youthful 
 palate. The whole subject is more interesting and more im- 
 portant than at first appears. It is a fundamental law in evolu- 
 tion that the individual in its development reproduces the life his- 
 tory of the race. Why does the tadpole breathe by means of 
 gills, swim by a broad tail, and show no signs of legs at first? 
 Why does it then gradually lose its gills, drop off its tail, pro- 
 duce first one pair of legs and then the other pair ? It is be- 
 cause the ancestor of the frog was no frog, but was a fish-like 
 creature, breathing by means of gills and swimming by means 
 of its propulsive tail. Later ancestors of the frog had smaller 
 gills, a lessening tail and legs. Every frog of normal kind in 
 its development tells over the marvelous story of the evolution 
 of its kind. What is true in the world of animals and physical 
 structures is just as true in mental and culture history develop- 
 ment. Every person who passes through a normal develop- 
 ment represents the culture stages of man ; the child at first is 
 a savage, later he becomes a barbarian, still later it is possible 
 
Fig. 2.— Alaskan Indian Basketry. 
 
 33 
 
Fig. 3.— Coahuilla (California) Baskets. 
 
Food-getting. 35 
 
 that he may become a civilized being. The boy in the woods 
 building his fire, baking potatoes in the ashes, roasting steak 
 over the coals, is living over again the wild outdoor savage 
 life of his ancestors. The same thought might be illustrated by 
 a thousand other points in child life. It is fortunate that the 
 more advanced teachers of children and the most progressive 
 kindergartners are beginning to realize this fact, and in the 
 training of children deal with them at first as savages, gradually 
 developing them through barbarism into healthy, wholesome 
 civilization. There are, however, plenty of parents who, still 
 ignorant of this fundamental idea, demand from children in the 
 state of savagery all the graces and fruits of advanced civilization. 
 The result is easily imagined. 
 
 Next to roasting and parching comes baking. There are 
 some very primitive methods. Tylor states that the Anda- Baking, 
 manese keep fires smoldering in hollow trees, so that they have 
 only to clear away the ashes in order at any time to cook their 
 little pigs and fish ; in Africa a great ants' nest cleaned out 
 makes an oven wherein even such great joints as those of the 
 rhinoceros are cooked. Lubbock quotes the way in which 
 Tahitians baked the hog. "They made a small pit in the 
 ground, which they paved with large stones, over which they 
 then lighted fires. When the stones were hot enough they 
 took out the embers, raked away the ashes, and covered the 
 stones with green cocoanut leaves. The animal having been 
 cleaned and prepared was wrapped in plantain leaves and 
 covered with hot embers, on which again they placed bread- 
 fruit and yams, also wrapped in plantain leaves. Over this they 
 spread the rest of the embers and more hot stones, finally 
 covered with earth. The meat thus cooked is very tender and 
 full of gravy." 
 
 It is a common thing among various peoples to dry meat in ^^ ^ d 
 the open air. The jerked beef of the North American Indian smoked meat. 
 
36 
 
 Some First Steps in Human Progress. 
 
 Boiling. 
 
 Stone-boiling. 
 
 was simply buffalo meat that had been prepared in this way. 
 The buffalo is now a thing of the past for the Indian, but he 
 still takes meat and cuts it into thin sheets, strips, or slices, 
 which he dries in the old way. One may see such meat, hang- 
 ing in the sun in the clear air of New Mexico or southern Cali- 
 fornia, even at the present time. In such cases the meat does 
 not decay, but in that fresh, dry atmosphere simply dries. A 
 variation of this means of preserving flesh is, of course, the 
 drying of it on supports over smoking fires. Tylor says that 
 the boucan of the Caribs was a device for such preservation. It 
 consisted of four upright sticks with a grating of sticks over 
 fire. The meat was laid upon these. A similar device is said 
 to be found in Africa, Kamtschatka, the East Indies, and the 
 Pelew Islands. 
 
 Boiling food was relatively a late invention. It is said to be 
 unknown to the Fuegians and Bushmen. It was devised in 
 many cases long before pottery was invented or the use of 
 kettles and pots of metal. In fact, the oldest boiling pots seem 
 to have been made of skin or bark or wood, or other such sub- 
 stances. There is a tribe of North American Indians named 
 Assinaboins ; the word means "stone boilers," and they were 
 named from the way in which they boiled meat. Having killed 
 a buffalo, they scooped out a round hole in the ground and lined 
 it with the skin of the beast himself. They then poured into it 
 water, placed the pieces of meat therein, and then, in a neigh- 
 boring fire, heated stones very hot ; these were dropped into 
 the water and the meat boiled in this way. The same method 
 of stone-boiling was, of course, applicable to vessels made of 
 basket-work or wood. Some of the tribes of our Northwest 
 coast try out oil by this means. A canoe is filled with 
 water, the oolachan fish, which consists almost entirely of oil, 
 are thrown into it until the canoe is full or nearly so, and then 
 hot stones are dropped in ; the water becomes so greatly heated 
 
Food-getting. 37 
 
 that the oil is driven out, floats on the surface, and is scooped 
 up with skimmers. The wild Irish as recently as 1600 were 
 stone boilers, and the inhabitants of the Hebrides and Shetland 
 Islands still heat milk by this means. Other materials besides 
 bark and wood may be used for vessels for stone-boiling ; in 
 South America the spathes (great leaves which encircle and en- 
 close the flower cluster) of the palm are used ; split bamboos 
 are used by Dyaks, Sumatrans, and Cambodians as vessels for 
 boiling rice, while the Radac Islanders use cocoanut shells. Of 
 course, when pottery was once invented it rapidly drove out 
 the clumsy device of stone-boiling. America may be quite 
 easily divided by a line running from northeast to southwest 
 into two great areas, in one of which stone-boiling is still used 
 or has been recently employed, while in the other pottery has 
 been abundantly developed. 
 
 It would be a great mistake to think that savage and barba- 
 rous tribes do not appreciate good food. They have devised iow| r °tribes ° f 
 many curious ways of preparing and cooking edibles and many 
 of their dishes are not to be sneered at, even by civilized people. 
 Tahitians are said to have had a definite list of some forty or 
 more prepared dishes. Of a Tahitian pudding which was made Tahitians. 
 as follows it is said that "few puddings in England equal it." 
 "Bread-fruit, ripe plantains, taro, pandanus nuts were rasped, 
 scraped, or pounded up fine and baked separately; a quantity of 
 juice from cocoanut kernels was put into the large tray or 
 wooden vessel, the other articles hot from the oven were put in 
 also, and a hot stone added." 
 
 The food supply varies, of course, with the locality. What a Food d epends 
 man eats depends very largely on where he lives ; what he eats fng|and?nflu- 
 determines very largely his character ; and the devices which ences llfe - 
 are necessary to secure his food dictate and influence his arts 
 and industries. It is worth while to look for a moment at the 
 detailed bill of fare of two or three peoples who occupy mark- 
 
38 Some First Steps in Human Progress. 
 
 edly different districts. To the west of our great mountain 
 
 Tribes of the ranee, along the Pacific coast from Vancouver Island north- 
 Northwest 
 coast. ward, dwell particularly interesting tribes of Indians. Behind 
 
 them are the mountains, and in the forests are flesh and fowl to 
 
 be had for the hunting ; but the sea before them is their main 
 
 larder. They live chiefly upon fish or water animals, and birds. 
 
 The waters swarm with halibut, salmon, cod, herring, oolachan. 
 
 They eat seals and porpoises, and delight in blubber. The eggs 
 
 or roe of fish are a delicacy ; shell fish, sea urchins, and snails 
 
 are welcome. Oil seems to be a necessity. It is certainly a 
 
 delicacy and valued food. Berries are gathered from the land, 
 
 and roots and barks of various kinds are used for food. But 
 
 even in the way of plants the sea yields a supply of seaweed. 
 
 Niblack and Emmons give further details in regard to food 
 
 and preparation. Fish are eaten fresh and vast quantities of 
 
 salmon, halibut, and herring are dried for future use. The oil 
 
 which we have referred to is obtained from seals, porpoises, 
 
 herrings, salmon; oolachan, goats, deer, bear, dogfish, etc. 
 
 The favorite kind is from the oolachan, a little fish so fat and 
 
 oily that when thrown into the boiling pan it almost disappears, 
 
 leaving little but a few bones behind. The oil which it yields is 
 
 semi-solid when cold and has a fetid and rancid smell and taste. 
 
 The fish are first allowed to partly putrefy, and then are boiled 
 
 by means of stones, as we have already described. A box of 
 
 oil weighing some one hundred pounds is worth from six to 
 
 twelve blankets, or twelve to twenty dollars. The oil is usually 
 
 used in connection with other food. Almost all solid food, 
 
 such as dried fish, is broken into bits and dipped in the oil and 
 
 whirled around until it gains a fair load of the grease, when it 
 
 is deftly carried to the open mouth. A great delicacy among 
 
 the Haidas and Tsimshians is salmon roe, which is gathered, 
 
 put in boxes, and buried just below high-water mark on the 
 
 beach. When the mass is somewhat decomposed and smells 
 
Food-getting. 39 
 
 vilely it is ready for use. Dried roe is also much used, and is 
 prepared for eating in two or three ways ; sometimes it is 
 pounded between stones, diluted with water, and beaten with 
 wooden spoons to a creamy consistency ; at other times it is 
 boiled with sorrel and different dried berries and molded in 
 wooden frames into cakes, twelve inches square and one inch 
 thick. This practice of pressing food substances into great 
 cakes for storing away is quite in vogue throughout this district, 
 and besides fish roe, seaweed, and spruce, hemlock and pine 
 bark are so prepared. One species of seaweed which is quite 
 black when dried is used for making sopallally, of which the 
 Indians are immoderately fond. It is made by breaking up a 
 very small piece of the pressed seaweed in a bowl or dish and 
 adding warm water ; it is then beaten with a wooden spoon and 
 sugar is added ; it froths and foams, like the white of an egg, 
 and gradually turns from a terra-cotta color to white ; berries 
 are sometimes added. From a piece two inches square a two- 
 gallon measure' could be easily made. The flavor is agreeable 
 but it leaves a bitter taste in the mouth. It is usually eaten at 
 the close of a meal as a dessert. 
 
 In quite a different way do we find the Plains Indians, far 
 away from the sea and mountains, within reach of great herds Food stock of 
 
 the Blackfeet. 
 
 of buffalo, living and feeding. George Bird Grinnell describes 
 very fully this type. We quote from him : 
 
 "The diet of the Blackfeet was more varied than one would 
 think. Large quantities of sarvis berries (Amelanchier alni- 
 folia) were gathered whenever there was a crop (which occurs 
 every other year), dried, and stored for future use. These were 
 gathered by women, who collected the branches laden with 
 ripe fruit and beat them over rugs spread upon the ground. 
 Choke cherries were also gathered when ripe, and pounded up, 
 stones and all. A bushel of fruit, after being pounded and 
 •dried, was feduced to a very small quantity. This food was 
 
40 Some First Steps in Human Progress. 
 
 sometimes eaten by itself, but more often was used to flavor 
 soups and to mix with pemmican. Bull berries (Shepherdia 
 argentea) were a favorite fruit, and were gathered in large 
 quantities, as was also the white berry of the red willow. This 
 last is an exceedingly bitter, acrid fruit, and to the taste of most 
 white men wholly unpleasant and repugnant. The Blackfeet, 
 however, are very fond of it ; perhaps because it contains some 
 property necessary to the nourishment of the body, which is 
 lacking in their every-day food. 
 
 ' ' The camas root, which grows abundantly in certain localities 
 on the east slope of the Rockies, was also dug, cooked, and 
 dried. The bulbs were roasted in pits, as by some Indians on 
 the west side of the Rocky Mountains. It is gathered while in 
 the bloom — June 15 to July 15. A large pit is dug, in which a 
 hot fire is built, the bottom being first lined with flat stones. 
 After keeping up this fire for several hours, until the stones and 
 earth are thoroughly heated, the coals and ashes are removed. 
 The pit is then lined with grass and is filled almost to the top 
 with camas bulbs. Over these grass is laid, then twigs, and 
 then earth to a depth of four inches. On this a fire is built, 
 which is kept up for from one to three days, according to the 
 quantity of the bulbs in the pit. 
 
 ' ' When the pit is opened, the small children gather about it to 
 suck the syrup, which has collected on the twigs and grass, and 
 which is very sweet. The fresh roasted camas tastes some- 
 thing like a roasted chestnut, with a little of the flavor of the 
 sweet potato. After being cooked, the roots are spread out in 
 the sun to dry, and are then put in sacks to be stored away. 
 Sometimes a few are pounded up with sarvis berries, and dried. 
 
 " Bitter-root is gathered, dried, and boiled with a little sugar. 
 It is a slender root, an inch or two long and as thick as a goose 
 quill, white in color and looking like the short lengths of spag- 
 hetti. It is very starchy. 
 
Food-getting. *i 
 
 " In the spring, a certain root called mats was eaten in great 
 quantities. This plant was known to the early French em- 
 ployees of the Hudson Bay and American fur companies as 
 pomme blanche {Psoralea esculenta). 
 
 " All parts of such animals as the buffalo, elk, deer, etc., were 
 eaten, save only the lungs, gall, and one or two other organs. 
 A favorite way for eating the paunch, or stomach, was the raw 
 state. Liver, too, was sometimes eaten raw. The unborn 
 calf of a fresh killed animal, especially buffalo, was considered 
 a great delicacy. The meat of this, when boiled, is white, 
 tasteless, and insipid. The small intestines of the buffalo were 
 sometimes dried, but more often were stuffed with long, thin 
 strips of meat. During the stuffing process the entrail was 
 turned inside out, thus confining with the meats the sweet white 
 fat that covers the intestines. The next step was to roast it a 
 little, after which the ends were tied to prevent the escape of 
 the juices, and it was thoroughly boiled in water. This is a 
 very great delicacy, and when properly prepared is equally ap- 
 preciated by whites and Indians. 
 
 "As a rule, there were but two ways of cooking meat — boiling 
 and roasting. If roasted, it was thoroughly cooked ; but if 
 boiled, it was only left in water long enough to lose the red 
 color, say five or ten minutes. Before they got kettles from the 
 whites, the Blackfeet often boiled meat in a green hide. 
 
 " In time of plenty, great quantities of dried meat were pre- 
 pared for use when fresh meat could not be obtained. In mak- 
 ing dried meat, the thicker parts of an animal were cut in large, 
 thin sheets and hung in the sun to dry. If the weather was not 
 fine, the meat was often hung up on lines or scaffolds in the 
 upper parts of the lodge. When properly cured and if of good 
 quality, the sheets were about one fourth of an inch thick and 
 very brittle. The back fat of the buffalo was also dried, and 
 eaten with the meat as we eat butter with bread. Pemmican 
 
42 Some First Steps in Human Progress. 
 
 was made of the flesh of the buffalo. The meat was dried in 
 the usual way ; and, for this use, only lean meat, such as the 
 hams, loins, and shoulders, was chosen. When the time came 
 for making the pemmican, two large fires were built of dry 
 quaking-aspen wood, and these were allowed to burn down to 
 red coals. The old women brought the dried meat to these 
 fires, and the sheets of meat were thrown on the coals of one 
 of them, allowed to heat through, turned to keep them from 
 burning, and then thrown on the flesh side of the dried hide, 
 that lay on the ground near by. After a time, the .roasting of 
 this dried meat caused the smoke to rise from the fire in use, 
 which gave the meat a bitter taste, if cooked in it. They then 
 turned to the other fire and used that until the first one had 
 burned clear down. After enough of this roasted meat had 
 been thrown on the hide, it was flailed out with sticks, and be- 
 ing very brittle was easily broken up and made small. It was 
 constantly stirred and pounded until it was all fine. Meantime, 
 the tallow of the buffalo had been melted in a large kettle, and 
 the pemmican bags prepared. These were made of bull's hide, 
 and were in v two pieces, cut oblong and with the corners 
 rounded off. Two such pieces sewed together made a bag 
 which would hold one hundred pounds. The pounded meat 
 and tallow — the latter just beginning to cool — were put in a 
 trough made of bull's hide, a wooden spade being used to stir 
 the mixture. After it was thoroughly mixed it was shoveled 
 into one of the sacks held open, and rammed down and packed 
 tight with a big stick, every effort being made to expel all the 
 air. When the bag was full and packed as tight as possible it 
 was sewn up. It was then put on the ground and the women 
 jumped on it to make it still more tight and solid. It was then 
 laid away in the sun to cool and dry. It usually took the meat 
 of two cows to make a bag of one hundred pounds ; a very 
 large bull might make a sack of eighty to one hundred pounds. 
 
Food-getting. 43 
 
 "A much finer grade of pemmican was made from the choicest 
 part of the buffalo with marrow fat. To this dried berries and 
 pounded choke cherries were added, making a delicious food, 
 which was extremely nutritious. Pemmican was eaten either 
 dry as it came from the sack, or stewed with water. 
 
 ' ' In the spring, the people had great feasts of the eggs of ducks 
 and other waterfowl. A large quantity having been gathered, 
 a hole was dug in the ground and a little water put in it. At 
 short intervals above the water, platforms of sticks were built, 
 on which eggs were laid. A smaller hole was dug at one side 
 of the large hole, slanting into the bottom of it. When all was 
 ready, the top of the larger hole was covered with mud, laid 
 upon crossed sticks, and red-hot stones were dropped into the 
 slant, when they rolled down into the water, heating it, and so 
 cooking the eggs by steam. 
 
 "Fish were seldom eaten by these people in the early days, 
 but now they seem very fond of them. Turtles, frogs, and liz- 
 ards are considered creatures of evil, and are never eaten. 
 Dogs, considered a great delicacy by the Crees, Gros Ventres, 
 Sioux, Assinaboins, and other surrounding tribes, were never 
 eaten by the Blackfeet. No religious motive is assigned for 
 this abstinence. I once heard a Piegan say that it was wrong 
 to eat dogs. 'They are our true friends,' he said. 'Men say 
 they are our friends and then turn against us, but our dogs are 
 always true. They mourn when we are absent, and are always 
 glad when we return. They keep watch for us in the night 
 when we sleep. So pity the poor dogs.' Snakes, grasshop- 
 pers, worms, and other insects were never eaten. Salt was an 
 unknown condiment. Many are now very fond of it, but I know 
 a number, especially old people, who never eat it." 
 
Cannibalism : 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 Food-getting ( Continued). 
 
 Man has ransacked the earth for food ; he has tested mineral 
 products, plants, and animals ; his experiments have not been 
 confined, but are almost completely inclusive. There has been 
 no animal too small or filthy for him to use. It is not strange 
 that in an experimentation so wide and comprehensive, his fel- 
 low-man should also have been a victim. As a matter of fact, 
 cannibalism exists to-day in portions of the world, and, in the 
 past, it has prevailed over very many regions where it is now 
 absent. This matter of cannibalism, while it is a dreadful one, 
 From necessity; j s cur j ous an( j interesting. That man should eat his kind in 
 time of dire need — in famine — is not strange. Even the 
 most civilized peoples have done so. The Wends, accord- 
 ing to Tylor, put their aged people to death, cooked, and 
 ate them. Schiller states that the Saxons at the end of the 
 Thirty Years' War had become cannibals. Peschel narrates that, 
 at the siege of Messina, flesh of captured soldiers was eaten, 
 selling at varying price for varying race. Frenchmen have been 
 known to exhume the body of a detested officer and to eat the 
 flesh. Letourneau says that St. Jerome, in one of his letters, 
 describes Scotch cannibals, who were extremely fond of steaks 
 taken from young girls and boys. In Melanesia — particularly 
 in Fiji and New Caledonia — in Africa among the Kaffirs, in 
 New Zealand, Australia, and Tierra del Fuego we find the prac- 
 tice of cannibalism in time of need. 
 To eat human flesh in time of need is an unfortunate thing,' 
 
 44 
 
Food-getting. 45 
 
 but there are peoples, among whom cannibalism is found, who 
 cannot urge as excuse crying need. It is very curious to notice From desire ; 
 the different ways in which cannibalism is indulged among the 
 various populations of the world. Thus there are some canni- 
 bals who are veritable gourmands in the matter of human 
 flesh. The Fuegians, the New Caledonians, are such ; the 
 Fans, Niam-niams, and Monbuttus are such ; Schweinfurth 
 mentions evidence of cannibalism among the latter. He says, 
 between two cabins whose doors opened opposite each other, 
 a child, new-born and dying, was laid upon a mat. At the door 
 of one of the cabins a man tranquilly played upon a mandolin. 
 At the other door an aged woman, in the midst of a group of 
 boys and girls, was preparing gourds for supper. The kettle 
 full of boiling water stood ready and all were only waiting for 
 the death of the child, whose body was to supply the principal 
 dish for the meal. About the year 1200 A. D. a famine deso- 
 lated the land of Egypt. In all the cities — Alexandria, Syene, 
 Damietta — cannibalism took place upon a great scale. People 
 gave themselves up to man-hunting, and above all to child- 
 hunting — for roasted child was considered an excellent meat. 
 The thing went on to such an extent that every effort was 
 made to suppress it by law. The punishment, by burning at 
 the stake, so little deterred the cannibals that the criminals, 
 who had been thus punished, were sometimes eaten by others 
 as soon as they were cooked. This gormandizing in human 
 flesh lately prevailed throughout Polynesia, occurred in South 
 America, and along the northwest coast of North America. 
 
 A different motive is found in vengeance. The case which 
 
 , _ _, nrn j 1*1 j t • From motives of 
 
 we have quoted from France really falls under this head. It is vengeance ; 
 
 not at all uncommon among savage and barbarous people for 
 
 a dead enemy to be devoured, and in this eating there are two 
 
 ideas usually to be recognized— the first is that of simple 
 
 vengeance, the second is the desire to gain the qualities of the 
 
46 Some First Steps in Human Progress. 
 
 enemy by the eating. This last idea we find almost every- 
 where. Thus the Senecas during the Revolutionary War ate 
 two white Americans in order to gain bravery in warfare. In 
 China, during the war with England, a merchant of Shanghai 
 met his servant who was carrying to the house the heart of a 
 rebel that he might eat it ; not because he liked the flesh, or 
 from hunger, but that he might gain courage by the act. Many 
 African tribes and some South Sea Islanders are among those 
 who indulge in cannibalism from such motives. 
 Even more commonly the eating of human flesh is done as 
 From religious a religious act. The Maoris in New Zealand divided the slain 
 with the gods, cooking, eating, and offering parts to them. So 
 among the Marquesans the victim was strangled to prevent loss 
 of blood. The eyes were prized and given to warriors ; the 
 heart was eaten raw ; the rest of the body, wrapped in leaves, 
 was cooked in the Polynesian oven. The feet, hands, and ribs 
 were given to the chief ; the rump and choice morsels were re- 
 served for the high priest. Formerly, in Tahiti, the priest of- 
 fered the eyes of a sacrifice first to the chief and then, at his 
 refusal, to the gods, whom they believed were very fond of 
 human flesh. Inasmuch as people generally make up gods on 
 their own pattern, we may be quite sure that the fondness for 
 human flesh must once have prevailed among the Tahitians. 
 Aztecs of Mexico "fattened and ate prisoners in great num- 
 bers and went to war for the sole purpose of capturing this 
 kind of game." And their cannibalism was usually connected 
 with great religious ceremonies. 
 Among the Battas of Sumatra, who, by the way, are a fairly 
 From filial advanced and extremely interesting people, with a knowledge , 
 
 plety • of writing and with books, we find two of the most curious 
 
 forms of cannibalism. One of these we may call cannibalism 
 through filial piety. They eat, ceremonially, and with great 
 filial affection, their old parents ; they select for a feast a time 
 
Food-getting. qrj 
 
 when the citrons are abundant and salt is cheap. On the ap- 
 pointed day the old man who is destined for eating climbs up 
 a tree at the foot of which his relatives and friends gather. 
 These strike the trunk of the tree, beating time and singing a 
 funeral hymn, the general meaning of which is, "Behold the 
 time has come, the fruit is ripe, let it fall from the tree." The 
 old man then comes down out of the tree ; his nearest relatives 
 kill him and afterward he is eaten. 
 The other motive to cannibalism among the Battas is judicial 
 
 For legal 
 
 in its character. There are certain criminals, such as the punishment, 
 adulterer, the robber, and the traitor, who are eaten by the 
 people. The victims are bound to posts with their legs and 
 arms spread in the form of a St. Andrew's cross. At a given 
 signal all the spectators rush out, dispatch him with their 
 weapons, and tear him to pieces, which are eaten raw and 
 bloody after being dipped into a mixture of cocoanut, citron 
 juice, and salt. 
 
 Such, then, are the astonishing forms of cannibalism found 
 among the different peoples of mankind and some of the 
 motives which are assigned for it, or which may be urged in 
 its defense ; necessity, gormandizing, vengeance, or the desire 
 to secure some attribute, religion, filial piety, judicial exe- 
 cution. Before leaving this rather ghastly subject, two very 
 
 curious things should be mentioned. The first is this : Canni- 
 
 ...... Two curious 
 
 bals frequently, or even generally, surpass their neighbors in facts. 
 
 civilization; and, secondly, they eat dogs as well as human 
 beings. The first of these statements may be astonishing. In 
 Africa there are to-day no people who surpass in culture the (o) cannibals 
 Monbuttus, Fans, and Niam-niams ; it is precisely among these °£*£ n ei|hbors 
 tribes that cannibalism in its most outrageous form is said to ln culture - 
 flourish. In Sumatra it is not the lowest people who eat hu- 
 man flesh, but the Battas, who, as we have said, possess a 
 written character, books, and many other features of a fairly 
 
Some First Steps in Human Progress. 
 
 advanced civilization. In America it is the Aztecs and other 
 foremost tribes of Mexico and Central America who are most 
 frequently charged with this dreadful practice. The New 
 Zealanders are among the best of Polynesians in their culture, 
 while the Fijians stand markedly above their fellow Melanes- 
 ians. Writers have more than once attempted to explain this 
 curious fact ; it can hardly be said, in an entirely satisfactory 
 way. One of the more commonly urged explanations is, that 
 in all these cases peoples have passed directly from savagery — 
 with its hunting life and dependence upon animal food — into 
 settled agricultural conditions without having passed through 
 (*) Cannibals the stage when flocks and herds were cared for. The second 
 eaters. point, namely, that cannibals are dog-eaters as well as man- 
 
 eaters, needs no particular attention. Most tribes who depend 
 to any great extent upon the dog for help in hunting, or who 
 have made of it a companion, would naturally hesitate about 
 killing and eating a favorite beast. Without asserting it too 
 strongly, it might be said that where the eating of dogs is 
 found to be a marked feature in life and cannibalism is absent, 
 it is probable that close investigation will show the people to 
 have been lately cannibals. 
 Cannibalism once indulged is not easily outgrown. The 
 
 craving reasserts itself at times with terrible force. Not many 
 Force of the 
 
 desire for years ago a party of Fijians, apparently driven by an irresisti- 
 
 human flesh. . . 
 
 ble desire, or perhaps by a complex of motives, fled to a 
 
 cavern where a cannibal feast took place. A pursuit party, 
 arriving at the cave, found signs of the banquet, although the 
 feasters were gone. Bloody bones and curious, hastily made 
 wooden forks told the story. These forks of wood were 
 necessary, for the Fijian may not handle human meat with his 
 fingers. 
 
 Several readily accessible books treat more fully of this sub- 
 ject. Letourneau and Andree, in particular, maybe mentioned 
 
Food-getting. 
 
 49 
 
 for reference. The accompanying table may be of use in sug- 
 gesting recent distribution of the practice in its various forms. 
 It is based largely upon Letourneau's facts. 
 
 Cannibalism. 
 
 Necessity. 
 
 
 Gormandizing . 
 
 Vengeance, etc. 
 
 Melanesia entire, 
 
 espe- 
 
 Fiji, New Caledonia. 
 
 Ashanti, Bantu, Mtamba. 
 
 dally Fiji and New Cal- 
 
 Zulu, Basuto, Fans, Niam- 
 
 Marquesas, Tahiti, Rara- 
 
 edonia. 
 
 
 niam, Monbutto. 
 
 tonga. 
 
 New Guinea. 
 
 
 Egypt, Algeria. 
 
 Senecas. 
 
 New Zealand. 
 
 
 New Zealand, Marquesas, 
 
 China, Bhutan, Koukis. 
 
 Kaffirs. 
 
 
 Friendly Islands, Ha- 
 
 France. 
 
 Australia. 
 
 
 waii, Bow Islands. 
 
 
 Tierra del Fuego. 
 
 
 (Moxos) Guarani, Caribs. 
 
 
 Hurons, Iroquois, 
 
 Es- 
 
 Nutka-Columbians. 
 
 
 kimo. 
 
 
 Saxons, Scotch. 
 
 
 Messina (Siege of). 
 
 
 
 
 Table of 
 cannibalism. 
 
 Religion. 
 
 Fiji, Tanna. 
 
 Grand Bassam, Bihenos, 
 
 Dahomey. 
 New Zealand, Marquesas, 
 
 Tahiti. 
 Mexico. 
 
 Filial Piety. 
 
 Battas of Sumatra. 
 Massagetae and 
 
 dones. 
 Tibet 13 . 
 
 Judicial. 
 
 Battas of Sumatra. 
 Kissama eat criminals 
 
 condemned to death. 
 Bow Islands. 
 
CHAPTER V. 
 
 Basketry and Pottery. 
 
 Art of basketry. 
 
 Among Sacs 
 and Foxes ; 
 
 Shoshones ; 
 
 Mokis, etc. 
 
 One of the commonest of arts among the lower races is 
 basketry. It is certainly very old, and has frequently been 
 fully developed in the Stone Age. In its simplest form it con- 
 sists simply in the platting of splints. The materials for it are 
 to be found almost everywhere, and are generally narrow, flat 
 shreds of wood, strips of bark, or cords of some kind. The 
 women among the Sacs and Foxes make all kinds of pouches 
 or bags, for carrying articles, in basket-work. One of the 
 simplest forms is made of strips of slippery elm half an inch 
 broad, very thin, and of considerable length ; these are simply 
 platted, one strip being passed under, and then over, and then 
 under, strips running in the contrary direction. More elaborate 
 basket sacks in which geometrical designs of different colors 
 are wrought are made from strands of white-ash bark. The 
 manner of handling and managing these strips in this case dif- 
 fers greatly from the preceding. A series of strips are laid 
 side by side. They are then crossed at intervals by cords 
 which are wrapped around each one of them and then securely 
 tied. The Shoshones make basket pots of tough roots wound 
 in plies around the center, forming a vessel shaped like an in- 
 verted beehive ; these plies are held together by a small tough 
 root passing under and over them alternately. The vessels 
 produced are water tight. Many of our southwestern tribes 
 make most beautiful baskets. The Mokis make water jars and 
 all sorts of vessels, graceful in form and finely woven ; fre- 
 
 50 
 
Fig. 4.— Cocoanut Vessels in Cord Carriers. South Sea Islands. 
 
Fig. 5.— Pottery. Fiji. 
 
Basketry and Pottery. 53 
 
 quently the splints or materials used will be of divers colors 
 and arranged in patterns and tasteful designs. Their basketry 
 is what is usually known as "coiled ware," as distinguished 
 from platted ware or splint work. A bunch of soft grass stems, 
 pliant and flexible, is taken ; it is coiled around itself, as a rope 
 might be, and a long, slender, tough thread or strip of some 
 vegetable matter is then taken, and is used like string, passing 
 over and over the coil, sewing its folds firmly to each other. 
 Such baskets when finished do not show the inner core or grass 
 which really makes the coil, but only the outer wrapped and 
 fastening strip. Every one knows the lovely baskets made in 
 this way, which come from southern California. In the The Northwest 
 Vancouver Island district and further north beautiful basket- coasttn es - 
 work is made from grasses, which being frequently dyed in rich 
 colors yield artistic and striking effects. Some Vancouver In- 
 dians will take any object the traveler gives them, such, for in- 
 stance, as a bottle, of any size or shape, and will cover it with 
 the neatest of close-fitting basket casings, ornamented with ge- 
 ometric or other patterns in various tints. 
 Among certain African tribes we find a similar perfection in 
 
 Basketry in 
 
 the art of basketry. Excellent shields, often well ornamented Africa, 
 with colored patterns, occur there. Among the Nyassa, Living- 
 stone saw beer in baskets, and such vessels are used for milk 
 in Kaffirland. 
 A moment's consideration will show that any ornamentation 
 
 Ornamentation 
 
 in color in basket-work of any type must necessarily assume in basket-work, 
 more or less of rigid and geometric forms ; this is inherent in 
 the material and the method of using it 
 
 Of course, vessels are at all times a necessity. The first is 
 the human hand, with which water is scooped up. There are 
 plenty of peoples who have not yet devised the use of clay ves- 
 sels or pottery. The Andamanese, some Australians, the Ma- 
 oris, Fuegians, Patagonians, and Polynesians have no pottery. 
 
54 
 
 Some First Steps hi Human Progress. 
 
 Primitive 
 vessels. 
 
 The law of 
 copy. 
 
 Steps toward 
 pottery. 
 
 Nature supplies vessels and these have been used everywhere 
 before true pottery was invented. So 'the Andamanese use 
 shells or pieces of bamboo for water vessels ; the Australian 
 has skins and vessels of bark ; the Maoris used gourds. The 
 Tahitians had large dishes of polished wood ; shells of cocoanut 
 scraped thin and polished and carved were used for cups. The 
 Polynesians used bladders for water vessels ; the Fuegians 
 made theirs of beech-bark. Even such unlikely things as egg- 
 shells or stomachs have been used as bottles or water jars. 
 Bushmen women commonly carry nets filled with ostrich egg- 
 shells as water carriers. The same tribe uses all sorts of skins 
 for vessels ; from lizard skins they make dainty pouches, from 
 antelope skins traveling sacks. 
 
 A law of very wide application and which must always be re- 
 membered may be called "the law of copy." It is this : When 
 a new art is introduced, or when a new material is supplied to 
 an art, the form previously in use is copied. Hence, when pot- 
 tery comes in, it imitates the shapes of vessels already in use. 
 We have seen that the list of pre-pottery vessels is a long one 
 and that it contains both natural and artificial forms and objects. 
 Thus, of natural objects' used for vessels we have bamboo 
 stalks, ostrich eggs, sea-shells, hollow horns, skulls of man or 
 beast, gourds, cocoanut shells, skins, bladders, stomachs ; of 
 artificial vessels we have those of stone, wood, horn, bark, 
 basketry. All of these may be copied, and in fact are copied, 
 in clay when pottery is invented. 
 
 The way in which pottery arose seems to be somewhat as 
 follows : In South America natives were seen to plaster over 
 boiling pots with a kind of clay, a finger thick, in order to pre- 
 vent the fire from burning them. Gourds may be made to 
 withstand heat by clay coating. When Cushing first visited the 
 Havasupai of Arizona he found them boiling food in wicker 
 jars by means of hot stones, and parching seeds, crickets, etc., 
 
Basketry and Pottery. 55 
 
 in a shallow clay-lined tray of basket-work. After much use it 
 is plain that the clay-lining of such a tray, put in, of course, to 
 protect the basket itself from burning, would become hardened 
 by the heat to which it was subjected ; if now the basket should 
 separate from the clay-lining, we should have left a clay dish. 
 Tylor mentions that the Eskimo sometimes widen the rims of 
 their stone vessels by means of clay. In all these different 
 ways we have hints of the art of pottery ; hints which are fruit- 
 ful of results. There is the best reason to believe that the first 
 baking of clay was developed in such ways. Squier and Davis 
 mention old kilns still containing pottery partly burned and re- 
 taining the rims of gourds upon which they had been molded 
 and which had not been entirely destroyed. Many old, large 
 clay vessels show plainly that they were made within baskets 
 which were simply burned off ; others are made in nets, and 
 in Peru crucibles are made of cloth coated over with clay. 
 
 The whole matter of the origin of pottery forms and decora- 
 tions has been carefully gone into by Mr. Holmes, who shows Origin of 
 
 pottery forms. 
 
 by many examples that pottery was certainly developed in the 
 way we have suggested, and that it has certainly in many cases 
 copied the forms of older vessels. From mounds in Arkansas 
 and Missouri one digs great cups made of sea-shells from the 
 Gulf of Mexico ; from the same mounds are also taken clay 
 vessels of precisely the same shape, and which show in their 
 ornamentation the attempt to reproduce the natural features of 
 the shell. In Nicaragua quantities of great clay jars are shaped 
 precisely like the vessels, made of stomachs, which the people 
 used before. All through our Southern States the long-necked 
 gourd is used for dippers and water flasks ; in the same dis- 
 trict, vessels of pottery imitate the old form. In the Southwest, 
 we have noticed that baskets were frequently used for water 
 jars and bottles ; the old pottery from the same district not only 
 reproduces the shapes that are so commonly made in the older 
 
56 
 
 Some First Steps in Human Progress. 
 
 Origin of 
 
 pottery 
 
 decorations. 
 
 Cushing on 
 Zufii pottery. 
 
 art of basketry, but also reproduce the decorations suited to 
 that kind of work. 
 
 The natural vessels to which we have referred, such as cocoa- 
 nut shells and gourds and ostrich shells, in order to be carried 
 needed to be fastened or held by cords. When the old vessel 
 was replaced by pottery, the cords which before had served a 
 useful purpose as carriers were likely to be copied in color or 
 otherwise upon the clay dish as ornament. In the Pitt-Rivers 
 Museum at Oxford, there is a case of pots and jars decorated 
 with painted lines, which are of such character and so related 
 to each other as to make it quite certain that they were sug- 
 gested by such old cord carriers. 
 
 Mr. Cushing has written an interesting article upon the de- 
 velopment or evolution of Pueblo pottery. He traces the his- 
 tory first by means of language and second by technique. He 
 believes that by a study of the words used by the Zunians he 
 can make out the following points : At first, canes or wooden 
 tubes were used. Such vessels are called sho-tom-me ; the 
 word for canes being sho-e, and the word for wooden tubes 
 tom-me. Next gourds were used. Gourd vessels were called 
 shop-tom-me ; from sho-e-cane and tom-me — wooden tubes, and 
 po-pon-nae-e, meaning bladder-shaped ; that is, gourd vessels, 
 by etymology, would be bladder-shaped canes or wooden 
 tubes. Then, baskets were used and basket vessels were called 
 tom-ma. This word is plainly analogous to the one that means 
 wooden tube. While basket vessels replaced the use of gourds 
 in daily life, the latter were long retained and even now, per- 
 haps, are used in religious ceremonies. Finally, pottery was 
 devised and the word for pots is wo-li-a-kca-ni-pu-li-a-tom-me ; 
 the literal meaning is, coiled cooking basket ; in other words, 
 the pot at first was only the reproduction of the real basket 
 which had been used for boiling food. 
 
 Here archeology also helps us out. The second line of 
 
' Basketry and Pottery. 57 
 
 argument is drawn from technique. The oldest pottery of this 
 whole district is what is known as coiled ware. It will be 
 remembered that the Indian women of southern California 
 make their basket-work out of a coiled rope composed of 
 grass ; it was impossible for the pot-maker to break away all 
 at once from basketry and its methods ; hence the coil of 
 grass was replaced by a coil of clay. Bowls were made on the 
 outside of baskets by winding a coil of clay around and around. 
 Gradually more freedom arose and the building of ollas with- 
 in a base of basket-work was developed. When burnt and 
 allowed to shrink and dry the jar is easily removed. The 
 ornamentation on Pueblo pottery has passed through a series 
 of changes, angular designs predominating and the ornamental 
 effect depending as much on the open and undecorated spaces 
 as on the designs. This is more and more true as we go back- 
 wards and particularly characterizes the more ancient dec- 
 orated wares. This is as we might expect, for it will be re- 
 membered that the natural decoration of basketry is geomet- 
 rical ; as pottery, in that district, in forms and technique is de- 
 veloped out of basketry, the ornamentations first in vogue would, 
 of course, be such as are found in the samples of that art. The 
 evolution of ornament in this southwestern pottery appears to 
 have passed through some four stages ; it was at first incised 
 or indented ; then it became relief ornament ; then came black 
 patterns on light ground ; and lastly colored patterns on white 
 or colored surfaces. 
 
CHAPTER VI. 
 
 Man and other 
 animals. 
 
 Hunting 
 among savage 
 men. 
 
 Hunting. 
 
 A large part of primitive food of mankind certainly came 
 from the animal kingdom. Man is not by nature so well en- 
 dowed for capturing and killing other animals as many of the 
 lower members of the animal kingdom. He can be outrun, 
 outscratched, outhugged by many another creature. Neither 
 fleet, nor large, nor strong, he very early was obliged to con- 
 tend against and conquer animals much his superiors. He did 
 not realize as we now do how vastly he outranked them in some 
 ways ; on the contrary, the other animals filled him with feel- 
 ings of fear, awe, dread, respect. He considered them more 
 cunning than himself — he knew them more powerful ; but pitted 
 against them he, little by little, gained advantage of them. 
 Even the little pygmies of Africa assail the elephant, with 
 their tiny poisoned arrows ; Eskimo attack fearlessly the giant 
 walrus or the polar bear. 
 
 Of course, at first man must either attack the brutes with his 
 naked hands, his claws, his feet, his teeth, or help himself with 
 stick or stone seized at the moment of combat. Later he came 
 to devise and improve weapons, until at last we find even some 
 savage tribes fairly equipped for conducting warfare against 
 both savage man and wild beast. We shall not in this chapter 
 refer to the development of weapons but shall only consider a 
 few of the devices for capturing or killing game devised by 
 savage man. 
 
 In fact, savage man perfected the art of hunting until little 
 58 
 
Hunting. 59 
 
 improvement was left for men in later stages to discover. It 
 is, par excellence, the art of savagery. Primitive man has 
 thought and experimented until he circumvents the wildest and 
 overcomes the strongest animals. 
 
 It is primitive hunting when the wild man rushes upon his 
 game, seizes it before it has time to run or fly, and dashes out Primitive 
 
 , . . ........ , , methods of 
 
 its brains against a tree trunk ; it is primitive hunting when he catching game, 
 creeps silently and cautiously toward his unsuspecting prey un- 
 til at last, reaching out his hand, he seizes it ; it is primitive 
 hunting when the Aztec catches the wild duck as authors have 
 described. It seems that the old Mexicans used to leave great 
 gourds or calabashes floating near the shores of the lake in order 
 that the wild ducks might become accustomed to the sight and 
 have no fear- of such floating objects ; then, when the time 
 for hunting came, a similar calabash hollowed out would be in- 
 verted over the head while the hunter would cautiously and 
 quickly move, under water, concealed below the gourd, until 
 he reached the unsuspecting birds ; seizing one of them by its 
 legs he would drag it under water and hold it until drowned, 
 thus preventing it from making any signal which would warn 
 its fellows. In these cases we have imagined the primitive 
 man as using for weapons only such as formed part of his own 
 body. 
 
 It is a step beyond this when the Australian drags out from 
 some hole in the rocks the lizards by means of a hooked stick, JiJ."^/™' 1 
 or when he throws the crooked club at his game. The curved wea P° n - 
 stick is a very common weapon among low and rude folk ; we 
 know it to be very ancient and no doubt it was one of the 
 earliest of weapons. A curved stick for killing birds was used 
 by the old Egyptians ; it is used to-day by Indians in our South- 
 west for killing rabbits ; it was used in India and, as we know, 
 still exists in Australia. 
 
 Savage man has learned how to use sticks of all kinds, blunt 
 
6o 
 
 Some First Steps in Human Progress. 
 
 Schooling of 
 the savage 
 hunter. 
 
 The Amu as 
 hunter. 
 
 and sharp, pointed, light and heavy, to be held and to be 
 thrown ; he has used stone, both round and sharp, alone and 
 attached to handles or to darts ; he has devised pitfalls, snares, 
 traps of every kind. He has exhausted his ingenuity in adapt- 
 ing his weapons to special uses. He has studied the life and 
 habits of every beast in the forest and of every bird that flies 
 over the district in which he lives and of all the fish and swim- 
 ming things in the neighboring waters. The ideas which he 
 has conceived, and which he has carried out perfectly, to cap- 
 ture and to kill, well repay careful study. We have not space 
 here for such a study, but we shall look at the hunting methods 
 of two populations very different in character and note the in- 
 genuity displayed. 
 
 The Ainu of Japan depend, to a large degree, upon the 
 chase for food. A curious, harmless, gentle people, they are 
 a bit of ancient life still living on into this present. Reputed 
 the hairiest of mankind, they are notable in many ways. Upon 
 the whole, they are a short, little people. Batchelor, who is 
 our authority in regard to them, says : "Ainu men love inac- 
 tion as far as work in the gardens is concerned. But there is 
 nothing an Ainu loves so much as hunting, except, perhaps, 
 getting intoxicated. They have a wild nature, which breaks 
 out every now and then. Servants have to be allowed to go 
 off for a day to have a good run in the fresh air or sometimes 
 a day's horseback ride or a day's fishing.'' Among their chief 
 hunting expeditions were those for deer. Deer-stalking is 
 much indulged in. "The hunters generally carry an instru- 
 The deer decoy. ment with them on their expeditions with which to decoy deer ; 
 it is called ' ipakkani.' It is a little squeaker made of wood and 
 fishskin, which is blown into while the thumbs are drawn over 
 the skin ; a noise is produced which sounds like the cry of the 
 doe ; the bucks are attracted by it, and when they draw near 
 the spot where the hunter is concealed are shot." They are 
 
Fig. 6. — Spoons of Horn. Alaska. 
 
Fig. 7.— Mold and Handle-Shaper used in Making Spoons of Horn. Alaska. 
 
Hunting. 63 
 
 great people for traps of various kinds, some of which are 
 quite ingenious. Thus, spring bows are set for killing deer and 
 bear. A cord fastened to a post or tree crosses the trail over 
 which the animal is expected to pass ; it is attached also to a 
 trigger which is so connected with a stout bow, drawn and with 
 the arrow in place, that when it is sprung the arrow is shot 
 with great force ; the animal in passing along the trail strikes 
 the string, releases the trigger, and discharges the arrow, which 
 penetrates and causes death.. Two blocks moving in grooved, 
 divergent sticks are so related to each other and to a bow that 
 when the bow is discharged the blocks are forcibly and in- 
 stantly shot together ; the creature touching the string with his 
 paw discharges the bow and closes the two blocks. This trap 
 is so powerful that it generally breaks the animal's leg and 
 holds it firmly. That it may not be carried away by the captive 
 it is usually tied to a tree or some other fixed object. There is 
 a form of rat-trap used by these people which in principle is 
 much like the last. It consists of an oblong box with a slide 
 lid which is sprung shut by a bow ; bait is put into the box ; 
 the animal in getting at it climbs partly over the lower end of 
 the box and is in such position that his head and forward part 
 of body are in the box and downward while his tail and the 
 back of his body are outside and above ; when the bait is 
 touched, the bow-string is released, drives the lid to, and 
 catches the animal by the body. 
 
 The bear hunt is the most important operation in Ainu life. 
 Various methods are in vogue. It was not at all uncommon to The bear hunt, 
 dig a deep pit in their trail, cover the pit with rotten wood 
 and leaves, and hang a piece of venison over it as bait. Far 
 more commonly, however, a bear hunt was a matter in which 
 many partook ; it was almost a semi-religious affair. Before 
 starting a meeting of the elders is held to ask the favor of the 
 gods. They ask the god of the mountains to bring them upon 
 
64 Some First Steps in Human Progress. 
 
 Arrow-poison. 
 
 the track of the game ; the goddess of the rivers to carry them 
 safely over the ferries ; the gods of the springs to nourish them 
 when they drink ; the goddess of the fire to comfort them, 
 keep them in health, cook food, dry their clothes, and warm 
 their bodies. Whenever they rest they invoke the local gods. 
 In the early spring, when the snow is hard enough to support 
 walkers, the hunters start with dogs. Bear dens are recog- 
 nized by a slight discoloration of the snow and the breathing 
 hole. When a den is found, prayers are said, the snow is 
 cleared away, and long sticks poked into the den. The dogs 
 also try to worry the bear out. Fire and smoke may be neces- 
 sary. If all these fail the hunter goes into the den, for it is 
 said that Ainu bears pever attack any one while in the den ; the 
 bear, enraged, pushes him behind himself; the hunter pricks 
 him with a knife and out he rushes furiously. Poisoned arrows 
 are at once shot into him ; they increase his rage and pain, and 
 he is exceedingly dangerous at this stage of affairs. When a 
 bear has been killed the hunters sit down, admire it, and make 
 salaams. They then skin it, cut out the poisoned spots, and 
 divide the flesh ; when the skinning is done the head is adorned 
 with inaos and thanks are given. After the party returns a great 
 feast is given. 
 
 We have referred to poisoned arrows. They are among the 
 most interesting features of the Ainu hunting. Batchelor says 
 that the poison is made from the roots of the monk's-hood, 
 which are dug up in spring, peeled, and dried. They are then 
 powdered between two large stones ; tobacco and capsicum are 
 soaked in water and the pounded aconite is moistened with this 
 liquor ; sometimes a poisonous spider is added to the mixture, 
 to which a little fox-gall has been added. To test the poison a 
 minute amount was put upon the tongue ; if good it caused a 
 tingling biting. The arrows were made in three sections : first, 
 the arrow-head of bamboo, two inches long, scooped out on 
 
Hunting. 65 
 
 one side to hold the poison ; second, a piece of bone into which 
 the head was fixed ; third, a reed shaft. In applying the 
 poison the arrow-head is dipped into pine-tree gum, the poison 
 is then carefully stuck on, flattened down with the thumb, and 
 again dipped in the gum. The bows of the Ainu were poor, 
 simple affairs, of no particular interest. The description which 
 we have given above of the poison-making is derived from 
 Batchelor. B. Douglas Howard claims to have been instructed 
 in the making of the arrow-poison among the even more prim- 
 itive Ainu of Saghalien. He relates that aconite roots, care- 
 fully cleaned and scraped, were sliced and pounded to a pow- 
 der. This was placed in water, and boiled until two thirds of 
 the fluid had evaporated. It was then strained and still 
 further reduced by boiling. The residue was placed in 
 a sea-shell. Six dead spiders were then powdered, put 
 into water, and boiled down. This was put in a second 
 shell. The gall bladders of three freshly killed foxes were then 
 taken, and the gall boiled down and put in a third shell. 
 The two valves of a bivalve were now cleaned. In one of 
 them the three materials were carefully mixed with a little 
 spatula of bone or wood. The unmixed materials and the mix- 
 ture were both sanctified by ceremonies before the sacred 
 whittled sticks, or inaos. After testing the mixture by dipping 
 the tip of a spear of grass into it and touching it to the tongue, 
 the upper valve was adjusted to the one containing the poison 
 and the edges were gummed together. 
 
 The Ainu have but a single domestic animal, the dog. The 
 Ainu dog has been trained for use in hunting. In the stalking The use of 
 of deer, packs of them would refrain from attacking and killing 
 the game, but would stand by and keep it at bay until the hunt- 
 ers came up and shot it with their poisoned arrows. 
 
 B. Douglas Howard tells an astonishing story in regard to 
 the help of dogs in fishing. "A fishing party started for the 
 
66 
 
 Some First Steps in Human Progress. 
 
 sea with about thirty dogs. Arrived at the scene of action, 
 dogs and men were separated into two parties stationed at 
 points two hundred yards apart. At a given signal the dogs 
 plunged boldly into the water and swam out single file in two 
 columns. At a signal they wheeled toward each other, and 
 when they had completed a crescentic line turned in toward 
 the shore. As they drew near the land and the line contracted, 
 fishes were driven into shallow water. Here the dogs seized 
 them and brought them to their masters." 
 
 Boas, in his most interesting and valuable paper upon the 
 Hunting among Central Eskimo, tells us something in regard to their hunting 
 life. Besides deer, musk oxen and bears are hunted or 
 trapped in various ways. Small game of many kinds is 
 taken in traps, differing in construction, or shot. A few ex- 
 ceptional and. curious methods only will be described: "A 
 sharp knife is smeared with deer's blood and placed upright in 
 the snow. Wolves lick the blood, cut their tongues, and 
 bleed to death. A strip of whalebone about two feet long is 
 rolled up into a coil, tied with sinew. At each end a small 
 metal edge is tied. The strip, wrapped in a piece of blubber 
 or meat, is swallowed by a wolf. The sinew dissolves, the strip 
 uncoils, and tears the stomach. Waterfowl are caught in 
 abundance in whalebone nooses fastened to a long whalebone 
 line or to a thong and set in a lake, along the edge, particularly 
 near nesting places. To catch gulls, a flat snow-house is built 
 with one block of the roof translucent and thin enough for the 
 hand to be passed through it. The hunter, concealed in the 
 house, grasps the bird descending to catch a bait placed on 
 this. Many birds are caught while moulting ; partridge may be 
 caught by hand, and waterfowl are pursued with the kayak. 
 Waterfowl, kept diving, are drowned. One species of goose is 
 caught thus : A circular wall of stones is raised, with but one 
 entrance. The Eskimo drive a flock of the birds toward it ; 
 
 Eskimo. 
 
 Traps and 
 
 snaring 
 
 devices. 
 
Hunting. 67 
 
 these stupidly follow a man into the entrance, which is then 
 closed and they are killed. On the water they may be encircled 
 by kayaks and follow a leading one to shore and to the con- 
 struction described. 
 
 "Deer-hunting is chiefly done when the snow is melted. The 
 favorite mode is to attack the deer as they swim across lakes or Deer-hunting. 
 ponds. When in migration, deer have trails ; hunters lie in am- 
 bush with their kayaks. Elsewhere they are driven into the 
 water by Eskimo and attacked by hunters, stationed on the 
 lake. Favorite spots are peninsulas of narrow breadth. The 
 deer are driven onto these and then into water. Where a 
 straight shore does not permit this they drive the deer to a hill 
 stretching to the lake. A line of cairns is erected on top to de- 
 ceive the deer, who think them other men lying in wait ; they 
 take to the water. Such cairns may even be erected in line on 
 the open plain. Such, some apparently very old, are found all 
 over the country. The deer, once in the water, are pursued in 
 kayaks and quickly dispatched. Narrow valleys between high 
 ridges are natural game drives. Where firearms are not in use 
 bows and arrows are taken. 
 
 " In winter the seal takes to the smoother parts of the floe, a 
 few miles from the coast, where it scratches breathing holes Seal-hunting, 
 through the ice in which it rises to blow. , It shuns hummocky 
 ice and floes of more than one year's age. To capture them 
 the hunter stands with his unang at the holes to spear the seals. 
 The unang now used in Baffin Land and on the west shore of 
 Hudson Bay consists of a wooden shaft into which an iron 
 rod {unartenga) is sunk : the latter is pointed at the end. The 
 socket is secured by a small ivory ring or a string wound around 
 the end of the shaft. Into the socket, close to the iron rod, a 
 bent nail is inserted, forming a narrow eye. Near the center of 
 the whole implement a small piece of ivory is fastened to the 
 shaft, for a hand-rest in throwing. At the lower end of the 
 
68 Some First Steps in Human Progress. 
 
 shaft a string of deer sinews or a thong is fastened, forming a 
 loop which passes through a hole drilled through the shaft. A 
 stout iron point is also attached to the lower end of the shaft. 
 The instrument is of general utility, not only in shooting but 
 also in cutting, and the head is practically copied from the old 
 type. 
 
 "At daybreak the Eskimo begins to prepare for the hunt. 
 The dogs are harnessed and the implements are fitted up. The 
 harpoon and snow-knife are hung over the deer's antlers, a seal 
 or bearskin is lashed over the bottom, and the spear secured 
 under the lashing. The hunter takes up his whip and the dogs 
 start. When arrived near his hunting-ground the hunter stops 
 the team, removes the implements, and turns the sledge upside 
 down, pressing the runners' tips and the antlers into the snow. 
 A good scenting dog then takes the hunter to a seal's hole. In 
 winter it is entirely covered with snow, but a small elevation 
 usually indicates the spot. The dog is led back : then the 
 hunter carefully examines the hole to see if recently visited. 
 He cautiously cuts a hole through the snow covering and peeps 
 in. If new ice is there, the seal no longer visits the place. If 
 all is well, the hunter marks the exact center of the hole on top 
 of the snow and carefully fills up the peephole with small blocks 
 of snow. No hair from clothing must fall in the hole or stick 
 to the snow, or the seal will smell. Loose snow is heaped up 
 around the harpoon point placed directly upon the central spot. 
 When the harpoon is removed a hole remains as a mark for 
 the harpooner. The hunter places a small piece of skin, 
 usually that of a young seal, close to the hole to stand upon. 
 He fastens the naulang to the harpoon shaft, while the lower 
 end of the line is folded up in a coil which he holds with his 
 left hand. The unang is held in both hands, and sometimes the 
 man remains for hours, occasionally stooping and listening, 
 until he hears the blowing of the seal. Then suddenly he 
 
Hunting. 69 
 
 stands upright, and with all his strength sends the harpoon 
 straight downward into the hole, paying out the line at the same 
 time, but keeping a firm hold of the loop at its end. Presently 
 he can haul in the seal, which is usually struck near the head. 
 
 "When the hunter expects to have to wait long for the seal, 
 he builds up a semicircular wall of snow-blocks to keep off the 
 cold wind, and makes a seat in the center of it. A skin is 
 spread underneath his feet, and his legs are tied together with a 
 thong, which is fastened by a peculiar kind of buckle, with two 
 holes. One end of the thong is firmly tied to the buckle pass- 
 ing through one of the holes, while the opposite end passes 
 tightly through the second hole. The thong may be quickly 
 opened by a strong effort on the part of the hunter, while it 
 helps to keep him quiet. At his right hand his snow-knife is 
 stuck into the snow, while to the left the unang is placed on 
 two pegs. The line is coiled in his lap. His left arm is drawn 
 out of his sleeve that he may more easily keep warm. Both 
 sleeves are generally held together by a piece of deer's horn, 
 with a branch on each side that serves as a hook. Thus he 
 waits until he hears the breathing of a seal. As it usually stays 
 several minutes he makes no haste. Cautiously he puts his left 
 arm into his sleeve, which he has unhooked. He takes hold of 
 the coil, lifts his unang, rises, and strikes. ... As soon as 
 captured the wounds are closed with plugs : a hole is cut 
 through the flesh below the lower jaw and a thong passed 
 through the hole and the mouth. The seal is then dragged to 
 the sledge, covered with the bearskin, and securely lashed 
 down. It quickly freezes, and the hunter sits down upon it. 
 If the seal happens to blow soon after his arrival a man may 
 secure a second one, but usually one is a full day's game. 
 
 " In March, when the seals bring forth their young, the same 
 mode of hunting is pursued : the young seals also are eagerly 
 hunted. The pregnant females make an excavation from five 
 
70 Some First Steps in Human Progress. 
 
 to ten feet long under the snow, the diving hole being at one 
 end. They prefer snow-banks and rough ice or the cracks and 
 cavities of gorged ice for this purpose, and pup in these 
 holes. The Eskimo set out on the hunt on light sledges 
 dragged by a few dogs, which quickly take up the scent of the 
 seals : arrived at the hole they stop. The hunter, jumping 
 from his sledge, breaks down the hole roof as quickly as pos- 
 sible and tries to intercept the seal. Generally the mother es- 
 capes but the pup is caught. It is drawn out with a hook and 
 killed by firm stepping on its breast. Sometimes the hunter 
 ties a thong to the hind flipper of the pup and throws it back 
 into the hole ; it dives, crying pitifully ; when it comes up to 
 breathe the hunter may push it back. Frequently the dam 
 comes to try to draw it away, whereupon she is speared, 
 dragged out, and killed. 
 
 "In June seals are more easily caught than in winter. The 
 hunter approaches the basking seal from the windward side 
 until within seventy to eighty yards. Fastening a piece of skin 
 under his left arm he reclines upon it and creeps along pros- 
 trate : the skin protects from melting snow, facilitates speed, 
 and diminishes noise. He moves on, pushing himself along by 
 his right foot and left arm. Whenever the seal looks around 
 to see if there is danger, the hunter lies flat, or if near acts like 
 a seal, raising his head and rolling and playing with his hands 
 and feet. Some hunters imitate the noise of a blowing seal, or 
 have a little white screen on a sledge, which conceals them as 
 they approach. While the seal naps, a few minutes only at a 
 time, the approach is slow. When near enough the gun is fired 
 and the harpoon hurled. When the snow is hard and water 
 has not appeared on the top of the ice, a seal may be killed this 
 way in twenty or thirty minutes. If the snow is very soft 
 or deep the approach is difficult or impossible. After the 
 shot is made the Eskimo at once jumps to his feet to prevent 
 
Hunting. 71 
 
 the escape of the animal to its hole. An expert hunter may 
 kill from ten to fifteen seals a day in this manner. 
 
 "Still later in the season a successful method is used. Men, 
 women, and children all go out and occupy every seal hole over 
 a large area. The men keep their harpoons ready to strike the 
 seal when he rises to blow : the women and children with sticks 
 frighten the seals away when they try to rise at their places. 
 As the animals must rise somewhere, an ample supply is pro- 
 duced in a short time." 
 
 We have described the hunting of the Ainu and the Central 
 Eskimo thus fully as we desire to show how ingeniously what skill in 
 
 , t ,. . . . . hunting shows. 
 
 savage man has solved the question of how to get the better 
 of the shrewd and wily animals. It is no small achievement 
 to so fully learn the habits of the lower creatures and so ex- 
 actly meet and overcome them. ' This ingenuity shows itself 
 as well in the traps and similar devices as it does in the weapons. 
 How many, many years, and how many, many experiments 
 were necessary before the Ainu could learn to make his arrow- 
 poison. Another point to notice is the perfect way in which 
 man adapts himself to his surroundings. It is often asked why 
 at this late day we find still living in the world savage and 
 backward peoples ; the answer very often may be found in the 
 physical surroundings. There are districts where savage man Savage 
 is much better adapted to his surrounding than civilized man j^P^f,^ 
 would be. To every one but the anxious Christian propagan- 
 dist the sight of the perfect fitting of the Eskimo to his Green- 
 land environment must be delightful. Houses, dress, boats, 
 weapons, actions, thought, religious conceptions— the whole 
 of life is perfectly adapted to the country. Change means 
 death. Hear what Nansen says of the Greenland Eskimo : 
 
 "It is a gallant business, this kayak-hunting : it is like a 
 sportive dance with the sea and with death. There is no finer 
 sight possible than to see the kayak-man breasting the heavy 
 
72 Some First Steps in Human Progress. 
 
 rollers that seem utterly to engulf him. Or when, overtaken by 
 a storm at sea, the kayaks run for the shore, they come like 
 black storm-birds rushing before the wind and waves, which 
 like rolling mountains sweep on in their wake. The paddles 
 whirl through air and water, the body is bent a little forward, 
 the head often turned half backward to watch the seas ; all is 
 life and spirit — while the sea around reeks like a seething 
 cauldron. And then it may happen that while the game is at 
 its wildest a seal pops its head up before them. Quicker than 
 thought the harpoon is seized and rushes through the foam with 
 deadly aim ; the seal dashes away with the bladder behind it, 
 but is presently caught and killed, and then towed away. 
 Everything is done with the same masterly skill and with the 
 same quiet demeanor. The Eskimo never dreams that he is 
 performing feats of heroism." 
 
CHAPTER VII. 
 
 Cultivation of Plants. 
 
 There is absolutely no agriculture among the Australians, 
 who do not even lay by a stock of the poor foods which niggard agriculture. 
 nature gives them in that backward continent, but eat up all 
 they find in one place and then migrate. Among the Bush- 
 men and the Hottentots, also, there is no cultivation of the 
 soil ; with digging sticks weighted with heavy stone rings they 
 dig up roots and tubers, but they plant no seeds that new roots 
 and tubers may grow. 
 
 There can be no question that it was the woman, left at home The woman the 
 to tend the fire, who was the first agriculturist. The kindling f^ a s ricultur - 
 of the fire, as we have already said, led to the first division of 
 labor — a division between sexes. The results have been won- 
 derful. While the man was hunting for game or fighting 
 against his fellows, the woman by the fire, trying to piece out 
 the scanty fare with roots and stems, barks and leaves, which 
 she could find about the home, began the various peaceful in- 
 dustries of life. She was the basket-maker ; it was she that 
 devised pottery ; she first spun fiber into thread, wove threads 
 into fabrics, cut cloths and skins and made them into clothing ; 
 it was she who worked out many of the mechanical trades to 
 practical applications ; it was she who began the cultivation of 
 plants ; it was she who first tamed animals. Professor Mason 
 has gone so fully over the whole matter of "Woman's Share 
 in Primitive Culture," that we need not dwell more fully on it 
 here. 
 
 73 
 
74 
 
 Some First Steps in Human Progress. 
 
 Some first 
 
 steps. 
 
 Simple but 
 
 efficient 
 
 agriculture. 
 
 Agriculture of 
 nomads. 
 
 Cultivated 
 plants travel. 
 
 In wanderings for roots and fruits she came upon some plant 
 particularly noticed on account of its good promise ; for fear 
 some careless hunter might trample it under foot or that some 
 animal might steal or harm the fruit before it ripened, it would 
 be protected by a few sticks set about it. That it might have 
 a better chance to grow and bear its fruit the plants around it 
 which prevented it getting full share of air and light would be 
 cut away or plucked out. This was the beginning of care for 
 plants. Again, some young and sprouting plant distant from 
 the fireside would be transplanted in order that it might be 
 more accessible in time of need. Still later would come the 
 idea of saving seed for planting, and with this idea the clearing 
 of the soil and true agriculture. 
 
 While agriculture began with woman, and in savagery or 
 lower barbarism, it only reached its .full development much 
 later, after man had taken it up and, by irrigation and the help 
 of beasts, perfected it. We see this later, fuller development 
 in a simple form among the old Egyptians, the dwellers in the 
 two valleys, and the Chinese. In the life of roving nomadic 
 tribes with flocks and herds it is not uncommon to leave the 
 old and feeble men and women and the children behind in 
 village settlements while the men swarm out to hunt and pil- 
 lage. Meantime the women gather stores and may, if time al- 
 lows, raise a new crop. After harvest, all move to some new 
 village site. The Phoenicians on their slaving voyages used 
 to land and raise a crop, then pass on upon their journey. 
 
 When a really useful plant had once been brought under cul- 
 tivation it would be carried with a tribe in its migrations. The 
 grains, no doubt, arose in Eurasia ; and have been carried 
 around the world. Corn or maize, a native of our continent, 
 has spread over the globe. When New Zealanders settled in 
 their home they brought their chief food plants with them from 
 their old abode. Many people whom we are in the habit of 
 
Cultivation of Plants. 75 
 
 considering mere wild hunters had some agriculture ; there 
 
 were few, if any, tribes in North America east of the Rocky North Ameri- 
 
 ... . . can Indians as 
 
 Mountains and south of the limit of almost continuous winter agriculturists, 
 who did not raise some crops. All early travelers tell of the 
 gardens of the Iroquois and Algonkin tribes along our eastern 
 seaboard, and it is well known that the settlers of New Eng- 
 land must have starved, if they had not been helped from the 
 supplies of the Indians. Among the southern tribes, such as 
 the Creeks, agriculture was still more developed. In Mexico, 
 Central America, and the Greater Antilles abundant crops were 
 raised. Throughout this latter district the methods certainly 
 were crude, the only instrument being the pointed stick ; beans, 
 gourds, batates, manioc, and corn were raised. The only 
 flesh food among some of these people consisted of little dogs, 
 which were regularly fattened for eating. 
 
 The first and simplest agricultural tool was a sharpened 
 
 m . . • • 1 j -^.1 Agricultural 
 
 stick for digging up roots. This was sometimes weighted with tools. 
 
 a stone, as we have described, among the Bushmen and Hot- 
 tentots. This first simple tool is used not only as a digging 
 stick, but also for drilling holes in which to plant seeds ; such 
 is its use in Nubia, Yucatan, the Antilles, Sweden, and many 
 other places. Corn-planting in Central America was and is a 
 very simple process ; a man going first with his drilling stick, 
 makes a hole in the ground ; his wife following after drops in a 
 few seeds of maize ; little people, following after these, with 
 their feet cover the grain thus sown with the earth which was 
 loosened by the stick. Of course, a broader implement like 
 an oar or paddle is much better for working soft soil, and many 
 a simple wooden spade might be found in use among lower 
 populations. A bent stick or a branch with an offshoot 
 trimmed down makes a primitive hoe. The Delaware women 
 were not the only ones who have used the broad shoulder- 
 blades of animals for spades and hoes. In certain parts of 
 
76 Some First Steps in Human Progress. 
 
 Illinois and Missouri great, broad, long blades of chert, care- 
 fully chipped, are found ; they were, no doubt, formerly 
 lashed to handles, either in a line continuing the shaft or at an 
 angle to it — the former hafting gave a spade, the latter made a 
 hoe. Notwithstanding the exceeding hardness of the stone 
 from which these blades were made, the use of them in fine 
 earth has worn their edges to a perfect polish. The old 
 Egyptians had a kit of very simple tools for agricultural pur- 
 poses. The bent stick hoe was one ; the sickle for cutting 
 grain when grown was the jawbone of some beast with sharp 
 bits and edges of flint or chert inserted in the groove where 
 teeth had been ; later on the jawbone was replaced by a 
 wooden frame in which the flint edges were cemented ; the 
 early Egyptian plows were really nothing more than their hook 
 hoes of wood made large for dragging by cattle. The wooden 
 plow developed from this, but with better handle, may be seen 
 throughout Old Mexico to-day. To us such devices look awk- 
 ward, but to the Mexican, accustomed to them, they seem fit 
 and convenient. Would-be philanthropists have taken to these 
 people some of our best modern plows, with great steel shares 
 and with two handles ; it is all the same to the staid Mexican, 
 who simply cuts off one of the handles and then goes on with 
 it just as before. 
 
 The first threshing must have been a very simple thing. The 
 Indian women on the Illinois River, at an early day, simply 
 Threshing. bent the stalks of wild rice over the edge of their canoe and 
 
 with flat paddles beat the heads until the seeds fell from them 
 into the boat. Fire no doubt was used by women of many 
 primitive folk to get the useless husk off from the grain and 
 seeds. After animals were tamed and reduced to use they 
 would be brought into service ; thus among the Pueblo Indians 
 in the Southwest, threshing is performed as follows : 
 
 A circular area some yards across is cleared and smoothed 
 
Winnowing. 
 
 Cultivation of Plants. 77 
 
 and covered with a firm floor of beaten or hard-trodden 
 clay. This floor is enclosed by a circle of poles set in the 
 ground, and connected by means of ropes or cords. The 
 grain to be threshed is cut and brought in from the fields ; it is 
 heaped up, upon the threshing floor ; a drove of ponies is 
 turned into the enclosure and kept running around and around 
 by a man who stands in the center with a whip. Soon the 
 motion of the many hoofs upon the straw shakes the grain 
 from the husks ; the horses are let out, and men go in with 
 great flat wooden shovels and with pitchforks, by means of 
 which they toss the straw up into the air. This is done only 
 when the wind is blowing briskly. As fast as the straw is 
 thrown into the air it is carried off by the wind, while the wheat 
 or other grain, separated quite completely from the straw and 
 chaff, falls back upon the floor. At length it is heaped up in 
 piles. Women come with great baskets with flaring sides ; 
 filling these with the grain, which still contains a little chaff, 
 they raise the baskets high above their heads, tip them slightly 
 so that a little stream of grain flows in a steady fall from the 
 basket, dropping upon a canvas spread upon the ground to 
 catch it. At the same time the woman gently shakes the 
 basket from side to side. As the grain falls the wind carries 
 away the last particles of dirt and chaff and the grain is clear. 
 Such is one form of primitive threshing and winnowing. 
 
 It is not altogether easy to decide what should be called the 
 perfection of agriculture. If by perfection of agriculture we ^ricultu?e? feCt 
 mean ability to do things upon a gigantic scale ; if we mean the 
 plowing of a field miles in length by means of great steam 
 plows ; if we mean the cutting of the fall harvest by means of 
 mammoth reapers, standing side by side and drawn by fine, 
 great teams, it is plain that we ourselves have reached the 
 highest point of agriculture, in the wheat-fields of our great 
 Northwest. There is, however, another way of looking at the 
 
Simple but 
 
 78 Some First Steps in Human Progress. 
 
 matter. One might mean by perfect agriculture the ability to 
 compel each little piece of land to do its utmost in the way of 
 producing food for hungry mouths. The former wholesale 
 method requires complex machinery, itself a triumph of in- 
 ventive genius ; the latter may be done with the crudest tools 
 and simplest methods. Every piece of work must be judged 
 by its adaptedness to local conditions, and to individual sur- 
 roundings. If we judge of agriculture in this way, we shall find 
 e u^u V d F odes the most perfect, although very simple agriculture, among the 
 China. ancient folk of Egypt and among the modern millions of China. 
 
 For in China we have the greatest yield wrung from the soil ; 
 in China we have every available inch of ground in use ; in 
 China we have no wild plants, no weeds, but one great kitchen 
 garden. 
 
 Miss Fielde, in " A Corner of Cathay," says : "The farming 
 appliances are simple and a complete outfit can be bought for 
 forty dollars. A plow with two shares, a pair of harrows, and a 
 fanning mill each cost two dollars ; a pump worked by treadles 
 in irrigating the fields, four dollars ; a water buffalo, twenty 
 dollars ; hose, sickles, baskets, and sundries, ten dollars. The 
 chief expense of tillage is in fertilizers, beans and seeds from 
 which the oil has been expressed being commonly used, at an 
 outlay of from six to forty dollars, an average of twenty-four, 
 upon every acre of land. Besides this, potato peelings, hair 
 from shaven heads, and all other vegetable and animal refuse 
 is carefully husbanded and methodically applied to the soil. 
 The clods of the field are laid up into little ovens to retain and 
 to be enriched by the smoke of the stubble burned underneath 
 them. Adobe houses whose walls have for many years ab- 
 sorbed the fumes of a kitchen and the exhalations of human 
 inhabitants', are pulverized and added to the hungry earth. 
 Each growing plant separately receives distinguished considera- 
 tion, a scrap of tobacco stalk being sometimes put beside its 
 
Cultivation of Plants. 79 
 
 roots to destroy the underground grubs, while its leaves are 
 frequently examined and sedulously freed from vermin. The 
 rotation of crops is also practiced. . . . One acre tilled 
 
 by the peasant proprietor alone will feed six persons — the peas- 
 ant, his wife, his aged father and mother, and- his two young 
 children. It will yield rice, hulled in the house, and vegetables, 
 raised between rice crops, sufficient for food. The straw and 
 the stubble will serve as fuel, and the pig and fowls will supply 
 meat. The clothing will be woven and made by the wife, while 
 the old couple take care of the children." 
 
 With such rude tools and such painstaking methods the 
 Chinaman produces astonishing crops. "At this rate of pro- 
 duction and consumption, the arable land in the state of New 
 York, with a reduction of half its returns on account of its more 
 northern climate, would support the total population of the 
 United States at the present time ; and the occupied arable land 
 of the United States, with its producing power diminished, on 
 account of climate, to one half of the land at Swatow, would 
 feed a population equal to that of the whole world, or over 
 1,400,000,000." 
 
CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 Man has made 
 our fruits and 
 vegetables 
 what they are 
 to-day. 
 
 The cabbage. 
 
 Cultivation of Plants ; Origin of Fruits and Vege- 
 tables. 
 
 In this chapter we shall consider man as a creator. Many 
 of the most beautiful things which we see about us and which 
 we are fond of looking upon as wonders of creative power are 
 made by man. Nature after all is a very niggard ; she gives, 
 but it is to the industrious worker that she gives. The wild 
 roots, tubers, stalks, leaves, seeds, nuts, and fruits which prim- 
 itive man had offered him, we would think to-day, if they were 
 offered us, were scarcely worth the taking. Roots and tubers 
 thin and hard, bitter, poisonous — such the poor people of the 
 past dug from the earth ; the stalks which sufficed to allay hun- 
 ger in time of need were often tough, the fruits stringy, as- 
 tringent. 
 
 When we visit a vegetable garden or see the fresh, attractive 
 fruits offered in market or inspect the wonders shown upon the 
 tables of county fairs and agricultural shows, we seldom realize 
 how truly they are all the work of man. For notice such a 
 plant as the common cabbage. It was probably a native of the 
 continent of Europe. No doubt, at first, its leaves attracted 
 notice and were used as food. Taken for its somewhat thick- 
 ened leaves, it was grown with care until, in course of time, it 
 came to give the great heads that we now know well, and 
 which are highly prized ; but surely nothing comparable to 
 these ever grew in nature. But not only could its leaves be 
 eaten ; its root was also useful. Man desiring a richer and 
 
Cultivation of Plants. 81 
 
 richer root product took the plant, and caring for it, produced 
 from it the turnip. Hunger and varying taste led him to notice 
 that not only might the leaves and root be eaten, but that the 
 flower cluster also was more or less nutritious ; improving it he 
 got the cauliflower. Thus from a single wild species, by pay- 
 ing attention to the different parts he wished, selecting, im- 
 proving, changing, man produced three such totally different 
 forms. 
 
 The potato in its wild form produced tubers of small size, 
 very bitter and tough. The old Peruvian took what nature gave The potato, 
 him and by care improved it. The plant which he prized he 
 passed along to others until, when Raleigh visited Virginia, 
 eastern Indians were cultivating the plant — still small and rela- 
 tively of little value. Taken to England it was rapidly improved ; 
 it lost its stringiness and bitterness ; was increased in size and 
 mealiness. To-day if one compared the original form with the 
 many choice varieties raised in gardens it would be difficult to 
 believe the two really the same plant. 
 
 The same is true, of course, of fruits. It is an easy thing for 
 
 any one to compare the wild grapes, which nature supplies, with 
 
 Fruits. 
 the great clusters of our improved varieties ; the wild crab- 
 apples on their ugly crooked trees are very different from the 
 great pound sweets and northern spies of present cultivation ; 
 the gooseberry under cultivation has multiplied its weight many 
 times over. One of the most wonderful illustrations of what 
 man can do in changing nature is seen in the case of the peach. The peach. 
 Some time, long ago, perhaps in Western Asia, grew a wild 
 tree which bore fruits, at the center of which were the hardest 
 of hard pits, containing the bitterest of bitter kernels ; over this 
 hard stone was a thin layer of flesh— bitter, stringy, with almost 
 , no juice, and which, as it ripened, separated, exposing to view 
 the contained seed; such was nature's gift. Man taking it 
 found that it contained two parts which might by proper treat- 
 
The cereals. 
 
 82 Some First Steps in, Human Progress. 
 
 merit be made of use for food — the thin external pulp and the 
 bitter inner pit. He has improved both. To-day we eat the 
 luscious peaches with their thick, soft, richly-flavored, juicy 
 flesh — they are one product of man's patient ingenuity. Or we 
 take the soft-shelled almond with its sweet kernel ; it is the old 
 pit improved and changed by man ; in the almond, as it is 
 raised at present, we care nothing for the pulp and it has almost 
 vanished. The peach and almond are the same in nature ; the 
 differences they now betray are due to man. 
 
 Among the very earliest of plant products which man per- 
 fected, and which he still makes use of, are the different kinds of 
 cereals— oats, rye, barley, wheat. They are much older than 
 the pyramids. They were known to ancient Chinese. They 
 have been cultivated so long that man forgets where they be- 
 gan. They exist in hundreds of varieties. They supply the 
 chief food product of the world. They were cultivated by the 
 old Lake-Dwellers in Switzerland, and one still dredges up 
 from the bottoms of the blue lakes of that mountain-land bush- 
 els of barley and loaves of ancient bread. 
 
 All parts of the world make contributions to the modern 
 table. Primitive man in every land and continent — except, 
 home of our perhaps, Australia — found some plant in his environment which 
 plants f °° d ^ e cou '^ use f° r f° 0< ^ anc * which he found better by improve- 
 
 ment through cultivation. How many places are represented ! 
 The radish came from Asia ; the turnip, carrot, cabbage, cauli- 
 flower, from Europe ; the onion is a native of Western Asia, 
 perhaps of Persia, Afghanistan, Beloochistan ; celery was 
 widely spread and came from much the larger part of Europe, 
 North Africa, and Western Asia ; artichokes are truly Mediter- 
 ranean, growing wild in Southern Europe, Northern Africa, in 
 the Canaries and Madeira ; lettuce also came from about the 
 great interior sea ; asparagus, which must at first have been a 
 rather stringy stalk, is European and West Asian ; the berries 
 
Cultivation of Plants. 83 
 
 which we cultivate came mostly from the temperate regions of 
 
 Europe and of Asia ; the cherry, plum, and apple came from 
 
 south of the Caucasus or further east ; the apricot and peach 
 
 are Chinese ; the grains, as we have said, are only doubtfully 
 
 located, but perhaps they came from Western Asia ; olives 
 
 came from Syria and the adjoining lands ; while melons seem De Candolle is 
 
 the authority, 
 originally to have been tropical fruits. It will be noticed that 
 
 by far the greater part of our valuable food plants have come 
 
 from Asia and from Europe ; Africa follows next in the value 
 
 and importance of its food-plant gifts to man, and last of all 
 
 that deserve any mention comes our own great land, America. 
 
 The potato, native of Chili and Peru, the sweet potato, perhaps 
 
 from tropical America, the plant which yields chocolate, and 
 
 the tomato, are gifts from America to the cupboard of mankind. 
 
 Thus we see what mankind has done through cultivation of 
 
 plants. In wide and anxious search he has found here arid 
 
 there poor food supplies, which he has taken and, little by little, 
 
 improved and modified. 
 
Value of 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 Domestication. 
 
 From an uncertain and precarious to a permanent and regu- 
 permanent food i ar f 00( j supply was one - of the main features in development of 
 
 supply. rr 
 
 civilization. We have already seen how men began to provide 
 certain food for themselves by taking care of plants ; they have 
 accomplished the same end by domesticating animals. While 
 the beginning of both cultivation and domestication is to be 
 looked for in savagery, it is fully recognized that the full devel- 
 opment of domestication precedes the full development of agri- 
 culture ; in other words, pastoral life appears naturally to pre- 
 cede the settled life of agriculturists. 
 
 The beginnings of domestication came when the hunter, 
 having wounded but not killed his game, carried it with him 
 Beginnings of a i; V e to the home ; other food being at hand the creature was 
 left to live until a time of need. The holding of animals in 
 captivity is to be found among very many rude peoples at the 
 present time ; some of the South American Indians are known 
 thus to keep birds and animals as simple pets ; of course, such 
 pets are sacrificed in time of need. In the same way the 
 Pueblo Indian keeps eagles in cages and when he needs fresh 
 feathers plucks them from the living bird. In such cases as 
 these there is not always any special effort to tame the captive, 
 nor is there often an idea of training it to use. 
 
 It is also a step in the direction of domestication when the 
 hunter leaves a creature, which he sees, unharmed, thinking to 
 kill or capture it upon a later day. In the days when Indians 
 
Domestication. 85 
 
 hunted buffalo upon our western plains the whole village mi- 
 grated with the herd. To live beside a herd of wild animals is 
 not domestication ; but there is only a step from the following 
 a moving herd to enclosing and surrounding creatures in some 
 natural area ; thus the old Egyptians seem to have had game 
 preserves, upon the animals within which they depended for 
 their food. Out of such things as keeping wounded creatures, 
 raising curious forms for pets, sparing the creature seen to-day 
 until to-morrow, living beside the herd, enclosing great areas 
 within which beasts live, came gradually the idea of breeding 
 animals, raising young, and really living off of herds kept con- 
 stantly in captivity. 
 
 The domestication of animals dates far back into the past, 
 and there are good reasons for believing that the dog was the Domestication 
 
 ,.„ , ,, , of the dog. 
 
 first form domesticated. It is very difficult to answer all the 
 questions that are asked in regard to the dog as a domestic 
 animal. Looking upon the different forms now kept, it seems 
 impossible that all of them have come from any single form, 
 and the question whether our tamed dogs should be considered 
 as descendants of one or several species has been much dis- f orm ° rlglna 
 cussed. It seems, on the whole, that several species of dog- 
 like animals have been tamed in different parts of the world, by 
 different peoples, at different times. Thus Darwin says : " It 
 is highly probable that the domestic dogs of the world are de- 
 scended from two well-defined species of wolf and from two or 
 three doubtful species ; from at least one or two South Ameri- 
 can canine species ; from several races or species of jackal ; and 
 perhaps from one or more extinct species." 
 
 De Mortillet, while recognizing the probable diversity of ori- 
 gin of our domestic dogs, is inclined, on the whole, to look far 
 more to jackal-like forms for ancestors than to wolves or foxes. 
 Thus he says : " In fact the jackals— we speak in the plural be- 
 cause there are several species or races of them — are much 
 
86 Some First Steps in Human Progress. 
 
 more sociable than wolves and foxes. They do not fear to ap- 
 proach human habitations, penetrating into the court and even 
 entering the tents to snatch anything they desire ; they are very 
 importunate. They are easily tamed and attach themselves to 
 their master, but remain very timid and fearful. They are not 
 afraid of mingling with domestic dogs and in place of avoiding 
 them they couple with them easily. The jackal has a strong 
 and unpleasant odor, but in captivity loses it about the third 
 generation. More, the jackal, which yelps, brought into con- 
 tact with dogs that bark is not slow in learning to bark also." 
 
 Although De Mortillet is thus inclined to trace the dogs of 
 widespread Europe back to species of jackal, he recognizes that in other 
 domestic dogs, parts of the world various wild dogs may have been tamed. 
 One of the most remarkable things in regard to the history of 
 the dog is the way in which he is found in domestication over 
 the whole earth ; wherever man has gone, there this faithful 
 companion is found with him. Be it in the icy north, he drags 
 the sledge for the Eskimo ; in ancient Egypt he assisted in the 
 hunt ; among the Aztecs he was fattened for food. The dog 
 certainly existed as a captive animal in America long before the 
 discovery. In the north the Eskimo, further south the hunt- 
 ing Indians, in Mexico various tribes, in the West Indies and in 
 South America people of many different stocks seem to have 
 used him as a friend, a fellow in the hunt, or otherwise. So, 
 in Oceanica, he was found by Cook and other early travelers. 
 In New Zealand, he was almost the only mammal. In that 
 very backward continent, Australia, where man remained at 
 almost the lowest level, we find again the dog. This time it 
 is the dingo, native to the continent, which is tamed, or partly 
 tamed, by the wild, dark man. 
 
 The jackals and these other wild dogs were hunters, going 
 
 Suggestion as . , ., , 
 
 to Row the dog in packs. It is likely that the dog is the only one of all our 
 
 became , 
 
 domesticated, domestic creatures that can be said to have been really tamed 
 
Fig. 8. — Eskimo Spear-Thrower. 
 
 Fig. 9. — Eskimo Bird-Spear. 
 
 ist; 
 
 Fig. 10. — Ceremonial Axe of Stone, Mounted. Paraguay 
 
 Fig. 11. — Pellet Bow. Paraguay. 
 87 
 
Domestication. 89 
 
 by man; the others were domesticated by woman. It seems 
 as if some such a history as this took place : The wild men 
 hunting in bands for game were followed by packs of wild 
 dogs. Wounded beasts trying to escape were stopped and 
 pulled to the ground by the dogs, whereupon the wild hunters, 
 rushing up, drove them off and seized the booty ; what the 
 men did not want was left behind and quickly devoured by 
 the dogs. Thus there grew up a certain sort of friendship and 
 companionship, a mutual helpfulness between the partners, 
 man and beast. In any band of dogs there would surely be a 
 few of unusual bravery and shrewdness, quick in action and 
 playful, more inclined to come close to the camp of the hunters 
 in the night. Gradually, between such dogs and the men there 
 would grow up a more friendly relation, which in time might 
 even come to be so close that the dog was tamed and attached 
 himself by preference, with a few companions, to the men 
 rather than run wild with the pack. 
 
 In certain localities, the archeology of which has been 
 studied with great care, there seems to be evidence that the The dog in 
 
 ancient 
 
 dog was domesticated, while no other animals had yet been Denmark, 
 brought into that state. Thus, in the kitchen-middens of Den- 
 mark the bones of dogs are found associated with the bones of 
 many other animals, which were plainly wild and hunted for 
 food. The kitchen-wiidden is a heap of refuse, marking the 
 site of the camping-place of old-time people. In Denmark 
 they consist mainly of the shells of oysters, clams, and other 
 mollusks which were used for food. Scattered through these 
 shells are bones of birds and beasts, and fish used for food. 
 The kitchen-middens of Denmark certainly date back to an 
 early period; they represent what is commonly called by 
 students the early Neolithic period. The relics of man's handi- 
 work found in them seem to show that the inhabitants of Den- 
 mark at that time knew nothing of the use of metals and lived 
 
9 o 
 
 Some First Steps in Human Progress. 
 
 Our domestic 
 forms come 
 from many 
 regions. 
 
 The cat. 
 
 as wild hunters, comparable to the Tierra del Fuegians of the 
 present. It is plain that the animals whose bones are found 
 scattered through these heaps of refuse were mostly killed in 
 the chase. Was the dog, whose bones occur also, wild and 
 hunted, or was he tamed ? Steenstrup answered the question 
 in the following way : He found that the smaller bones of 
 most of the animals had disappeared and that the larger, long 
 bones had been gnawed at both ends ; he thereupon took 
 dogs, shut them up, and fed them with carcasses of wild game. 
 After a time the bones left were carefully examined ; it was 
 found that the smaller bones had disappeared, having been 
 eaten with the flesh by the dogs ; the larger, long bones were 
 left but were gnawed at both ends in exactly the same way as 
 those from the shell-heaps. It is plain, said Steenstrup, that 
 the dogs lived about the camp, devouring what the men did 
 not use, eating the small bones and gnawing the long ones ; 
 hence, it seems that the dogs whose bones are found were 
 probably domesticated, and not simply beasts that had been 
 killed for food. 
 
 The inmates of our barnyards are an assemblage brought 
 from the four quarters of the globe. The guinea-fowl, the 
 common hen, the turkey, came from three different continents. 
 Much care and time had been spent by authors in endeavoring 
 to find exactly what the wild forms of our domestic animals 
 and birds were, and where they lived. We have already re- 
 ferred to the question in so far as it relates to man's oldest 
 friend and servant, the dog. The cat, which, by the way, has 
 little to commend it, and which has scarcely, after thousands 
 of years of petted life, got over its wild and unhappy dispo- 
 sition, perhaps came really, at the first, from Egypt. Old 
 drawings on the monuments and mummied bodies found in 
 tombs in that strange seat of ancient culture show us — so Dar- 
 win says — no less than three species. Two of these still live, 
 
Domestication. 91 
 
 both wild and tamed, in Egypt. There are, of course, wild 
 cats in many parts of the world, and it has been observed that 
 they frequently interbreed with the domestic forms, but it seems 
 safe to look upon Egypt as the domestic cat's first home. 
 
 The horse has given rise to volumes of discussion. Wild 
 horses have lived at one time or another in several continents. The horse. 
 Many, many thousands of years ago several species of the horse 
 lived in Western North America ; conditions were then very 
 different from those now prevailing in that district and probably 
 man had not appeared upon the earth. At all events, when 
 the first explorers visited our continent, wild horses were not 
 known in America, and those herds which now roam at will 
 over some of the great plains in South America have descended 
 from ancestors that were brought from Europe. The horse 
 was killed for food in France thousands of years ago. At one 
 locality — Solutr^ — it must have been a most important food 
 supply, as its bones are there piled up in great heaps, many 
 meters in length. Solutre' was a camping-place for early man 
 long before the shell-heaps of Denmark accumulated. At that 
 time the reindeer still lived in France ; the climate was very 
 different from the present, and other conditions were unlike 
 those now prevailing. Were these horses wild or had they 
 been domesticated ? We have not space to give the argument 
 but on the whole agree with De Mortillet, who claims that the 
 Solutrean horses were game, not stock. Almost as far back as 
 the Egyptian records go, we find the horse in use. In China, 
 too, are records of its presence as a tamed animal for thou- 
 sands of years. 
 
 In Africa no wild horse so closely resembles the domestic 
 form as to suggest relationship ; in China it is distinctly stated 
 by the ancients that the horse was introduced into that country ; 
 consequently, the original home of the wild form was probably 
 neither Egypt nor China. De Mortillet says: "The horse 
 
92 Some First Steps in Human Progress. 
 
 can only have been domesticated in some district where it was 
 wild. But the region of the wild horse extends across the 
 whole of Europe and Asia. It certainly, then, forms a part of 
 the Eurasian domestication. In the great zone which traverses 
 Europe and Central Asia wild horses still existed in the times 
 of the Romans. The north produced troops of wild horses, 
 Pliny says, the same as Africa and Asia produced troops of 
 wild asses. By Asia the Latin author meant Southern Asia. 
 It is, indeed, in Central Asia that one meets at present truly 
 wild horses." A Russian, Prjevalski, in a journey in that desert, 
 
 horse a S which extends between the Altai on the north and the Thian- 
 
 shan on the south, limited on the west by the mountains and on 
 the east passing into the Desert of Gobi, discovered a wild 
 horse of which he sent to the museum at St. Petersburg a skin 
 and skeleton and two or three skulls. It is called the Equus 
 Prjevalskii. This wild horse found by the Russian traveler 
 seems to be more likely the ancestor of our domestic animal 
 than any other species yet discovered. It is little, stout, thick- 
 
 Theass. necked, and of a dun color. The ass was early tamed and 
 
 made of use in Egypt, where, as well as in Palestine, Greece, 
 and Italy, it was a favorite. The wild form, which resembles 
 very closely the domestic, is found to the present day in Abys- 
 sinia. We are so prone to look at this creature with disrespect 
 that it is hard for us to realize how highly it was esteemed by 
 the Semitic peoples generally. As for the mule, that despised 
 mongrel, a cross between the horse and ass, there have been 
 times in Italy and Greece when it was considered far more 
 beautiful and stately than the finest horse. 
 The pig might well have been left undomesticated. As a 
 
 The pig. matter of fact, it was early tamed and seems to have come 
 
 from more than one source. Thus, Darwin quotes that two 
 distinct types were plainly present in Europe at a very early 
 day ; the larger form seems to be merely a tame descendant of 
 
Domestication. 93 
 
 the wild boar. The domestic pigs of other countries in the 
 same way seem to have come from boars, which still exist in a 
 wild state in those districts. De Mortillet says : "That which 
 shows plainly that the domestic pigs have come from boars is 
 . that in every region they bear a certain relationship to these. 
 Thus the boar of Europe is the largest species of wild boar ; 
 the domestic pigs of Europe are also the largest and strongest 
 of domestic types. In Asia are boars of three species which 
 are much smaller than the European ; the domestic pigs of 
 Asia are also much smaller. Finally, the Papuans have also a 
 domestic pig which is entirely analogous to their wild form, so 
 that travelers and naturalists agree that it is the same animal." 
 Cattle, sheep, and goats have, in the same way, been domesti- Cattle etc 
 cated at different times and different places. Several wild 
 forms exist in Europe and Asia, which may all be parent types. 
 We have referred only to those domestic forms which are 
 used, and commonly, among ourselves. We owe them to the 
 industry and sense of old-time peoples in various parts of the fn'jSats'of ed 
 world. It would have been interesting to have considered the other P eo P les - 
 domestication of other forms, such as the camel, llama, zebu, 
 buffalo, etc. It would be interesting, too, if we had space, to 
 present a picture of the farmyard contents of some rude 
 peoples, old or modern ; thus the ancient Lake-Dweller of 
 Switzerland was supplied with a variety of domestic animals — 
 dogs, cattle, pigs, etc.— and many of the modern Africans are 
 well supplied. 
 
 As under cultivation of plants we had occasion to consider 
 man as a creator, as there we saw what wonderful results may 
 be produced by selection and cultivation of vegetable forms, so changes in 
 here we may see how, either for his pleasure, his amusement, his bro'ugnt a™ ut 
 comfort, or his use, man has changed and varied what nature by man - 
 presented to him. The difference between the wild boar of 
 Europe and some of our high-grade, fat swine is profound ; it 
 
94 
 
 Some First Steps in Human Progress. 
 
 The pigeon. 
 
 Uses of 
 
 domestic 
 
 animals. 
 
 is the work of man. Hundreds of years ago the rock pigeon, 
 a form still common over a large portion of the world, was 
 tamed by man. He has experimented and amused himself in 
 seeing what could be produced. Darwin has traced the story 
 in a masterly way. If one wishes to see what man can do he 
 should visit the pigeon-show, remembering as he looks at 
 lovely fan-tails, pouters, trumpeters, that they are not forms 
 which nature has produced but that all have been made by man 
 from the rock pigeon. 
 
 In jungles in Southeastern Asia still lives a bird — Gallus 
 bankiva. It is a slender bird, long-legged, with slender head, 
 long beak, simple erect comb, and with a tail standing almost 
 squarely in the air. Yet from this bird man, by careful breed- 
 ing, has produced all our fowls ; the cochin, of large size 
 and scarcely able to fly, with soft and downy plumage, thick 
 upon the legs, with well-developed comb and wattle ; the fork- 
 ing, of large size, with great comb and wattle, and with an extra 
 toe ; the Spanish, tall and stately ; the Hamburg, with flat 
 comb and moderate sized wattle ; the Polish, with a great crest 
 of feathers, almost no comb, and the wattle sometimes even 
 replaced by a tuft of feathers ; the bantam, little but bold ; the 
 silk fowl, small, with very silky feathers ; such, as Marshall de- 
 scribes them, are a few of the varied forms which man has 
 made. 
 
 If time allowed, it would be profitable to notice the different 
 ways in which these tamed animals and birds are useful to 
 mankind. Of course, the primary purpose in their domestica- 
 tion is the need for food ; meat, eggs, and milk — these are the 
 products which first made it worth man's time to domesticate 
 animal forms. A second service is the furnishing of material 
 for clothing— leather, fur, wool, feathers. Then horn and bone 
 were gained as side products. One of the wonderful things in 
 civilization is the way in which nothing is wasted ; the savage 
 
Domestication. 95 
 
 and barbarian waste all they cannot eat or turn to instant use, 
 but in this present day, in civilization, at the stockyards every 
 shred and atom almost of the creature killed is turned to use. 
 Then the domestic animal serves as burden-bearer, and we see 
 the dog, the ass, the horse, laden with packs. Akin to this is 
 draft — dogs, horses, cattle, and other beasts are hitched to sleds 
 and wagons. They furnish power in machinery and run tread- 
 mills. Very curious and interesting is the way in which the 
 creature tamed is trained to use in hunting. The captive ele- 
 phant aids, with almost human fiendishness, in capturing his 
 fellows. The cheetah, or hunting leopard, and the ferret, the 
 dog and falcon, are used as hunting helpers ; the Chinaman, 
 marvel of ingenuity, has turned the birds to use in fishing, 
 and cormorants are constantly thus employed. 
 There is a curious difference among animals in the readiness 
 
 with which they become tamed ; the horse was domesticated in Has domestiea- 
 
 . ,, , . tion reached its 
 
 antiquity but the zebra has resisted all attempts to subjugate ii m it? 
 
 him. It is a question, sometimes asked, whether there do 
 not lie before us, in the future, as great victories in this direction 
 as in the past. Probably there do not ; the animals which lend 
 themselves readily to taming are probably most of them do- 
 mesticated. De Mortillet quotes Isidore Geoffrey Saint-Hilaire 
 as follows : " To the number of food animals formerly cared for 
 in our barns and barnyards not a single one has been added 
 within three centuries. Draw up a list of useful domestic 
 species which we have to-day and you will recognize that Gess- 
 ner and Belon (1550-1599) would have been able in their time 
 to have drawn up the same list without one single name less." 
 
CHAPTER X. 
 
 The Man of the Stone Age. 
 
 The term " Stone Age ' 
 
 is at present familiar to most read- 
 There never 
 
 Meaning of the ers but, unfortunately, is often misunderstood 
 
 has been a time, nor a condition of life, when man used noth 
 
 Stone Age." 
 
 Terms 
 
 " Palaeolithic' 
 and " Neo- 
 lithic." 
 
 ing but stone for tools and weapons. At all times he has had 
 at his disposal, and very early must have known how to use, 
 other materials, such as bone, horn, shell, ivory, and wood. It 
 is true, however, that there has been among most people a 
 period when they have not known the use of metals ; or, if 
 they have known metals at all, it has not been a knowledge 
 which involved the smelting of metals from ores. To this 
 period among any people the name of "Stone Age " has been 
 given. During this stage man has commonly made his imple- 
 ments, tools, and weapons largely of stone. The Stone Age, 
 then, is not a period of time which is past, once for all, the world 
 over. It is true that in Western Europe the Stone Age ended 
 many hundreds of years ago ; but in the Pacific Islands the 
 Stone Age was in progress when white men first reached there ; 
 in North America the Stone Age continued among the Indians 
 until the last century ; in South America there are, no doubt, 
 many tribes who still live in their Age of Stone. The term, 
 then, should be used to designate a stage of culture, not a period 
 of time. 
 
 The Stone Age in Western Europe has been, and probably 
 rightly, divided into two portions, called the Palaeolithic and 
 the Neolithic periods. During the Palaeolithic, man made his 
 
 96 
 
Fig. 12. — Hook of Wood, with Iron Prong, used in Catching Halibut. 
 
 Alaska. The carving on the upper arm represents the suckers 
 
 of a cuttlefish. 
 
The Man of the Stone Age. 99 
 
 tools of stone, rudely, by chipping ; in the Neolithic, he still 
 made chipped tools, frequently of great beauty and delicacy, 
 but in addition he often polished his stone blades. By 
 derivation the words mean the older and the newer Stone Age. 
 The terms are convenient and may well be used with reference 
 to European prehistorics ; but because they are convenient 
 terms in discussing the facts of that district is no reason why 
 we should insist upon their universal application and their use 
 in every region. If facts show such subdivision in America or 
 elsewhere, well and good ; but there has been some tendency 
 to translate facts into these terms carelessly. 
 
 So much as to preliminary, dry definition. Let us now con- c ,. , 
 sider what the primitive tools of man were like, how they were character of 
 made, and how they acted on their users. Primitive tools are 
 generalized. Perhaps the oldest implement of man we know 
 is the flint hachi from the glacial gravels of France and other E.g.,\hehache. 
 parts of Western Europe. It is a coarse, heavy, rude imple- 
 ment, chipped to shape by great spalls being broken from its 
 surface. It is somewhat almond-shaped ; may average about a 
 hand's length ; is thick and heavy. It is probable that this ob- 
 ject was used for many purposes. It would be a weapon 
 grasped in the hand and used in close combat ; it would be a 
 hatchet for breaking open bones to get at the marrow ; it would 
 be a knife for forcing open shells of mollusks ; it might be an 
 ice-pick for cutting holes through ice in winter in order to get 
 at fish. Tylor mentions that the spear-point of iron which the The African 
 African has made for himself may be used by him as a knife for 
 smoothing the spear-shaft itself. The stick which the primitive The stick _ 
 man picked up in the woods he would use for every purpose. 
 Hurled at a passing bird, it was a missile ; held in the hand and 
 wielded for defense, it was a war-club ; used for thrusting, it be- 
 came a spear ; as a digger of roots it was, perhaps, the first 
 agricultural implement ; to the man astride a floating log upon 
 
Some First Steps in Human Progress. 
 
 Such gener- 
 alized tools 
 become 
 specialized. 
 
 Primitive 
 methods of 
 working stone. 
 
 (a) Chipping: 
 
 the river, the same stick became a help in handling the primi- 
 tive craft. 
 
 Ere long the implement that had been so generally used 
 gradually differentiated into several tools, each for its own pur- 
 pose. The simple stick becomes pointed at one end and there- 
 by a better spear ; broadened at the end, a better paddle ; 
 carved or knotted at the end, a better war-club. This history 
 of specialization might be traced in regard to all tools and instru- 
 ments. Tylor calls attention to the fact that the stone spear- 
 head is the father of all two-edged swords ; the flint spear-head 
 lengthened and delicately chipped becomes the dagger; the 
 stone dagger, copied in bronze by ancient man in Europe, grows 
 longer, and at last becomes lengthened to such an extent that 
 it is not a dagger but a true sword. The same author traces a 
 conceivable development of the celt or smooth-polished stone 
 axe-blade, through the bronze war hatchet, into single-edged 
 knives, such as sickles and bill-hooks. Although his demonstra- 
 tion in the latter case is not as satisfactory as in the former, the 
 idea is suggestive and interesting. 
 
 How did the man of the Stone Age make his stone tools ? 
 There are some three chief methods of working stone -which he 
 devised : (a) chipping, (b) polishing, (c) drilling. Evans, in his 
 "Stone Implements of Great Britain and Ireland," gives many 
 interesting details in regard to the working of stone tools, and 
 other writers, both before and since, have spoken with more or 
 less fulness in the matter. In order that the stone shall chip 
 well, it is necessary that it should be fine grained, compact, 
 brittle, and with conchoidal fracture. There are two ways in 
 which the piece of stone may be considered. The idea may 
 be to secure from it flakes, which afterwards shall be chipped 
 to form, while the nucleus or core left after the chips have been 
 removed is thrown away. Or the intention may be to work the 
 core itself directly into shape, the flakes split off being a matter 
 
The Man of the Stone Age. 
 
 of little or no consequence. Three methods of operating in the 
 chipping of, stone have been followed. Sometimes heat is used By heat ; 
 as a help, and travelers have described how Indians, in our 
 western country, have worked their flint into arrow-heads by 
 means of hot stones, which were applied to the material at 
 points where the flakes were to be lifted, and the heat com- 
 bined with pressure removed flake after flake until at last the 
 desired point was made. 
 
 A common mode of chipping stone was by percussion — free 
 blows with the hammer-stone held in the hand. It is likely B y percussion ; 
 that much of the coarser work in chipping stone implements 
 was done in this way. Much depended on the skill of the work- 
 man, and many implements would certainly be broken. Per- 
 haps as crude a way as any in which stone blades were made 
 by percussion is that described among the North Australians by 
 Baines : ' ' The native having chosen a pebble of agate, flint, 
 or other suitable stone, perhaps as large as an ostrich egg, sits 
 down before a large block, on which he strikes it so as to de- 
 tach from the end a piece leaving a flattened base for his sub- 
 sequent operations. Then holding the pebble with its base 
 downward, he again strikes so as to split off a piece, as thin and 
 broad as possible, tapering upward in an oval or leaf-like form, 
 and thin and sharp at the edges. His next object is to strike 
 off a piece nearly similar, so close as to leave a projecting angle 
 on the stone, as sharp, straight, and perpendicular as possible. 
 Then again, taking the pebble in his hands, he aims the deci- 
 sive blow, which, if he is successful, splits off another piece with 
 the angle running straight up its center as a midrib and the two 
 edges sharp, clean, and equal, spreading slightly from the base 
 and again narrowing till they meet the midrib in a keen and 
 tapering point. If he has done this well he has a perfect 
 weapon, but at least three chips must have been formed in mak- 
 ing it, and it seemed highly probable from the number of im- 
 
Some First Steps in Human Progress. 
 
 perfect heads that lay about that the failures far outnumber the 
 successful results. In the making of tomahawks a/id axes, in 
 which a darker green stone is generally used, great numbers of 
 failures must ensue ; and in these another operation seemed 
 necessary, for we saw upon the rocks several places where they 
 had been ground with great expenditure of labor to a smooth, 
 round edge." 
 
 While chipped tools might be made by the help of heat com- 
 y pressure. bined with pressure, and by free blows with the hammer-stone 
 held in the hand or in the way just mentioned, it is certain 
 that the choicest specimens of chipped implements were not 
 made in either of these ways. The most widely used means 
 for delicate work in chipping stone was certainly by pressure, 
 and of this method there are many descriptions left by travel- 
 ers among various people. Thus Lubbock quotes in regard to 
 modern Mexicans that they work obsidian by pressure. " They 
 take the obsidian in the left hand and hold grasped in the other 
 a small goat's horn : they set the piece of stone upon the horn, 
 and by dexterously pressing it against the point of it while they 
 give the horn a gentle movement from right to left and up and 
 down, they disengage from it frequent chips, and thus obtain 
 the desired form." In the same way the Eskimo are described 
 by Edward Belcher as making their arrow-heads. "The Es- 
 kimo tool is made of an ivory handle, with a reindeer horn 
 point secured in place by a strong thong of leather or sinew, 
 which is put on wet and becomes rigid by drying. The flake 
 is sometimes fixed by means of a cord to hold it firmly and well, 
 the large-surfaced flake being produced either by blows direct 
 from a hammer or through the intermediate punch of reindeer 
 horn. The head thus roughly shaped out is finished with the 
 flaker." 
 
 On Twelve Mile Island in the Mississippi River, near Gutten- 
 berg, Iowa, a band of Pottawatomie Indians were noticed 
 
The Man of the Stone Age. 103 
 
 making arrow-heads in the following way : A deep notch with 
 a flat bottom was cut in a tree trunk to a depth of several 
 inches. A flat stone was laid upon its lower surface, the long 
 bone of a deer sharpened at one end was driven into the back 
 part of the notch. The bit of flint to be operated upon was 
 then placed upon the stone platform ; the bone was brought to 
 bear upon that part of the flint where a flake was to be raised. 
 The stone was shifted, and flake after flake removed until, at 
 last, the arrow-head was completed. Torquemada has left an 
 account of the way in which obsidian was made into razors or 
 knives by the ancient Mexicans. A stick as large as the shaft 
 of a lance, three cubits or more in length, was taken, at the 
 end of which another piece of wood, eight inches long, was 
 firmly fastened to give strength to that part ; a piece of stone, 
 eight inches or so in length and as large around as the leg, was 
 held between the naked feet ; the stick was taken in both 
 hands and pressed heavily against the edges of the stone by 
 the breast. Long blades, sharp on both edges, were thus rap- 
 idly dislodged. The old writer says that "twenty knives in a 
 very short time " could be thus easily made. 
 
 The second operation which primitive man devised for work- 
 ing stone was polishing. Many tools and weapons, such as W Polishing: 
 arrow-heads, barbs, knives, saws, and the like, are not much, if 
 any, improved by polishing ; but axes, some forms of ham- 
 mers, and many ornaments were always, or usually, polished. 
 In making a stone tool such as the grooved axe, which is com- 
 mon in many parts of North America, the Indian would first 
 look for a pebble as nearly the shape and size of the tool to be 
 made as he could find. He would then, with his stone ham- 
 mer or some pebble on which was a blunt point, pound the 
 whole surface of the pebble over and over again. The design 
 was not to break off flakes, but simply to wear away the stone 
 until it should be more nearly the shape desired. Where there 
 
io4 
 
 Some First Steps in Human Progress. 
 
 Pecking. 
 
 (c) Drilling : 
 
 By a solid drill ; 
 
 were undesirable prominences there the blows would be often 
 repeated. This dressing down a stone to a desired shape by 
 repeated blows may be called pecking. In time — and Mr. Mc- 
 Guire (who has made some interesting experiments in the 
 direction of working stone tools in primitive ways) says no very 
 great time is needed — the pebble was brought into the shape 
 and down to the size desired. It still remained to polish it. 
 This was done by rubbing the pecked tool back and forth upon 
 a grit or sandstone ; sand itself was sometimes used, no doubt, 
 in this process. The whole surface of the tool was frequently 
 polished, uniformly and beautifully, and the edge rendered 
 very sharp. It is not at all uncommon, on old village sites, to 
 find great bowlders which have been used for grinding axes and 
 other tools upon, in this way. Such frequently have grooves 
 worn in them where the polishing had been carried on ; where 
 the sides of the tools were polished the grooves are broad and 
 deep ; narrow grooves 'show where the edges have been 
 worked out. It is wonderful to what a degree of perfection 
 the man of the Stone Age could bring his tools ; some adzes 
 from the South Sea Islands and axes and hatchets of flint from 
 Western Europe and certain ornaments made by native Amer- 
 icans can hardly be surpassed. 
 
 A third important method of working stone devised by 
 primitive man is drilling. It is no uncommon thing in 
 Europe to find stone hammers or axes with holes drilled 
 through them, and it is common in this country to find stone 
 ornaments drilled for purposes of suspension by means of 
 cords. A series of such drilled stone specimens usually indi- 
 cates two ways in which drilling was done. In some cases a 
 solid drill was used, producing a hole which is much larger at 
 the upper end and diminishes downward ; very commonly such 
 holes are bored from both sides and meet in the middle part of 
 the stone. It is probable that as good a drill as any for drilling 
 
The Man of the Stone Age. 105 
 
 stones in this way was a stick of wood, which was used with 
 sand, and which, by repeated turning, wore the hole. Very 
 common in archaeological collections are certain long and nar- 
 row points of flint which are usually called drills. It is possible, 
 of course, that they may have been at times used as drills or 
 borers, but they seldom show signs of such use. A soft ma- 
 terial in which the grains of sand would bed themselves would 
 be much better. The other type of drilling produces a hole 
 which has about the same bore from one end to the other. 
 Such holes were usually bored with hollow drills. A bit of By a hollow 
 elder branch or a reed, such as grows abundantly in our Southern 
 States, could be, and no doubt often was, used in drilling such 
 holes. The commonest type of American stone objects drilled 
 in this way are what are known as banner-stones. A good 
 many specimens of banner-stones have been found in which 
 the drilling had not yet been fully carried through ; in these 
 cases it is plainly to be seen that a hollow drill was used, as 
 the core left by the drill still remains in place. 
 
 Among the most noteworthy specimens of drilling in hard 
 stones by rude men are the very curious cylindrical pieces of 
 quartz which are worn by certain South American Indians. 
 These are pierced transversely by a slender hole, which is said 
 to be produced by repeatedly turning the tip of a leaf which 
 ends in a long and slender spine. 
 
 We have noticed the different ways in which the man of the 
 Stone Age worked stone and how he made his stone tools and development 
 weapons. While he was making his discoveries in lapidary ^ t he^ lns '" 
 work he was at the same time making progress as a worker in matenals - 
 many other materials. There was a parallel development 
 going on in working wood, horn, bone, and shell. More than 
 this, the necessity of fastening the stone blades to wooden 
 shafts and handles drove man to discover the use of resins, 
 pitch, etc., and to invent cords and twisted fastenings. 
 
106 Some First Steps in Human Progress. 
 
 Nor need we think that stone tools were poor tools. The 
 Quality of tools old wooden rattles of the Tlingits carved with stone knives are 
 sometimes as fine in workmanship, as neat and handsome, as 
 anything produced at present with white man's tools. The 
 Ahts long preferred their mussel-shell adzes to the best English 
 chisels in making their canoes. The Northwest tribes without 
 the aid of fire cut down great cedars for their "dug-outs " with 
 their stone tools ; then with chisels of horn and stone mallets 
 they work them into shape. The Polynesians made good 
 boards. A log was set near the fire with its end near the blaze. 
 It cracked with the heat ; wedges were driven into the cracks, 
 and the logs separated into long narrow segments which were 
 afterwards shaped with stone adzes into true boards. In con- 
 structing houses or canoes these boards might be joined to- 
 gether by pegs, dovetailings, or cords. Some of the canoes 
 made by the South Sea Island peoples in their Stone Age were 
 a hundred feet long, with bottoms made of a single plank, the 
 sides closely fitted, and the joints neatly closed with gum from 
 the bread-fruit tree. 
 The man made his stone tool, but in turn the stone tool re- 
 influence of the actec * upon its maker and made him. The stone tool had an 
 man e in°societ y " important influence upon society. Some of its results deserve 
 , , . mention. First : it was, perhaps, the necessity for material for 
 
 (a) In causing 
 
 compacts be- making stone tools that led to the first compacts or treaties of 
 
 tween tribes ; 
 
 peace between tribes. It is well known that the savage man is 
 secure so long as he remains within the territory of his own 
 tribe ; the moment that he passes into the territory of a foreign 
 tribe his life often pays the forfeit. There are, however, some 
 exceptions to this rule. Thus, Lippert states that in some parts 
 of Australia there are quarries yielding material much prized 
 for making axes ; it seems that these quarries are.not considered 
 the property of the tribe on whose land they lie, but they are 
 open to people of all tribes who choose to come and take the 
 
Fig. 13.— Chipped Stone Blades. Missouri. 
 
 107 
 
Fig. 14.— Berry-Pounder of Stone. Alaska. 
 To show stages of manufacture. 
 
The Man of the Stone Age. 109 
 
 material ; accordingly, parties which are bent on such an errand 
 are allowed to pass unharmed through hostile territory. Some- 
 thing analogous was true regarding the famous red pipe-stone 
 quarry in Minnesota ; when white men first visited this locality 
 they found marked on the rock-cliffs in the district the totems 
 or emblems of chiefs of many tribes. It is probable that parties 
 going to the famous quarries for catlinite were allowed to pass 
 unharmed. 
 
 Again, the stone tool and the necessity for it led to trade and 
 
 {b) In producing 
 tribal exchange — in other words, to the first steps in commerce, inter-tribal 
 
 trade ; 
 
 It was not always possible for parties to visit distant localities 
 to secure material, but the material itself was passed from 
 hand to hand, from tribe to tribe, over large areas. In a single 
 mound in Ohio, Professor Putnam found objects of copper, 
 obsidian, sea-shell, and mica. The copper, no doubt, came 
 from Lake Superior, although it might have been picked up on 
 the surface nearer ; the obsidian probably came either from the 
 Yellowstone district or from Mexico ; the shell was of a kind 
 native to the Gulf of Mexico ; the mica certainly came from old 
 quarries, signs of which still exist, in North Carolina. It is 
 evident that the raw materials were passed in trade from hand 
 to hand over wide districts in this case. Dr. Mearns found 
 several large pieces of catlinite in cliff-dwellings in Arizona ; 
 this material is believed to have come from Minnesota. The 
 beautiful honey-yellow, fine-grained, easily-worked flint of 
 Grand Pressigny, France, was carried over the whole of West- 
 ern and Central Europe, and knives, saws, spear-points, and 
 arrow-heads of it are to be found on many sites. 
 
 The stone tool led to division of labor. We have already 
 claimed that the discovery of fire led to a division of labor, but ^i ) v j" io ' n a i f n8r '° 
 that was between the sexes ; the woman stayed at home to at- a on 
 tend the flame while the man went afield to secure food. But, 
 as between man and man, the stone tool certainly led to per- 
 
Some First Steps in Human. Progress. 
 
 haps the earliest division of labor. One man would make bet- 
 ter tools, more easily and rapidly, with greater taste and skill, 
 than would another ; the latter, in his turn, might be a better 
 hunter. We may be sure that the former could stay at home 
 making stone arrow-heads, while the latter would provide him 
 with his game in exchange for the products of his skilled labor. 
 Certain men among peoples of the Stone Age might become 
 almost real trades-folk, and there may have been professional 
 axe and arrow-head makers, ornament polishers, and the like. 
 
The stone axe. 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 The Man of the Stone Age ( Continued). 
 
 Before we pass entirely away from the stone tools of primi- After the stone 
 tive man, we may notice two very interesting facts in man's a tfaclhes n super- 
 mental make-up. He sanctifies all that is old and he keeps up the stone tool, 
 as survivals practices once in use. It is very curious, but true, 
 that over a very large portion of the world the stone tool is 
 looked upon with superstition, with reverence, or with awe. 
 The matter has been fully described by many writers and we 
 shall, therefore, content ourselves with giving but a few ex- 
 amples. Throughout most of Western Europe the stone axes 
 of the olden times, which are picked up occasionally upon the 
 fields or dug up in the course of excavations, are believed to be 
 thunderbolts which have fallen from the sky. They are also 
 very commonly believed to protect the person who owns or 
 carries them from lightning. Thus in Germany we find peas- 
 ants calling the stone "donner keile" — thunder chisels; they 
 are kept in families as a protection from lightning ; they per- 
 spire when a storm approaches ; they are found only nine days 
 after falling ; a common saying regarding the stone axe is, " He 
 who chastely beareth this shall not be struck by lightning, nor 
 the house, nor the town where this stone is." So also, in Rus- 
 sia, when a peasant finds a stone axe or a "thunder-bolt" he 
 preserves it as protection. If he builds a new hut, the stone 
 axe is built into the house, under the threshold, and is a sure 
 protection against the tempest. If, however, his house is al- 
 ready built, the stone is carefully guarded, and when the winds 
 
Some First Steps in Human Progress. 
 
 and clouds and muttering thunder predict a storm it is brought 
 out and placed upon the table. With it are also placed a can- 
 dle blessed by a priest of the village and a holy crucifix, and 
 surely with this triple guarding, combining charms of the 
 ancient and the modern time and objects connected with both 
 paganism and Christianity, no danger should be apprehended. 
 But the value of the old stone axe is not confined to its ability 
 to protect against storm. In Cornwall, water in which the celt 
 is boiled is a cure for rheumatism ; in Brittany, it is put in wells 
 to purify the water and to keep up its supply ; in Germany, it 
 is good for diseases of man and beast ; it increases the milk of 
 cows, assists in birth of children, and becomes most valuable 
 as a remedy for children's diseases ; in Saxony, rolled in the 
 wool of sheep or the hair of goats it brings good luck to the 
 flock or herd, and prevents rot and putrid decay. These are 
 but a few of its mysterious powers. 
 The stone axe is not the only relic from the olden time that 
 The arrow- nas magic power ; arrow-heads, also, now (and even anciently) 
 are recognized as charms ; in Scotland, Ireland, and other coun- 
 tries they are called ' ' elf darts, ' ' and are believed to be weapons 
 of the fairies. The superstition is sometimes held that they 
 are never found by looking for them. They are often mounted 
 in silver and worn as charms against the attacks of elfs or fair- 
 ies. Sick cattle are often thought to be elf shot. When a peas- 
 ant believes that the disease which ails his cattle is due to such 
 a cause he calls a fairy doctor, who with much mystery pro- 
 ceeds to suck the part which he states is the seat of the disease, 
 drawing out thus the fairy darts themselves ; then he places 
 them with coin into water from which the animal drinks and is 
 cured. In Southern Europe, also, we find curious notions re- 
 garding the stone arrow-head. A countryman when finding 
 one — he calls it a tongue of St. Paul — devoutly kneels before 
 it, picks it up with his own tongue, and keeps it for a charm ; 
 
The Man of the Stone Age. 113 
 
 in Northern Africa Arabs wear necklaces of carnelian beads, 
 which are imitations of old arrow-heads, ' ' because they are 
 good for the blood." 
 
 So, too, the curious little spindle-whorls which in the olden spindle- 
 time were used as disk-shaped weights upon the wooden spin- w or s ' 
 die are looked upon with superstition. They are called "fairy 
 grinding stones " and "fairy mill-stones." 
 
 How shall we explain such a thing as this ? It seems as if 
 
 Explanation of 
 
 we find such ideas beginning in districts where the Stone Age such super- 
 stitions, 
 is to-day only just passing away. Not long ago, when white 
 
 people first visited Alaska, the Indians were in their full Stone 
 Age. They had stone axes, mauls, adzes, knives, chisels, and 
 the like. To-day they are learning more and more to use the 
 white man's tools, and year by year the old Stone Age imple- 
 ments become rarer and rarer. In many a house they lie neg- 
 lected. Now and then, however, when a man wishes to under- 
 take some enterprise of more than usual importance he takes 
 down the old stone adze to use it in the day's work. It is the 
 natural attribution of power and luck to the tool with which we 
 are familiar, or which has brought success to parent and grand- 
 parent before us ; it is respect for the tried and tested thing of 
 old. Curiously, that the full benefit of taking the old tool may 
 be secured, the wife at home is forbidden to speak a word 
 during her husband's absence for fear of spoiling the charm. 
 Among these Alaskan people it is perfectly well known that this 
 stone adze was once in common use ; it is known how it was 
 made and for what. But we see that even with this knowledge 
 present the tendency grows to look with reverence on the 
 tool, simply because it is old and has been tried. In a little 
 time the fact that the tool was once in common use will drop 
 from sight, but by that time the value of the stone tool as a 
 charm will have been fully settled. Still later, when the 
 tools are no longer to be found in every house, but when ex- 
 
tool. 
 
 114 Some First Steps in Human Progress. 
 
 ceedingly old ones are to be picked up here and there, the idea 
 that they are charm stones will be the only one connected with 
 them. The future Alaskan may not know that his ancestors 
 made and used these objects ; but as they have magical power 
 they will be attributed to supernatural sources. 
 The other interesting fact to which we have referred is the 
 
 'Survival" 
 
 of the stone survival of practices once in use. The old stone tool dies 
 hard. As the new and better implement comes into use there 
 are certain persons who, true conservatives, persist in keeping 
 up the use of the older types. Of course, the religious officer 
 will use the stone tools long after the laity have put them 
 aside. Thus, among the Jews stone knives were long used in 
 circumcision ; the Septuagint distinctly states that the stone 
 knives which Joshua used for circumcision of the Jews were 
 buried with him in his grave. Even to the present, at times, 
 among some modern Jews, a fragment of flint or glass is used 
 instead of a metal knife. One may justly infer that the Jews 
 were in their Stone Age when they first began to perform the 
 rite of circumcision. When metal was introduced among them, 
 knives of the new material came into use for ordinary purposes, 
 but the old stone tool continued long in use in the religious 
 ceremony. 
 
 Among the Egyptians the paraschites used a knife of stone 
 in cutting open the body which was to be embalmed. Thus 
 Herodotus and Diodorus Siculus state: "The body being 
 laid on the ground, he who is called a scribe first marks on its 
 left side how far the incision is to be made, then the paraschites 
 having an Ethiopian stone and cutting the flesh as far as the 
 law allows, instantly runs off", the bystanders pursuing him and 
 cursing him and pelting him with stones and, as it were, turning 
 the horror of the deed upon him." Does not this practice 
 suggest that when the Egyptians first embalmed the dead they 
 were in their Stone Age ? Of all the punishments inflicted by 
 
The Man of the Stone Age. 115 
 
 the Jews on criminals the one which above all others was re- 
 ligious punishment was stoning. Is it not possible that this, 
 too, was an extremely ancient practice ; that men among the 
 Jews were stoned to death for crimes because they had no 
 other mode of conveniently killing criminals ? If so, the cus- 
 tom became fixed and would be preserved as a religious pun- 
 ishment or as a. punishment for crime against religious law 
 long after it had disappeared in other cases. A last example 
 of such survival of Stone Age tools in religious custom may 
 be mentioned, the covenant of blood among the old Arabians. 
 A man stood between the parties, and with a sharp stone 
 made cuts on the inside of their hands, and with the blood 
 smeared seven stones, calling at the same time upon the gods. 
 
CHAPTER XII. 
 
 Metal-working. 
 
 How metals 
 came to be 
 known. 
 
 Native metals 
 first. 
 
 In his experiments at making stone objects and in his search 
 for materials for such, man must early have found certain stones 
 that differed from others in being hard, very heavy, and in some 
 cases possessing brilliant colors and fine lusters. Such stones 
 on account of their beauty would be sure to come into use for 
 ornaments. The first metals man learned to know were such 
 as occurred naturally in a pure condition, as copper, gold, 
 silver. Such pure metals naturally occurring are called native 
 metals ; the mixture of metallic substances with other elements 
 and with stony matter is called ore. The native metal being 
 pure can be used just as found ; the ore must be smelted by 
 the aid of fire, and usually with some other substance, to with- 
 draw the impurities with which it is mixed. Almost all native 
 metals are soft, malleable, bright colored, shining. The com- 
 monest of all, of course, is copper, and there are portions of 
 the world where great quantities of native copper are found ; 
 the best known, perhaps, is the Lake Superior region. Such 
 copper attracts attention from its bright color, and may be 
 pounded with stones into any shape. Not utility but beauty 
 led to its being taken and worked. It is a significant fact that 
 far more ornaments of copper have been found in this country 
 than weapons or tools. In the same way, in the Lake-Dwell- 
 ings of Switzerland there are far more objects of ornament 
 than of utility found in bronze. 
 
 We may see the most primitive use of metals in North 
 
 116 
 
Metal-working. 117 
 
 America. In mounds, Professor Putnam has found ear orna- 
 
 Use of copper 
 
 ments of curious spool-shaped form made of native copper, of in North 
 
 America. 
 
 native silver, and of native iron. The copper and the silver 
 
 came from Lake Superior ; the silver, in spots and blotches, 
 occurs scattered through the copper. The native iron probably 
 was meteoric, falling, a melted mass, from the sky. All three 
 of these materials are soft, malleable, and, when fresh at least, 
 have brilliant luster. Little ornaments of native gold have also 
 been found in mounds. Very remarkable is the find by Mr. 
 Moorehead in an Ohio mound ; it consists of very many thin 
 plates of copper which had been cut to shape and bore upon 
 their surface carved designs. The most interesting copper ob- 
 jects from American mounds came from Georgia. They are 
 thin plates of considerable size, upon which are carved, with no 
 mean skill, curious human figures, winged and strangely dressed. 
 It has usually been believed that the natives of North America 
 did not use fire to any great extent in working copper ; that How it was 
 they simply beat the cold metal into shape with stone tools. 
 Consequently, when these even, well-made plates were found 
 in Georgia and the curious little pieces cut from thin, uniform 
 metal plates were found by Mr. Moorehead, some believed that 
 they show, not simple Indian work, but the influence of white 
 people ; if the objects were not made entirely by Europeans — 
 
 so it was urged — the plates at least were brought by them. Mr. 
 
 Mr. Cushing's 
 Cushing, in a most interesting paper on primitive copper work, experiments. 
 
 claims that these objects were really made by Indians ; that the 
 native Americans were perfectly competent with nothing save 
 stone tools to make uniform plates of metal of considerable 
 size. To demonstrate his belief he conducted an elaborate 
 series of experiments in working native copper with the aid of 
 stone tools and has probably reproduced the ancient mode of 
 operation. Mr. Cushing has had the advantage of seeing In- 
 dian tribes in our southwestern country at metal work to-day ; 
 
n8 Some First Steps in Human Progress. 
 
 he has seen them not only working metals but also knows their 
 modes of dealing with other materials, such as skin and horn. 
 
 Speaking of metal-working in the Southwest Cushing says : 
 " I have found evidence that ore rich in scales or seams of cop- 
 per, too minute to be useful in native state, was there quarried, 
 and first roasted in an open fire, then baked, so to say, or 
 partially smelted in a kind of subterranean funnel-shaped oven- 
 furnace or kiln, terminating at the base in a round, nearly flat- 
 bottomed pot, or relatively small pocket. Smelting in this kind 
 of furnace or kiln was accomplished by introducing only a small 
 quantity of the ore at a time, surrounding and covering it with 
 fuel ; firing and replenishing the latter until fusion resulted. On 
 cooling, the mass of cinders, slag, etc., was raked out, and the 
 copper or other metal culled from the pocket at the bottom of 
 the kiln, where it occurred in buttons or irregular nodules. 
 . . . . In order to test my archaeological observations and 
 some vague Zufii traditions regarding this method of reducing 
 ore, I once gathered, while traveling through a portion of the 
 Zufii Mountains, several stones showing traces of clear copper. 
 Making a large fire in a hollow, I cast the rocks into the middle 
 of it, gradually increasing the fire until the stones were aglow 
 with heat, and, keeping it up for some hours, allowed it to die 
 down. Afterwards, on raking the embers and ashes away, I 
 discovered several small buttons of copper. The primitive 
 Pueblos worked nodules of copper thus obtained by alternate 
 hammering and annealing." 
 
 Cushing further calls attention to the words used by Zufiians 
 for metals. He-we is the general term for metal. It is de- 
 rived from he-sho, which means wax, pitch, or resinous gum, 
 and a-we, stones, and means, hence, fusible stones. If our 
 author is correct in his etymology it is plain that the idea of 
 melting metals must have occurred to the ancestors of the 
 Zufii Indians as early as the knowledge of metals themselves. 
 
Metal-working. 119 
 
 Cushing then proceeds to describe his experiments. He 
 says : " When these people dress a piece of rawhide, they lay 
 it upon a very smooth, flat, but rounded bowlder and rub- 
 hammer or hammer it slantingly from the center outward, 
 thence from the peripheries inward, but always by oblique 
 strokes tending outward. Now, I find that a piece of copper or 
 other soft metal thus treated rapidly spreads, behaving some- 
 what as a rawhide does. When a maul with a slight but very 
 firm grain is used, the rough face aids the thinning and spread- 
 ing of the metal by displacing the surface molecules at a multi- 
 tude of minute points, thus pitting the face of the metal and 
 keeping it from becoming harder and more brittle than the 
 mass or medial portion ; thereby also the metal is toughened, 
 is not so rapidly hardened throughout, and is actually not so 
 liable to scale or crack as when treated with a smooth-faced 
 hammer of iron or steel. As soon as I have, in this manner, 
 reduced a plate almost to the desired thinness, I have with a 
 smoother stone, supplied with a flexible handle, gone over both 
 sides of it to reduce all the larger irregularities and to partially 
 smooth the surface where pitted by the coarser maul. This 
 may be done partly by hammering, partly by combined rub- 
 bing, pressure, and rolling with a smooth unmounted bowlder. 
 I have then proceeded precisely as an Indian would in dressing 
 down the flesh side of his hammered sheet of parfteche. I have 
 taken flat-faced pieces of fine sandstone and, laying the sheet of 
 metal on a firm, level spot with a buckskin underneath to act as 
 a buffer and also to help hold the plate in place, have ground, 
 then scoured, first one face, then the other, until uniformity of 
 surface and thickness has been secured." 
 
 In this way the thin plate of metal was produced. Cushing 
 then proceeds to describe his mode of engraving it. He says : 
 "I first prepared my plate of metal as above related and 
 softened it by heating to redness for several minutes on the 
 
Some First Steps in Human Progress. 
 
 brisk ember-fire. When cooled I lightly traced the outline of 
 the figure on one face of the metal plate, and placed the latter, 
 with tracing uppermost, on a yielding mat of buckskin, folded 
 and laid on a level, hard spot of ground. Then I took a long, 
 pointed tool of buckhorn and, adjusting the butt of it against 
 my chest and the point to the design, pressed downward with 
 as much of my weight as was needful to make it sink slightly 
 into the metal, and, continuing the pressure evenly, went over 
 all the longer lines of the tracing with it. Moderately deep 
 and remarkably sharp, smooth grooves were thus plowed or 
 impressed in the ductile metal wherever the horn point had 
 traversed it, except along upward curves and around sharp 
 turns, or where hard places happened to occur in the plate. In 
 order to deepen the grooving at such points as these, I found 
 that it was only necessary to use a pointed chisel made from 
 the humerus of a deer, like an Indian skin-flesher of bone. 
 This, firmly grasped and pressed by the hand alone, then rolled 
 or rocked to and fro, served admirably to deepen straight curves 
 to any extent desirable, or, if twirled while it was being pressed 
 down and rocked, to impress or deepen curved lines. When 
 all the lines of the design had been completed by these com- 
 bined processes of pressure-drawing with the horn tool and 
 pressure-rocking with the bone tool, the plate, on being turned 
 over, exhibited in clearly raised outline the reverse of the pat- 
 tern I had traced and thus embossed. On grinding these sharp 
 edges crosswise with a flat piece of sandstone their apices were 
 speedily cut through, and the form as outlined by the emboss- 
 ing was thus completely severed from the plate, leaving the 
 portions from which it had been removed like the open spaces 
 of a stencil." 
 It is likely that Cushing is right. The old Indian workers of 
 
 Summary on . ,,,,,,. 
 
 American copper, on our continent, apparently took the metal, heated it, 
 
 working. worked it while hot with their stone tools, reheating it when 
 
Metal-working. 
 
 necessary. From the sheets thus beaten out they cut their or- 
 namental forms. Still thinner sheets were used for covering 
 various objects of wood or stone, bone or shell. Solid masses 
 of the precious, bright stone were beaten, with the help of heat, 
 into arrow-heads, spear-heads, knives, hatchets, and into beads 
 of various forms. With such tools of horn and bone as Cush- 
 ing used they could draw ornamental patterns. Finally they 
 polished irregular surfaces smooth with pieces of flat stone. 
 Not only do we find, in mounds and elsewhere, these old 
 
 Ancient mines 
 
 copper objects made by the mound-building tribes of Indians, in Lake Supe- 
 
 but we also find evidences of their mining operations in the 
 Lake Superior district. Parties, perhaps, went from the South 
 to Lake Superior for mining purposes. There were plenty of 
 veins for them to work ; hundreds of their old openings have 
 been discovered. In one pit was found a rude old ladder made 
 by trimming branches from a tree so as to leave footholds. 
 Preserved by water, in which they were lying at the bottom of 
 old mines, were wooden levers, wooden shovels, wooden 
 bowls, and troughs for bailing. There were great quantities of 
 ashes and charcoal also. Thousands of rough stone mauls and 
 hammers, grooved for the attachment of handles, have been 
 found ; from a single mine more than two cartloads were taken. 
 Some of them are so heavy as to require two men in their use ; 
 such have two grooves for attaching handles. One maul still 
 had a trace of the handle fastened to it. In one mine was a 
 great mass of pure copper worked out and raised on a rude 
 cobwork of rounded timbers six to eight inches in diameter. 
 Numbers of rude copper wedges were also found in these old 
 works. From these relics we are able to reconstruct a picture 
 of the methods of those old miners. They first loosened the 
 soil and scraped it away with wooden shovels ; then the rock 
 was heated by building fires upon it, after which water was 
 dashed over it ; great masses were thus broken off. The 
 
 rior district. 
 
Some First Steps in Human Progress. 
 
 Succession i 
 Europe. 
 
 The Bronze 
 Age- 
 
 loosened rock was then broken up with heavy mauls, so as to 
 separate the masses of pure copper which were scraped to- 
 gether and scooped away with shovels. The water which ever 
 gathers at the bottoms of such excavations was bailed out with 
 wooden troughs. Levers and cobwork were used in raising 
 great masses of the metal which were loosened, when neces- 
 sary, from the vein of which they formed a part, by means of 
 wedges driven with mauls. 
 
 Such, no doubt, were the first steps in metal-working the 
 world over. In Europe archaeologists usually consider the Age 
 of Bronze as following closely upon the Age of Stone. It is 
 probable that in some parts of Europe, at least, the use of cop- 
 per, in the way we describe, preceded the knowledge of bronze ; 
 there certainly was an Age of Copper in Hungary, and Gross 
 believes he finds evidences of such a time among the Swiss 
 Lake-Dwellers. For most of Western Europe, however, the 
 evidence for such a condition is not clear. Bronze, a mixture 
 of nine parts copper to one part tin, was used in many districts. 
 It seems probable that the knowledge of this useful compound 
 was introduced from the East. Of course, the making of 
 bronze must have first been discovered in a district where both 
 copper and tin are found in the rocks. Once discovered, it is 
 not strange that its use gradually drove stone tools and weapons 
 out of service. Relics of bronze have been found in Great 
 Britain and Ireland and in France, Germany, Denmark, Sweden, 
 Italy, Switzerland, Spain, and Portugal. The tools, weapons, 
 and ornaments made in different sections have somewhat char- 
 acteristic peculiarities. Nowhere was the use more fully devel- 
 oped than in Denmark ; nowhere were there more beautiful 
 forms than in Scandinavia. Here we find, as elsewhere, that 
 metal in its early use was very largely for purposes of ornament ; 
 most elaborate and curious forms of fibulae — ornamental pins, 
 constructed on the principle of the safety pin ; buttons ; rings for 
 
Metal-working. 123 
 
 fingers, wrists, arms, ankles, legs, and neck, often of strange 
 and complicated types ; great pins for fastening garments or for 
 decorative uses ; curious disks, with patterns in great variety 
 carved upon them, for attachment to the clothing — such were a 
 few of the many ornaments made by the old Danes from this 
 new and precious material. They also made tools, such as 
 pincers and razors, knives, frequently of curved forms and 
 with the blades engraved, chisels, and the like. Weapons, too, 
 occur — arrow-heads, spear-heads, lance-heads, daggers, swords, 
 imitating, of course, in shape the old, old patterns which had 
 been made so long in stone. In some old peat-bogs have been 
 found gigantic trumpets made of bronze, gracefully coiled, used 
 apparently in pairs by trumpeters. More than two thousand 
 years have passed since they were made for use, and they are 
 so good in workmanship that in these latter days they have 
 been made again to breathe forth martial music ; we ourselves 
 have heard their tones. 
 
 It has often seemed surprising that the use and knowledge of 
 a compound such as bronze should precede the knowledge of 
 a simple metal such as iron. Such, however, appears to be 
 the case in Europe, and its simplest explanation would seem 
 to be that the knowledge originated elsewhere and was brought 
 to the European continent. The Bronze Age for Denmark 
 ended early in our era and iron has been known there for nearly 
 two thousand years. The bronze was worked by melting and 
 casting in molds. These were usually made of sandstone and 
 many specimens of them may be seen in European museums. 
 
 It is a great mistake to think that the same succession of 
 events must naturally repeat itself in all districts. In Western ° v r ^ t s°n 
 Europe we have the series — Stone Age, Bronze Age, Iron Age ; 
 we have suggested that in Hungary a Copper Age should be 
 inserted before the Bronze Age. In Africa — that is, negro 
 Africa — we find no evidence of a Bronze Age or of a Copper 
 
 events in 
 Africa. 
 
124 Some First Steps in Human Progress. 
 
 Age, but man passed at once from using stone for tools and 
 
 The negro weapons to working iron. The negro is a true metallurgist, 
 
 smith at work. _ , ,. , . . .. i j • 
 
 Over a large portion of his territory a very easily worked iron 
 
 is abundant. The methods he pursues in treating it are the 
 simplest. The form of furnace varies much from tribe to tribe. 
 Among the Bongos, it is composed of clay, stands five feet in 
 height, and is divided into three compartments, one above the 
 other ; in the upper and the lower only charcoal is placed ; in 
 the middle section are alternate layers of ore and fuel. A sort 
 of grating, supported by a circular projection, separates the 
 lower from the middle compartment ; a narrow passage con- 
 nects the middle with the upper. Four holes at the bottom of 
 the furnace permit air to be blown in by means of bellows and 
 allow also for the drawing out of melted slag ; through a fifth 
 aperture, which is kept plugged with clay, the molten metal is 
 drawn off. For bellows they use two cup-shaped bowls of clay 
 or wood, covered at top with bladder or with skin tied closely 
 about the edge. A stick is fastened to the middle of each of 
 the bladders, on its upper surface ; in the side of each is 
 an aperture for the escape of air, and into these are thrust little 
 spouts of wood, which open into a single funnel of clay. One 
 man takes the ends of the sticks, which are fastened to the 
 bladder covers, one in each hand, and then alternately raises 
 and lowers them. By so doing he drives a steady current of 
 air through the clay funnel into the fire. Besides his furnace 
 and his primitive pair of bellows the African smith has a round 
 pebble for a hammer, small chisels, and a pair of tongs made 
 of a green stick of wood. With such .an outfit he makes 
 articles that will bear comparison with those made by English 
 workmen. Razors, two-edged knives, spades, heads for 
 arrows, lances, spears, throwing-knives — such are his products. 
 The heads of African spears are frequently real works of art. 
 They may be long and slender, broad, almost round ; they may 
 
Fig. 15. — Grooved Axe of Stone. 
 To show stages of manufacture. 
 
Fig. 16.— Bird Amulet of Striped Slate. 
 To show stages of manufacture. 
 
Metal-working. 127 
 
 have smooth and simple edges, or may be barbed with cruel 
 long projections, or notched along the sides with sawtooth 
 points. Mrs. French-Sheldon tells of the delight and satis- 
 faction which the workers take in turning out a perfect and 
 beautifully finished point. She has seen them take as patterns 
 some beautifully symmetrical, smooth, perfect-outlined leaf, 
 and, in the shaping of their weapon, compare it with the pat- 
 tern, holding both before the eye, one in front of the other, 
 until their outlines exactly coincide. 
 
 A factory of steel presents the very culmination of man's in- The final st 
 genuity in metal processes so far achieved. To-day in civili- ln metallur gy- 
 zation the crude ore mixed with the fuel and limestone flux is 
 turned into a great blast furnace and after a few minutes drawn 
 out as molten stuff into the molds. Almost before it cools, 
 the pig-iron is carried into the steel works, mixed with its 
 proper proportions of other substances, melted again, poured 
 out into great crucibles and ladled into ingot molds of giant 
 size. These loaded on trucks are carried to a reheating 
 furnace ; handled by machinery — great iron fingers that work 
 as skilfully and carefully as if connected with the thinking 
 mind of some giant — they are placed between revolving plat- 
 forms ; caught from them by jaws that crush and press them 
 they are driven back and forth, from one into another, until at 
 last they come forth great rods of steel. These in turn are 
 caught by other wonderful mechanisms, cut to size and twisted, 
 rolled, pressed until the shape desired. An hour more than 
 suffices to take the raw, crude pigs of iron and turn them into 
 rails for tracking or into wire for binding. It is the last chapter ; 
 the first is the savage pounding his hot copper with the rude 
 stone hammer. 
 
CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 Weapons. 
 
 Man's first 
 weapons. 
 
 The stick. 
 
 The club. 
 
 Thrusting 
 weapons. 
 
 Devices for 
 hurling spears 
 and darts. 
 
 The first weapons which man used were simply the stick 
 and the stone, which he picked up when need impelled. 
 These two crude weapons have undergone a vast series of 
 changes, fitting them more and more perfectly for definite re- 
 sults. The stick may be used in two ways — either to strike 
 heavy blows or for thrusting. Used in the former way we have 
 in it the germ of every kind of battle-axe and war-club, while 
 used in the latter way we have in embryo all kinds of spears 
 and darts and two-edged swords. A stick heavier at one end, 
 knotted and gnarled, made a superior weapon for cracking 
 skulls. Such clubs have been developed marvelously among 
 some peoples. A short club of this kind is not well adapted 
 for use while held in the hand, as it allows the enemy to get 
 dangerously near ; it is, however, admirable as a throwing or 
 missile weapon. Such knotted throwing-clubs, short-handled, 
 are found in the kerry of the South African. 
 
 A stick which happened to have a sharp end made a far 
 better thrusting weapon than another. So long as the sharp- 
 ened stick was held in the hand and was of considerable 
 length, it would be one kind of spear ; when, however, it was 
 hurled from the hand it became a dart or javelin. Rude men 
 in various parts of the world have learned how to hurl such 
 sharp-pointed stick, by means of another stick peculiarly 
 shaped and formed for the purpose ; such are the Australians, 
 Eskimo, and the old Mexicans. Another way of hurling such 
 spears or darts was by means of a loop of cord or string. 
 
 12S 
 
The stone. 
 
 Weapons. 129 
 
 Such devices add to the force and surety of the aim. Again, 
 many peoples have learned to hurl small darts or spears, called 
 arrows, by means of a combination of a cord and an elastic 
 stick which we call a bow. Such, briefly and imperfectly, is the 
 history of the stick seized for a weapon. 
 
 The other primitive weapon — the stone picked up from the 
 ground — has also had an interesting history of development. 
 It could be used in two ways — held in the hand for fighting at 
 close quarters, or hurled to a distance. By fastening it, by 
 cords or gums or other methods, to a handle, the arm is 
 lengthened and the weapon reaches to a greater distance, still 
 remaining within control of the user ; thus handled, it is first a 
 maul ; sharpened to an edge it becomes a battle-axe. The 
 stone hurled from the hand is a very simple thing ; it, too, may 
 be sharpened, and by the sharpening it gains effectiveness. 
 Instead of simple hurling from the hand it may be directed to 
 its aim by means of a stick or cord, or by a veritable sling. 
 The bullet is really only the stone of lead hurled by an elab- 
 orate engine. 
 
 It is often difficult to say of some weapons whether they have 
 been developed from the stick or from the stone. The boom- 
 erang is plainly the former while the bullet is just as plainly the 
 latter ; which, however, shall we call the little arrow shot from 
 the blow-gun ? Where a missile is thrown from some sort of 
 an engine it is not altogether easy to say how we shall apply 
 the word weapon. Is the gun a weapon ? Of course the real 
 weapon is the bullet ; the gun is simply an artificial hand serv- 
 ing to hurl it more rapidly and securely, using, instead of 
 muscle power, the explosive force of powder. 
 
 We have suggested a classification of weapons based upon 
 the primitive forms used by early man. They may be classified Mortiiiet's 
 
 classification of 
 
 in many other ways. Adrien de Mortillet, in his lectures, has weapons. 
 classified them, according to form or mode of action, into three 
 
 Adrien de 
 
130 Some First Steps in Human Progress. 
 
 types — weapons for dealing blows, pointed weapons, weapons 
 with cutting edge ; each of these he divides into three groups — 
 weapons to be used in the hands, weapons fastened to handles 
 and to be held in the hand, and missile weapons. His table is 
 here reproduced : 
 
 TABLE OF OFFENSIVE ARMS. 
 
 /. For dealing blows. 
 
 Hand . . 
 In handle . 
 Missile . 
 
 . . Club. 
 
 . . Casse-tHe. 
 
 . . Sling stone. 
 
 
 2. Pointed. 
 
 Hand . . 
 In handle . 
 Missile . . 
 
 . . Poignard. 
 
 ... Spear. 
 
 ... ... Arrow or dart. 
 
 
 3. Edged, Cutting. 
 
 Hand . . 
 In handle 
 Missile . 
 
 . . . Sabre. 
 
 . . Hatchet. 
 
 . Boomerang. 
 
 This table does not pretend to be a complete list of weapons ; 
 Discussion of '* a i ms simply to divide all weapons into a few classes and to 
 tabIe ' present a single type of each. It may be interesting to exam- 
 
 ine a few of the types named. We have already referred to 
 The club tne c ' u b- The war-club of wood reached its most complete 
 
 development in the islands of the Pacific. Among the 
 Polynesians, Marquesas Islanders, Mangaians, and others, it 
 becomes an elaborate and beautiful piece of work. The 
 heaviest, hardest, finest grained woods available are used ; the 
 handles or shafts, long and smooth, terminate at one end in a 
 carefully worked head, frequently elaborately carved ; the de- 
 signs at times are symbolical and full of meaning. Another 
 district where the war-club — this time much shorter, and rec- 
 tangular in section, but still covered with carvings — is exceed- 
 ingly developed, is Guiana in South America. The little short 
 club with large knobbed end used in Africa we have already 
 
Weapons. 131 
 
 mentioned ; it is called a " kerry " and may either be held in the 
 hand or hurled. 
 
 The casse-ttte is simply a pebble of stone fastened to a han- The casse-tite. 
 die ; it really reproduces the knobbed club, made from a single 
 piece of wood. It is an ancient type, and casse-Utes of stone 
 mounted in handles of horn were used by Neolithic man in 
 Western Europe. Many Indian tribes in North America used 
 such war-clubs or mauls ; the Sioux still mount rather neatly- 
 made stone heads upon long handles. 
 
 Any pebble may be picked up and hurled. The hand, how- 
 ever, is not the best instrument for slinging stones, and among 
 many peoples, and very anciently, we find the use of true slings. Slings. 
 The simplest sling that can be thought of is a stick of wood 
 near one end of which is a hollow, in which the stone may rest. 
 The stick taken at the other end is swung and the stone thrown 
 forward. There can be no doubt that it was a sling of this kind 
 which is mentioned in the record wherein David is described as 
 killing the giant Goliath. To-day in Palestine the shepherds 
 use slings consisting of two cords fastened to a netted rest in 
 which the pebble lies ; the whole is whirled around and then 
 the stone released by letting go of one of the cords. It may be 
 asked why, seeing that such are now in use in Palestine, we 
 should believe the other kind was used by David. The giant is 
 recorded to have said to the hero as he advanced to meet him, 
 "Am I a dog that thou art come with staves against me?" 
 Surely, then, David bore a stick or staff ; it would hardly have 
 been his shepherd's staff, as there would be no object in taking 
 that with him when he went against an enemy ; it is more likely 
 to have been the simple ancient stick for slinging stones. 
 
 The way in which the poignard may have been developed out 
 of the stone spear-head and the forms into which, in time, it 
 may have developed are sufficiently described elsewhere. Re- The spear, 
 garding the spear, however, there are many things of interest. 
 
132 Some First Steps in Human Progress. 
 
 The shaft is heavy or light according to the purpose and the 
 mode of use. The head may be simply the sharp point of the 
 shaft itself ; it may be a separate piece of wood or bone, short 
 and sharp ; it maybe a second, long and slender, piece of wood 
 inserted in the end of the shaft or lashed firmly along its side. 
 The point may be simple, or it may be jagged and barbed so as 
 to increase the wound and to render the removal of the weapon 
 difficult ; it may be attached firmly to the shaft, or it may be so 
 secured as to be easily broken from it ; the point may be single, 
 or there may be several points projecting in various directions, 
 about the shaft. The Eskimo make dainty little bird-spears, 
 which in addition to the single point at the end of the spear have 
 two or three prongs spreading outward, attached at one third 
 or one half the length of the spear from the lower end ; when 
 such a spear is hurled at a flock of birds, if the main point misses 
 its aim these barbs are almost certain to transfix a victim. 
 
 We have mentioned the fact that a stick is sometimes 
 used in hurling spears ; it has been called by modern writers 
 the throwing-stick or spear-thrower ; it is the atlatl of the 
 old Mexicans. It consists of a stick of from twelve to twenty 
 thrower. ar " inches in length, adapted to being held in the hand, with 
 
 a peg or other rest for the end of the spear at the extremity re- 
 mote from the part held in the hand ; the shaft of the spear 
 rests along the upper side of the stick, which is held horizon- 
 tally ; a quick movement launches the spear through the air. 
 Professor Mason has paid attention to the spear-thrower, de- 
 scribing in great detail the various forms which it assumes 
 throughout the Eskimo district. Since his paper, Uhle in Ger- 
 many has written on the same subject, Mrs. Nuttall has fully 
 described the atlatl of the Aztecs, and Adrien de Mortillet has 
 called attention to the very ancient spear-throwers which have 
 been found in French caverns, comparing them with the spear- 
 throwing sticks of the Australians. 
 
Weapons. 133 
 
 Among the many curious types of weapons used by rude 
 peoples we shall consider a few : the bolas, missile knives, har- 
 poon, pellet bow, and blow-gun. The bolas in its best-known 
 form is found in South America. It consists of two or three round 
 stones, encased in some kind of covering and hung at the lower The bolas. 
 end of cords which are knotted together at the upper end ; it is 
 used in catching cattle. The hunter, usually on horseback, sets 
 the pebbles whirling and launches the whole series out into the 
 air toward the game. When one of the cords strikes the beast 
 the ball whirls on, winding the cord around and around the 
 creature's leg ; another ball is doing the same to another leg of 
 the animal, with the result that he is rendered helpless. The 
 bolas in another form, composed of smaller pebbles and more 
 of them, but in principle the same, is used among the Central 
 Eskimo in catching birds. Africa is the great district of missile 
 knives. In that country of skilled work in iron, knives are 
 made in the strangest forms, having a little handle, radiating 
 out from which in various directions, but all in one plane and . . 
 
 made from a single sheet of metal, are several cruel, sharp 
 blades ; such knives are hurled through the air at the enemy, and 
 in their whirling one or the other of the blades is quite sure to 
 strike the victim. Among the Sikhs of India a weapon is 
 used, consisting of a round ring, thin but broad, of iron or 
 steel, which is ground sharp around its whole outer edge ; 
 sent whirling rapidly through the air such a weapon might do 
 considerable execution. 
 
 The pellet bow is a curious modification of the common 
 bow ; instead of arrows, round balls the size of a large marble 
 are used as missiles ; the cord of the bow is double — or rather 
 there are two cords side by side ; at about their middle point The pellet bow. 
 these are united by a little rest of netted work in which the 
 pellet is placed ; of course if the bow were symmetrical over 
 the cord like a common bow the pellet would strike the back 
 
134 Some First Steps in Human Progress. 
 
 of the bow itself— consequently in the construction of the bow 
 this danger must be avoided. There are few instruments 
 which have so curious and so definite a range in distribution 
 as the pellet bow ; it is known among the islands of South- 
 eastern Asia and among the Indians of Paraguay. 
 
 One of the most perfect devices in the way of spears 
 which man has ever invented is the harpoon, found through- 
 out the Eskimo district and used in the hunting of large 
 
 The harpoon. game. As chiefly used by a man sitting in his boat, it must 
 possess qualities not needed in the weapon used on land ; it 
 consists of a heavy shaft to which is attached a point, usually of 
 considerable length ; this point is fastened to the shaft in such 
 a way that when the game is struck it separates, remaining in 
 the animal while the shaft floats upon the water and can be 
 easily secured ; the point is also fastened to a cord which is con- 
 nected at its further end with a bladder or skin filled with air ; 
 when the game is struck, it dives, the cord reels out until the 
 bladder floats upon the water ; the wounded creature tugging 
 constantly against the air-filled bladder is quickly worn out and 
 captured. In throwing the harpoon the spear-thrower is used. 
 One of the neatest weapons found among rude tribes is the 
 blow-gun. It consists of a long, straight, hollow tube — gener- 
 
 The blow-gun. ally a bamboo or cane of some sort ; the missiles thrown by it 
 are light arrows — little slender shafts, sharp pointed at one end 
 and bound at the other with a wad or plug of some soft stuff, 
 like cotton or thistle-down. This plug is of such size as to fit 
 neatly and with a little pressure inside the tube. The sharp 
 point very commonly, in the islands of Southeastern Asia and 
 in South America at least, is dipped in poison. The arrow is 
 placed at one end of the tube, which is then raised to the lips 
 and pointed to the game ; a sharp, quick, but not remarkably 
 strong puff of breath sends it on its noiseless flight. We have 
 seen the blow-gun in use among the Cherokees of Carolina. 
 
Weapons. 135 
 
 They use for tube a cane eight or nine feet in length, which 
 they carefully clean and smooth within. Their arrows consist 
 of a shaft of about sixteen inches in length, made of hard wood 
 and cut to a point at the upper end. The plug at the lower 
 square-cut end of the shaft is made of down from a burr much 
 like a species of thistle ; this plug is as broad as the diameter 
 of the tube and is perhaps three inches long. The way in 
 which the bits of down are attached and wrapped is very 
 pretty. We have seen such blow-gun arrows do execution 
 upon rabbits at a distance of a hundred yards — passing quite 
 through the body of the creature. Such are a very few of the 
 ingenious weapons of savage and barbarous folk. We have 
 simply tried to illustrate their diversity and adaptedness. 
 
 At Oxford is the Pitt-Rivers Museum. In many ways it is 
 unique ; in all ways it is of interest. There one may see, more 
 carefully worked out than elsewhere, the history of many a 
 device. The development of pottery, of basketry, of weapons, The Pitt-Rivers 
 of tools, of ornamentation, may be traced step by step. The Museum. 
 museum is the development of an idea which occurred long 
 ago to Col. Lane Fox — now Gen. Pitt-Rivers. He was inter- 
 ested in guns, and as a matter of personal interest and curi- 
 osity secured a series of specimens to illustrate the develop- 
 ment of our modern gun — from the old matchlock through 
 the flintlock to the modern rifle. This series formed the 
 nucleus of the present great museum illustrating progress. 
 
 We have elsewhere spoken of the savagery of childhood. 
 
 We might find it illustrated in every topic considered in this 
 
 book. It will be unnecessary to refer repeatedly to the matter. 
 
 J Boys and bows 
 
 We may, however, at this point call attention to the way in and arrows, 
 which among boys many of the ancient weapons of mankind 
 still linger on in civilization. The boy with sling-shot or with 
 sling, with bows and arrows, with dartb, is only living once 
 again the life of his ancient and savage ancestors. 
 
CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 Dress and Ornament. 
 
 What possible 
 origins for 
 dress ? 
 
 Ethnic mutila- 
 tions or bodily 
 alterations. 
 
 Lip-piercing 
 and labret- 
 wearing. 
 
 We do not often stop to ask the reasons for our most com- 
 mon things ; nor do we think much in regard to origins. It 
 seems to us that certain things are natural ; that they must 
 always have been just as they are now. 
 
 How did dress begin ? Why do we wear clothes ? The 
 answer, no doubt, comes at once — to cover our nakedness ; to 
 meet the demands of modesty. If we were still further pressed 
 to answer the question we might say that dress is a protection 
 against climate and attack and injury ; still further pushed we 
 might reply that dress is ornamental, a decoration, a distinction. 
 There is no doubt that more or less of truth is found in each of 
 these three answers, but we believe that the most important one 
 is the latter, not the first. In other words, dress began not as a 
 modest covering but as ornament. 
 
 We have already, elsewhere, discussed the matter of dress in 
 a series of lectures, which have been published. We shall here 
 only briefly summarize what we have said in those. It is well 
 known that, among many people in order to meet the dictates 
 of fashion, or for some other reason, it is customary to change 
 the body more or less profoundly. These modifications or 
 alterations may affect almost all portions of the body. 
 
 The Haida woman pierces her lower lip, in order that she 
 may therein thrust an ornamental plug or labret. When a girl 
 she is taken by some female relative into the woods, where a 
 hole is punched through the lip by means of some sharp bit of 
 shell or stone. A grass stalk or a splinter of wood is thrust 
 through to keep the wound open. When the soreness resulting 
 
 136 
 
Dress and Ornament. 137 
 
 from this operation has disappeared, this stalk is removed and 
 
 a larger bit of wood thrust into the opening, which is stretched 
 
 by it to a larger size. In time this peg is replaced by a larger 
 
 block, and so on, until, at last, as an old woman she may wear 
 
 a labret five inches in one diameter and one and one half in the 
 
 other, which holds her lip out horizontally. The wearing of 
 
 labrets is by no means confined to the Haidas. The Aztecs 
 
 and other'Mexican tribes wore them and here it was men who 
 
 made use of them. Curious little plugs made of obsidian or 
 
 amethyst or rock crystal, shaped something like a stovepipe 
 
 hat, the brim of which was inside the lip while the cylindrical 
 
 portion protruded through the opening in it, are among the 
 
 commonest ancient relics from Mexico. So, too, in South 
 
 America, among such tribes as Botocudos, round blocks of 
 
 wood sometimes as much as three inches in diameter are worn. 
 
 In Africa, too, the wearing of labrets of various kinds, in the 
 
 upper or lower lip or both, may be found among many tribes. 
 
 The nose may also be used for bearing ornaments. It may „ . . 
 
 be pierced through the septum or division between the nostrils, 
 
 or holes may be made in the wings, and, through the apertures 
 
 thus formed, ornaments of various kinds may be thrust. The 
 
 Eskimo pierces his cheeks in order that he may wear a pair of 
 
 studs of bone or stone through the openings. The mutilation Cheek studs. 
 
 of the ears is found everywhere among savage and barbarous 
 
 peoples. Holes may be made to which ornaments are hung or 
 
 the ear itself may be slit and drawn down into great loops 
 
 which are thought by some people, such for instance as the 
 
 Anchorite Islanders and Fijians, to be particularly beautiful. It 
 
 is said that a Fijian's ears, after they have been slit, might be . . 
 
 J Ear-piercing 
 
 drawn down in a loop to that extent that his two clenched fists and slitting. 
 
 might be thrust through the loop at one time. Such slit ears 
 
 are not only ornamental ; they may become truly useful, as 
 
 among the Kaffirs, who sometimes carry their snuff-boxes in 
 
i3« 
 
 Some First Steps in Human Progress. 
 
 Tooth-filing, 
 etc. 
 
 Bandaging : 
 
 Of feet ; 
 
 Of the head. 
 
 Skin decora- 
 tions : 
 
 (a) Painting ; 
 
 their ear-holes, and among the Mangaia Islanders, one of whom 
 is described by an early traveler as having been clothed with a 
 hunting-knife, which was thrust through the lobe of his right 
 ear. 
 
 In various parts of the world, as Africa, Australia, Malaysia, 
 Mexico, and Central America, the teeth have been changed. 
 They may be filed into points, certain teeth may be broken out, 
 or holes may be drilled through them and decorations' driven in. 
 Such alterations of the teeth are very commonly tribal marks ; 
 this is particularly true in Africa, where a man belonging to a 
 tribe can often be recognized by the way in which his teeth 
 have been chipped or filed or broken. 
 
 Not only may the body be changed by means of mutilation ; 
 it may also be modified by bandaging. Every one knows of 
 the little feet of the Chinese women, produced by bandaging 
 them so as to prevent growth from infancy. The Chinese foot 
 is but a single sample of a variety of modifications of great 
 interest. Head-shaping is one of these and is to be found very 
 widely over the world and has been practiced from a very dis- 
 tant time. The shape of head produced varies from tribe to 
 tribe and serves to distinguish classes in society or to separate 
 tribes. 
 
 Quite as curious as these modifications are the various pat- 
 terns which are worked out upon the skin. Every one has seen 
 more or less of this body-painting, which is not exclusively 
 confined to savages. Schweinfurth found African tribes among 
 whom the women painted their bodies completely over with 
 two kinds of colored clay. Designs were scratched through 
 the outer coating showing the other color. Thus these ladies 
 would appear with their bodies covered with zigzag lines, 
 checker-board patterns, and zebra-like stripes, the colors being 
 a grayish white and a purplish tint. The North American In- 
 dians, of course, paint for their dances, and we have seen Sacs 
 
Fig. 17.— Sioux Indian Stone War-Clubs, Mounted. 
 
 Fig. iS. — Ceremonial Axe of Stone, Mounted. New Cale 
 139 
 
Dress and Ornament. 141 
 
 and Foxes with most elaborate face-painting ; one man appeared 
 with one half his face bright yellow and the other half a brilliant 
 green ; another had his face painted black, except about the 
 mouth and eyes where there were disks of scarlet, while on his 
 forehead was a network of fine yellow lines. 
 
 The great objection to all body-painting is that it wears off 
 too quickly and frequently needs replacement. How desirable 
 then that the color pattern should be rendered permanent. 
 This is accomplished by means of tattooing, which may be done 
 in several ways : the pattern may be pricked in with points 
 dipped in color ; it may be cut in with a knife and color rubbed 
 into the lines ; it may be sewed in by drawing thread, which 
 has been dipped in color, under the skin. The Japanese once 
 tattooed their bodies completely ; the Polynesians were artists, 
 and among them very commonly the tattooing had a meaning, 
 every line possessing significance. We have not space to cite 
 further examples. The third method of marking the skin with (c) Gashing, 
 patterns is known as scarring, or gashing. Many an African 
 tribe marks its boys for life by patterns produced by cutting 
 great gashes on the face or body and rubbing into the wounds 
 wood-ashes, which causes swelling and healing with a purple 
 color. 
 
 Among modifications of the body hair-dressing is of great 
 interest. Many peoples are characterized by their mode of 
 wearingthe hair. In Africa there are astounding trophies of °'"" 5 " 
 
 this art. The Chinese cue is well known. The Siamese brush 
 or tuft— the lotus blossom— is characteristic. 
 
 Now, how shall we explain all these peculiarities ? What is 
 the meaning of such modifications? At present, no doubt, 
 many of these are simple fashions, but in their beginning we 
 may be sure that every one was intended to distinguish the in- Qtigin rf mo(JI 
 dividual from his neighbor. The man who had killed a beast, £^ ons of the 
 or an enemy in war, would leave the blood on as long as it 
 
142 Some First Steps in Human Progress. 
 
 would stay, to show his prowess ; when it was gone he would 
 replace it by red pigment. The man who had been scarred 
 or scratched in battle would be proud of his wounds and show 
 them on every occasion. The man who had been equally brave 
 but who had not been injured would have gashes made upon 
 him. The beauty and attractiveness of all these things is sub- 
 sequent, not precedent ; they are now fashionable ; they were 
 once individual and marked off the brave man, or the strong 
 man, from his fellows. 
 
 Coming now to dress itself, we have before us the threefold 
 possibility of origin already stated. If dress is due to an instinc- 
 tive modesty, two or three things, it seems to us, should be true 
 due tomodesty? concerning it. First, there should be no naked tribes. Yet, 
 there are naked tribes even to-day, and only a few years ago 
 the number was much greater than at present. Secondly, if 
 shame is innate, modest dress should be the same the world 
 around ; in other words, there should be some one ideal as to 
 what constitutes modest dress. Yet, we find the strangest vari- 
 ations in this matter ; in China a woman must not let her little 
 feet be seen ; Hottentot women are ashamed to let their hair 
 escape from the cap worn upon the head ; some Arab women 
 would be dressed completely if the hair upon the back of the 
 head were covered, while they would be immodestly clad, al- 
 though both body and face were completely enshrouded, so 
 long as that hair were shown. Thirdly, if dress is due to mod- 
 esty, we should suppose that those peoples among whom dress 
 was found to be a completely modest covering would be the 
 most modest and moral of mankind. But, it is true that many 
 a naked woman in Africa is entirely modest ; and it is also true 
 that the Japanese, than whom there is no better dressed people, 
 are highly immoral and immodest. We find, then, that this so- 
 called innate modesty which impels to dress has left whole 
 tribes unclad, has given rise to no constant ideal of modesty in 
 
Dress and Ornament. 143 
 
 dress, has permitted modest people to go unclad, and induced 
 immodest, immoral folk to clothe themselves most beautifully. 
 In other words, it seems to us, there is no such innate prim- 
 itive impulse to clothing. 
 
 It would not be difficult to construct an even stronger argu- 
 ment against the idea that dress has been derived from the need Is it due to need 
 of protection. It is true that dress frequently is such, but it is of P rotection? 
 also true that in many districts, where dress might well be 
 needed as protection against inclemency of weather, it is con- 
 spicuously absent. Charles Darwin speaks of seeing Fuegians 
 standing naked, save for a little piece of skin of some beast 
 worn upon the shoulders, while the driving sleet froze on their 
 bodies. It is true that the skin spoken of was shifted from time 
 to time as the wind varied. 
 
 While there are people whom modesty has never driven to 
 cover themselves with clothing, and while there are others who ornament as a 
 will stand a winter's storm without protective garments, there devdoVment! 88 
 are no people but what have ornaments. These ornaments are 
 most primitively trophies of the chase. A man kills some beast 
 and uses teeth, claws, or skin to hang upon his person to re- 
 mind others of what he has done. Curious and unusual ob- 
 jects are added to these trophies ; parts of shells, bits of stone, 
 bright flowers. These may be thrust into the holes which he 
 has made in his own body or may be hung by cords about p£ gl JJ 1 !? f ^ts" 
 his person. These are ornamental, though we may not con- 
 sider them beautiful ; they serve to mark one man off from an- 
 other ; they are distinctions. In time the objects thus carried 
 on a person may become numerous. Lippert calls attention to 
 the fact that all such ornaments are of two kinds — they are 
 either attached ornaments or hung ornaments. A labret thrust 
 into the lip is one of the former class, while an object of any 
 kind hung by a cord about the neck represents the second. 
 Lippert also calls attention to the fact that there are certain 
 
144 
 
 Some First Steps in Human Progress. 
 
 Hung orna- 
 ments. 
 
 Shame for 
 nakedness sub- 
 sequent, not 
 original. 
 
 Lippert's two 
 types of dress. 
 
 parts of the body about which cords for carrying ornaments 
 may naturally be placed ; such are the head, the neck, the arm 
 above the elbow, the wrist, the waist, the leg above the knee, 
 the ankle. If we look at the decorative objects used by sav- 
 age and barbarous people over the whole world we find sam- 
 ples of ornaments worn at all of these various spots. There 
 are, however, some which are not convenient ; there are others 
 where the ornaments may be borne with ease. The two most 
 notable are the neck and the wrist, and we find the neck and 
 wrist-bands particularly developed as ornament bearers. Thus, 
 of a Kaffir dressed for a visit, it is said that he " ties so many 
 tufts and tails to his waist girdle that he may almost be said to 
 wear a kilt." The neck girdle can also be developed to as 
 marked a degree. We all know how strongly one feels the 
 absence of a thing to the wearing of which he is accustomed ; 
 for example, the man who has forgotten to put on his custom- 
 ary necktie feels a degree of chagrin and shame quite dispropor- 
 tionate to the importance of the matter. Is it not certain that a 
 people who had been used to wearing great masses of orna- 
 ments attached to neck and waist girdles should feel ashamed 
 if perchance at any time they were left off? In other words, is 
 not shame for nakedness due to the absence of the customary 
 covering, and does it not arise later than dress, instead of pre- 
 ceding it ? To a fuller consideration of this whole matter we 
 must refer elsewhere. 
 
 The same German author to whom we have before referred 
 recognizes two types of dress, the northern and the southern 
 type. The former has in its shape and development been in- 
 fluenced by the desire for protection. It is the clothing worn 
 by the north of Europe. It consists of a close-fitting jacket 
 and a tight pair of trousers or skirt. It is, perhaps, derived out 
 of the practice of tying skins about the person. According to 
 our theory, it would have begun with throwing skins of animals 
 
Dress and Ornament. 145 
 
 that had been killed in hunting over the shoulder or upon the 
 back as trophies ; in time the protective value of these skins 
 would be discovered and their original distinctive meaning 
 would dwindle. Tied about the person for convenience, they 
 would suggest the forms that characterize the north type of 
 dress. 
 
 The southern type of dress is loose and flowing. It consists 
 usually of two pieces, a loose and wide-sleeved jacket and a 
 loose and flowing skirt or pair of trousers. It is the dress of 
 ancient Egypt, of the old Greeks and Romans, of the Chinese, 
 Japanese, and Persians. According to the theory we outlined, 
 it is the ornamental girdle of the neck and waist developed. 
 The skin trophy and the girdle with its heavy burden of orna- 
 ments is replaced after weaving begins by a mat or piece of 
 cloth. Its forms are derived simply from natural draping of 
 the material used. Lippert also discusses how, in Europe, the 
 northern and southern types of dress once came in conflict. It conflict be- 
 was in Italy, when the northern barbarians swept down upon the t^S! 
 sunny South and sacked the imperial city. At that time all, both 
 men and women, civilian and religious leader, wore the loose 
 and flowing garments of the southern type. The common men 
 of every-day life and activity adopted the more convenient 
 dress of the northern barbarian ; but the women, blessed con- 
 servators, clung to the old. Perhaps you never queried before 
 why men and women among ourselves dressed so differently. 
 There is, however, a second great conservative power in the 
 world, and just as the women retained the old southern type of 
 dress in ancient Rome, just so the priest retained it also ; and 
 every time one sees the priest of the Church of Rome or of 
 the Church of England in his official gown, it tells the story of 
 survival in religious rite and ceremony. 
 
 If we should examine the garments daily in use among our- 
 selves, we would discover in it many curious and interesting 
 
146 Some First Steps in Human Progress. 
 
 survivals in culture. Tylor has shown us the history of the 
 " Survivals " in swallow-tailed coat. It is all that is left of the olden-time 
 dress. gentleman's long coat, after it had been adapted to horseback 
 
 riding. The long coat was proof of respectability — the badge 
 of a gentleman — but it was not convenient when one got into 
 the saddle ; hence it was cut away in front to give the knees 
 freedom and was slit behind so that it could be lifted and but- 
 toned up to two conveniently situated buttons, thus preventing 
 it from too soon wearing "shiny " ; nowadays when a man 
 wants a riding-coat he has one made expressly which is con- 
 venient and sensible. To show, however, that he is really a 
 gentleman he retains for a dress-coat the old riding-coat with 
 its cutaway front, its slit back, and even its two once useful, 
 now useless, buttons. Even gentlemen in the olden days 
 could not afford to dress their servants or valets in brand-new 
 garments. The old riding-coat passed to the body-servant. 
 It came naturally to mark alike servant and master. Servi- 
 tude is conservative. Hence, when a gentleman to-day, clad in 
 his old-fashioned riding-coat goes to some social event, he is 
 met at the door by the servant clad in the ridiculous cast-off 
 garment of the past. A stranger to our customs might be 
 unable to recognize which was which ! 
 
 Look at a boy's "knee pants." There are usually two but- 
 tons on the outer side of the legs near the knees. What are 
 they for ? Ornament ? Hardly, for one scarcely notices them 
 until attention is directed to them. Are they functional ? Not 
 commonly : usually no buttonholes are present. The truth is 
 that among the ancestors of the boy knee pants were in style. 
 At that time also gentlemen were proud of shapely legs and 
 garments should fit closely to show these to advantage. Ac- 
 cordingly the short trousers were slit at the side, and buttons 
 and buttonholes placed along the slit ; the garment could then 
 be drawn on and buttoned after it was in place. Those 
 
to use. 
 
 Dress and Ornament. 147 
 
 days are long past, but the boy, reproducing in this respect his 
 great-grandfather, still wears the knee pants with buttons on 
 the sides silently reminding us of the past. Many more such 
 survivals in our dress would present themselves to a searcher. 
 
 As in the matter of food-getting we were impressed by primi- Diligence of 
 
 *j , .... . , . , r . , . primitive 
 
 tive man s diligence in seeking out nature s gifts and learning man in finding 
 
 - .. , . , _ , dress materials 
 
 now to use them, so here in the matter of dress we are con- and ingenuity 
 stantly astonished at the way in which the world has been ran- turning them 
 sacked for materials and at the ingenuity displayed in devising 
 processes of making them up. Skins of bird, beast, fish, and 
 reptile have been used ; feathers, hair, bones, teeth, horns, 
 shell, ivory are among the dress materials supplied by the 
 animal kingdom ; leaves, fruits, flowers, fibers, bark, and wood 
 are furnished by plants ; even the mineral kingdom yields 
 metals, gems, and stones. Some Eskimo make beautiful gar- 
 ments from the feathered skins of owls ; furs used generally by 
 savage hunters survive in the dress of civilized woman ; fish- 
 skin garments are worn among the Ainu ; curious water-proof 
 jackets are made by Aleuts from the intestines of the seal. 
 
 Feathers are favorites everywhere. The wild man of South 
 America, who desires a bright feather to stick into his nose or 
 cheek, unites with the belle of civilization, who wishes a breast 
 or a plume for her hat, in demanding the slaughter of bright 
 birds. Both show an equally barbarous taste. Some of the 
 loveliest garments ever made were of feathers. The old Hawai- 
 ians were masters in making helmets and cloaks in brilliant 
 red and yellow feathers, and the Indians of South America — in 
 Guiana, Brazil, Ecuador, Paraguay, etc. — delight in feather 
 aprons, head-dresses, and staves. The old Peruvians were 
 equally skilful, and Giglioli has recently described some ad- 
 mirably made pieces in the Mazzei collection from Peru. 
 
 Hair of various kinds has been twisted into cords, woven 
 into cloth, or beaten into felt by various peoples. Bones of 
 
Some First Steps in Human Progress. 
 
 the toucan are made up into network aprons by the Jivaros of 
 Ecuador, and the beaks of the same bird are strung into neck- 
 laces in Paraguay. The use of silk was early learned by 
 Chinese. 
 The desire for dress or adornment led to the origin of several 
 influence of the important arts. Skin-dressing began early, and even with rude 
 methods the Kaffirs in South Africa and the various tribes of 
 
 l prac- 
 tical arts. 
 
 desire for dress 
 in originating 
 
 certaYn'prac-" 18 North American Indians have produced some marvelously 
 soft and fine pieces. Beating of bark-cloth and making of felt 
 are simple, but interesting processes. Braiding or plaiting of 
 splints into mats is a very old art ; it is the same thing as 
 basketry. Some Australian women wear such mats. But it 
 passes, with cords made of bark or other fibrous vegetable 
 matter, into a rude sort of weaving, and the mantles of Phorm- 
 iuin in New Zealand and of cedar bark among the Tsimshians 
 are very soft and flexible. One step further on in the same 
 direction lies the art of spinning fibers into true threads and 
 that of weaving these into real cloth. There appears to be 
 reason to think metals were first attractive because of their 
 beauty and were first used in making ornaments. Metallurgy 
 with all its wonderful and important applications is the result 
 of vanity and desire for display. 
 
CHAPTER XV. 
 
 > Houses. 
 
 In many places nature has already made houses for man. 
 Thus, in South Africa the Bushmen live in holes and crevices 
 among the rocks. Caves and caverns have always been com- homes, 
 fortable houses. Long ago, in France, hundreds of these cav- 
 erns had been taken possession of, and to-day as the cave 
 earth and stalagmite covering their floors are dug up we may 
 see just how the old cave-dwellers lived. They were very 
 rude folk, using flint for tools and bone and horn for weapons. 
 
 They were artists, too, in a certain way, and had a passion for 
 
 C 3. v c*d wcllcrs 
 carving on the bone and ivory of the animals they killed repre- of France. 
 
 sentations of beasts of many kinds. Sometimes, at least, they 
 appear to have dressed in garments made of skins ; these per- 
 haps were sewed together with needles of bone threaded with 
 sinew. They daubed themselves with color, and fragments of 
 their old red and black pigments have been found. They 
 knew the use of fire and perhaps knew how to boil meat in 
 water heated with hot stones. They were fond of ornaments, 
 wearing necklaces composed of teeth carved with various de- 
 signs. They were hunters, using arrows, spears, harpoons, 
 the heads of which were made of bits of bone or antlers. We 
 can tell the kinds of animals they had for food ; fragments of 
 their bones are scattered through the caverns ; they were often 
 cut and notched by the stone knives when the meat was being 
 removed, and many of them were broken so that the man 
 might get the marrow they contained. Thus we have a picture 
 of the life of the old cavemen who passed away thousands of 
 
 149 
 
150 Some First Steps in Human Progress. 
 
 years ago. Much later on, men of the Neolithic period dug out 
 in the soft rock in the Marne Valley comfortable houses — 
 copies of natural caves. 
 
 There has been much discussion as to what became of the 
 cavemen of France. Some authors, among them Dawkins, 
 believe that they followed the retreating ice of the glacial 
 period and the reindeer whose herds followed it in its with- 
 drawal far to the north, and are to-day the Eskimo. It is true 
 that there are many things in the life of these little northern folk 
 to remind us of the ancient Stone Age man of France ; they live 
 generally by hunting, using bone and horn for tips of lances, 
 spears, harpoons ; they have a passion for carving bone or 
 ivory, and delight in representing animal forms in their 
 artistic efforts ; the patterns of their tools are frequently 
 strikingly like those of the cave-dwellers. Those who hold to 
 "all Phut" sucn a vlew see m tne curious gallery huts of the Eskimo re- 
 productions of the old cave houses. The Eskimo house is 
 built either of stone, of earth, or of blocks of ice and snow ; 
 in either case, it consists of a long, low gallery, through which 
 one crawls or walks with difficulty, opening into a larger room, 
 which is generally covered by a dome-shaped building. Such 
 a building does, in more than one respect, suggest a cave 
 house ; its form, however, is so well adapted to the conditions 
 of the land in which the Eskimo lives, that it may be questioned 
 whether, after all, it would not have been independently de- 
 veloped in such regions, by a race which never had inhabited 
 caves. 
 
 But nature is not always kind enough to furnish houses ready- 
 made and most men make houses, more or less serviceable. 
 They may be the rudest sort of shelters. Thus Tylor says : 
 " In the depths of Brazilian forests travelers have come upon 
 houses of the naked Puris which are not even huts, only sloping 
 screens made by setting up a row of huge palm leaves some 
 
Houses. 151 
 
 eight feet long, leaning against the cross pole Even 
 
 in these tropical forests what is generally met with is the real Rude huts and 
 
 shelters • 
 hut, though it may be such a rude one as the Botocudos make 
 
 with these same great palm leaves, sticking a number of them 
 with their stalks in the ground in a circle, and bringing their 
 points together so as to form a roof overhead. Patachos go to 
 work more artificially, bending together young growing trees 
 and poles stuck in the ground so that by binding their tops to- 
 gether they form a framework, which is then thatched over 
 with large leaves." These are samples of the rudest huts 
 which man constructs and such are found the world over. Of 
 all places, however, for studying construction of huts, Africa is 
 the very best. There one may see samples of everything that Africa, the land 
 can be thought of in the way of circular houses ; built of straw, 
 sticks, leaves, matting ; of one room or of many ; large or 
 small ; crude or wonderfully artistic and carefully made. They 
 may be permanent constructions to be occupied for years or 
 temporary shelters for a single night ; they may consist of 
 frameworks made of light poles over which are thrown mats 
 or sheets of various materials and which after using can be 
 taken apart, packed away, and transported. A settlement of 
 Hottentots consists of a circle of such light houses, easily 
 erected and as easily removed and transported, enclosing 
 a space in which the cattle are kept at night. 
 
 Dome-shaped houses, built over a light framework of poles, Indian huts and 
 are found also in North America ; the winter home of the Sacs tents - 
 and Foxes is such an one. Slender poles tied together with 
 cords or strips of bark are covered with sheets of rush 
 matting. In such a hut to gain warmth everything is crowded 
 into the smallest compass. Insufficient as such a home 
 appears for the wintry days of December and January in 
 Iowa, they are by no means a bad protection. One of the 
 most ingenious houses made by ruder peoples was the tent 
 
152 
 
 Some First Steps in Human Progress. 
 
 Huts of 
 Japanese " pit- 
 dwellers "; 
 
 Of the Ainu. 
 
 Wall 
 construction. 
 
 Swiss Lake- 
 Dwellers. 
 
 of our Plains Indians, in the good old days when herds 
 of buffalo abounded. The framework consisted of poles 
 which were set up into conical form and over which was 
 stretched a covering made by sewing hides together. A hole 
 above for the escape of smoke was guarded by a hood or flap 
 whose position could be changed as the wind varied. The skin 
 could be removed and the poles taken down and packed for 
 transportation by dogs or ponies in a very few minutes. Tents 
 of skin or felt, very different in form, however, from the Indian 
 type, are used among many of the nomad tribes of North 
 Asia. No doubt the ancestors of the Chinese used such. 
 Violet le Due thinks that in the curious projecting bamboo 
 sticks, which one sees along the edge of Chinese house roofs, 
 we have left in copy the projections of the edges of old tent 
 roofs to which cords were attached for stretching. 
 
 As Tylor says, the low, dome-shaped hut in its simplest, 
 rudest form leaves little space for people who enter to stand 
 erect. There are two ways by which it may be heightened — 
 excavation of the floor or raising of the roof. We find the for- 
 mer among that curious population at Shikotan observed by 
 Hitchcock. These people dig a pit of some depth which, at 
 top, they wall around and cover with a roof. In such houses, 
 Hitchcock thinks he finds survival from the time of the old pit- 
 dwellers, "earth spiders,'' referred to in old Japanese legends. 
 In Japan, also, we have an illustration of the other mode of in- 
 creasing the height of the low and simple hut. The Ainu 
 method of building a house is, first to build the roof and then 
 to raise it up on poles and put a wall below it. There are 
 many devices for rendering the walls close and tight ; thatch, 
 interlacing twigs, daubed mud, all play their part. 
 
 Many years ago, in Switzerland, there dwelt people who built 
 their towns over the surface of lakes, setting them on piles or 
 posts. They are called Lake-Dwellers. They lived during the 
 
Fig. 19.— Ceremonial Axe. Mangaia Islands. To show mode of hafting. 
 
Fig. 20. — War-Pick. Alaska. To show mode of hafting. 
 
Houses. 155 
 
 later Stone Age, through the Bronze Age, and into the early 
 Iron Age. Their villages were frequently of great extent ; as 
 many as one hundred thousand piles are said to mark the site 
 of one of them. The piles might be driven into the bottom of 
 the lake, or they might be steadied at the bottom by stones and 
 earth thrown down for packing. They bore platforms on 
 which were built the houses. These consisted of vertical 
 posts and poles which were filled in solidly with intertwining 
 twigs and little branches ; the whole was daubed thickly with 
 clay ; the roofs were thatched. There has been much argu- 
 ment regarding the outside form of these old houses — whether 
 they were circular or square — but the probability is that they 
 were usually rectangular. Lake-dwellings are not entirely a 
 thing of the past. In Venezuela and in New Guinea particularly 
 there are still towns built on posts over water. Nor are pile 
 houses confined entirely to lakes or seas ; there are districts in 
 the Malay region where houses are built on piles raised to a 
 considerable height above the dry land itself. In such cases, 
 security is gained against animals and other dangers. 
 
 Leaving huts, we come to houses proper, with walls built of 
 wood or stone or brick. Stone walls, no doubt, are very ancient 
 and have been built by many people in a. low stage of culture. 
 These walls may be built of stones selected so as to fit closely ; 
 they may consist of flat stones, which are easily laid up, one 
 upon another ; or they may be made of stone artificially shaped 
 so as to fit neatly. They may be laid up dry, or they may be 
 set in mud, or in some cement which hardens and adds strength 
 and firmness to the construction. In districts where stone is not 
 abundant, cement may form a very large proportion of the mass. 
 Thus we may have walls consisting mostly of mud or cement 
 in which bits of stone or gravel are mixed. The walls of a 
 house built long ago in Mexico, which we recently saw ex- 
 cavated, were composed of mud through which were scattered 
 
 Stone houses. 
 
156 
 
 Some First Steps in Human Progress. 
 
 Some Indian 
 houses. 
 
 The Iroquois 
 " long-house." 
 
 Mandan houses. 
 
 The Pueblos. 
 
 bits of lava, forming in some places only a small proportion of 
 the mass. In Egypt and parts of our own southwestern coun- 
 try, nature supplies — in certain fine-grained clays — the best ma- 
 terials for house construction. All through southwestern Col- 
 orado, New Mexico, Arizona, southern California, we find the 
 houses of the common people built of adobe. In a. district 
 with so dry a climate as these states possess walls composed of 
 sun-dried bricks last for years. 
 
 Morgan, in a work entitled "Houses and House-Life of 
 North American Indians," describes many homes of our native 
 tribes. The Iroquois long-house attracts his attention ; rec- 
 tangular, with vertical walls and pitched roof, it was several 
 times longer than broad. A doorway was at either end. The 
 house consisted of a framework of poles covered with great 
 sheets of bark. The house was occupied by many individuals, 
 all of one blood. Little groups of persons most closely related 
 to each other had each its proper portion of the house and its 
 own fireplace. The house was divided by partitions into as 
 many sections as there were such groups. The partitions did 
 not extend entirely across the house but simply marked out 
 little stalls. Among the Mandans, Morgan found great circular 
 houses. Here, too, many people lived within a single house 
 and the place of each group of near kin was fixed as in the 
 other case. In the Southwest — New Mexico, Arizona — we find 
 the Pueblo Indians living in great buildings, made of stone or 
 adobe. These buildings consist of many rooms arranged in 
 long lines or series. Looked at from behind they present a 
 wall rising to a height of two or three stories ; from the ends 
 they look like sections across a great flight of steps ; from in 
 front they present a terraced form. If a building has three 
 stories there are three lines of rooms below, one line before an- 
 other. On the second story there are two rows of rooms, and 
 the flat roof of the front rooms of the lower floor serve as a 
 
Houses. 
 
 157 
 
 platform to them ; on the third story is a single line of rooms 
 with the roof of the front rooms of the second story as their 
 platform. Access to the various stories from one another is 
 gained by ladders. In the olden times there were no doors or 
 windows in the lower floor ; one climbed ladders to the roof of 
 that story and descended by other ladders through trap door- 
 ways. In Pueblo buildings, also, we find great numbers of re- 
 lated persons living together ; little groups of nearest kin being communal 
 nearest neighbors. This communal living in the great houses house - Ilfe - 
 is one of the most marked features of barbaric life ; it generally 
 accompanies that social structure wherein woman-right pre- 
 vails. 
 One matter of considerable interest regarding the houses of 
 
 ,.,.,., , Each inmate's 
 
 savage and barbarous people is the fact that in them there is a place is fixed in 
 
 fit r it r- 1 /- such a house. 
 
 fixed place for each member of the family. Among some of 
 our Indian tribes, one cannot more effectually disgust and an- 
 tagonize the owners and occupants of a house than by walking 
 in carelessly and taking his seat anywhere and everywhere. 
 Every man, every woman, every child has its place for sitting, 
 standing, sleeping. A guest should wait to be asked to sit in 
 his appropriate place. Etiquette and ceremony begin very far 
 down in human life. 
 
 There is a notable tendency at the present time in all our 
 
 ..... ,, Summer and 
 
 greater cities to migration with the seasons. Most people who winter houses. 
 
 can afford it have both summer and winter homes. This is by 
 no means a sign of extremely high civilization. The Indians of 
 Kamtschatka have summer and winter houses almost adjoining 
 and of totally unlike construction, the one being almost sub- 
 terranean and the other nearly aerial. In summer the Sacs and 
 Foxes live in rectangular houses of considerable size covered 
 with bark ; with doorways at either end ; with high roof; with 
 platforms for sleeping on either side, running the full length of 
 the building and raised some distance above the ground. In 
 
158 
 
 Some First Steps in Human Progress. 
 
 The character 
 of the house is 
 dictated by 
 environment. 
 
 Examples of 
 the law of copy 
 in house- 
 building. 
 
 winter they live in the little matting-covered, dome-shaped, 
 crowded, one-door lodges, which we have already described. 
 
 There is no matter in the life of any people which is so plainly 
 and so markedly affected by natural surroundings as the home. 
 The houses of old Chaldea were built of wood and sticks 
 covered with mud ; those of Assyria were made of stone. The 
 former dwelt in a low and marshy, fertile country ; the latter in 
 a region where rocks abounded. Our southwestern country 
 yields but little timber but has abundant clay and sunny skies ; 
 adobe rules. In Greenland gallery houses are built of dirt and 
 stone, wood being scarce ; still further west the Central Eskimo 
 builds wonderful houses out of blocks of snow. Material, 
 form, character, all are determined by the conditions of the 
 country. 
 
 It would be interesting to trace the operation of the law of 
 copy among the houses of mankind. We have suggested 
 that the Eskimo hut with its long gallery approach may 
 be a copy of the ancient cave ; that the projecting ends of bam- 
 boo in the Chinese roof recall the old-time tent-strings and 
 their attachments ; it has been suggested that the pillars of the 
 temples of ancient Egypt — which have influenced the archi- 
 tecture of our world — were copies, in the land where stone 
 abounded, of the bunches of reeds and papyrus which had been 
 used for supports in houses built in other districts where 
 marshes were common and where stone was lacking. Any or 
 all of these claimed survivals may be fanciful, but any number 
 of true survivals may be found in studying carefully any single 
 type of house. 
 
CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 Boats, Carts, and Sledges. 
 
 It is sometimes helpful, for bringing clearly before one's self vaiueof tabu- 
 relationships and development, to tabulate objects of a certain lation * 
 kind. At various times our students have been asked to pre- 
 pare such tables. One of these (prepared by Mr. J. R. Gow) 
 we present herewith : 
 
 Dug-out, bow and stern, keel. 
 
 Bark canoe, with ribs. 
 
 Skin ranop J Round— Coracle, 
 bkin canoe, j Ka k> 
 
 [Thin boards over 
 Wooden canoe.-; ribs. 
 
 1^ Modern ship. 
 
 Many logs. 
 
 Bridge connecting outer logs. 
 Outrigger canoe. 
 Catamaran — Dover steamer. 
 
 Poling. 
 Hauling. 
 
 Log. 
 
 Raft. 
 
 Force 
 
 on 
 
 land 
 
 f Paddling with hands and feet. 
 Force Wooden paddle, single or double. 
 
 on < Oars, and oars with rudder, 
 water. Wheel at stern or at sides. 
 I Propeller, twinscrews. 
 
 f Stationary end on land. 
 \ Moving end on land. 
 
 Sails, or 
 force 
 from 
 wind. 
 
 f Exposing body or boughs. 
 Mat on one or two sticks. 
 Masts with sails. 
 Convex and many-shaped sails. 
 Full-rigged clipper, etc. 
 
 
 03 
 
 ' River. 
 
 
 
 
 Canal. 
 
 
 1-1 
 
 Inland 
 
 
 ■*-J 
 
 sea. 
 
 
 £ 
 
 Ocean. 
 
 
 1— , 
 
 
 o 
 
 
 V 
 
 Table of boats 
 
 <u 
 
 U 
 
 
 3 
 
 3 
 
 
 T3 
 
 rt 
 
 
 B 
 
 £ 
 
 
 u 
 
 
 
 •S 
 
 
 Travel. 
 
 'o 
 
 07 
 
 War. 
 
 05 
 
 OJ ' 
 
 Trade. 
 
 .2 
 
 3 
 
 Sport. 
 
 Oars. 
 Sails. 
 Steam. 
 
 ,, T , ., , , , . , , , , Development of 
 
 While such tables are convenient, we should guard against water craft. 
 
 the idea that they necessarily show the line of development. 
 
 At times they may ; but progress is not always steady and 
 
 along lines that we lay out ; the same result may be produced 
 
 159 
 
i6o 
 
 Some First Steps in Human Progress. 
 
 Rudest floats. 
 
 The dug-out 
 canoe. 
 
 Bark canoes. 
 
 The kayak. 
 
 by evolution along several different lines. The very simplest 
 form of boats is the float. This may consist of a single log rid 
 of its branches, or it may be some great branch with leafy 
 boughs still on it. Some peoples make use of the buoyant 
 power of bladders, inflated skins, or cocoanuts in getting across 
 a piece of water. The Californian ties together reeds into a 
 bundle and on it floats. In all such cases the first and simplest 
 means of propulsion would be by paddling with the hands and 
 feet. A man astride a log with hand and foot-power is the 
 simplest conception of a boat. 
 
 The man who in California tied his bunch of reeds together, 
 had already begun to make progress in shipbuilding ; so had 
 the one who found that pointed logs would make better head- 
 way than square-cut ones. The boat proper is only the old 
 log in lighter, better form. It is still in use as the simple dug- 
 out among many primitive tribes. Almost all Stone Age men 
 have at some time or other made rude boats by simply hollow- 
 ing out the upper side of a log. He usually invoked the aid of 
 fire ; first charring the place upon which he wished to work, he 
 then cut out the charred portion with his adzes and chisels of 
 stone or shell. Almost as primitive as the rude dug-out is the 
 canoe of bark, made by some Australians and by the Fuegians. 
 A great piece of bark is stripped from a tree, and simply tied 
 together at the ends, leaving an open space above. The 
 famous birch-bark canoe of the Algonkin Indians, consisting of 
 a light framework over which is stretched birch bark, neatly 
 sewed at seams and daubed with pitch to guard against leak- 
 ing, is a great improvement upon such crude devices. Very 
 similar to the bark canoe and quite as light are the skin-covered 
 canoes— the kayak, or baidarka, of the Eskimo. In all these 
 cases we have, really, a log made hollow, but constantly lighter 
 and more convenient. No one could for a moment think of 
 carrying a dug-out from one bit of water to another ; the In- 
 
Boats, Carts, and Sledges. 161 
 
 dians and the Eskimo have no difficulty whatever in carrying 
 their birch or skin canoes. It would be hard to find a boat 
 more serviceable than this same skin-covered kayak of the 
 Eskimo. Nansen describes the expertness which the Green- 
 lander shows in its use. He says : 
 
 "You cannot rank as an expert kayak-man until you have 
 mastered the art of righting yourself after capsizing. To do 
 this you seize one end of the paddle in your hand and with 
 the other hand grasp the shaft as near the middle as possible ; 
 then you place it along the side of the kayak with its free end 
 pointing forward toward the bow ; and thereupon pushing the 
 end of the paddle sharply out to the side, and bending your 
 body well forward toward the deck, you raise yourself by a 
 strong circular sweep of the paddle. If you do not come right 
 up, a second stroke may be necessary. A thorough kayak-man 
 can also right himself without an oar by help of his thro wing- 
 stick, or even without it, by means of one arm. The height 
 of accomplishment is reached when he does not even need to 
 use the flat of his hand but can clench it ; and to show that he 
 really does so, I have seen a man take a stone in his clenched 
 hand before capsizing and come up with it still in his grasp. 
 . . . . A kayak-man who has entirely mastered the art of 
 righting himself can defy almost any weather. If he is cap- 
 sized he is on even keel again in a moment and can play like a 
 seabird with the waves and cut right through them. If the sea 
 is very heavy, he lays the broad side of his kayak to it, holds 
 the paddle flat out on the windward side, pressing it against 
 the deck, bends forward, and lets the wave roll over him ; or 
 else he throws himself on his side toward it, resting on his flat 
 paddle, and rights himself again when it is passed. The 
 prettiest feat of seamanship I have ever heard of is that to 
 which some fishers, I am told, have recourse among over- 
 whelming rollers. As the sea curls down over them they vol- 
 
l62 
 
 Some First Steps in Human Progress. 
 
 The coracle of 
 the Mandans. 
 
 Framed boats 
 and ships. 
 
 untarily capsize, receive it on the bottom of the kayak, and 
 when it has passed right themselves again." 
 
 Very curious is the form of skin canoe called a "coracle." 
 In use among ancient tribes of Great Britain, it was found 
 among the Mandans of the Missouri district when Catlin visited 
 them. It is circular, flat-bottomed, of no great size. Catlin 
 says : "The old chief having learned that we were to cross 
 the river gave directions to one of the women of his numerous 
 household, who took upon her head the skin canoe (more fa- 
 miliarly called in this country the "bull boat"), made in the 
 form of a large tub, of a buffalo skin stretched on a frame of 
 willow boughs, which she carried to the water's edge, and, 
 placing it in the water, made signs for us three to get in. 
 When we were in and seated flat on its bottom, with scarce 
 room in any way to dispose of our legs and our feet (as we sat 
 necessarily facing each other), she stepped before the boat 
 and pulling it along waded toward the deeper water, with her 
 back toward us, carefully with her other hand attending to her 
 dress, which seemed to be but a light slip and floating upon the 
 surface, until the water was above her waist, when it was in- 
 stantly drawn off" over her head and thrown ashore ; and she 
 boldly plunged forward, swimming and drawing the boat with 
 one hand, which she did with apparent ease." 
 
 A framework covered with bark or skin presents a pattern 
 after which true framed boats might be produced ; instead of 
 sheets of bark or strips of skin one uses thin boards fitting 
 neatly together, producing a result more firm and permanent 
 though not as light. Such framed boats we use to-day as 
 pleasure boats, propelled by oars ; such boats excellently 
 made were used long, long ago by bold seamen in Scandi- 
 navia. Some have been dug out of ancient bogs near Flens- 
 burg, where they have lain since the very beginning of the 
 early Iron Age. Made larger, driven by wind, such boats be- 
 
Boats, Carts, and Sledges. 163 
 
 come sailboats ; still larger and with full rigging we have ships 
 
 and vessels ; still later the power of steam, regular, mighty, 
 
 completely in control, and ever ready when needed, supplants 
 
 the irregular and fitful wind. From floating log to ocean 
 
 steamer — such is the history of one development. 
 
 Instead of one log, several logs may be lashed together side 
 , . , . - The raft and its 
 
 by side ; this makes a raft. Trimming the ends of the logs so development. 
 
 as to make the whole raft pointed in front would be a step 
 forward. Rafts may be poled along ; they may be pushed by 
 means of paddles or broad oars ; they may bear sails, as 
 among the old Peruvians ; they may be buoyed with floats of 
 skins or pottery, bladders, or the like, as in Egypt. Of course 
 there are two purposes accomplished in building rafts. The 
 object may be simply to transport timber ; in such a case, of 
 course, the more logs that can be used in the construction of 
 the raft the better. The other purpose is to make a real means 
 of transportation ; in such a case the fewer the logs that come in 
 contact with the water, the better. If the outer two logs of a raft 
 alone are retained and held, separated but joined, by means of 
 a bridge or platform which does not come in contact with the 
 water, we have a marked improvement for means of navigation. 
 This passes naturally and readily into the well-known outrigger 
 canoe, or double canoe of the South Sea Islanders. The out- 
 rigger canoe consists of a canoe, driven by a sail, connected 
 to a single log parallel to itself and at some distance from it. 
 The double canoe consists of two canoes side by side and sep- 
 arated by some space, but connected. The catamaran is prac- 
 tically the same thing, and a Dover steamer is a catamaran 
 driven by steam. 
 
 Classifying boats as to their mode of propulsion we have, 
 
 Propulsion, 
 
 first, boats driven by a force upon the land ; such force may be 
 
 exerted as poling or hauling. The force may be applied to the 
 
 water, as, in the simplest of all cases, where a man astride the 
 
1 64 
 
 Some First Steps in Human Progress. 
 
 Form affected 
 by kind of 
 water, by pur- 
 pose, ana by 
 power. 
 
 Quality of 
 
 someprimitive 
 
 vessels. 
 
 Geographers 
 among ruder 
 peoples. 
 
 log paddles with his hands and feet ; it may be applied by- 
 wooden paddles with one or two blades ; it may be by means 
 of oars held permanently at a middle point, or by oars and 
 rudder ; it may be by wheels at stern or sides ; it may be by 
 means of a propeller screw, single or twin. Again, the force 
 may strike upon a sail or other objects raised above the vessel. 
 The simplest form of wind-power applied to any craft is gained 
 when a leafy bough is raised or when the body or the clothing 
 is exposed ; a very simple sail consists of a mat held by one 
 or two sticks ; masts with true sails come next ; from thence 
 we pass to booms and full riggings. 
 
 The form of boat is modified also by the nature of the water 
 in which it is floated ; boats vary with reference to whether 
 they are for use in rivers, canals, lakes, or open seas. The use 
 to which the craft is to be applied also affects its shape ; boats 
 for travel, war, trading, and sport will naturally differ. So, too, 
 the mode of propulsion affects the form ; rowboats, sailboats, 
 steamboats, differ. 
 
 The boats made by primitive folk are by no means to be de- 
 spised. We have already mentioned a vessel of the early Iron 
 Age from Scandinavia. It must have been truly seaworthy. 
 Single log dug-outs of our Northwest coast are excellent and 
 are capable of carrying war parties of from fifty to sixty men. 
 Some of the great canoes of Polynesia, made of well-finished 
 boards sewed together with cords and daubed with pitch and 
 other gums, carried great parties and were certainly serviceable 
 for extensive journeys by water. In De Quatrafages' " Poly- 
 nesians and Their Migrations," we may see how these popula- 
 tions have journeyed from island to island over an area more 
 extensive than that of the whole continent of Asia. 
 
 It is true that among many of the lower races of mankind 
 men may live and die without ever having been more than a 
 few miles from the place where they were born ; it is also true 
 
Fig. 2i. — Loom and Implements used in Making Belts, with Unfinished Work 
 South Sea Islands. 
 
 165 
 
Fig. 22.— Ancient Peruvian Woman's Work-Basket. 
 
Boats, Carts, and Sledges. 167 
 
 that among many populations we find a passion for travel and 
 roving. The Eskimo are good geographers and have been 
 known to sketch maps outlining a jagged sea-coast for a dis- 
 tance of a thousand miles or more with great accuracy. Some 
 of the South Sea Islanders made ingenious sailing charts by 
 taking thin splints or narrow strips of wood and fastening them 
 together by means of cords or otherwise, putting shells at the 
 crossings. The shells indicate the position of islands, while the 
 splints in length and position show relatively the direction of 
 one island from another and their distances apart. 
 
 It would be equally interesting to trace the development of , . . 
 
 Modes of land 
 land travel ; to notice what beasts have been used as carriers or travel. 
 
 draggers. Men, reindeer, llamas, camels, horses, elephants, all 
 have been brought into use. A table might be prepared show- 
 ing the development of carts and wagons and the transition of 
 these into better and better vehicles up to the most magnificent 
 of railroad coaches. We have not time or space for such dis- 
 cussion, but we must at least refer to the marvelous, though 
 well known, use of dogs by Eskimo. Boas has fully described 
 the sledges of the Central Eskimo. He says that the best 
 model of sledge is made by the tribes of the Hudson Bay and dogsledge° 
 Davis Strait, where there is abundant driftwood for the long 
 runners. The runners are from five to fifteen feet in length, 
 and from twenty inches to two feet six inches apart ; they are 
 connected by cords, bars of wood, or bone. The bottom of the 
 runner is curved at front and cut off square behind ; the run- 
 ners are shod with whalebone, ivory, or the jawbone of the 
 whale. In long sledges the shoeing is broadest near the head 
 and narrowest behind, an arrangement adapted to use in soft 
 snow. The shoe is either tied or riveted to the runner. The 
 cross pieces at the top of the sledge project on either side and 
 are notched for lashing loads. When the load has been placed 
 upon the top of the sledge it is firmly fastened by means of a 
 
1 68 Some First Steps in Human Progress. 
 
 long cord which is passed back and over tightly above it. The 
 dogs' traces are fastened to the sledge by a very stout thong. 
 The harness, which is made of sealskin or bearskin, consists of 
 two bights passing under the fore legs. They are tied by two 
 straps, one passing over the neck and the other over the breast. 
 The ends are tied together on the back, whence the trace runs 
 to the sledge. The dogs are arranged in position with care, 
 the strongest and most spirited being placed first, with the 
 longest trace, which allows him to run a few feet ahead of the 
 rest ; next follow two or three strong dogs with traces of equal 
 lengths ; and lastly come the weaker and less manageable ones. 
 The dogs must be accustomed to each other in order to pull 
 well, and must know their leader. His authority is unlimited ; 
 he eats the choicest food ; punishes the quarrelers in the pack 
 by biting both, etc. There are variations in the making of 
 these sledges ; in Boothia frozen salmon are pressed into proper 
 form for use as runners, and after being thus employed during 
 the winter maybe eaten in the spring. For the best results the 
 shoe of the runner should be ice-coated. If the shoes are of 
 good bone, ivory, or whalebone, the icing is done by the driver 
 taking a mouthful of water and letting it run down the shoe 
 until a layer one third of an inch thick is prepared ; this is care- 
 fully smoothed with a snow-knife and polished with a mitten. 
 Skin runners and others with poor shoes are first covered with 
 a mixture of moss and water or clay and water ; when frozen 
 this is iced as above. 
 
CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 Gesture and Speech. 
 
 One of the truly marvelous achievements of mankind has 
 been the gaining expression for his thoughts. He solves the How man has 
 problem in various ways ; he expresses thought by means of ^ f^ s to 
 grimace, gesture, speech, and writing. In this chapter we thou s ht - 
 shall consider the matter of gesture language. 
 
 It has been claimed by many writers that tribes exist among 
 whom it is impossible to convey thought from man to man after 
 dark. The statement has frequently been contradicted, and it i mportance of 
 may not be true ; but if there are such tribes, just what does it s esture - 
 mean ? Simply this, that gesture and the play of the expres- 
 sion upon the face is so full of meaning and so forceful that they 
 greatly help in the conveyance of thought. Whether there are 
 tribes whose members cannot talk together understandingly in 
 the dark or not, it is certain that there are many tribes among 
 whom gesture helps the spoken word exceedingly. Let us 
 look for a little at this matter of gesture language. There have 
 been a number of careful studies of the subject. Tylor de- 
 votes a most interesting portion of his " Early History of Man- 
 kind" to the subject; Colonel Mallory studied gesture lan- 
 guage profoundly, and was particularly interested in the gesture 
 language of our Indian tribes ; Clark wrote a work of some 
 value upon "Sign Language Among the Indians." 
 The Anglo-Saxon prides himself upon his self-constraint ; he 
 
 does not wish to carry his heart upon his sleeve ; he desires Where is 
 
 r natural gesture 
 
 that his neighbor shall never know his inmost thought ; from conspicuous ? 
 childhood he is carefully trained to say words with double mean- 
 ing, and to be careful that his face does not betray his treach- 
 
 169 
 
170 
 
 Some First Steps in Human Progress. 
 
 Where study 
 gesture 
 language ? 
 
 Natural 
 gestures are 
 universally 
 understood. 
 
 ery. It is not in such a race or among such a people that we may 
 hope to find much material for a study of natural gesture. It 
 is among peoples who, like the French or Italians, speak in their 
 every movement and whose faces show the thoughts that flit 
 through their minds ; it is among children, who have been un- 
 trained in duplicity ; it is among the lower races — the true 
 children of nature — that we must look for the best illustrations 
 of our subject. Mantegazza could never have written his 
 "Physiognomy and Expression" among the English; but in 
 Italy, where the blood flows warm, and life is lived and not sup- 
 pressed, where people breathe and laugh and act out their 
 thoughts and express their emotions — there such a book could 
 be produced. 
 
 If we would study gesture language, pure and simple, at its 
 best, we should visit a deaf-mute institution, or should travel 
 among some lower barbarous people, or should attend the best 
 of theaters. Every good actor must use gestures, and all his 
 gestures must be those that are naturally expressive — not the 
 stiff and awkward movements of the preacher in the pulpit. 
 True gestures speak the same the world over, so that a native 
 of Hawaii was taken to an American deaf-mute institution and 
 began at once to talk in signs with the children, telling about 
 the country he came from and about his voyage ; that a China- 
 man who had fallen into a state of melancholy from long want 
 of society was quite revived by being taken to some place 
 where he could talk in gestures to his heart's content ; that a 
 deaf and dumb boy named Collins was taken to see a " Lap- 
 land Village " on exhibition in London and that he thus wrote 
 to his fellow-pupils: "Mr. Joseph Humphreys told me to 
 speak to her by signs, and she understood me. When Cun- 
 ningham was with me we asked Lapland woman and she 
 frowned at me and him — she did not know that we were deaf 
 and dumb, but afterwards she knew that we were deaf and 
 
Gesture and Speech. 171 
 
 dumb, then she spoke to us about the reindeer and elks and 
 smiled at us much." We have been told that when the dele- 
 gates of Indians from strange tribes are sent to Washington, 
 and no interpreter is by to translate their remarks, the students 
 from the deaf-mute college are called in. They readily converse 
 with these Indians of unknown language by means of gesture. 
 Natural gestures are of two kinds ; they either point out an 
 
 object thought of or they picture it in the air. It may not be 
 
 Kinds of 
 lost time to give a few samples of sign language. On a certain gestures. 
 
 occasion, when visiting the Sacs and Foxes, we met one of the s , , 
 old priests dragging n great string of ducks and chickens. natural 
 Stopping him we pointed inquiringly to the poultry. Holding 
 his hands before him, with the palms facing, he slowly moved 
 his hands up and down, the movement being confined to the 
 wrists. We knew as plainly as if he had said the words that 
 there would be a dance. At once taking out our watch we 
 opened it and held it before him ; the old man knew our mean- 
 ing, but he had no use for the white man's watch. Turning till 
 he faced the south, he pointed with his right hand toward the 
 eastern horizon, and then slowly raising his hand, stopped it 
 when it had reached an angle of forty-five degrees. The sky is 
 the Indian's dial-plate, the sun is the hand that marks the 
 hours, and we knew that nine o'clock the next morning was 
 the time for the dance to begin. 
 
 Among the cases of gesture language described and figured 
 by Mallory is a little story which he calls " Lean Wolf's Com- 
 plaint." Lean Wolf was one of a delegation sent from a west- 
 ern tribe to Washington on business. Mallory was anxious to 
 secure specimens of gesture language ; the old chief was asked 
 to give a sample. The story consists of but six gestures. The 
 first— the right fist closed, with thumb extended, is lifted to the 
 forehead and the thumb is drawn across it along a horizontal 
 line ; second— the two hands, held before the body at a distance 
 
172 Some First Steps in Human Progress. 
 
 of about eighteen inches with the palms toward the chest, are 
 slowly drawn horizontally toward the body ; third — the right 
 hand is extended before the body, open at about the level of 
 the waist as if in greeting ; fourth — the right hand is held ver- 
 tically before the face at some distance, with the palm toward 
 the face, the thumb bent inward, and the four upright fingers 
 slightly separated ; fifth — the right hand, folded except the first 
 and second fingers, which are at first held parallel and together, 
 is lifted to the lips ; it is then swung outward from the lips and 
 at the same time the two fingers are slightly separated ; sixth — 
 both hands are held at the same time a little before the chest, 
 the fists clenched ; they are then swung downward and out- 
 ward and with some force until the arms hang at the sides. 
 Such was the story of Lean Wolf. What was its meaning? 
 The first four signs make a single sentence. White men wear 
 hats ; these come down along a horizontal line over the fore- 
 head ; the first sign is used by all Indian tribes, meaning the 
 white man. The second sign means "with us." The third 
 indicates the shaking of hands, the making- of peace, the 
 swearing of friendship. Their naturalness will be easily seen. 
 The fourth sign indicates time ; it is the only one of the series 
 which could be misunderstood ; it, of course, means "four," but 
 whether it is days, or weeks, or months, or years, might be 
 in doubt ; as a matter of fact, it means in this case four years. 
 In other words, Lean Wolf says : "The white man made a 
 treaty of peace with us four years ago." The fifth sign is a 
 sentence in itself ; brief, expressive, perfectly natural ; it means, 
 "He lied." It is very plain ; it means he was two-tongued — 
 that he said one thing and he meant another thing. It is a 
 quality of the white man with which the Indian is quite famil- 
 iar. The sixth gesture is also a complete sentence ; it means, 
 " I am done " ; it means, "That is all — I have nothing more to 
 say ; we have had enough of the white man." 
 
Gesture and Speech. 173 
 
 We have said that the theater was a good place to study ges- 
 ture language ; this is indeed true. Every real actor uses natural 
 gestures. There was a time when pantomimes were more in 
 vogue than now ; they, of course, gave particularly good op- 
 portunity for gesture study. The theaters of lower races some- 
 times give us good examples. At the Chinese theaters we 
 have seen the following bit of gesture : One player comes 
 upon the stage swelling with importance ; holding his right 
 hand before him closed, but with the thumb held upward, he 
 slightly waves it from side to side as he walks across the stage. 
 (We scarcely needed that our Chinese friend sitting by our side 
 should whisper, "See, he says, ' I am a great man.' ") Just as 
 the actor has walked once up and back across the stage a second 
 actor comes upon the scene opposite to him ; his manner is 
 quite indescribable ; half crouching forward, with a leer upon 
 his face, he too raises his right hand before him, holding the little 
 finger in the air and shaking it somewhat vigorously toward 
 and at the great man, who is approaching him. Its meaning 
 needs no translation for it says as plainly as words could say, 
 "Oh, no, you are not a great man — you are little, insig- 
 nificant." 
 
 Tylor, in his valuable discussion upon gesture language, calls 
 attention to the conventionalizing of natural signs, and to ges- 
 ture syntax. The sign which at first was perfectly natural and 
 self-evident may become in time conventionalized to that de- 
 gree that its origin is quite lost from sight. We have already 
 spoken of the Indian sign for white man ; it is somewhat con- 
 ventionalized. The sign for dog among the Plains tribe is to 
 draw the first two fingers of the hand along the ground ; at 
 present this would have but little meaning ; but when we re- 
 member that formerly the dog was a beast of burden and that 
 he carried his load upon two poles, which, harnessed upon him, 
 dragged along upon the ground behind him, its meaning be- 
 
 Gesture syntax. 
 
174 Some First Steps in Human Progress. 
 
 comes simple. The gesture language has a well-defined syntax 
 which has been best studied among deaf-mutes. The deaf-mute 
 strings together his words in an order quite unlike that in which 
 we place them in our speech. He does not say " a black 
 horse, ' ' but ' ' horse black, ' ' not, ' ' I am hungry give me bread, ' ' 
 but, " Hungry me, bread give." Schmalz says, "What seems 
 to him the most important he always states before the rest, 
 what seems superfluous he leaves out." " My father gave me 
 an apple," becomes, "Apple, father, I." The subject comes 
 before the attribute ; the object before the action ; the modi- 
 fier after the modified. He says for "I knitted," " Knitted I." 
 To form a question he makes an assertion and then a look of 
 inquiry. For " who " and " what " he looks about and points 
 around in an inquiring manner, in fact makes a number of un- 
 successful attempts to say "who," "what." "What is the 
 matter with you?" would be, "You crying, you been beaten, 
 you been hit?" and so on. "What did you have for dinner 
 yesterday ? ' ' would be, "Did you ha ve soup ? " "Did you have 
 porridge?" and so through the list. A conjunctive sentence he 
 expresses by the alternative or contrast ; "I should be punished 
 if I were lazy and naughty," would be, "Lazy, naughty, no; 
 lazy, naughty, I punished, yes." As an example of cause and 
 effect ; to make the statement a man died of drink he would say, 
 ' ' Died drink, drink, drink. " If he were asked, ' ' Did he die to- 
 day?" he would put the case beyond doubt by saying, "Yes, 
 he drink, drink, and drink." "To make" is too abstract an 
 idea for a deaf-mute. To show that a tailor makes a coat or a 
 carpenter makes a table he would represent the tailor sewing 
 the coat and the carpenter sawing the table. To say "Rain 
 makes the land fruitful," would be, "Rain falls, plants grow." 
 These examples and quotations must suffice. In the works 
 referred to very much material of interest will be found.* 
 
 * See Appendix. 
 
Onomatopes. 
 
 CHAPTER XVIII. 
 
 Gesture and Speech {Continued). 
 We have seen how naturally gesture and grimace express 
 
 Man's first 
 
 thought. We may be sure, however, that man from the earliest speaking, 
 time also made use of sounds for expression. It would be 
 very interesting to know what the first language spoken by the 
 human race was like ; it is in some degree possible to guess at 
 it and to reconstruct it. 
 
 It seems to be a natural thing for man to imitate the sounds imitation of 
 he hears about him. Thus we frequently find that animals or 
 birds have been named by savage and barbarous people after 
 the noise which they produce. Thus, on one occasion, when 
 securing words among the Sacs and Foxes, the author was 
 talking with old Sam Bear at his wikiup on the bluff; the old 
 man had been giving word after word in his language ; finally 
 he said, 
 
 ' ' You know all the different kinds of birds ?' ' 
 
 " No, Sam, wickano is bird, but the different kinds of birds I 
 not know." 
 
 "White man, one kind of bird kaw kaw. You know that 
 kind?" 
 
 " Oh, yes, I know that kind of bird ; big black bird, isn't it?" 
 
 " Yes, big black bird— what kind white man call him ?" 
 
 "Crow." 
 
 "Yes, white man call him clow, Indian man call him kaw 
 kaw.'' 
 
 The old man then went on to speak of the pono-ponu who 
 went all night— making the noise. This is very common. 
 Many of the Indian tribes on this continent, and almost all wild 
 
 175 
 
I 7 6 
 
 Some First Steps in Human Progress. 
 
 Children 
 imitate natural 
 sounds. 
 
 Such words, 
 once adopted, 
 change. 
 
 peoples everywhere, name birds and beasts from their cries. 
 In the same way, objects made by man which when in use 
 produce a noise are likely to be named from the noise they 
 give forth. Thus among these same Indians a very common 
 word is shishikzvun. It means a rattle and consists of two 
 parts. The termination kwun is used to indicate an instru- 
 ment used for some definite purpose. The shishikwun then 
 would be an instrument which goes ' ' shi shi ' ' ; the noise is 
 very like that produced by the rattle, which consists of a hollow 
 gourd containing dry seeds or pebbles. 
 
 We all know that children are prone to speak in such words. 
 They speak of ' ' bow-wows ' ' and ' ' miaus ' ' quite naturally. It is 
 true that this practice on the part of the child is much encouraged 
 by the mother or nurse, but it is also frequently original with 
 the little one. Words which have been produced by repeating 
 or imitating natural noises have been called onomatopes. We 
 shall call them imitative words. 
 
 After the imitative word has once been made, it is very easy 
 for it to be adopted into the language and every-day life and 
 changed or applied to new uses. Thus Tylor tells us that the 
 word "toucan," which is the name of a bird, was first given to 
 the bird on account of its cry ; but the toucan has an extremely 
 large beak, and a certain tribe of Indians in South America 
 which are characterized by their large noses have been named 
 the Tucanos.* We see here the imitative word taken over into 
 language and turned to a new use. In the same way, the old 
 sound word "pipa," or peep, which was the name of a musical 
 instrument, a tube which cried "peep" when blown upon, has 
 been taken up into language and applied to all hollow tubes or 
 pipes. The word which begins as an imitative sound word 
 may become so changed and altered in its form that its origin 
 
 * It is interesting to note that thieves' slang shows the same metaphor in 
 thought here— in it the nose is " the beak." 
 
Gesture and Speech. 177 
 
 is completely lost from sight. There is also a constant tendency 
 to change words to make them agree with sounds. " It is very 
 curious that we should find the same tendency both at the be- 
 ginning and at the end of the history of word-making." 
 
 It is probable that there were many imitative sound words in 
 the first language of mankind ; there were also many inter- j^terjections° r 
 jections and exclamations. Animals express their emotions 
 by means of cries, and man must surely have done the same. 
 The interjection, or exclamation expressive of emotion, is the 
 natural accompaniment of grimace and gesture. Of the Green- 
 landers Crantz says : ' ' The women, particularly, accompany 
 many words with meaning glances, and he who does not well 
 comprehend this may easily miss the sense. Thus, when they 
 confirm anything with pleasure they suck down air through the 
 throat with a certain sound, and when they deny anything with 
 horror or contempt they turn the nose and give a slight noise 
 through it.'' Tylor speaks of certain cries which he calls 
 " voice gestures, " thus, "m-m-m-m " evidently means incapable 
 of speech, and it occurs both in the "mu mu " of the West 
 Africans and in our own word " mum." The gesture sound of 
 blowing is frequently used to indicate contempt and disgust, as 
 "pah," "bah," "pooh"; this is self-expressive. The gesture 
 sound of spitting, "tut-tut," has given rise in English and in 
 Dutch to "tut" and in Tahitian to the verb "tutua." These 
 words so crude and simple — mere outcries, expressing glad or 
 sad feelings, or conditions — must have formed a considerable 
 part of the primitive language of man. They are more fre- 
 quent and more expressive in languages of lower peoples 
 than in our own ; in the Chinese there are many, and in the 
 languages of barbarous and savage peoples there is a still 
 larger proportion. Such cry words may be taken up into 
 language, combined with other words or changed in such a 
 way as to become truly unrecognizable. 
 
178 
 
 Some First Steps in Human Progress. 
 
 Few in any 
 language. 
 
 What is a root ? 
 
 But if we look at the poorest language we can find we shall 
 Most words are not discover that it is composed entirely, or even in large part, 
 
 built up on - , _ , 
 
 roots. of these two elements. What we really find in any language is 
 
 that the bulk of the words are neither onomatopes nor cries, but 
 words built up on what the linguist calls roots. These are 
 definite. Take such a language as the Sanskrit, Hebrew, or 
 Chinese with their many thousands of words, set aside the few 
 natural words, and the rest are all traceable to a few hundred 
 simple sounds called roots, which by treatment of one kind or 
 another are able to give rise to these hosts. Max Miiller says 
 there are less than 2,000 in Sanskrit (1706), only 500 m Hebrew, 
 and still fewer in Chinese (450). Yet this last boasts 40,000 to 
 50,000 words. Whitney says : 
 
 "The analogue of the root is the stick or the stone, indubi- 
 tably man's first instrument ; a crude tool or weapon, used for 
 a variety of purposes to which we now adapt a corresponding 
 variety of much more intricate and shapely tools. . . In each 
 root at the outset was present a whole assertion, or inquiry, 
 or command, to which the tone and accompanying gesture, 
 or the mere circumstances of its utterance furnished the suf- 
 ficient interpretation ; just as in the stick or stone was present, 
 and may on an emergency be made present still, a variety of in- 
 struments or weapons." 
 
 Examples from our own family of languages are most easily 
 comprehended by us, and among the roots of our old Aryan 
 ancestors the following having been fruitful : gna — knowing, 
 sad— sitting, ga — going, i — going, ma — measuring, da — giving, 
 vid— seeing, rag — ruling, war— dying. These were originally 
 neither noun, nor verb, nor adjective, but all at once. We 
 cannot better show their use than by quoting Whitney's illus- 
 tration : 
 
 ' ' ' Bow-wow ' is a type of the whole genus ' root. ' It is a sign, 
 a hint that calls before the properly prepared mind a certain 
 
 Examples. 
 
 The character 
 of roots. 
 
Gesture and Speech. 179 
 
 conception or set of related conceptions ; the animal itself, the 
 act, the time, and other circumstances of hearing it and what fol- 
 lowed. It does not mean any one of these exclusively. It com- 
 prehends them all. It is not a verb, for that adds the idea of 
 predication ; nor is it a name. It may be used as both. What 
 it comes nearest to meaning in itself is ' the action of barking ' 
 —just that form of abstraction into which we now most properly 
 and naturally cast the sense of ' a root.' " 
 Whence came these roots ? Were they a gift to man ? Or 
 
 The origin of 
 
 was there that in his nature which led to a spontaneous selec- roots. 
 tion of these as sounds fitted to express a certain idea ? Or 
 were they derived from older sound words, from interjections, 
 and from the meaningless babble of children and the speech 
 experiments of grown men ? We must answer that we do not 
 know — we may never know. If we may occasionally seem to 
 find the origin of a "root," it is suggestive that the latter is the 
 true hypothesis. Could we find many such origins we might 
 develop a demonstration. 
 
 Sir John Lubbock has conducted an investigation upon the sir j ohn Lub . 
 words for "father" and "mother" throughout the world, bock's investi- 
 Several interesting facts are shown by his tables, viz. : that the 
 words for father and mother are the easiest sounds which a 
 child can make ; that the roots "pa" and "ma" are interchange- 
 able and applied outside of these relationships — from which he 
 concludes that the words are natural baby words, and that the 
 Sanskrit root "pa," to protect, comes from /a=father and not 
 vice versa", as generally supposed by philologists. ^Tthe case is 
 made out — and we find a "root" of such importance to be a 
 derivative from a baby word, or natural sound — other "roots " 
 may have originated as naturally. 
 
 Such, at all events, was the beginning of language— imitatives, 
 cries, and roots, with the aid of gesture and grimace. 
 
CHAPTER XIX. 
 
 Gesture and Speech {Continued). 
 
 Devices for 
 increasing 
 range and 
 power of 
 languages. 
 
 The tool is made ; it remains to increase its efficiency. The 
 problem may be thus stated : Given a few words, onomatopes, 
 interjections, and roots of vague application and uncertain use, 
 to make from them a language of broader range and capable 
 of expressing the most delicate shades of meaning. The prob- 
 lem has been worked out by different people in many different 
 ways ; we refer to but a few. 
 
 (a) Intonation. The nations of Southeastern Asia by a 
 change of tone give to the same sound a different meaning. 
 Thus, Tylor cites from the Siamese : 
 
 ha = to seek. 
 
 ha. = pestilence. 
 
 ha = fine. 
 Among the Chinese this intonation is most complicated. At 
 Canton there are eight tones for words. These are arranged 
 in an upper and lower series of four each. At Peking there 
 are four, at Nanking five, and at Swatow seven. The four 
 tones are called "ping," "shang," "kiis," and "jih " — or, the 
 even, the ascending, departing, and entering tone. Each has 
 its appropriate use. Approximate ideas of each may be 
 gained by the following examples of "shing" : 
 
 (i) "When I asked him, ' Will you let me see it?' (a) he 
 said : ' No, I'll do no such thing' " (b). a, upper ; b, lower, 
 even tone. 
 
 (2) "Ah! indeed 7" the ascending tone. Like crescendo in 
 music. 
 
 (3) Drawling tone of repressed discontent, grumbling, and 
 
 180 
 
Gesture and Speech. 181 
 
 eking out a reply is not unlike the departing tone. Somewhat 
 like diminuendo. 
 
 (4) Entering tone — and abrupt ending, in same modulation 
 as even tone, but as if broken off; as if a man about to say 
 "lock " is taken with a hiccough in the middle so as to leave 
 off the last one or two letters. 
 
 The example is quoted from Williams' "Middle Kingdom." 
 Of course intonation presents great difficulty to missionaries 
 and almost hopeless obstacles to adapting Chinese or Siamese 
 words to our tunes. Williams illustrates the confusion wrong 
 intonation may cause by advising the reading of the following 
 sentence, accenting it as marked : " The present of that object 
 occasioned such a transp6rt as to abstract my mind from all 
 around." 
 
 (b) Change in root vowel. We ourselves use this. Thus change in root 
 we change the tense of verbs and out of "meet" make vowe '- 
 
 " met " ; we produce plurals in the same way and from " man " 
 get "men." The method is one of wide use. Some African 
 tribes, as the Mpongwe, make negatives thus : the expression 
 mitonda means, "I love," but the expression mitonda means, 
 "I do not love." 
 
 (c) Reduplication is a device much used and in various Redu pii cation 
 ways. It is very common to make plurals by reduplicating a 
 
 part of the word or the whole word. Thus, in the East Indies 
 raya is "a prince," raya raya is "princes," orang is "a 
 man," orang orang is "men" or "people." Some of the 
 tribes of our Northwest coast, such for example as the Tsim- 
 shians, make plurals by reduplication. Every one remembers 
 that the Greeks used this device for making the aorist of 
 verbs. A famous German linguist, Pott, has written an entire 
 treatise on the subject of reduplication in language. 
 
 (d) By far the most simple and common method of in- Combinin ld 
 creasing the range of a language has been by adding old words words. 
 
1 82 Some First Steps in Human Progress. 
 
 together in order to make new words— the device may be 
 called compounding. It is not necessary to give a long list of 
 examples ; they may be found in every language. It is inter- 
 esting to study Indian languages in order to see the way in 
 which words have been coined to name the objects and actions 
 brought in by the white man. Of course, however, it is not 
 only recent words which show the device in question. Thus, 
 Makineofnew m tne language of the Sacs and Foxes, the word kicus means 
 itad r ians am0nS "sun," the word tepek means "night," and the word tepekicus 
 means the " night sun" or the "moon." Among the same 
 people the word conia is "silver" ; the important part of the 
 word "yellow" is sd and the word sd-conia means "gold" — 
 "yellow silver." Dr. Edgerton Young tells us that among the 
 Northern Crees there are new words for our words "book," 
 "letter," and "envelope." Apparently the book was first 
 named ; at all events, the word for letter means "little book " ; 
 the word for envelope is a combination which means literally 
 " little book shirt." In other words, it is something drawn on 
 over and covering the little book. 
 
 It is not our object to trace further the course of linguistic 
 growth, development of parts of speech, inflection, and 
 grammar. Interesting as such a study would be, we must 
 leave it to the professional linguist. What we have endeavored 
 to show is that language has been an invention and a develop- 
 ment ; that man's thoughts were originally communicated by 
 gesture and grimace and by imitative and ejaculatory words ; 
 that from these small beginnings, by such devices as intona- 
 tion, word coloration, doubling, and combining, he had in- 
 creased his store until, dropping the aid of gesture and 
 grimace, he can express clearly, fully, and easily every thought 
 and desire. 
 
Fig. 23. — Beater and Stamps used in Making Tapa. 
 
 183 
 
Fig. 24.— Garment of Tapa. South Sea Islands. 
 
 1 84 
 
CHAPTER XX. 
 
 Gesture and Speech ; Ethnic Peculiarities. 
 
 One of the most interesting things in the study of language 
 is the marked way in which peculiarities and differences in the 
 mental character of tribes are shown. The languages which ences are 
 we meet with to-day have grown up independently. Popula- language, 
 tions severed from others, who had spoken the same tongue in 
 the beginning, have changed and varied the language which 
 they used in common, until it has assumed new and peculiar 
 characteristics. These ethnic peculiarities show themselves in 
 many different ways. We shall cite a few of these ways as ex- 
 amples. 
 
 {a) Certain tribes dislike or are unable to pronounce certain 
 sounds. A very old illustration of this is found in the Bible ; 
 it will be remembered that on one occasion the Hebrews tested 
 those whom they feared with the word "shibboleth " ; the fact 
 that these were unable to say more than "sibboleth " betrayed 
 them. If we look over the languages of the whole world we 
 find perhaps some three or four hundred simple sounds. Any 
 one people uses only a small part of these ; we ourselves have 
 less than fifty. Some of the sounds which we have and which 
 seem to us perfectly natural are not to be found in some other 
 languages and cannot be pronounced by some peoples. For 
 instance, it would be very hard to find a German who could 
 pronounce the word "Thistlethwaite." When at school we 
 learned that /, n, and r were letters of the same kind. We 
 found it hard to believe and could see no similarity among 
 them ; but to-day we are perfectly convinced of their likeness. 
 When visiting the Sacs and Foxes we were frequently asked 
 
 ■85 
 
 Differences in 
 phonology ; 
 
1 86 
 
 Some First Steps in Human Progress. 
 
 In accent ; 
 
 In character of 
 roots ; 
 
 whether we had come that day from " Cedal Lapids," or from 
 " Cedan Napids," but never whether we had come from Cedar 
 Rapids ; among these people the / and n are absolutely inter- 
 changeable and the r does not occur. A man among them 
 would ask for a loan of ' ' half a donnal, " or " half a dollan, ' ' but 
 he could not have said "half a dollar" if the loan had de- 
 pended upon his doing so. Still more remarkable was the fact 
 that much of the time, when writing down words from their 
 pronunciation, it was impossible to say whether they used an / 
 or an n. In some languages we find such strange sounds as 
 the clicks of the Hottentots, the hiatus of some Northwest coast 
 tribes, and the curious " tl " in combination as an initial or final. 
 The latter is common among the Tlingits of Alaska and the 
 Aztecs of Mexico. We have ourselves borrowed some words 
 from the Aztec language in which the "tl " occurred ; for ex- 
 ample "chocolotl" and "tomatl"; the fact that we have 
 changed these into "chocolate" and "tomato '' shows how 
 unnatural the combination appears to us. 
 
 Whitney, who has discussed this matter of ethnic peculiar- 
 ities in languages, calls attention to the second one, (6) peculi- 
 arity in accent of words ; thus the Greek word £-><tz,oxo<; 
 figures, in modified forms, in English, French, Portuguese, 
 Danish. It is plain on comparing the forms that these peoples 
 present curious differences in the way in which they have 
 accented the word. The French throw the accent toward the 
 end of their words ; the Germans place it in the earlier part. 
 
 (c) A third way in which ethnic peculiarities show themselves 
 is in the character of roots. The roots of Aryan words are 
 monosyllabic but may be made up in various ways ; Semitic 
 roots, on the contrary, are all built on one plan, and are 
 characterized by a tri-literal, consonantal structure. Whitney 
 states that the Malayo-Polynesian family of languages shows a 
 strong prevalence of dissyllabic roots. 
 
Gesture and Speech , Ethnic Peculiarities. 187 
 
 (d) Languages also vary greatly in the matter of grammatical 
 agreement and control. The stock example always cited is the in grammatical 
 Turkish. In Turkish there are two kinds of vowels, sharp and 
 flat. When a verb contains a sharp vowel in its radical part, 
 the vowels in all the other elements of the word must be made 
 sharp in order to agree with it. Siv is the root of the word 
 "love," while bdk is the root of the verb "regard" ; the in- 
 finitive termination has the initial sound of m and a final sound 
 of k and, when it is attached to siv, must contain the sharp £ 
 to agree with the vowel of the root, but when it is attached to 
 bdk it must contain an d for agreement ; hence the infinitives 
 are se'vme'k and bdkmdk. Similarly the plural termination 
 varies to agree with the root. Thus e'vle'r means "houses" 
 and atlar means "horses." There are also interesting ex- 
 amples of a sort of control to be found in Polynesian languages. 
 
 Language has not only been a tool of man ; it has reacted 
 
 „. . . ,. , , , Reaction of 
 
 upon him. The question is sometimes discussed whether language upon 
 
 . . man's intellec- 
 
 words or thoughts were first. It is a question suited to a de- tual powers, 
 bating society of a country schoolhouse but can scarcely be 
 considered worthy of serious discussion. The word is an ex- 
 pression of thought ; as such the thought must come first ; but 
 it is certain that the thought could not long exist without ex- 
 pression. Thought and expression were born almost simul- 
 taneously and they have ever gone on increasing in clearness, 
 exactness, and range together. As the thoughts were clearly 
 expressed the power of thinking developed ; but as the range 
 of thought increased the expression also increased. Probably 
 every one has a fringe of thought lying just outside of his abil- 
 ity of expression, but it is certain that the latter can never be 
 far behind. 
 
 To the anthropologist, who is seldom or never a linguist, why languages 
 language is interesting, (a) in determining connection or con- ^nhropologist. 
 tact between different races, (b) as showing the status of a race 
 
i88 
 
 Some First Steps in Human Progress. 
 
 (a) Comparison 
 of languages 
 shows com- 
 munity of origin 
 or contact. 
 
 (A) Study of a 
 language gives 
 much informa- 
 tion as to the 
 status of the 
 people using it. 
 
 or people, (c ) as evidence of a grand development and progress. 
 
 By comparing languages from different parts of the world we 
 learn much of the relationship between widely separated peo- 
 ple. The resemblance between two languages may be so com- 
 plete and so exact that it can be explained only by believing 
 that the two peoples speaking them have come from a common 
 ancestry ; or it may be of such a kind as to suggest that the an- 
 cestors of the two now separated peoples have, some time in 
 the past, been in contact and have permanently influenced one 
 another. In arriving at any conclusion as to origin or contact 
 from a study of language there are certain words which we 
 must leave out of sight ; similarity in cry words, or in imitative 
 words, teaches nothing as to community of origin. Nor is it 
 sufficient to find a few words alike in the two languages ; the 
 resemblances should be many and between words which are 
 used for expressing the commonest thoughts and for naming 
 the commonest objects. We must expect also to find similarity 
 between words, and not identity ; it is not probable that two 
 separated people, who began by speaking the same language, 
 should preserve the pronunciation exactly ; in time changes 
 would creep in and ultimately the words would vary. The 
 tracing of relationship between different Indo-European tongues 
 and the reconstruction of an Aryan tongue, which no man has 
 ever heard and of which there are no written remnants, is one 
 of the triumphs of modern science. 
 
 Were a people to be blotted out of existence, but their lan- 
 guage preserved and interpreted by students long after, it 
 would be possible, from the study of the language alone, to 
 fairly reconstruct the every-day life and the status of the tribe. 
 This is what has been done in large part for the ancient Aryans. 
 Sometime or other, somewhere or other, in Europe or Asia, 
 there existed a population — progressive, enterprising, vigorous 
 —who permanently influenced all the peoples with whom they 
 
Gesture and Speech ; Ethnic Peculiarities. 189 
 
 came into contact. Its language we have just stated no longer 
 exists, but it can be — yes, it has been — reconstructed. From it 
 we know what the old Aryans were like. " They were agri- 
 cultural nomads. They knew the arts of plowing, making 
 roads, building ships, weaving and sewing, erecting houses ; 
 they counted up to at least one hundred ; they had domesti- 
 cated the more important animals — the sheep, the cow, horse, 
 dog ; they were acquainted with the more useful metals, and 
 were armed with iron hatchets whether for peace or for war. 
 They had recognized the bonds of blood and bonds of mar- 
 riage. They followed their leaders and kings, and the dis- 
 tinction between right and wrong was fixed by custom and by 
 law. They were impressed with the idea of a divine being, 
 whom they invoked under various names." So much Max 
 Miiller and others have taught us. Keary says : "There are 
 hardly any terms connected with farming, whereas they are 
 redolent of the herd, the cattle fold, the herdsman, the milking 
 time. Even the word daughter means, in the lost language, 
 'the milker.'" 
 
 Nothing shows so plainly as language the enormous progress (c) study of 
 which man has made in mental operations. Among many ^J-lenfll a 
 series of words or terms which would illustrate this none are ™^g r t e y ss mental 
 more suggestive than those used for counting. It is possibly 
 true that there are some peoples who have so poorly defined 
 ideas of number that they can scarcely count. Thus the Puris 
 and the Botocudos of South America have three words for 
 number; they are "one," "two," and "many." The 
 poor fellows' minds become confused in dealing with num- 
 bers above two. The Tasmanian has four words, "one," 
 "two," "plenty," and "five." Think for a moment of Numerals. 
 the condition of men who cannot count beyond two, and 
 imagine the pleasure of trading with such. Suppose the 
 native with such a numerical outfit and mind, has agreed 
 
igo Some First Steps in Human Progress. 
 
 to trade bananas against bits of tobacco at the rate of two 
 bananas for one bit of tobacco ; having ten bits of tobacco we 
 desire to secure twenty bananas ; we push the ten pieces of 
 tobacco toward the native and draw over the twenty bananas. 
 He is not satisfied, but with a look of helpless despair takes 
 back his property and returns ours. Then placing two bananas 
 over he takes one bit of tobacco ; a second pair of bananas 
 are passed over and a second piece of tobacco taken, and so 
 on, until he has all the tobacco and we all the bananas. 
 The words used in counting by many people show us that 
 fingereand" formerly a great number of tribes were in exactly the same 
 toes ' position that those mentioned are at present. More than that, 
 
 they show us in many cases how primitive man in counting 
 kept his mind from wandering. It is certain that the first 
 mental operations in numbers were helped out by the fingers. 
 Thus, there is a tribe on the Northwest coast which has 
 distinct words for one and two ; surely for a long time 
 their ancestors had no ideas of higher numbers. The words 
 for three and four are combined words and are really as fol- 
 lows : "two-one," "two-two." The word for five is the word 
 for hand. The word for ten is two hands. The word for fif- 
 teen is foot and the word for twenty is man. It is certain that 
 at first these people only counted two ; that gradually, with the 
 help of their fingers to keep them straight, they got on by one- 
 two and two-two to ideas of three and four, and to five — the 
 hand. Then, of course, the other hand and the toes were 
 brought into requisition until at last number words were gained 
 to twenty. 
 
 Scores of interesting cases of this hand-counting have been 
 gathered by various writers, and occasionally we may even 
 find the operation going on before our eyes. Tylor, who has 
 particularly studied the subject, quotes Father Gumilla as fol- 
 lows : "They say, 'Give me one pair of scissors,' and forth- 
 
Gesture and Speech ; Ethnic Peculiarities. 191 
 
 with raise one finger ; 'Give me two,' and at once they raise 
 two, and so on. They would never say five without showing 
 a hand ; never ten without holding out both ; never twenty 
 without adding up the fingers placed beside the toes. The 
 mode of showing the numbers with the fingers differs in each 
 nation. The Otomacs to say three unite the thumb, one finger, 
 and middle finger, keeping the others down ; the Tomanacs 
 show the little finger, the ring-finger, and the middle finger, and 
 close the other two ; the Maipores raise the fourth, middle, and 
 ring-fingers, keeping the others hidden." 
 
 We have said that language evidenced a great mental devel- 
 opment and progress. Does it not? There is a profound 
 distance between the man who scarcely has clear notions of 
 numbers beyond two, and who with difficulty works out his 
 mathematics on his fingers and his toes, and the astronomer 
 who weighs the earth in balances and calculates the distances of 
 the sun and stars. 
 
CHAPTER XXI. 
 
 Writing. 
 
 The problem 
 presented. 
 
 North 
 
 American 
 
 Indians. 
 
 Material helps 
 to memory. 
 
 When we look at the written or printed page we seldom 
 realize that millions of men through thousands of years 
 have labored to answer the question, " How can we perpetu- 
 ate our ideas of to-day that the coming men may know them ? ' ' 
 That was the problem. It has been answered by several 
 peoples. We shall trace the development of writing among 
 three different populations : the American Indian, the Chinese, 
 and the ancient Egyptian. We do not at all mean that the 
 three developments themselves are related, although we shall 
 find that each of these peoples has solved the problem in prac- 
 tically the same way. 
 
 First, then, as to the North American Indian ; he has learned 
 to write. 
 
 Before all writing there comes a stage through which man 
 makes use of material objects to serve as reminders — mnemonic 
 helps. How natural this is, we ourselves recognize by tying a 
 knot in the corner of a handkerchief or fastening a bit of string 
 about the finger, when we fear lest we shall forget something. 
 It is said that some of the eastern Algonkin Indians used to 
 keep a record of the important events in the tribal history by 
 means of holes dug in the ground. At times an old man to 
 whom the history of the tribe was well known, and to whom 
 each hole was familiar, would take the boys out along the trail 
 and tell them the meaning of each hole. It is probable that 
 the Sacs and Foxes have as sacred objects what they call 
 
 192 
 
Writing. 193 
 
 micams, which are described as being simple boxes in which 
 are a variety of curious objects each of which has associated 
 with it a fact or passage in the tribal history and ritual. At the 
 religious festivals the old priest takes from the micam one 
 object after another and holding it before the people says, 
 "This object from the sacred micam is to remind us of the 
 time when Wisuka was here and taught us what we should 
 do. " Each object is connected with some portion of the teach- 
 ing of Wisuka, and by the aid of .these material reminders 
 the legendary law of the tribe is carried on from generation to 
 generation. Among the Iroquois belts of shell beads were 
 used on public occasions, as treaties and the like. The wam- 
 pum of which these belts were composed was either white or 
 purple and the beads were so managed as to produce patterns 
 or designs on« the belt ; with each figure some detail of the 
 treaty would be associated or some point in their history 
 would be connected. The keepers of the wampum belts 
 knew the ideas thus connected with the beads. A last sample 
 of such reminders may be mentioned ; the quippus of the old 
 Peruvians. These were knotted cords of different colors. The 
 knots varied in size and character and indicated different orders 
 of numerals. By means of such knotted cords, census lists 
 and various records of a mathematical kind were kept. These 
 reminders are not true writing, but they are the first attempt to 
 solve the problem presented. 
 
 The drawing of pictures is a natural and early method of rep- pictures as 
 resenting the thought to be remembered. Among the Dakota ™ n e | n t s h o° c ^ ry 
 Indians it is a common thing for chiefs and old men to have 
 picture records of their lives. Several sheets of legal-cap paper 
 will be pasted together at the edges to form a strip and upon £?^g° le 
 this strip the man makes his autobiography in pictures. Here 
 one may see a representation of the first war party that the 
 owner went upon ; next may be a picture showing when he 
 
194 
 
 Some First Steps in Human Progress. 
 
 (b) Part 
 pictures. 
 
 (c) Symbols. 
 
 first stole ponies ; again, one may see pictured out the occasion 
 when he, as a delegate from his tribe, went to interview the 
 Great Father at Washington. Such a record we may look upon 
 almost as a written history ; it is the carrying on of a thought 
 by means of pictures. 
 
 But to draw the pictures fully demands time, patience, and 
 some degree of skill. It would be an advantage to economize 
 all three and instead of drawing complete pictures to draw part 
 pictures which should suggest the whole. Thus a man who 
 had been upon a war party and had killed four men and cut 
 their throats might represent the incident by a drawing in 
 which each detail should be shown. He might, however, just 
 as well draw four heads with necks attached and indicate that 
 they were cut by drawing a line across the necks. Such a man 
 would have made an important step forward in the direction of 
 true writing. 
 
 But there are many things which are not easily represented 
 
 directly either by the whole picture or part picture. Such may, 
 
 however, be brought before the mind by a picture which in 
 
 some way or other serves to call up the object or the thought 
 
 without really representing it. Such a picture may be called a 
 
 symbol. If you visit the Pueblo of Zuni, and buy from some 
 
 old woman pottery, among the pieces there may be a low 
 
 ^u broad dish for carrying sacred meal for use in 
 
 ■I dances. Upon this dish there may be represented 
 
 ^% several black objects like the figure here shown 
 
 \ (Fig. A). On asking the meaning of this figure 
 
 -V- — for in pottery made by Pueblo women, for their 
 
 V own use, most designs have meanings — you may 
 
 Fig. a. learn that the dish is used in summer, and that 
 
 the pictures painted on it suggest summer. The way in which 
 
 this figure comes to mean summer is fairly simple ; during that 
 
 season the pools of water in this arid region swarm with tad- 
 
Writing. 
 
 195 
 
 poles, which are really the things represented. So abundant 
 are they that the sight of the picture naturally calls up the 
 thought of summer. 
 
 Pictures, part pictures, and symbols — these are the elements pi cture -writimr 
 with which the Indian writes ; by them a considerable range of f£Jf g° ys a11 
 thought may be expressed. Two samples of North American 
 picture-writing will illustrate this fact. The first one has been 
 presented many times and is no doubt familiar to most readers. | a {" p \ es : ft , 
 When Schoolcraft journeyed across the head waters of the j>rrch-bark 
 Mississippi, he noticed on a certain morning as they were break- 
 ing camp an Indian who was marking rude designs upon a bit 
 of birch bark. When the artist had completed his task he took 
 a slender pole, split it at one end, stuck it in the ground slant- 
 
 L"itl^ m ^ 
 
 < 
 
 Fig. B. 
 
 wise, cut three notches on it, and inserted the bit of birch bark 
 in the split end of the stick. When questioned he replied that 
 he had written a letter which any Ojibwa Indian would under- 
 stand about their party. This letter is here reproduced ( Fig. B ) . 
 That the party was a government party, or "eagle people," 
 was shown by the bird in the upper corner ; that the party con- 
 sisted of eight soldiers, white men, each with his gun, was 
 
196 Some First Steps in Hicman Progress. 
 
 shown by the figures wearing hats and with the guns near by ; 
 that there were six officers or specialists connected with the 
 party was shown by six similar figures — the captain carrying his 
 sword, the book-keeper his book, the geologist his hammer, 
 and so for each of the others, their trade or position was indi- 
 cated by some object carried. Two Indian guides were with 
 the party and were represented without hats ; that each of the 
 three classes camped by themselves at night was indicated by 
 the three little camp-fires drawn; the officers the night before ate 
 the only fresh meat that was in the camp, a turtle and a prairie 
 chicken, both of which were shown. The direction in which 
 the pole slanted showed the direction of the journey, and the 
 three notches cut in the pole showed that the intention was to 
 go three days in that direction. It will be seen by examining 
 the letter with some care that this method was not only simple 
 but efficient. 
 
 Something over one hundred years ago a man among the 
 Sioux determined to keep a record of the years as they passed. 
 Dakota Qne incident only was to represent each year. A buffalo skin 
 
 was prepared and pictures representing the idea of each year 
 were drawn or painted in black or red as the years passed. In 
 time copies of this first record were made and scattered through 
 the tribes. The earlier symbols are practically alike in all, but 
 in the later ones each individual who had made a copy and kept 
 a record might use his judgment as to what design should rep- 
 resent a given year. In the original record the pictures were 
 arranged in a spiral line and one was added every year at the 
 outer end of the line. Lieutenant Mallory has made a special 
 study of these Dakota calendars, or winter counts. A few 
 samples of the figures used are here appended. In 1800 there 
 was a rudely drawn outline of a human figure, done in black 
 and spotted irregularly with red blotches ; .during that year 
 smallpox prevailed and many died. For 1813 we have a sim- 
 
 Mallory's 
 
i 9 7 
 
 
 ilar rude outline with lines slightly diverging from before the 
 face ; in that year whooping cough was frequent and fatal. In 
 1840 there was a treaty of peace, and two hands are shown ex- 
 tended toward each other. In 1851 the Sioux first received 
 blankets from the government, and the design shows a blanket 
 with representatives of the tribe sitting around it (Fig. C). 
 
 But it was in Mexico that picture-writing gained its fullest de- 
 velopment among North Amer- 
 ican Indians. The Aztecs had a 
 perfect system, with which they 
 wrote many books. Unfortu- 
 nately the vandalism of the early 
 Spanish priests destroyed most 
 of these books, and very few 
 samples of their picture-writing 
 are left. The books they had 
 were painted on good paper, 
 which was made from vegetable 
 fiber beaten out. The long 
 strips were folded back and 
 forth, much as a screen is 
 folded. The colors used in 
 painting were frequently vivid 
 and retain even to the present 
 much of their freshness 
 
 '800. (8/3. 
 
 /840. 
 
 Sol 
 
 Pictography 
 of Aztecs. 
 
 "I (It llfl 
 
 I8S/. 
 
 Fig. C. 
 The books dealt largely with religious 
 festivals and the legendary history of the people. Most of this 
 old Mexican writing is real picture-writing such as we have dis- 
 cussed. Here and there, however, there appear samples of 
 characters of a different kind. 
 
 At this point it is necessary that we shall introduce two 
 words : an ideogram is a character which represents an idea ; of ideogram and 
 
 , T phonogram. 
 
 a phonogram is a character which represents a sound. In 
 picture-writing, or pictography, ideograms are used. In our 
 
 Definitions 
 
198 Some First Steps in Human Progress. 
 
 own writing we have phonograms, and each phonogram repre- 
 sents a simple element of sound. 
 In the Mexican picture-writing the name of an old chieftain, 
 Itzcoatl, occurs repeatedly. It is generally 
 written by means of an ideogram (Fig. D) 
 consisting of two parts, a serpent and a line 
 of knives upon its back. Itzcoatl means 
 knife-snake ; and the character is simple 
 Fig. d. picture-writing, should be read as a picture, 
 
 and gives by ideas the man's name. But at times a name 
 which we may be sure is Itzcoatl is written in a different way 
 (Fig. E). This character consists of three parts ; if we read 
 these parts as pictures we shall get the 
 words, knife, basin, water. But there was 
 no such chieftain among the Aztecs, and yet 
 as before stated there is reason to believe 
 the name intended is Itzcoatl. We must, 
 then, not read this character as an ideo- 
 gram. Can we read it as a phonogram? Knife is itz ; 
 basin is co {mitt) in which the important part is co; water is 
 atl. If instead of taking these elements as being pictures rep- 
 resenting ideas we take them as characters representing sounds, 
 we shall get instead of knife, basin, water, the word Itzcoatl. 
 In other words, the Mexicans, while they had a marvelously de- 
 veloped picture-writing were beginning to think of letting char- 
 acters stand not for ideas but for sounds. They were going 
 from ideograms to phonograms. 
 
 The most advanced native people of North America, per- 
 haps, were the Mayas. They had an ancient picture-writing ; 
 many of their characters became conventionalized and some of 
 them, at least, were beginning to be not pictures, but sound 
 characters. 
 So much, then, for the North American Indian. Beginning 
 
Writing. 199 
 
 with material reminders he had passed through drawing pic- 
 tures and part pictures and symbols to a complete pictographic 
 system. In places he was thinking of using characters to rep- 
 resent not thoughts, but sounds. 
 
 Our second line of writing development is that of the Chinese. The Chinese, 
 They began just where the North American Indian began. 
 There was, no doubt, at one time a large use of various kinds 
 of material reminders among them. Very early, however, the pictures. 
 Chinese began to write by means of pictures. Thus, Tylor 
 gives a cut in which a series of these ancient pictures is shown. 
 The sun consists of a circle with a dot in it ; the moon is repre- 
 sented by a crescent ; a mountain is shown by three peaks upon 
 a horizontal line ; a tree is a rudely drawn representation of a 
 straight trunk with branches going upwards and roots going 
 downwards ; the word for dog is very distinctly a side view of 
 a creature of that kind. Besides these, mouth, eye, and many 
 other words are represented by the simplest kind of pictures. 
 Several hundred of these pictures were devised, giving a con- 
 siderable range of expression. Upon certain ancient seals and 
 other carved work these old characters, true pictures, may be 
 found and easily recognized. These still last in the written 
 language of to-day, but have been so altered that it is only 
 when we place the modern form side by side with the old one 
 that we can recognize its original picture character. 
 
 To increase his range of expression the Chinaman combined combinations of 
 his rude pictures in various ways, and many of these combina- P lctures - 
 tions are exceedingly ingenious and interesting. Thus the word 
 for dawn is a picture of the sun just above the horizontal line ; 
 the word for bright consists of the old pictures of the sun 
 and moon set side by side ; the character for words is the 
 numeral four and the character for mouth. The character for 
 sincere is an interesting one ; the Chinese are generally thought 
 to be a race of liars ; it can hardly be that, when their written 
 
Some First Steps in Human Progress. 
 
 Transfer of 
 ideograms to 
 represent 
 sounds. 
 
 language was developing, they were such. The written char- 
 acter which means sincere consists of two parts, one of which 
 meaning man and the other words. A people whose best repre- 
 sentation for absolute integrity would be a man's words could 
 scarcely be a race of liars. Very pretty is the word for beauti- 
 ful, which consists also of two parts. We asked a Chinese 
 friend on one occasion how this word came to mean beautiful, 
 what was the significance of its two parts. Pointing to the first 
 he said, "Some little child, may be my little girl " ; pointing to 
 the second, "Some baby, may be my little boy, little children." 
 A people which can think of no better way of conveying the 
 thought of beauty than by using the words for little children is 
 not an unsentimental race. With his pictures and combinations 
 of pictures the Chinaman was able to represent a fairly wide 
 range of 'thought. 
 
 It was natural that in time he should give the character 
 which had long been a picture — an ideogram — the value of a 
 sound. The Chinese language is full of homophonous words. 
 Homophonous words are words which sound alike but have 
 different meanings. Tylor cites as an example of a homo- 
 phonous word in English the sound "box." Box may mean a 
 receptacle in which things may be placed ; it may mean a part 
 of a coach, a blow upon the ear, a little evergreen used in old 
 gardens for hedges, a tree which yields fine-grained wood for 
 rulers, or to name in order the cardinal points of the compass. 
 Suppose, now, that we were developing a written language by 
 means of pictures ; suppose we had one character which was 
 the picture of a box ; suppose we wished to speak of a box 
 upon the ear. It would not be unnatural for us to take the old 
 picture and let it stand for the sound and not for the idea rep- 
 resented by the picture. When we had done this we should 
 have turned an ideogram into a phonogram ; we should have 
 passed from pictography into true writing. This the Chinese 
 
Fig 25.— Necklace of Toucan Beaks. South Amerk 
 
Writing. 203 
 
 did. When supplied with ideograms they began to use their 
 pictures to represent not ideas, but sounds. But we have 
 stated that his language is full of homophones ; when he had 
 taken his picture and let it stand for a sound, it was not easy 
 always to know which meaning of the sound was to be taken. 
 The consequence was that the Chinese were driven to put a 
 second character alongside of the phonogram in order to de- Determinatives, 
 termine which meaning was to be taken. Such a second help- 
 ing character is called a determinative. So the Chinaman devel- 
 oped written language. He began with drawing rude pictures ; 
 he combined the pictures variously to form characters for 
 abstract terms ; his ideograms began to be used for sound char- 
 acters ; his sound characters being uncertain, on account of the 
 genius of the language, he was obliged to make them definite 
 by means of determinatives. The Chinese language to-day is 
 written by perhaps forty thousand characters, each of which 
 represents a word. Some of these characters are simple 
 pictures ; some are combined pictures ; some are simple phono- 
 grams ; some are combined characters, consisting of a phono- 
 gram to give the sound and a determinative to define the 
 meaning. 
 
 The Chinese were originators — great inventors. They are 
 people of strong mental power. There was a people in East- The Japanese 
 era Asia which had no well-developed, written language. Chinese 
 Their language was totally unlike the Chinese, being composed 
 of words of many syllables, not of monosyllabic words. Never 
 inventing anything, they borrowed everything. They deserve 
 this much of credit, that they have always improved what they 
 borrowed. Of course, the people here referred to are the Jap- 
 anese ; a race which, compared with the Chinese, must be pro- 
 nounced decidedly inferior. Naturally they desired to borrow 
 writing from the Chinese. It will be seen, however, that the 
 task was monstrous ; forty thousand words to be learned ! The 
 
204 
 
 Some First Steps in Human Progress. 
 
 The result. 
 
 The 
 Egyptians. 
 
 The progress 
 as among the 
 Chinese and 
 Japanese. 
 
 Japanese selected a certain number of old Chinese characters and 
 gave them new and definite force with reference to their own 
 language. Each character thus borrowed was a phonogram and 
 represented a syllable. Two series of these characters are used 
 among the Japanese ; the one called " Iroha " consists of some 
 forty-eight, the other called "Katakana" consists of two hun- 
 dred and sixteen characters. Notice these phonograms are all 
 phonograms with syllabic values. It is, however, also true that 
 many ideograms and other real Chinese phonograms are still 
 retained in Japanese writing. 
 
 The Egyptian began just where the North American Indian 
 and the Chinese did. There is no doubt that he made use of 
 material reminders, and it is certain that he early developed a 
 system of pictography. We have a considerable amount of 
 . his picture-writing remaining in the well-known hieroglyphics. 
 His first pictures were as simple and crude as those of which 
 we have already spoken. Thus, the characters for sun, star, 
 water, are the simplest of pictures. Just as the Chinese, the 
 Egyptian combined his simple pictures in order to express 
 abstract or complex ideas. Thus, for battle we have two arms 
 and hands, one of which grasps the shield, the other the spear ; 
 for night we have a star under cover ; for thirst we have a calf 
 prancing toward water. Just as the Chinese ancient pictures 
 became broken down into simpler and easier forms in writing, 
 just so the old picture-writing of the Egyptian became simpli- 
 fied, and the hieratic and demotic writings of later times, 
 while related to the hieroglyphics, seldom carry their picture 
 origin plainly in sight. In time the characters which had 
 been simply ideograms came to be used to represent sounds. 
 The Egyptian language was like the Chinese in being full of 
 homophonous words. This difficulty in the way of using 
 phonograms was obviated in exactly the same way as among 
 the Chinese ; determinatives were introdued and written along- 
 
Writing. 205 
 
 side the phonograms. Many of the characters in the later 
 Egyptian writings were composed thus of two parts, one of 
 which gave the sound while the other determined its meaning. 
 
 There was one other operation which took place in Egyptian 
 writing which must not be forgotten ; the phonogram, which at Aerology, 
 first stood for a word, gradually came to be used not for the 
 whole word, but for its initial sound. This process of using a 
 character to represent the initial sound of .its first meaning is 
 called aerology. The Egyptian, then, began with reminders and 
 pictures ; he developed combinations of pictures, complex 
 ideograms ; he made these ideograms stand for sounds — whole 
 words ; he found himself obliged to attach determinatives to 
 these sound characters ; he finally used some of these characters 
 for almost simple sounds instead of for words. If he could 
 have disposed of all except these simplest characters he would 
 have completely solved the problem. Unfortunately he could 
 not rid himself of the past, and in the latter days of ancient 
 Egypt there was great confusion in writing ; simple ideograms, 
 word phonograms, broken-down phonograms, representing 
 almost elementary sounds — all were used at once. 
 
 There were about thirty characters which had been developed 
 for representing simple, almost elementary sounds. There was borrowing 
 in ancient times a population who were to the Egyptians what 
 the Japanese were to the Chinese. The Phoenicians borrowed 
 writing from the Egyptians ; they borrowed, however, not the 
 whole cumbrous system, but took the simple phonograms, 
 which the Egyptians had produced by aerology from their word J, h |j ^ 
 phonograms. These, written in the simplest way and retaining 
 little of their old picture value, made the first alphabet. The 
 Phoenicians were the traders of the Mediterranean ; they carried 
 their new acquisition everywhere— to Cyprus, to Greece, to 
 Rome. Once, Taylor tells us, there was in the old Egyptian 
 picture-writing a character which meant owl. It was a simple 
 
2o6 
 
 Some First Steps in Human Progress. 
 
 Our letters go 
 back in some 
 cases to 
 Egyptian 
 pictures. 
 
 picture of the bird itself. But the word for owl was mu, and in 
 time the character which at first was probably an ideogram 
 meaning an owl came to be used as a phonogram equivalent to 
 mu. Still later, by aerology, the character was used for the 
 sound wzu. In the latter history of Egyptian writing, when one 
 came upon this character, which by that time had been much 
 reduced in its writing, he was never sure whether its meaning 
 was "an owl," the sound mu, or the sound m a . This char- 
 acter the Phoenicians borrowed with the meaning »«. From 
 them the Greeks and Latins gained it ; from them we have it ; 
 whenever, then, we see a capital letter M we may well remember 
 that it is all that is left of the old Egyptian picture of an owl. 
 
 The history of the other letters of our alphabet is not so 
 easily traced, but on the whole we may say that the origin of 
 our letters in the old Egyptian pictures is fairly proved. It may 
 help in closing to place in tabular form the steps in the develop- 
 ment and to indicate how far each of the three peoples whom we 
 have considered has carried the progress. Reminders, pic- 
 tures, combination pictures, word phonograms, syllable phono- 
 grams, letter phonograms — these are the stages. The North 
 American began with reminders, developed a very perfect pic- 
 ture-writing consisting of pictures, part pictures, and symbols. 
 He was just beginning to think of phonograms. The Chinese 
 began with reminders, developed a system of picture-writing, 
 and passed into word phonograms. The Japanese, going one 
 step further, write by means of sound characters, each of 
 which represents a syllable. It is the third development only 
 which has been carried to the end ; the Egyptian began with 
 reminders and pictures, and passed through phonograms almost 
 to letters ; the Phoenician starting from his vantage ground, bor- 
 rowed and improved, and gained an alphabet. It is interesting 
 to notice how similarly the human mind works in places far 
 remote from each other. Given the same problem and simi- 
 
Writing. 
 
 207 
 
 lar surroundings and we shall find much the same result. 
 
 Table Showing the Stages of the Development of 
 Writing Among Three Groups of Peoples. 
 
 North American 
 Indian. 
 
 Reminders. 
 
 f Pictures, . . 
 Ideograms . ■! Part pictures, . 
 
 ( Symbols. 
 
 (Words, . 
 Phonograms X Syllables, 
 
 (.Letters . . . 
 
 Chinese, 
 Japanese. 
 
 Egyptian, 
 Phoenician. 
 
 Table. 
 
CHAPTER XXII. 
 
 Tales and Traditions. 
 
 Some years ago a book was issued by an enterprising Ameri- 
 The " Uncle 
 
 Remus " ca n publisher under the name of "Uncle Remus." It was filled 
 
 stories. ... 
 
 with stories told in negro dialect dealing with various animals 
 
 as heroes. The publisher announced the book as a humorous 
 
 work, but it is doubtful whether Mr. Harris, who prepared the 
 
 manuscript, intended the book should be considered simply 
 
 such. The stories, at least many of them, are old. They were 
 
 not made up by Joel Chandler Harris, but are true negro stories 
 
 told by the fireside in the South ; nor is it probable that many 
 
 of them arose in America. They go back, most of them, to 
 
 Africa, and, in the first place, they were not told as tales to 
 
 children but as real things talked of among the men. In these 
 
 stories the animals think and talk and act like human beings. 
 
 The wild creatures are all called "brer" — or brother; thus, 
 
 there is " Old Brer Wolf," " Brer Fox," " Brer Rabbit," " Brer 
 
 Tarrapin." Creatures who on account of size and fierceness 
 
 are entitled to respect and domestic animals are honored by the 
 
 name of "Mister" ; thus, there is "Mr. Horse," "Mr. Lion," 
 
 and " Miss Cow." In the " Uncle Remus " stories the animals 
 
 have friendships and partnerships ; on the other hand, they also 
 
 have life-long animosities and hatred. Brer Rabbit and Brer 
 
 Tarrapin can usually be counted on to help each other out ; 
 
 between Brer Rabbit and Brer Wolf or Brer Fox the deepest 
 
 animosity exists. On the whole, old Brer Rabbit is the best 
 
 man among all the critters ; he is little, he is not strong, he is 
 
 20S 
 
Tales and Traditions. 209 
 
 comparatively harmless in reality, but in the long run he may 
 generally be expected to come out ahead. Curious things these 
 " Uncle Remus " stories. If we could really understand them 
 in all their bearings, we should know much of primitive and 
 savage man's philosophy. 
 What is a myth ? There are two factors in the creation of a ... . _ „. 
 
 J Nature myths ; 
 
 myth. There are two qualities of the savage mind with refer- how produced ; 
 ence to nature, which give birth to them. These qualities are : 
 first, a tendency to personify everything, and, second, a desire to _ &ct0IS 
 explain all things. No one has so fully and so simply discussed 
 the origin of myths as Tylor in his " Early History of Man- 
 kind " and in his " Primitive Culture." We can do no better 
 than to summarize his masterly treatment. Everything in 
 nature is personified. The fire is the hungry beast, licking with Personification, 
 its red tongue the food. The sun and moon are personified. 
 In a certain Malay story the moon is a woman, so is the sun. Samp i e nature 
 The moon's children are the stars ; the sun once had as many. {J^^y to° W 
 On a certain occasion the two mothers agreed to devour their personification, 
 children, and it was settled that the moon should do so first. 
 Instead she concealed them in darkness and then called the 
 sun's attention to the fact that she had performed her part of the 
 contract. Thereupon the sun devoured hers in good faith. 
 When the moon withdrew the darkness and the sun realized 
 that she was duped she started in pursuit of the moon — a pur- 
 suit which is still kept up ; from time to time the pursuer over- 
 takes the other and bites a piece out of her. So the waters and 
 the rain clouds, the winds and storms, the dew of the evening, 
 day and night, are all personified, living and thinking, working 
 and playing, hating and loving, just as human beings do. 
 
 Animals in particular are constantly personified by ruder peo- 
 
 , ,. , , ., . Primitive man': 
 
 pies. It is not easy for us fully to realize early man s idea 01 conception of 
 ... .... t animals. 
 
 animals. Brinton says : "As a hunter, primitive man was always 
 
 matched against the wild creatures of the woods, so superior 
 
Some First Steps in Human Progress. 
 
 to him in their dumb certainty of instinct, their swift motion, 
 their muscular force, and their sufficient clothing. Their ways 
 were guided by a wit beyond his divination, and they gained 
 a living with little toil or trouble. They did not mind the dark- 
 ness, so terrible to him, but through the night called one to an- 
 other in a tongue whose meaning he could not fathom, but 
 which, he doubted not, was as full of meaning as his own. He 
 did not recognize in himself those godlike qualities, destined to 
 endow him with the royalty of the world, while, far more clearly 
 than we do, he saw the sly and strange faculties of his antago- 
 nists. They were to him, therefore, not inferiors, but equals — 
 even superiors. With such notions of animals, it is not at all 
 strange that we should have such stories as we find in "Uncle 
 Remus." Very natural, too, among such people, is the belief 
 in the transformation of men into animals and of animals into 
 men, and throughout much of savage Africa we find it to pre- 
 vail. 
 But besides personifying all things about him, our primitive 
 e Sin factsof "" man tried t0 ex P lain everything. Any unusual thing in nature 
 observation. must have a reason ; any curious point about an animal must 
 have a cause. We have already seen in the preceding story 
 from Malaysia an illustration of this tendency ; the story is an 
 effort to explain why there are no stars in the daytime and 
 what eclipses are. It is very common to find the ruder peoples 
 of the world explaining peculiar features in certain kinds of 
 animals by a story. Thus, the North American Indian answers 
 the question as to why the mole is blind : It seems that once 
 the mole was large, with good eyes, and living on the earth as 
 other creatures do. In those days the sun was erratic and ir- 
 regular ; sometimes the days were far too short for the animals 
 to accomplish all their labors and at other times the sun staid 
 up so long that all became greatly wearied. After council the 
 animals agreed to catch the sun and make him promise to be 
 
 Stories showing 
 
Fig. 26.— Ceremonial Blanket. Chilcat Indians, Alaska. 
 
Fig. 27. — Armlet Worn in Dances. New Guinea. 
 
Tales and Traditions. 213 
 
 more regular. The plan succeeded. The question then arose 
 
 how to loose the prisoner. Various animals made the attempt, 
 
 meeting with disaster. Finally the mole volunteered his 
 
 services and shrewdly dug a burrow underground, appearing at 
 
 the surface where the cords were fastened and gnawed them 
 
 through, loosing the captive. But even he paid a penalty. 
 
 The heat of the sun shriveled him to his present size, blinded 
 
 his eyes, and scorched his teeth. Ever since the ground mole 
 
 has burrowed underground, and has been blind, and has had 
 
 orange-brown incisor teeth. Another story illustrating this 
 
 same tendency is found in Central America. Two chieftains 
 
 were clearing the ground for crops ; each day they did their 
 
 work, each following morning they found the fields overgrown. 
 
 Watching, they found that animals, at night, called the weeds 
 
 into existence. The next night they watched, prepared to 
 
 avenge themselves. The animals, after having done their 
 
 damage, started down the trail to the water ; the princes, 
 
 standing one on each side, reached out for them. Several 
 
 passed unharmed. At last the rabbit and the deer went by ; 
 
 in those days both of these animals were characterized by 
 
 great bushy tails ; caught by these, in their struggle to escape 
 
 their caudal appendages were torn out, and ever since both 
 
 deer and rabbit have had no tail. No more were caught until 
 
 the rat passed by ; this poor creature they captured and 
 
 squeezed his head between two sticks and rasped his tail ; and 
 
 ever since the rat's eyes look like black beads, and as if they 
 
 would pop from his head, while his tail has never any hair. 
 
 This latter story is an interesting case, illustrating this 
 
 ' Stones grow 
 
 second tendency— to explain things observed. The rapid and change. 
 
 growth of noxious vegetation in fresh-cleared fields, on 
 
 the one hand, and the peculiarities in various animals, on 
 
 the other, had to be explained. With these two elements 
 
 given, personification and explanation, we have material for 
 
214 
 
 Some First Steps in Human Progress. 
 
 Aids to mythic 
 change. 
 
 Polyonomy. 
 
 Equivocation. 
 
 Localization. 
 
 any quantity of nature myths. Hundreds of them have grown 
 up in various parts of the world, but in all cases they illustrate 
 these two tendencies. But stories, once created, do not stand 
 still ; like words, they change, become compounded, assume 
 new meaning, fixing themselves in new surroundings. Cox 
 names as aids to mythic change polyonomy, equivocation, local- 
 ization, love of a miracle, and desire to point a moral. One or 
 two of these only shall we discuss. Polyonomy, the use of 
 different names to designate the same hero, leads to confusion 
 and the development of several stories out of a single primi- 
 tive tale. "A thousand figures would be used to describe the 
 action of the beneficent or consuming sun, of the gentle or 
 awful night, of the playful or furious wind ; and every word or 
 phrase became the germ of a new story as soon as the mind 
 lost its hold upon the original force of the name." The same 
 simple story told of the sun among an ancient people, in 
 which he figures in one instance as the bright one, in another 
 as the rapid racer, in another as the ardent or glowing one, 
 might grow into three stories of as many different heroes. By 
 equivocation, Cox means that words which have similar sounds 
 may be confused and give a different meaning to the portion of 
 the story in which they occur. As an illustration he suggests 
 that the idea of poisoned arrows used by Achilles may have 
 been wrought out of a reference to the purple rays of the sun ; 
 the Greek word los meaning violet as well as poison, while the 
 word meaning rays might easily be mistaken for the word for 
 spears or darts. 
 
 There is a constant tendency ever at work in all stories to fit 
 them to the surroundings in which the narrator finds himself. 
 This is localization. A few years since, in southern California, 
 we had the pleasure of getting certain boy friends who live 
 there to tell us some of the dear stories of the olden time 
 which are found in Grimm's "Household Tales " ; but the stories 
 
Tales and Traditions. 215 
 
 as told us by the boys in southern California were never just as 
 Grimm or any other German author could have told them. 
 They invariably had local coloring, and in them bee ranches 
 and other peculiarly southern Californian ideas figured. Who 
 ever heard of bee ranches in Germany ? But if a story is to 
 live in a new home it must be changed to suit surroundings. 
 The stories told among most American Indians are always 
 definitely connected with the landscape near at hand ; such an 
 incident occurred in such a mountain, and such another was 
 connected with a certain river. Yet it is quite certain that, in 
 many cases, the story told was fully developed and worked out 
 long before the tribe came into its present home or amid its 
 present surroundings. A story starting in one district and 
 traveling far may come to be so changed and altered that it 
 is well-nigh unrecognizable. 
 
 A simple nature myth may be developed, then, into a greatly 
 detailed story, into a saint legend, or into an epic poem. The myth 
 same story may be dressed out in a dozen forms and repre- 
 sented, over and over again, as if distinct narratives of different 
 incidents and heroes. 
 
 There has been of recent years great interest shown among 
 scientific men in the study of these old stories. The pioneers study of myths 
 in the field were no doubt the great Germans, the brothers 
 Grimm. The idea that old tales told at the fireside, by aged 
 women to little children, might contain material worth serious 
 study took the world quite by surprise. As Max Muller says : 
 " It might seem strange indeed that so great a scholar as Grimm 
 should have spent so much of his precious time in collecting 
 his Mahrchen if these Mdhrchen had been only made for the 
 amusement of children. When we see a Lyell or an Owen 
 picking up pretty shells or stones, we may be sure that, how- 
 ever much little girls may admire these pretty things, this was 
 not the object which these wise collectors had in view. Like 
 
2l6 
 
 Some First Steps in Human Progress. 
 
 Results of 
 study : 
 
 (a) Progress 
 shown. 
 
 (b) Community 
 of origin, or 
 contact, proved. 
 
 Criteria. 
 
 Examples. 
 
 " Mink and the 
 Sun." 
 
 the green and blue and rosy sands which the children play with 
 in the Isle of Wight, these tales of the people, which Grimm 
 was first to discover and collect, are the detritus of many an 
 ancient stratum of thought and language buried deep in the 
 past. They have scientific interest." 
 
 Since the days of Grimm there have been many busy work- 
 ers. Max Miiller, Theal, Dasent, Cox, and a host of others 
 have gathered folk tales in many districts and studied them 
 with care. It is true that much careless and hasty work has 
 been done ; it is true that many astonishing and untenable 
 results have been reached ; but it is also true that much of 
 solid value has been gained. Among these results a few may 
 be mentioned. First, man's mental progress has been traced. 
 It is a great distance from the simple, crude story, such as the 
 savage makes to explain why the deer has no tail, to a mighty 
 epic like the Iliad. 
 
 Second, community of origin of widely separated tribes has 
 been demonstrated, or contact in times beyond our historic 
 knowledge has been shown. Two stories remarkably alike are 
 found in different districts. It is natural to assume that the two 
 peoples among whom we find them must have come either from 
 a common stock or from ancestors who at some time have 
 come in contact. In investigating such stories with the idea of 
 proving community of origin or contact in the past we must ap- 
 ply certain criteria, (a) The stories must be very much alike 
 and the similarity must extend to minute details. (6) The 
 stories must be of such a character that they could not as sim- 
 ple nature myths arise independently. Let us look at two pairs 
 of stories which seem to resemble each other more or less and 
 apply these tests. 
 
 The first is a story found among some Indians of our North- 
 west coast by Boas. It is the story of the " Mink and the 
 Sun." Mink was a boy or animal, or both perhaps. He was 
 
Tales and Traditions. 217 
 
 playing grace-hoops with the ducks and beat them. Then 
 they petulantly began to tease him ; called him names and 
 said, "You do not even know where your father is." This 
 was true, though it had never caused the boy any particu- 
 lar thought before. He hastened to his mother. She told 
 him that his father carried the sun every day and lived up 
 in the sky. His uncle then made the boy a bow and arrows 
 and directed him how to shoot with them. The first arrow 
 stuck in the sky ; the second caught in the notch of the first, 
 and so on, until finally a chain of arrows reaching from the sky 
 to earth had been constructed, up which the boy climbed. He 
 found his father and, the next day, was allowed to carry the 
 sun in his stead. All went well until he got to the top of the 
 hill. Then getting uneasy and restless, he started down at a 
 great pace, kicking the clouds out of his way as he descended. 
 His father's attention was called to the destruction he was caus- 
 ing to the earth by his antics ; the trees were shriveling, the 
 grass was parched, creatures were suffering. Snatching the sun 
 from the boy, the father hurled him from the sky. 
 
 Of course, every one recognizes at once that this story of 
 Mink resembles two different stories which we all know. The „ , . . 
 
 first part recalls "Jack and the Beanstalk " ; the second part is £ 1 h e a | t t ™ y f nd 
 very much like the Greek story of Phaeton and Phcebus. Must wi j h t v' ack 
 we conclude that the Northwest coast Indian is descended from Beanstalk." 
 the same people as the Greeks or Germans ? Not at all. The 
 stories, while they are alike and thus satisfy the first criterion, 
 are such as might readily arise independently in two districts. 
 To the savage the sky seems firm and solid ; the sun is either a 
 living being or is carried by a person ; the sun itself must have 
 got up there sometime or the person carrying it must have done 
 so. What more natural than that some other person should 
 also ascend to the sky, and who more naturally than a descend- 
 ant of the one already there? On the other hand, what 
 
2 1 8 Some First Steps in Human Progress, 
 
 would be more natural in any district where dreadful droughts 
 parched the fields, shriveled the leaves, and dried up the grass, 
 than the belief that something ailed the sun, that it was car- 
 ried perhaps by a new and inexperienced carrier, and, if so, who 
 would more naturally be thought of as that carrier than the son 
 of the usual bearer ? In other words, there is nothing in these 
 stories except what is suggested by natural occurrences. 
 
 The story of The other pair of stories at first appear less alike than these. 
 
 sparrow. Cox has made the comparison. The German story of the dog 
 
 and the sparrow tells how a carter drives over a dog which the 
 sparrow had saved from starvation. The angered bird pre- 
 dicts the loss of the cart and the horse. The carter scorns her. 
 As he drives up a hill the bird pulls the bung out of the barrel 
 and lets the wine which he was carrying spill. He is enraged 
 at the loss, but the bird cries, " Not enough, carter." As he 
 drives down a hill she picks out the eyes of one horse. To kill 
 her the carter takes up a hatchet and hurls it at her, but, miss- 
 ing, kills the horse ; the same thing happens with his other 
 horses. Reaching home he finds a host of birds destroying his 
 grain standing in the field. He bemoans his loss, but the bird 
 cries out, " Still not enough ; it shall cost you your life." The 
 bird then flies into the house and the carter darts after her. 
 Striking at her he breaks his window-frames, and later, his 
 furniture, but at last when he has caught the bird he says to his 
 wife, "She shall die most horribly, for I shall eat her alive." 
 Fluttering up into his throat as he attempts to swallow her, the 
 carter screams to his wife, who with an axe aims a blow at the 
 escaping bird, but, missing it, kills her husband. 
 The other story is from India. A Nautch girl tries to extort 
 
 Compared with money from a poor woodcutter by a false breach of promise 
 
 that of the . * 
 
 Nautch girl and suit. The judge is aided in his decision against the dancing 
 girl by a wise parrot, which belongs to a rich merchant. The 
 furious girl threatens him, saying, "When in my power I will 
 
Tales and Traditions. 219 
 
 bite off your head." The parrot retorts, " I will live to make 
 you a beggar. Your house shall by your own orders be laid 
 even with the ground and for very rage you shall kill yourself." 
 The girl dances at a dinner given by the merchant, pleases the 
 audience, and demands the parrot as her reward. She orders 
 his head grilled. The cook plucks the bird alive, and, turning 
 to get water, the bird escapes. In terror the cook replaces it 
 by another bird. The parrot, going to the temple, hides be- 
 hind an idol, the favorite god of the dancing girl. This girl is 
 superstitious and much afraid of death, and has ever prayed 
 that she might not die. The next day she appears at the tem- 
 ple and a miracle happens ; the idol speaks in answer to her 
 prayer. In response to its commands the woman goes to her 
 home, sells all she has, and gives it to the poor ; she sets free 
 her slaves ; she levels her house to the ground. In one week 
 she returns to the temple, in order that she may be translated. 
 A great retinue, almost the whole town, is present to see the 
 miracle, and then the bird creeps out from behind the idol. In 
 the rage which seizes on the woman when she finds herself beg- 
 gared and betrayed, she dashes out her brains against the stone 
 floor of the temple. 
 
 It may seem as if these stories were by no means so similar 
 as the other pair which we have considered, but if we strip 
 them of their details we find that in their framework they are 
 plainly the same. In both cases there is a friendship between 
 a bird and some honest, harmless creature ; in both cases a 
 more powerful person attempts to do harm to the bird's 
 friend and the bird predicts misfortune in detail, to property 
 and life. In both stories the bird itself is the chief agent in 
 bringing about the punishment. In both, again, the wicked 
 actor in the story attempts to injure the bird by eating it, head 
 and all. A story of this kind could hardly arise independently 
 in two different parts of the world. It must be that, sometime 
 
Some First Steps in Human Progress. 
 
 or other in the distant past, a very simple story was often told 
 
 with just these elements. In the centuries which have gone by 
 
 this simple story has developed in detail, has assumed local 
 
 coloring, adapting itself in one case to German surroundings 
 
 and in the other to Indian. But such a story may be safely 
 
 held to show community of origin or contact in past time. 
 
 And, lastly (c), the study of myths, their origin and growth, 
 
 (c) Supplies a enables us to apply a check to much that appears to be good 
 
 apparent much history. William Tell is not the only hero of a people whom 
 
 history. j t j ]as p rovec j (-q have never existed as a real man, but to have 
 
 grown up out of some story suggested by nature and by early 
 
 man's surroundings. 
 
CHAPTER XXIII. 
 
 Marriage and Family. 
 
 Two interesting questions present themselves with reference woman her 
 
 to woman : first, what has woman been in society ; second, achievement 
 what has she done ? 
 
 Before we approach either of these questions it may be well Two striking 
 
 to emphasize two striking characteristics of woman. First : c aractenstlcs : 
 
 Woman excels in her appreciation of and strife after beauty ; 
 
 , ' . , . , (i) Keen appre- 
 
 she seems instinctively to apprehend and love the beautiful ciationofand 
 
 , T . . , , , , . _ , . strife after the 
 
 sooner than man. It is a question whether the beautiful is an beautiful. 
 actual, abstract something inherent in beautiful things or 
 whether it is something which we have constructed for our- 
 selves as an ideal. If it is the former, the ideal should be in- 
 variable ; if the latter, it might vary with peoples and individ- 
 uals. The ideal of feminine beauty is certainly exceedingly 
 variable. Thus, old Hearne tells us that the Chippeway ideal 
 of beauty in the woman demanded "a broad flat face, small 
 eyes, high cheek-bones, three or four broad black lines across 
 each cheek, a low forehead, a large broad chin, clumsy hooked 
 nose, and breasts hanging down to the belt." It is natural 
 that women should strive to increase their natural attractive- 
 ness by artificial methods ; the same remark might be made 
 regarding men. The modifications are often found in the di- 
 rection of the natural race characteristics. The Mongolian foot 
 is naturally small ; the African nose is low and wide. The 
 means used vary greatly and can be only briefly suggested ; 
 they are more fully discussed in a preceding chapter. 
 
Some First Steps in Human Progress. 
 
 The teeth may be sharpened or blackened ; the hair may be 
 
 dyed ; the head shaped ; the body tattooed. In Java the women 
 
 blacken their teeth and look with horror on the teeth of whites ; 
 
 "like dogs' teeth." In the Orient women color, with henna, 
 
 their nails, hands, neck, and hair. In the Song of Solomon we 
 
 read of "purple hair." 
 
 The other eminently feminine characteristic to which we refer 
 (2) Extreme of 
 tender love. is maternal love and tenderness. There are no tribes so low 
 
 in the scale of humanity but that the mother loves the child 
 
 with a marked degree of tenderness. The monumental work 
 
 of Ploss contains abundant evidences. Thus, he speaks of a 
 
 mother living along the Mosquito Coast who sings by her dead 
 
 child the following song : 
 
 " Dear little one, I go far from thee ! 
 When will we meet again and go together on the shore ? 
 I feel the kiss of the sweet sea air upon my cheek ; 
 I hear the distant roaring of the sad thunder ; 
 I see the dazzling lightning flash upon the mountain cliff, 
 Which enlightens everything. However, thou are not by me. 
 My heart is burdened and full of sorrow. 
 Farewell, dear little one, without thee I am comfortless." 
 
 He quotes also, from Powers, a description of an old Indian 
 woman in California who had loved a little half-breed friend who 
 had died. She sprang to the grave and bowing over it cried : 
 " My poor little one, farewell ! Ah, thou hast a long way before 
 thee to the Spirit land and must go alone. No one from us can 
 accompany thee. Listen, now, carefully, to what I say, and 
 believe surely that I speak the truth. In the Spirit land there 
 are two paths. One is the rose path, which leads to the land 
 in the west, far over the great water ; yonder thou wilt find 
 thy mother. The other is thick grown with thorns and thistles, 
 and leads into the dark land, which is full of snakes. Here 
 you would forever wander and never come to rest. Go to the 
 rose path, little one, hear now, which leads thee to the beautiful 
 land in the west, where eternal summer prevails. May the 
 
Marriage and Family. 223 
 
 great Karaya help thee that thou mayst come to thy goal, for 
 thy little feet must go alone. Farewell, darling little one ! ' ' 
 We call attention to these two points in woman's character 
 
 Woman is 
 
 simply to show that, anywhere and everywhere, woman is the everywhere the 
 
 same. 
 
 same. Whether the Australian savage or the belle in a civil- 
 ized community, she shows alike an attractive and amusing 
 personal vanity and a tenderness quite unlike that of men. 
 
 Almost everywhere the woman is to some degree oppressed 
 and kept in subjection. The worst condition, perhaps, is found Usually she is 
 
 more or less 
 
 in Australia. Lubbock states that their condition in the island in subjection. 
 continent is wretched in the extreme. Treated with the utmost 
 brutality, they are beaten and speared on the least provocation. 
 "Few women," says Eyre, "would be found to be free from 
 frightful scars upon the head or the marks of spears upon their 
 bodies. I have seen a young woman who from the number of 
 these marks appeared to have been almost riddled with these 
 spear-marks. If at all good looking their position is, if pos- 
 sible, even worse than otherwise.'' In China the classics speak 
 of woman's three obeyings : first, before marriage to her 
 father ; second, after marriage to her husband ; third, in widow- 
 hood to her sons. Even if not maltreated they are often not 
 respected. While Patagonian women are not abused, it would 
 be considered disgraceful for a husband to help his wife at 
 work. Among the negroes of Caill£, Baba, when asked why 
 he did not make merry with his wives, replied, that if he did 
 he should not be able to manage them for they would laugh at 
 him when he ordered them to do anything. Among some Mo- 
 hammedans women are considered to be without souls ; in 
 many places they are debarred religious services. Among cer- 
 tain African and California tribes are regular secret societies 
 whose only purpose is to keep the women in ignorance and 
 subjection. 
 Women are often the subjects of peculiar and extreme pro- 
 
224 
 
 Some First Steps in Human Progress. 
 
 Subject to 
 peculiar pro- 
 hibitions. 
 
 Prohibitions 
 with relation to 
 parents-in-law, 
 etc. 
 
 hibitions. These may affect their food, language, or decorum. 
 Hottentots, ancient Mexicans, Todas, do not allow women to 
 eat with nor before men. Among some people they are for- 
 bidden certain kinds of food, and there are distinctly marked 
 kinds of men's food and women's food. Thus, in Tahiti, the 
 woman may not eat the same kinds of food as her husband, 
 nor in the same place, nor cooked at the same fire. Men could 
 eat frogs, fish, fowls, cocoanuts, plantains, and offerings to the 
 gods ; women could eat none of these on pain of death. 
 Women could not touch the men's fire or their food basket 
 under the penalty of death. So Ellis tells us. Among, the 
 Khonds women may not eat pork. Among the Mishmis they 
 eat no animals but birds, fish, and field mice ; nor may a 
 woman eat food in her father-in-law's house. These prohibi- 
 tions are sometimes directed against the mode of woman's ap- 
 pearance or her freedom of going from place to place. Thus, 
 among the ancient Mexicans, women might not appear in pub- 
 lic ; Mohammedan women generally are not allowed to go 
 without veils in public. Prohibition against seeing articles used 
 in religious ceremonial is known. Thus, we are told that 
 among the Uaupes, the musical instruments used at the festi- 
 vals were not to be seen by women ; when the sound of these 
 instruments is heard approaching, every woman repairs to the 
 woods or sheds and remains invisible until after the ceremony 
 is over. The death penalty is inflicted for neglect of this pro- 
 hibition. 
 
 Some of the most singular prohibitions are produced by mar- 
 riage ; such are widespread and relate to address or conduct 
 with parents-in-law. Thus Franklin says that " among the far 
 northern Indians it was considered extremely improper for the 
 mother-in-law to speak or even to look at her son-in law ; and 
 when she has a communication to make to him it is etiquette 
 that she shall turn her back on him and address him through 
 
Fig. 28.— Ojibwa Birch-bark Canoe. 
 
 Fig. 29.— Mandan "Bull-Boat" or Coracle. 
 
Marriage and Family. 117 
 
 the medium of a third person." Among the Omahas neither 
 the mother-in-law nor the father-in-law will hold any direct 
 communication with their son-in-law ; nor will he, on any occa- 
 sion or under any consideration, converse with them, although 
 no ill-will exists between them ; they will not, on any account, 
 mention each other's name in company, nor look in each 
 other's faces ; any conversation which passes between them is 
 conducted through the medium of some other person. Nor is 
 this practice confined to America. It occurs as well in Siberia, 
 Mongolia, China, Hindustan, Borneo, Fiji, Central Africa, 
 Australia. 
 
 There is such a thing as woman's language distinct from 
 man's language. Among the Kaffirs "the married woman language, 
 must hlonipa her father-in-law and all her husband's male rela- 
 tives, ascending — that is, she is cut off from all intercourse with 
 them. She must not pronounce their names even mentally, 
 and whenever the emphatic syllable of their names occurs in 
 any other word, she must avoid it by either using a totally new 
 word or by substituting a new syllable. The son-in-law is 
 placed under the same restrictions toward his mother-in-law. 
 He cannot enjoy her society, or remain in the same hut with 
 her, nor can he pronounce her name." 
 
 Among most lower peoples there is a sex division of labor. 
 There is man's work and there is woman's work, sharply de- labor between 
 fined. Where there is least of this, as also where women work 
 too hard, they age early. Thus, among the Eskimo, where the 
 women dress like men and do very much of the heavy work, 
 they look old at twenty years. We are not sure but the em- 
 phasis of this fact might do far more to put a stop to the pres- 
 ent tendency of our own women, who are struggling to take the 
 place of their brothers, husbands, fathers, in the world's activi- 
 ties, than any other argument. The penalty of looking old as 
 the result of such experiments might well seem frightful. Two 
 
 the sexes. 
 
228 Some First Steps in Human Progress. 
 
 or three samples, drawn from Spencer, will suffice to show 
 what woman's work usually is. Among the Chinooks, men 
 fight, fish, hunt, build houses, make canoes, fashion weapons 
 and utensils, gather fire-wood, make the fire, cook and serve 
 the food at feasts, assist in cleaning the fish, and trade ; women 
 gather roots, make clothing of rushes, grass, etc., assist in 
 rowing canoes and fishing, and engage in trade. Among the 
 Comanches, women do all the drudgery, accompany men to 
 the hunt, skin and dress the carcass, tan the skin, and make 
 garments. Among nomadic Arabs, men fight, drive camels, 
 do needlework, tan skins ; women cook, tend the flocks, carry 
 water, do most of the menial work, milk goats, sew skins, 
 weave tent coverings of camels' and goats' hair. Among the 
 Todas, the men tend cattle, do dairy work, and build ; the 
 women do the ordinary woman's work in our sense of the term. 
 The men bring the water and the wood ; the women embroider, 
 sing, etc. 
 Age of Turning now to the marriage, we find that the participants 
 
 marriage. may ^ e young or old, and of equal or unequal age, varying 
 
 with the people or the race. Many people betroth the children 
 at a tender age. The Chinese sometimes do so before the 
 children are born ; coast negroes betroth girls early ; Chippe- 
 wayans betroth infant girls to grown men. Marriage itself may 
 be very early. Abyssinian girls at eight or nine are married to 
 boys their own age ; among Parsees marriage is performed in 
 infancy or early childhood ; the girl> bride of the Hindus has 
 recently occupied a considerable share of public attention. 
 Morgan tells us that among the ancient Iroquois a young 
 warrior was always married to a woman greatly his senior, on 
 the supposition that he needed a companion experienced in 
 life's affairs. The marriage was also deferred on his part 
 until he was twenty-five years of age, that he might be inured 
 to the chase and war before being weighted by responsibility. 
 
Marriage and Family. 229 
 
 Thus, often, at twenty-five he was married to a woman of 
 forty, usually a widow, while at sixty as a widower he would 
 marry a maiden of twenty. Among the Kirghis, Mrs. Atkinson 
 says : "At one house we saw a married couple where the 
 woman was thirty and the husband a mere boy. He was being 
 punished as a child would be. The cause of such marriages is 
 that the boys are orphans who must be cared for." 
 
 Among many peoples there are certain preliminary cere- p re ij m j narv 
 monies. Thus the Khonds and Chinese go through a mass of ceremonles - 
 divinations to determine whether the time and conditions are 
 propitious. Among the Khonds, when the day approaches a 
 bygah is called to fix the propitious moment. To ascertain this 
 he places a lota of water on the ground before him. The 
 fathers and the village elders stand around. The bygah takes 
 up a grain of wheat in each hand, and, holding them over the 
 water, with many prayers to the deity for his favor, he drops 
 the two grains at the same moment into the water. If they 
 meet in the water on falling, the moment is regarded as pro- 
 pitious. If they turn in opposite directions, the time is unfavor- 
 able ; the deity is then sacrificed to, and the byguh tries again, 
 usually successfully. As to the Chinese, the elaborate divina- 
 tion which they conduct is too well known to require de- 
 scription. 
 
 The marriage ceremony proper varies greatly in different Theweddi 
 parts of the world ; most of them plainly fall into one of three 
 categories, which have been pointed out by Starcke : first, 
 the capture symbol ; second, the meal symbol ; third, the pro- 
 tector and hunter symbol. A few examples, taken mainly from 
 Lubbock, will illustrate marriage by capture. 
 
 Among Khonds, Campbell says : " I heard loud cries pro- 
 ceeding from a village near by. I rode to the spot and there Marriage by 
 saw a man bearing away upon his back something enveloped 
 in scarlet cloth. He was surrounded by twenty or thirty young 
 
230 Some First Steps in Human Progress. 
 
 fellows and by them protected from desperate attacks made 
 upon him by a party of young women. The man had just been 
 married, and his burden was his bride whom he was taking 
 home. Her youthful friends were seeking to regain possession 
 of her, and hurled stones and bamboos at the head of the bride- 
 groom until he reached his own village." 
 
 With Kalmucks, after the price of the girl has been agreed 
 upon, a sham resistance is always made by her camp people, 
 in spite of which she fails not to be borne away on a richly 
 caparisoned horse with loud shouts and "feu de joie." 
 
 With the Eskimo of Smith Sound: "No ceremony— except 
 that the boy is required to carry off his bride by main force : 
 for even among these blubber-eating people, the woman only 
 saves her modesty by a sham resistance although she knows 
 years beforehand that her destiny is sealed and that she is to 
 become the wife of the man from whose embraces, when the 
 nuptial day comes, she is obliged to free herself, if possible, by 
 kicking and screaming with might and main, until she is safely 
 landed in the hut of her future lord, when she gives up the 
 combat very Cheerfully and takes possession of her new abode.'' 
 
 In New Zealand "a man asks consent of the girl's father or 
 nearest relation. When he then attempts to carry her off she 
 resists with all her strength, and, as girls in New Zealand are 
 pretty robust, sometimes a fearful struggle takes place. Both 
 are soon stripped to the skin and it is sometimes the work of 
 hours to remove the fair prize one hundred yards. If she breaks 
 away she flies, and he has all to do again." 
 
 This symbol of capture is exceeding widespread. It occurs 
 among Australians, Malays, in Hindustan, Central Asia, Siberia, 
 Kamtschatka, among Eskimo, Redskins, in Brazil, Chili, 
 Tierra del Fuego, the Philippine Islands, the Fijis, with Kaffirs, 
 Arabs, negroes, in Circassia, and traces of it are found in 
 Europe. 
 
Marriage and Family. 231 
 
 The second symbol, that of the meal or the like, is found 
 among numerous peoples. Thus, among the Veddahs, the The meal 
 man applies directly to the girl's father. If there is no objec- aratlon symbol, 
 tion, the father calls his daughter, who comes forward with a 
 cord of her own twisting in her hand. This she ties about the 
 man's waist in place of the cord he has previously worn. 
 Among some natives of New Guinea both parties sit in front of 
 an idol. The bride gives the groom tobacco and a betel leaf. 
 They then join hands. Among the Chibchas it is said that the 
 man first sends a mantle to the father of the selected maiden. 
 If it is not returned to him, he immediately sends another 
 mantle, one half a deer, and a load of coca. The next night, 
 before daybreak, he seats himself at the door of the house 
 where his chosen one dwells, making only noise enough to ex- 
 cite attention. The girl calls out : "Who is outside ; is it per- 
 chance a thief who comes to steal or to look for me ? I do not 
 owe any one anything, nor do I entertain guests." The groom 
 remains silent outside. Presently the bride brings out a large 
 gourd of chica; coming close to him she first tastes it, then 
 gives to him. He drinks as much as he can and the marriage 
 is concluded. Of the ancient Peruvians Herrera said when all 
 had been agreed the bride and groom fasted two days, abstain- 
 ing from salt, flesh, spice, and all liquors. After the fast the 
 couple met ; the next day the bride went with women to a 
 special spring, whence she brought on her back a pitcher of 
 water, and from it and a sort of grain made a beer. The bride, 
 standing behind the groom, sitting on a chair, then gave him to 
 drink and drank herself. 
 
 Similar to this symbol and frequently connected with it is the 
 symbol of submission. Thus among the Todas the ceremony 
 consists in the groom's placing his foot on the head of the 
 bride ; she also performs some simple household duty. The 
 Fulahs make this symbol very realistic ; the wife is first beaten 
 
232 Some First Steps in Human Progress. 
 
 by the father and then by the husband to show that she passes 
 from paternal to husband's authority. Of course, in this whole 
 meal and submission symbol, the meaning is plain ; it signifies 
 that the wife undertakes to be obedient and to perform wifely 
 duties. 
 The matter is not always, however, so one-sided, and in the 
 
 hunter symbols, third, or protector and hunter, symbol we have the obligations 
 and the duties of the husband presented. Among the Iroquois, 
 on the day set, the maiden was led by her mother and friends 
 to the home of the intended husband. She carried a few cakes 
 of bread to present to her mother-in-law as evidence of her 
 skill and usefulness. After this the old woman gave the mother 
 of the girl some venison as evidence of her son's ability to 
 provide food. So among the Creeks, we read in Schoolcraft 
 that the man who wishes to marry kills a bear with his own 
 hands and sends a pan of its grease to the maiden. If she re- 
 ceives it, he next goes to help her hoe her garden ; then he 
 plants her beans and sets the poles for them to climb on. 
 Meantime he tends the ground until the beans are climbed up. 
 They then take each other. Among certain Arabs Baker tells 
 us that at marriages there is much feasting. The groom is 
 whipped by the bride's relatives to test his bravery. The whip- 
 ping is severe, with heavy whips of thick skin, and is done 
 upon his bare back and ribs. He must appear to enjoy it ; if 
 he does so the women spectators cry aloud with delight. 
 
 Forms of the The forms of the famirv vaf y greatly from people to people. 
 
 marrfage ° f the If we look over the whole realm of family structure we shall 
 
 relation. nn( j a number of well-defined types. For example : 
 
 (a) Group marriages. In which a group of men, more or 
 less well defined within the limits of a tribe, take for wives a 
 similarly defined group of women. This is best shown in 
 Australia, where all the men of one clan are married to all the 
 women of another clan. 
 
Marriage and Family. 233 
 
 (6) A form of limited group marriage where a family of 
 brothers marries a family of sisters. This is found among the 
 Todas. 
 
 {c) Polyandry. Where one woman has several husbands. 
 This is not uncommon in Tibet and among the Nairs. 
 
 (d) The Levirate. This is the practice of a brother taking 
 for wife the widow of his older brother. It was custom among 
 the ancient Jews and has prevailed more or less markedly 
 among Mongols, Kaffirs, Yucatanese, Nairs, and others. 
 
 (e) What we commonly call Polygamy, but which would 
 better be called Polygyny, where one man has several wives. 
 In such cases it is but rarely the case that the latter wives have 
 full recognition. Nor are there any peoples where polygyny is 
 general. It is only the more powerful and rich who can afford 
 to have a multiplicity of wives. 
 
 {/) Monogyny, temporary in its character, where one man is 
 married to one wife, and where the relation continues only at 
 the wish of both parties. Such monogyny is not uncommon, 
 and as a matter of fact among most lower peoples it is quite as 
 permanent as any other form of marriage. 
 
 (g) Monogyny of a permanent character, such as is said to 
 
 exist among ourselves, in civilization. 
 
 As we look at the different peoples of the world we find a 
 
 Relationship 
 different view of relationship between parents and children and kin. 
 
 from what we ourselves have, and different ideas regarding de- 
 scent of name and property. Thus, there are many peoples 
 among whom the head of the family is the woman, where the 
 relationship between the mother and the child is completely 
 recognized, where the child takes the name from the mother 
 and receives advantages from mother and mother's kindred. 
 Such a condition of maternal descent and maternal headship is 
 found in almost every part of Africa, in Australia, in India, 
 Polynesia, and prevalently in America. 
 
234 Some First Steps in Human Progress. 
 
 Not only do we thus find extremely different forms of the 
 Kinship terms, marriage relation and different conceptions of kinship and de- 
 scent, but we also find connected with these matters peculiar 
 systems of consanguinity shown by peculiarity in kinship terms. 
 Lewis H. Morgan, at one time America's most prominent and 
 best-known ethnologist, became profoundly impressed by the 
 terms which he found in use among the Seneca Indians for de- 
 noting relationship. He made a careful study of this matter 
 the world over, and from it worked out some conclusions which 
 he used as fundamental in his theories of primitive society. 
 We have no time to discuss the matter here, but refer to it in 
 passing. 
 Theories in re- From these three elements, namely, the varying relation be- 
 primitive e tween husband and wife, the facts presented in maternal de- 
 
 scent, and the peculiar nomenclatures, writers have worked out 
 startling theories in regard to the primitive family. These 
 theories differ somewhat among themselves. Thus, Bachofen 
 believed that there was at first a condition of hetairism — sexual 
 promiscuity ; that out of this grew a condition where the 
 woman was at the head of things, controlling matters of de- 
 scent, etc., which he calls the matriarchate, or woman govern- 
 ment ; after this, and from it, grew up our present condition, 
 which he calls the patriarchate, the government of the father. 
 
 Bachofen's views are not at present adopted, having .been 
 superseded by the somewhat more clearly presented and logical 
 views of McLennan and others. McLennan believed, also, that 
 there was at first hetairism, or promiscuity ; that out of it grew 
 up polyandry ; that this was succeeded by the Levirate ; and 
 that then came a condition of endogamy, where a man could 
 only marry a woman of his own tribe, and lastly exogamy, 
 where the man might or must take a wife from outside. Lub- 
 bock holds that there was first hetairism ; then marriage by 
 actual capture ; that after it came exogamy, or marriage out- 
 
Marriage and Family. 235 
 
 side the clan. He considers endogamy, the necessary marriage 
 within the clan, as exceptional and not in the normal develop- 
 ment ; polyandry also he considers as abnormal. These 
 theories have been presented with great vigor by these various 
 authors and have been discussed and presented fully by many 
 followers. We may say in some form the general theory has 
 gained very wide acceptance. Recently, however, there has 
 been written by Starcke a work called " The Primitive Family," 
 which, on the whole, presents what to us seems a more reason- 
 able and natural condition. 
 
 Starcke holds that there never was a period of hetairism. 
 He claims that the division of labor was early established be- 
 tween man and woman ; that the impulse driving man to mar- 
 riage was the desire to get some one to work and keep house. 
 As boys in the family grew up they wanted wives to care for 
 them and their game. The young man might carry off the 
 young woman by force, or he might have gone to live with her 
 until something happened to drive them from the home. Such 
 connections were monogamous and often permanent. A sec- 
 ond motive in taking a wife was to have her produce children. 
 Children were of great service in primitive communities ; they 
 increased the father's importance. Polygamy arose from the 
 desire to show wealth, power, numerous children ; usually it 
 can only be indulged in by the rich. 
 
 The marriage ceremonies which we have spoken of quite 
 fully illustrate one of three things : the capture symbol shows 
 the sorrow of friends at separation ; the food preparation sym- 
 bol suggests the wife's duties ; the protector symbol suggests 
 the husband's duties. These are all symbolical rather than 
 remnants of ceremonies illustrating past conditions. With 
 polygamy comes the erection of separate houses for wives and 
 the development of maternal descent, etc. Polyandry is not 
 earlier than other forms, but later, and is found only where 
 
 Starcke's view.- 
 
236 Some First Steps in Human Progress. 
 
 the family communistic idea is developed. Earlier monogamy, 
 based generally upon the need of help and service, may pass 
 through polygamy and polyandry into the later monogyny 
 which we now recognize, based generally upon sex. 
 
CHAPTER XXIV. 
 Religion. 
 There has been much discussion among writers as to whether 
 
 ., ,,..., ,. . _, . Are there tribes 
 
 there are any peoples living who have no religion. Plenty of without re- 
 
 t^ t i ^ ! ... =.. ligious ideas ? 
 
 French authors, some German, and a few English, state plainly 
 that there are atheistic, i. e., non-religious, peoples. Thus, for 
 example, in Lubbock's "Origin of Civilization" one may read 
 a lengthy list of such tribes. In many cases, however, peoples 
 who have at first been described as totally without religion have 
 been found on further investigation to have quite fully devel- 
 oped conceptions in that direction. Among all people the re- 
 ligious ideas and thoughts are the most difficult to get at ; they 
 are rarely spoken of before the stranger. It is possible that 
 those who claim that there are existing tribes who have no sort 
 of religious notions have gone too far ; it is curious, however, 
 how little those who insist that all peoples have religious ideas 
 are contented with. For it seems that there are some peoples 
 who have as religious thoughts only two notions — first, that 
 there is a future life ; second, that there are spirits. 
 
 Probably, if all religious conceptions which are now held 
 could be blotted out of existence, all peoples would very soon 5{2j us fleas'" 
 have a new set of religious ideas which would not, on the anse - 
 whole, vary greatly from those which we find at present among 
 savages and barbarians. How would they arrive at such ideas 
 as those of a future life, and of the existence of spirits ? The 
 conception of a soul as distinct from the body is a simple one The idea of a 
 and naturally aroused. Tylor and others have indicated the s 
 method. All men dream ; the lowest savage dreams ; dogs 
 
 237 
 
23S Some First Steps in Human Progress. 
 
 and lower animals dream. In the dream the person goes 
 afield, visits places far remote, does things either apparently 
 with or against his will. When he awakes he tells where he 
 has been, what he has done. Those who have sat by know 
 that he has been nowhere, but has been lying sleeping in the 
 hut. It is as easy to convince the savage dreamer of his mis- 
 take as it is to prove to the ones who have sat by the slumberer 
 that they are wrong. 
 
 What happens to this one happens in time to all. How 
 explain it? Surely there must be, so the savage reasons, 
 some part of man which goes abroad and makes these 
 visits, something invisible, but something which feels and 
 thinks and acts like himself. It is the soul. In the same 
 way the savage man, creeping to the smooth and quiet 
 pool of water and looking in, sees his reflection ; form, feature, 
 expression, all are his ; it must be the other self — the soul. 
 Again, when one walks in the sunshine there ever accompanies 
 him a dark companion ; halting when he halts, running when 
 he' runs, moving with him, not to be got rid of — shade, soul. 
 There can be no question that if men forgot they had souls the 
 idea would be fresh kindled by the dream, the reflection, the 
 shadow. At times some savage or barbarian falls helpless, 
 lies apparently inanimate in a swoon — his soul has gone sud- 
 denly from him ; when it returns he lives again. But at last 
 some day the soul leaves never to return. Is it tired of its 
 clay tenement ? Has it found some happier home ? The future 
 world stands ready for such souls. 
 Occasionally the savage sees his fellow suddenly changed ; 
 Possession ne *" a ^ s ' & as P s > struggles violently with clenched fists, with 
 
 struggling, shaking limbs, with teeth set, with eyes rolling ; 
 he is an object qualified to inspire terror. We say, of course, 
 the man is in a fit ; the savage or barbarian believes he is pos- 
 sessed by some other soul, that enters into him, controlling 
 
Religion. 239 
 
 Souls of things. 
 
 him and using him. The doctrine of possession is a very 
 ancient one, which lasted long even in civilization, and has not 
 yet entirely disappeared among all peoples. 
 
 The idea of a soul once fully born, what more natural than 
 to recognize souls in animals ; but if souls in animals, then 
 souls in things. We have already seen how primitive man 
 personifies and animates everything about him. We have 
 seen how he looks upon the clouds, the lightning, the sun, 
 the moon, the stars, bodies of water, the winds, as living per- 
 sons. But if so, they too have souls, and this idea that things 
 have souls is almost as old as the race itself. There is no 
 meaning in the burying of weapons with the dead, unless the 
 souls of the weapons are to accompany the soul of the dead 
 man and be of use and service to him in the land beyond the 
 grave. Among the Sacs and Foxes, when a child dies a little 
 dog is killed at the same time, to accompany the soul of the 
 dead one and to find the path, a difficult one, to the land of 
 souls. Among hundreds of rude peoples the weapons, shield, 
 and decorations of the warrior, the tools and implements of 
 the woman, the toys of children, are buried with the dead ; 
 with all are buried food and drink enough to last until the 
 journey is accomplished. 
 
 The soul of things and persons being once fully grasped, the 
 idea of spirits separate from things arises easily. It is a higher t'nct from souls, 
 thought. It is a point worth emphasis. A tree may have a 
 soul that comes and goes at will — that is one thing. There 
 may be a spirit outside of a tree, that watches over it — that is 
 a different thing. The two are related, the one thought may 
 be derived out of the other, but they differ. The soul within a 
 creature or a thing may be more or less helpful ; a spirit disem- 
 bodied may be good ; it may be bad. The soul within the 
 object is worth guarding against ; but the spirit dwelling free 
 and unconfined must be propitiated. 
 
240 
 
 Some First Steps in Human Progress. 
 
 Spencer's view. 
 
 Lubbock's 
 classification of 
 religions. 
 
 There are two quite prominent theories regarding the origin 
 of spirits. Tylor in his remarkable treatise presents nearly the 
 ideas given above ; Spencer, on the contrary, holds that the 
 idea of spirits is derived only from that of the souls of men ; 
 the spirit, says he, is a ghost. 
 
 Sir John Lubbock classifies the stages of religious thought 
 as follows : " First, Atheism, the absence of any definite ideas 
 upon the subject. Second, Fetishism, in which man supposes 
 he can force the deities to comply with his desires. Third, 
 Nature worship or Totemism, in which natural objects, trees, 
 lakes, stones, animals, etc., are worshiped. Fourth, Shaman- 
 ism, in which the separate deities are far more powerful than 
 man, and of a different nature. Their place of abode is also 
 far away and inaccessible save to the Shaman. Fifth, Idolatry 
 or Anthropomorphism, in which gods are patterned after men, 
 but powerful and still part of nature, not creators. The deities 
 are represented by images or idols. Sixth, where the deity is 
 regarded as outside of nature and a creator. Seventh and 
 lastly, where we find morality connected with religion." 
 
 The classification is not altogether satisfactory, but may 
 serve us as an outline. It is well worth noticing the last point 
 that Lubbock suggests. We are so prone to think of religion 
 ways connected! a °d morality as joined, necessarily related, and so dependent 
 on each other that the thought of one without the other seems 
 unnatural. Yet, there are whole codes of morals— and in 
 some cases quite excellent — totally unrelated to the religions 
 of the people holding them ; on the other hand, there are re- 
 ligions remarkably complex and well developed in which there 
 is no element of moral teaching. 
 
 We have already said enough regarding tribes without re- 
 ligion. There may be such ; but those usually named are un- 
 certain. On the whole, it would be safe to say that man is a 
 religious animal. It is quite common to look upon fetish 
 
 Religion and 
 
 mora" 
 
 ways 
 
Fig. 30. — Shinto Priest. Japan. 
 
Religion. 243 
 
 worship as the lowest form. Notwithstanding all that has been 
 written on the subject, it is a little difficult to find exactly what 
 men mean by fetishes. The Africans— that is, negro Africans 
 —are usually the stock example of fetish worshipers. Yet, Fetish worship. 
 Chatelain, who knows much of Angola negroes, insists that 
 fetishism, in the usual sense of the word, characterizes more 
 strongly the ignorant Portuguese Catholics in that district than 
 it does the negroes. A fetish may be almost any object ; gen- 
 erally, however, something unusual or peculiar, strange or 
 suggestive. It is supposed to have power and to be able to 
 help or hinder enterprises. It may or may not be portable, but 
 very commonly is small enough to be carried. To it requests 
 may be made, gifts and offerings presented. If the venture is 
 successful the fetish is rewarded ; if failure comes, it may be 
 discarded, punished, destroyed. 
 
 Perhaps as good examples of fetishes as could be mentioned 
 are those described by Cushing among the Zuiiians. To the 
 Zunian there are six great parts of the universe : the north, the 
 west, the south, the east, the above, and the below. Each of 
 these districts has its color. The north is yellow, the west 
 blue, the south red, the east white, the above all colors, and 
 the below black. Each of these districts also has its animal ; 
 the north the mountain lion, the west the bear, the south the 
 badger, the east the wolf, the above the eagle, the below the 
 mole. Little representations of these animals are made in 
 stone ; to them are fastened arrow-heads and feathers. They 
 are fetish prey gods of the hunt. In the series of fetishes the 
 coyote replaces the bear and the wild cat replaces the badger. 
 These little fetishes are kept by priests ; they are greatly ven- 
 erated and serve as mediators between man and the sacred an- 
 imals they represent. Prayers are made to them and cere- 
 monies conducted with reference to them ; sacrifices of plumed 
 sticks are offered them. Each of the six occurs in the six col- 
 
 Zuni fetishes. 
 
244 Some First Steps in Human Progress. 
 
 ors having power over the district appropriate to the color. 
 
 When going on the chase, the hunter takes his weapons and 
 goes to the house of the deer medicine, where a wicker basket 
 containing these fetishes is placed before him. Facing the di- 
 rection of the fetish which he means to use, he sprinkles into 
 and over the basket sacred meal. He then holds a small 
 quantity of meal in his left hand over the region of his heart, 
 removes his head-band, and prays. Scattering prayer meal in 
 the direction he proposes taking, he selects his fetish. Placing 
 it to, or toward, his lips, he breathes upon it and gives thanks. 
 At every stage of his hunting journey he performs ceremonies. 
 Having killed his game, he holds it to his heart, then takes out 
 his fetish, breathes on it, bids it share, and dips it in the blood. 
 He then scoops up some blood with his hand and sips it ; 
 then tears out the liver, ravenously devours a part of it, and 
 exclaims, "Thanks." In skinning and quartering the game he 
 cuts out the inner lobe of the ear and blood clot of the heart 
 and some hair. Of these, with black paint, corn pollen, tur- 
 quoise beads, and shell dust, he makes a ball, and deposits it, 
 with a package of prayer meal, on the spot where the animal 
 died in a little grave, repeating a prayer the while. On his re- 
 turn home the fetish is returned with prayers for future help, 
 thanksgiving, and reminders that it has been fed and supplied 
 with drink. 
 
 There are many different natural objects which are rever- 
 shi P- enced. The Tlingits and Haidas of the Northwest coast 
 
 worship mountains, the sun, the moon, and many other natural 
 objects. Every one knows of the animal worship of the old 
 Egyptians. Very curious is the worship of the cow as found 
 among the Todas. Serpent worship is found almost the whole 
 world around. Trees are still sacred to many peoples and 
 must have been much reverenced by our own ancestors in the 
 forests of Western Europe. Very frequently it is not the thing 
 
 Nature wor- 
 
Religion. 245 
 
 or place itself that is thus worshiped, but an indwelling spirit 
 
 recognized as distinct from the object. Thus whirlpools and Local spirits. 
 
 eddies in streams are often thought of as the abode of some 
 
 evil spirit which attempts to drag down passers in canoes. At 
 
 such places the barbarian usually drops little gifts as offerings 
 
 to the malignant spirit. The Lorelei in the Rhine is the type 
 
 of many a being feared by lower and ancient men. Where the 
 
 Mississippi and the Missouri come together Father Marquette 
 
 found that the Indians, fearing the whirls and eddies there, left 
 
 gifts. 
 
 Where spirits capable of doing harm so abound every one p 
 must be upon his guard. A charm, an amulet, words for repe- a s ains t spirits. 
 tition to disarm the mysterious power — such things are much in 
 vogue. Any man may have such objects for his help, may 
 know some such protecting lore. Certain men, however, de- 
 voted from childhood or "called " in later life, make a special 
 
 study of spirits and the mode of dealing with them. Such men 
 
 J r " The Shaman. 
 
 are Shamans. The word was first used with reference to the 
 
 Shamans of Siberia and other parts of Northern Asia. The 
 Shaman is found, too, in full perfection among Alaskan tribes, 
 and even among some interior Indians and in Eskimo land. 
 
 ' ' Everywhere he is a marvel. He is seen to summon spirits, 
 to assume and transfer diseases, to unbind himself when tied 
 with ropes ; he falls into trances, descends to the lower world 
 in search of souls of the sick, ascends into the highest heaven, 
 is clairvoyant and prophetic." Everything about him has its 
 mystic meaning. " His tambourine is at once the summoner of 
 spirits and the steed upon which the Shaman mounts to heaven ; 
 covered with strange pictures it possesses in itself great spirit 
 power. ' ' Among the Tlingits the Shaman's dress is helpful ; his 
 mask, frequently carved with animals, imparts spirit power ; his 
 wooden pillow, carved perhaps at the ends into the shape of land- 
 otter heads, whispers spirit knowledge to him through his slum- 
 
246 Some First Steps in Human Progress. 
 
 bers ; little carved figures of wood called "yeks " stand as guards 
 over him while he sleeps, keeping off harmful spirits and add- 
 ing to his knowledge ; little ornaments of ivory hung on his 
 dancing-shirt rattle, and each one has its power to keep off 
 mysterious influences ; his carved wands, covered with de- 
 signs, battle for him with all the spirits which are represented 
 in the carving. The Shaman brings upon himself conditions 
 much like catalepsy ; he becomes convulsed, loses reason, 
 speaks with the spirits, communes with invisible powers, 
 prophesies, receives communications. Is it any wonder that 
 such a man has complete power over those among whom his 
 life is spent ? Of course, as diseases are commonly looked upon 
 by lower races as due to spirit influence, the Shaman is a phy- 
 sician who treats sickness. While he may have some knowl- 
 edge of the medicinal properties of herbs and roots and barks, 
 his medicines are usually spiritual — conjuring, sorcery. 
 
 Among most northwestern tribes, as we have seen, the Sha- 
 man is in vogue. Further south we find him disappearing, and 
 in his place, as among the Kwakiutl, we find great secret so- 
 cieties, the members of which have gained power over spirits, 
 Secret ' t' anc * tnese act collectively, either for their own benefit or for 
 ence Piri ' ' nflu ~ tnat of P atients or patrons. Hoffman has fully described the 
 medicine society of the Ojibwas. Among these people there 
 are three classes of mystery men : First, the Midi, who is sim- 
 ply a Shaman. He is a member of an order into which he must 
 be initiated. Passing from degree to degree, four in all, he 
 gains greater and greater spirit power. Second, the Jessakkid. 
 These form no association. Their power is a gift from Animiki 
 Mystery men of and is received in youth. They are seers and prophets ; they 
 invoke and cause evil ; they can untie bonds and exorcise de- 
 mons. Third, the Wabeno, prompted by youthful dreams to 
 fast. He practices medicine independently ; he is a sorcerer, 
 medicine man, and fire-handler. 
 
Religion. 247 
 
 To show the relative abundance of these different types of 
 mystery men, we are told that out of fifteen hundred Menomi- 
 nee Indians there were one hundred Midi, five Jessakkid, and 
 two Wabeno. The Ojibwa youth retires to the forest for his 
 first fast. When much reduced he becomes hysterical and 
 ecstatic. Whatever appears to him in visions becomes his per- 
 sonal spirit, or Manido. An effigy of the Manido is made or 
 drawn on bark and worn. In order to become a Midi, the 
 young man must be initiated by those already members. The 
 most significant part of the initiation is the shooting of the 
 migis. The four leading priests shoot the migis at the novice. 
 At the final shot he falls as if lifeless and lies until revived by 
 the chief priest. After thanks have been given and cere- 
 monies of various kinds performed, the newly-elected Midi tests 
 his own power. He takes his medicine sack in which is his 
 migis (which is a piece of shell) and successively shoots at all, 
 saying just before he aims, " Ya, ho, ho, ho, ho.'' Each falls, 
 recovering only after three or four have been shot after him. 
 All then put their migis in the right palms, taking their sacks 
 in their left hands, move around and show the migis to every- 
 body present crying, "Ho, ho, ho, ho," in a quick, low tone. 
 Each pretends to swallow his migis, strangles, gags, then spits 
 it out and falls as dead. They gradually recover and put away 
 the migis in the medicine sacks. Spirit power increases each 
 time the man undergoes the shooting by the migis, and it is in 
 this stage that such powers are absorbed. Each Midi may have 
 a birch-bark record, on which is recorded the origin of the so- 
 ciety, his personal Midi history, and the like. 
 
 A Jessakkid, or a Midi of the third degree, removes disease 
 demons from the body of patients with bones. He has four or 
 more hollow bones made of the leg-bones of large birds, as 
 thick as a finger and four or five inches long. After going 
 through certain ceremonies, he goes down on all fours near the 
 
248 
 
 Some First Steps in Human Progress. 
 
 Sacred num- 
 bers. 
 
 Comparative re- 
 ligion—a great 
 field. 
 
 patient with his mouth close to the ailing part ; he rattles and 
 sings to drive the spirit to a certain point. Then he immedi- 
 ately touches one end of a bone there and strikes it apparently 
 down his throat. He does the same with the other three, al- 
 though the last one protrudes from his mouth, is put against 
 the part, and violently sucked. He then crawls away, violently 
 retches, spits up the bones, and recovers. 
 
 The Midi of the fourth degree invokes and communes with 
 Gitche Manido himself. He is almost equal to Minabozho. 
 He does marvelous things. For example, one is said to have 
 shut himself up in one of two wigwams ; fires were built about 
 the one in which he was. After the place was extremely hot he 
 was seen to crawl out from the other wigwam, at a great dis- 
 tance, totally unharmed. 
 
 We have seen that the Zufiians attribute sacredness to the 
 cardinal points. We have seen that the number four recurs in 
 the ceremonies and performances of the Midi. There are four 
 degrees ; the man uses four bones in treating disease ; there are 
 four chief officiants in the initiation ceremonies ; the number 
 four occurs many other times, in connections which we have 
 not described. We should find it sacred throughout North 
 America ; almost every tribe looks upon it with feelings of awe 
 and reverence. We should find, also, other sacred numbers, as 
 seven among the American Indians. We may not here discuss 
 the matter. It is enough to say that very early the idea of 
 sacredness attaches to numbers and that all primitive folk and 
 ruder tribes have sacred numbers. 
 
 A most important field of study lies before us, but we may 
 not touch it ; to trace the religious beliefs through higher 
 forms ; to show how one idea after another develops ; to see 
 just what the great religions of the world are, and how they 
 came to be, and what they owe to older and ruder forms. We 
 are considering only some first steps in human progress. We 
 
249 
 
 see how the idea of soul, of a future life, of spirits, of propiti- 
 ation, of mediators, intercessors, priests', sacred numbers, might 
 arise and have arisen. 
 
CHAPTER XXV. 
 
 Religion ; the Dead Man. 
 
 In any lower population of mankind there are four indi- 
 viduals whom to know thoroughly is to know the people. 
 
 The four pecu- 
 liar members of These four are the child, the woman, the priest, and the dead 
 
 a society. 
 
 man. The common man is much the same everywhere, among 
 all people and at every stage of culture. He is the worker, the 
 hunter, the protector. Life in his case is prosaic. There is 
 little of superstition clustered about him, and there is little to 
 render him a peculiar being. On the other hand, about the 
 child, the woman, the priest, the dead man, there have gath- 
 ered all sorts of curious notions and strange practices ; about 
 all four there lingers very much out of the ancient past. To 
 know the thoughts and the feelings relative to these four is to 
 know thoroughly the psychology of a race. 
 In this brief discussion regarding the dead man, we shall 
 Our authorities. q Uote muc h from Spencer on the one hand, and from Yarrow 
 on the other. To them more than to any others must the facts 
 here presented be referred, although in both cases these authors 
 speak at second-hand. 
 
 Consider first the ideas which savage and barbarous people 
 Savage and 
 
 barbarous have concerning death. Among the Australians "no mat- 
 
 notions regard- 
 ing death. ter how evident it is that death has been the result of natural 
 
 causes, it is at once set down that the defunct was bewitched 
 
 by the sorcerers of some neighboring tribe." Among the 
 
 natives of South Africa no one is supposed to die naturally. 
 
 "The Bechuanas and all the Kaffir tribes have no idea of any 
 
 250 
 
Religion ; The Dead Man. 251 
 
 man's dying except from hunger, violence, or witchcraft. If a 
 man die, even at the age of ninety, if he did not die of hunger 
 or by violence, his death is attributed to sorcery or to witchcraft 
 and blood is required to expiate or avenge it." On the Guinea 
 Coast "none on any account dieth but that some other has be- 
 witched them to death." In South America "even if an 
 Abipone die from being pierced with many wounds, or from 
 having his bones broken, or his strength exhausted by extreme 
 old age, his countrymen all deny that wounds or weakness 
 occasioned his death, and anxiously try to discover by which 
 juggler and for what reason he was killed." Similar beliefs 
 might be quoted from many North American tribes. 
 
 The method of disposing of the dead varies greatly among -p^e met hod of 
 different people. Various classifications have been suggested ; the P deao? ° 
 the following may answer for a tentative grouping : 
 
 Modes 
 
 of 
 
 disposing 
 
 of 
 
 dead. 
 
 Some examples of these different methods will be interesting Examples 
 and may prove instructive. In them we should notice not only °<( I ) l>ur i a l: 
 the method of disposition itself, but also the attendant circum- 
 stances and ceremonies. Very simple is the Pima burial. The pima 
 body is tied in a sitting position with ropes passing about the 
 neck and under the knees ; a grave four or five feet deep, two 
 feet in diameter — a perfectly round pit — is dug ; on one side at 
 the bottom of this pit a vault is excavated for the body, which 
 is placed therein ; the pit itself is then filled with stones, twigs, 
 logs, etc. Among the Otoes a vault-like tomb is made into otoe 
 which the chattels of the deceased are carefully unloaded ; 
 the bottom, which is wider than the top, is spread with straw 
 
 ' 
 
 f Simple 
 
 
 I. 
 
 Burial. \ Urn. 
 
 1 Water. 
 
 
 2. 
 
 Cremation. 
 
 
 
 Exposure, -j (0) 
 
 On scaffolds or in trees. 
 
 3- 
 
 In caves. 
 
 
 W) 
 
 To animals or birds. 
 
 . 4- 
 
 Embalmment. 
 
 
252 Some First Steps in Human Progress. 
 
 matting ; the sides are hung with shawls and blankets ; trunks, 
 pottery, etc., are piled about the sides, a pony is strangled, 
 often also a dog ; the heads of both are put on the grave after 
 it is filled. The deceased, lowered into the open grave, has 
 buried with him his saddle, bridle, and the like ; logs are 
 fitted carefully over the grave and _ earth heaped over all. All 
 the property t of the deceased is distributed to outsiders. A 
 midnight vigil is held for four days and nights, a small fire is 
 kindled at sunset, and relatives meet and mourn. 
 There are several points of interest in connection with this 
 puraosefofthe O toe burial, which on the whole is a fair type of American In- 
 ceremomes. dian funeral ceremonies. Notice the burying of property with 
 the dead ; we have already seen that among savage men ob- 
 jects have souls. Of course the dead man cannot use the ma- 
 terial objects buried with him, but the soul of the dead man 
 uses the soul of the object in the spirit world. It is also inter- 
 esting to observe in this case the killing of a horse and of a 
 dog, which go with the dead man as his servants and helpers. 
 Very common, too, is the practice of distributing the property 
 of the dead to outsiders ; it prevailed throughout North Amer- 
 ica and frequently reduced the family of the deceased to 
 beggary. The midnight watch is interesting and the kindled 
 fire, particularly as both were kept up for four days ; it will be 
 remembered that four is the sacred number of most American 
 Indians. The statement made in regard to the meeting of 
 relatives and their mourning has reference to what is commonly 
 called " wailing. " It is a simple thing to speak of ' ' wailing for 
 the dead," but no one who has not heard the dreadful outcry 
 of barbarous people on such an occasion, can conceive of its 
 terrible character. 
 Position of the Amon g man y peoples the position of the face or head of the 
 face sometimes dead man when buried is a matter of great importance. Thus 
 
 3. mflttcr 01 
 
 concern. the Mohammedans place the body so that it faces the Kaaba ; 
 
Religion ; The Dead Man. 253 
 
 many peoples have the dead face the rising sun ; some place 
 them with the face toward the setting sun. In all such cases 
 some religious idea or superstitious belief underlies the 
 practice. 
 
 Among the Moki Indians, who usually bury the dead in cists 
 or coffins of stone or wooden planks, the body is set up with 
 the hands near the knees clasping a stick ; the soul finds its 
 way out of the grave by climbing the stick, which projects 
 after the grave is filled. This idea, no doubt, takes its rise 
 from an incident which occurs in some of the cosmogonic 
 stories of these people ; long, long ago they ascended from a 
 world below to this present world, where they now live, by 
 climbing up a stick which stuck through the ground. 
 
 In some cases the evident attempt is made to render the 
 grave as familiar and agreeable to its occupant as may be. 
 Thus among the Tupi in South America a chief's corpse was 
 covered with honey and coated with feathers ; the sides of the 
 grave were lined with stakes forming a vault large enough for 
 hanging a hammock within. The maraca, weapons, food, and 
 pipe of the dead man were all placed within ; a fire was made 
 under the hammock, as if he were still living ; the vault was 
 then roofed and covered, and the family lived upon the grave. 
 
 Among the Aztecs of Mexico the disposition and treatment 
 of the dead varied with the class — not the social class, but 
 class based upon the mode of death. A green stone was fre- 
 quently put in the mouth of the dead ; it represented his soul. 
 The body was placed in a sitting posture and saluted by friends ; 
 it was then clad in many garments, which varied with the death 
 suffered. Very curious were the papers attached to the corpse 
 as a protection against the dangers of its journey to the spirit 
 land. Men who were slain in war were burned and their souls 
 went to the land of the sun ; persons who were struck by 
 lightning, or who were leprous or dropsical, or who had been 
 
 Moki. 
 
 Tupi. 
 
 Aztecs. 
 
254 
 
 Some First Steps in Human Progress. 
 
 Cairn-making. 
 
 Urn burial. 
 
 Burial under 
 water. 
 
 (2) Cremation : 
 
 drowned, were buried and went to Tlaloc ; all others were 
 burned and went to Mictlan, the land of the common dead, a 
 place dreary, though not one of punishment. 
 
 Very common is the building of a cairn, or heap of stones, 
 over a grave. In such cases it is customary for each passer-by 
 to add a stone to the ever-increasing pile. This practice has a 
 wide range — North American Indians, some Mexican tribes, 
 Africans, several Asiatic peoples, and some populations of 
 Europe, heap up cairns. 
 
 Urn burial has been extensively practiced, although it is not 
 as common as the practice of gathering bones into urns after 
 the flesh has decayed, or the putting of ashes of cremated 
 bodies into urns. Among the Coroadoes the dead were buried 
 in a sitting posture in great earthen jars. In the Caucasus a 
 peculiar form of burial under inverted urns formerly prevailed. 
 In Georgia and in Nicaragua dwelt tribes whose great burial 
 urns are still dug up from time to time. Very pretty is the 
 little square pottery box or coffin with a lid fitting over it found 
 in an Arkansas mound and containing the skeleton of an 
 infant. 
 
 Burial under water is by no means common and most of the 
 cases which are on record are historic and simply individual. 
 
 Cremation is a widespread practice. It was practiced 
 anciently by many peoples, as, for example, the Romans, and 
 has recently been in vogue among as widely separated peoples 
 as the Hindus, Natchez, and Northwest coast tribes. The 
 Todas — that remarkable hill people of Southern India — cre- 
 mate their dead, and among these people we find two cere- 
 monies ; the first is called the green funeral, the second, the 
 dry funeral. In the former the corpse is taken to a grove, laid 
 on a pyre, and burned ; a few buffalo are slaughtered to accom- 
 pany the deceased ; the ashes are then collected and preserved. 
 This is relatively a simple ceremony. The other — the dry 
 
Fig. 31, — Eskimo Grave-Box. 
 
Religion; The Dead Man. 257 
 
 funeral — involves much display. The neighboring tribes are 
 invited and regaled with refreshments during the performance. 
 In the center of a ring, on a pyre of dry wood, the priests 
 place the mantle, bag of ashes, ornaments, and wand of the 
 deceased, with gourd, coarse baskets of grain for food, etc., 
 and all are ignited. The mourners stand around, the women 
 with heads covered with mantles and the men monotonously 
 crying, " Heh, hey, heh, hah." Every vestige of the remains 
 is destroyed by the fire. The metal ornaments are sought 
 for among the ashes to be taken home respectfully by the fam- 
 ily. The ashes are buried then under a large flat stone in the 
 center of the circle. The dry funeral takes place a year after 
 the green. 
 
 Reference has already been made to the different ways in Aztecs, 
 which the Mexicans dispose of their dead according to their 
 mode of death. It will be remembered that soldiers who were 
 killed in battle were burned ; suppose, however, that the body 
 were not recovered — that would make little difference ; a fig- 
 ure of the dead would be made in wood and burned upon the 
 fourth day ; its ashes would then be treated like the ashes of a 
 veritable corpse. Cremation scenes are frequently accompa- 
 nied by the most vigorous and dreadful evidences of mourning. 
 Thus we are told that a Senel chieftain was burned upon a SeneU 
 pyre ; gold coins and all his finery were put upon or about 
 him ; as the pyre began to burn the mourning commenced, 
 consisting of howling, gashing the bodies with knives, tearing 
 the hair, leaping, etc.; as the flames mounted higher and 
 higher these vigorous signs of mourning waxed greater and 
 greater. 
 
 The exposure of the dead on trees and scaffolds is very fa) Exposure . 
 common. It prevails in many parts of Australia and is a cus- Jn trees and on 
 torn among many tribes of North American Indians. For- scaffolds. 
 merly the Sioux practiced this method of disposing of the 
 
258 Some First Steps in Human Progress. 
 
 corpse : wrapped tightly in blankets or robes it was wound 
 with hide thongs and put on to a scaffold ; this was about eight 
 feet high and consisted of four corner stakes on which was 
 built a floor upon which the body was placed ; the work was 
 done entirely by women ; property of the deceased, together 
 with locks of hair from friends, was bound up with the body. 
 After the body had been placed upon the scaffold the women 
 mourned ; scarring of the body, so common among American 
 Indians, was indulged in. On the return of the mourners all 
 the family property was distributed. The women of the family 
 kept up the mourning for ten days, the men for a single day, 
 after which they went upon the war-path. Is there not in this 
 last practice a suggestion of the idea mentioned at the begin- 
 ning of the chapter, namely, that death is due to the mischief 
 of some sorcerer who must be sought and punished ? 
 
 Among many Eskimo tribes we find burial in scaffold boxes. 
 The body, doubled up on its side, is put into a box made of 
 planks of spruce some four feet long ; this is lifted several feet 
 on posts which project above it ; the sides of the box are 
 often painted with symbolic designs ; articles are attached to 
 the coffin or are put about it ; with a woman will be placed the 
 common tools she used in her daily employment ; with a man, 
 his weapons and implements of the chase ; with both and al- 
 ways a food-dish. 
 Scaffold burial Among many people we find scaffold burial as a temporary 
 temporary. disposition of the dead. Thus, among the Choctaws, the 
 
 corpse, lightly covered with a mantle, was placed upon a scaf- 
 fold of eighteen to twenty feet high, erected in a grove near the 
 town ; it was left until the flesh easily separated ; men, pro- 
 fessionally given to such work, would scrape the flesh after- 
 wards from the bones, wash and clean these and inclose them 
 in a casket of bones and splints ; this was put in the bone- 
 house, one of which was in every village ; when the bone- 
 
 in boxes. 
 
Religion; The Dead Man. 259 
 
 house was full a general funeral took place, when each family 
 carried its own dead from the house to the cemetery where the 
 baskets were heaped up and covered by a mound of earth. 
 
 Canoe burial, although not common, is found among a con- canoe burial, 
 siderable number of people representing widely different 
 stocks. The Chinooks wrap the corpse in blankets and place 
 it in a canoe ; the treasures of the dead are then put therein 
 also ; blankets and mats cover over the whole ; a smaller ca- 
 noe is put bottom up, fitting within the larger one ; the whole 
 is then covered with mats and put on bars supported by posts 
 at the height of four or five feet above the ground. At the end 
 of a year the body is removed and buried. More curious is the 
 practice which formerly prevailed at Port Jackson, Australia ; 
 the body, placed in a bark canoe, was set adrift upon the sea. 
 Among the New Zealanders a chief's corpse, wrapped in a mat, 
 was put into a canoe-shaped box ; with him was put his war- 
 club ; the coffin was then placed on stages, some nine feet high, 
 or suspended to trees, or interred in the house. The Sea 
 Dyaks place their dead chief in his war canoe, with his favorite 
 weapons and his principal property, and turn it adrift. 
 
 The most curious method of exposure, however, is found p arse e "Towers 
 among the Parsees in India. Their "Towers of Silence," al- 
 though visited but rarely, are well known. They are situated on 
 the Malabar Hill, near the Black Bay, in a lovely spot. Iron 
 gates bar access to the place. The towers are said to be five in 
 number, built of the hardest black granite, forty feet in diam- 
 eter and ten to fourteen feet in height, constructed so solidly as 
 almost to resist the ravages of time. The oldest and smallest, 
 built some two hundred years since, is used only for a certain 
 family. The second was erected in 1756, and the three others 
 during the next century. The sixth tower, different in form, 
 stands alone and is used only for criminals. Within these 
 Towers of Silence, which are open to the sky, the bodies of 
 
26o 
 
 Some First Steps in Human Progress. 
 
 (4) Embalm- 
 ment. 
 
 Egyptian treat- 
 ment of the 
 
 dead. 
 
 dead men are placed by special carriers, who have no other 
 business. As soon as the dead body has been laid out and the 
 carriers have withdrawn, the birds of prey, who have been 
 waiting by hundreds, swoop down upon the corpse and in 
 a few moments nothing but picked bones is left. This curious 
 practice among the Parsees is connected with their religious 
 belief that it would be wrong to pollute any of the elements of 
 nature by some other disposition of the dead ; the corpse must 
 not be thrown into the water, buried in the earth, burned in 
 the fire, or permanently exposed to the air. 
 
 The fourth and last of the methods suggested in our table — 
 embalmment— is ancient and known to many peoples. Mummies 
 have been found in Alaska, Australia, Egypt, and elsewhere. 
 Perhaps no people have ever lived who were more careful in 
 their preparation for death and in the care of their dead than 
 the Egyptians. Tombs were often bought during the life-time, 
 and years and much money were spent in their decoration. 
 The funerals themselves were to the highest degree extrava- 
 gant. After the first lamentation the body was taken to the 
 embalmer's and the mummy prepared according to the wealth 
 of the dead or of his living survivors. To prepare a mummy 
 in the most elaborate and magnificent style cost more than 
 twelve hundred dollars of our money. In the preparation of 
 the mummy the internal organs were removed and carefully 
 preserved in four canopi or jars, with the lids made in the shape 
 of heads. The first, which was capped by a human head, con- 
 tained the stomach and larger intestines ; the second, dog- 
 headed, contained the smaller intestines ; the third, jackal- 
 headed, contained the lungs and heart ; while the fourth, which 
 bore the head of a hawk, was the receptacle for the gall and 
 liver. The elaborate wrappings, the rich coverings, brilliant 
 with paint and gilding, in which the better grade of mummies 
 were inclosed, are well known. Nets of beads and bugles, 
 
Religion; The Dead Man. 261 
 
 sets of the most curious amulets, each of which had its proper 
 place with reference to the corpse, ornaments and jewelry of 
 the richest kind— all these were placed with the dead. More 
 than this, food and clothing were put in the tomb. If the 
 dead man had been wealthy, real food offerings were made, a 
 head and haunch of beef, a bunch of vegetables, four loaves 
 and four cakes, and a jar of wine. If, however, the man were 
 poor, wooden imitations of these offerings served the purpose 
 quite as well. 
 It will be seen that the donation to the dead varies greatly in 
 
 -. i_ r ... Gifts to the 
 
 purpose ; it may be money to pay fares upon the journey ; it dead, 
 may be garments for use in the hereafter ; it may be food to 
 support the dead until he reaches permanent supplies ; it may be 
 horses to bear him, or dogs to guide him. It is not strange 
 that among many people it should be considered necessary 
 that the dead person should have a human companion. So in for the dead. 
 India the widow burns on the pyre of her husband ; among 
 the Natchez slaves were dispatched to serve their masters, and 
 a wife might accompany her husband if she chose. There is 
 recorded a speech made by a Natchez mother to her children 
 after her husband's death and before she ascended the 
 pyre : " Children, this is a day on which I have to tear myself 
 from your arms and to follow your father's steps, who waits for 
 me in the country of the spirits ; if I were to yield to your 
 tears I would injure my love and fail in my duty. I have done 
 enough for you by bearing you next to my heart, and by suck- 
 ling you with my breasts. You that are descended of his 
 blood and fed by my milk, ought you to shed tears ? Rejoice 
 rather that you are suns and warriors ; you are bound to give 
 examples of firmness and valor to the whole nation. Go, my 
 children, I have provided for all your wants by procuring you 
 friends. My friends and those of your father are yours too ; I 
 leave you amidst them ; they are the French ; they are tender- 
 
262 Some First Steps in Human Progress. 
 
 hearted and generous. Make yourselves worthy of their esteem 
 by not degenerating from your race ; always act openly with 
 them and never implore them with meanness." 
 What takes place after the funeral is quite as suggestive and 
 funeral: interesting as the ideas concerning death, or as the ceremonies 
 
 Mourning ; attending the disposition of the dead. Mourning is often vio- 
 
 lent ; cutting the hair, neglecting the clothes, gashing one's 
 self, mutilation, are among some of the methods of mourning. 
 The Prussians, the old Greeks, and many barbarous peoples, 
 cut the hair. Both ancients and moderns, in barbarism, have 
 gashed and scarred themselves, and many peoples even to-day 
 cut off the finger joints in sign of mourning. The ancient 
 tentiontothe Romans, the Jews, Chinese, Caribs, Sioux, and a host of 
 others supply fresh food to the dead for some time. We have 
 already spoken of fires built by graves and guards kept thereat. 
 
 , It is a common thing for friends of the dead to keep some part 
 Preservation of c 
 
 mementos ; f the corpse, at least for a time. Among the very interesting 
 
 people of the Andaman Islands, when a death occurs the corpse 
 is removed a short distance from the hut and left for some 
 time. The body, closely compressed and folded, done up in 
 leaves and tied by strong creepers, the ends being knotted to 
 form a sling, is carried to a burial place which is usually a mile 
 inland. The grave is a shallow rounded hole dug with a stick 
 and the hands. Two or three months after the burial the rela- 
 tives disinter the bones and carry them back to the encamp- 
 ment,' where they spread them out and weep over them, after 
 which each one takes a bone. The nearest relative usually 
 takes the skull and jaws. These trophies of the dead are 
 worn, after having been painted red. Among the New Cale- 
 donians the toe and finger-nails are cut off as relics, the teeth 
 are extracted, and the skull preserved. Among the Mandans, 
 Catlin described a curious practice : 
 
 ' ' There are several of these golgothas, or circles of twenty 
 
Religion; The Dead Man. 263 
 
 or thirty feet in diameter, and in the center of each ring or 
 circle is a little mound of three feet high, on which uniformly Communion 
 rest two buffalo skulls (a male and female), and in the center 
 of the little mound is erected 'a medicine pole,' of about 
 twenty feet high, supporting many curious articles of mystery 
 and superstition, which they suppose have the power of guard- 
 ing and protecting this sacred arrangement. Here, then, to 
 this strange place do these people again resort to evince their 
 further affections for the dead, not in groans and lamentations, 
 however, for several years have cured the anguish, but fond 
 affection and endearments are here renewed, and conversations 
 are here held and cherished with the dead. Each one of these 
 skulls is placed upon a bunch of wild sage, which has been 
 pulled and placed under it. The wife knows, by some mark 
 or resemblance, the skull of her husband or her child which 
 lies in this group, and there seldom passes a day that she does 
 not visit it with a dish of the best-cooked food that her wig- 
 wam affords, which she sets before the skull at night, and re- 
 turns for the dish in the morning. As soon as it is discovered 
 that the sage upon which the skull rests is beginning to decay, 
 the woman cuts a fresh bunch and places the skull carefully 
 upon it, removing that which was under it. Independent of 
 the above-named duties, which draw the women to this spot, 
 they visit it from inclination, and linger upon it to hold con- 
 verse and company with the dead. There is scarcely an hour 
 in a pleasant day but more or less of these women may be seen 
 sitting or lying by the skull of their child or husband, talking 
 to it in the most pleasant, endearing language that they can use 
 (as they were wont to do in former days), and seemingly get- 
 ting an answer back." 
 
 The mourning of parents in New South Wales is shown in a 
 
 . Cannibalism; 
 
 very material way ; the flesh of dead children is eaten, at least 
 
 in part, as a token of grief and affection. Among the Uaupes 
 
264 Some First Steps in Human Progress. 
 
 the corpse is disinterred a month after burial, put in a great 
 
 pan or oven over the fire until all the parts are dry and smell 
 
 horribly. The black mass left is pounded to powder and mixed 
 
 with liquid in vats. This is afterwards drunk in order that the 
 
 survivors may acquire the qualities of the deceased. 
 
 At times fragments of the deceased are used in some subse- 
 Parts of dead 
 used in subse- quent ceremonial, as among the Abipones, where parts of the 
 
 quent cere- 
 mony, heart and tongue of the dead are given to a dog to eat. This 
 
 is done that the author of the death may die also. Among 
 the Sioux it is customary for women to "keep the ghost." A 
 little hair of the deceased is done up in calico until a package 
 is made some two feet in length and ten inches in diameter. 
 This is encased in a hide or blanket and hung between two 
 cross-sticks in front of the lodge. In the lodge a heap of presents 
 gradually accumulates. Men and boys go into the lodge daily 
 and, after smoking, empty the ashes from their pipes into the 
 middle of the lodge, where they must be undisturbed. When 
 they eat they put food under the ghost. Finally the friends 
 are called together, gifts are given, and the ghost being opened, 
 the hair is distributed. The Santals, who burn their dead, ever 
 preserve a few bits of the partly-burned bones, which must be 
 carried finally to the sacred river, where with ceremony they 
 are set afloat in the current to be carried off to the far eastern 
 land from which their ancestors came. Very curious, too, is 
 the way in which fragments of the dead are considered as 
 charms for helping the living. Not a year passes in our own 
 country when some southern negro is not caught robbing a 
 grave in order to get a luck bone. Far more than most people 
 realize, the influence of the dead man lingers on long after his 
 decease, even in the midst of civilization. 
 Ideas relative Of course one °f the most interesting and important points 
 
 and h the U home' fe connected with the dead man is the idea which people hold of 
 of the soul. the place to ^ich he is gone. What is the future world ? How 
 
Religion ; The Dead Man. 265 
 
 do souls conduct themselves there ? The answer to this is 
 frequently suggested in the funeral rites themselves. Thus Among the 
 among the Karens we find very curious and complex cere- 
 monies. On the day of burial, when the corpse is carried to 
 the grave, four splints of bamboo are taken. One is thrown 
 toward the west, and they say as they throw it, " That is the 
 east " ; another is thrown toward the east, saying, "That is the 
 west" ; a third is thrown upward toward the top of a tree, 
 saying, " That is the foot of the tree," and a fourth is thrown 
 downward, saying, ' ' That is the top of the tree. ' ' The source 
 of the stream is then pointed to, saying, "That is the 
 mouth of the stream," and the mouth of the stream is pointed 
 to, saying, "That is the head of the stream." This is done, 
 because in the hereafter everything is reversed. The Aus- 
 tralians believe that all men who are killed or die become A mongAus- 
 white men. They believe that the dead man becomes a white trallans ; 
 ghost in a country beyond the sea. The whites were, there- 
 fore, thought by Australians to be the ghosts of their own dead 
 returned. Sir George Gray was thought to be a returned son 
 who had been speared in a fray. "Yes, yes, it is he," cried 
 the old mother, laying her head on his breast and weeping. 
 We have already referred to the different places to which 
 
 J Among the 
 
 the Aztecs went after death. The journey thither was long and Aztecs ; 
 dangerous. A little dog was sacrificed for a companion. A 
 hot fire of the garments of the deceased was made to warm 
 him in the cold part of his journey ; papers protected him at 
 the dangerous points in his journey. For notice, that he must 
 pass first between two mountains which close and open ; then 
 he must walk along a road defended by a great serpent ; then 
 he rnu^t pass a terrible crocodile ; next eight deserts must be 
 traversed ; then eight hills climbed ; and, lastly, he must pass 
 a district where a sharp wind ever blows which tears up rocks 
 and cuts with its cold blasts as a knife cuts. 
 
266 
 
 Some First Steps in Human Progress. 
 
 Among the 
 Nicaraguans. 
 
 Worship of 
 the dead. 
 
 Beginnings 
 of ancestor 
 worship. 
 
 Shortly after the Spanish conquest a Nicaraguan chief, speak- 
 ing with a Spanish visitor, carried on the following conver- 
 sation : 
 
 Bobadilla — "Where do the dead go ? " 
 
 Cacique — "The good to the sky with the teotes ; the bad 
 down into a country underground and frightful." 
 
 Bobadilla — ' 'Are they there as here ? With body, head, feet, 
 hands?" 
 
 Cacique — " No. When one dies something like a person, the 
 yulio, goes from the mouth, goes to the home of the man or 
 woman, and dwells there, dying not, while the body remains." 
 
 Bobadilla — " Does the body rejoin this " person ' which goes 
 from the mouth ? " 
 
 Cacique — " No." 
 
 Bobadilla — "Who do you think good enough to go to heaven 
 and bad enough to go to hell ? " 
 
 Cacique — " I consider those who frequent the temples and 
 sanctuaries good : those who do not, bad." 
 
 Bobadilla — " When Indians die, what makes them die ? " 
 
 Cacique — " The teotes kill those who serve them not : those 
 who go to heaven do not die, although they cease to live 
 here." 
 
 But a large book would not begin to suffice to describe the 
 land of the soul as pictured by the lower peoples of the world, 
 and we have already given as many examples as we ought. 
 
 Lastly, the dead man may become in time, or with some peo- 
 ple, a true object of worship. It is, of course, perfectly natural 
 that his ghost should be feared. Among some people 
 it is quite natural that the memory of the dead parent should 
 arouse respect. At all events, it is certain that in many places 
 one of these motives, or some other, has led to attention being 
 paid to the ancestor. We may see the beginning of ancestor 
 worship among peoples like the New Caledonians, the Santals, 
 
Religion ; The Dead Man. 267 
 
 the Dahomeyans. The New Caledonians believe that every 
 fifth month the spirits return from the bush. Heaps of food 
 are prepared ; the people assemble in the afternoon around 
 the cave ; at sundown there is a feast and the speaker addresses 
 the spirits of old men and women in the cave, saying, ' ' Spirits, 
 may it please you to sing a song that all out here may hear 
 your sweet voices?" A song follows. Dancing and orgies 
 are then indulged in. Among the Santals a sacred grove is 
 found near each village. This is the resort of the village gods. 
 From its silent gloom the generations of the past watch the 
 actions of the children of the present. They are, however, 
 critical, dealing out diseases unless appeased. Hence at in- 
 tervals the villagers in their finest garments worship in the 
 grove ; sacrifices are made ; and a feast takes place. In 
 Dahomey Burton tells us that the king sends messengers with 
 any news of importance to his forefathers. Delivering the mes- 
 sage to any one who stands by, he cuts off his head ; should he 
 have forgotten some detail, a second messenger may be in- 
 stantly dispatched with the forgotten portion. 
 
 From such rude beginnings may in time arise an ancestral Developed 
 worship as peculiar and detailed as we find in China, where ^ c r shta i n 
 the reverence and respect shown to a father during his life-time Chma - 
 is continued after death. When important family matters are 
 under advisement the dead man's wishes are consulted by 
 means of divination. Food and gifts are offered for many 
 days and incense burned before the place where the spirit is 
 supposed to hover. With true Chinese prudence, cheap paper 
 copies of the gifts are burned or offered instead of the reality. 
 An ancestral tablet bearing the name of the father or other 
 ancestor is erected and in front of it regular offerings are made 
 and services conducted on the first and fifteenth of each month. 
 On occasions of importance in the family, such as birthday an- 
 niversaries or making preparations for weddings, special serv- 
 
268 Some First Steps in Human Progress. 
 
 ices are conducted, and on certain days of the year it is 
 expected that the ancestors shall be worshiped with elaborate 
 ceremonies. 
 
 Thus we see how naturally strange ideas and practices arise 
 regarding the dead man. Theories of death, the disposition 
 of the corpse, after-funeral practices, offerings to the dead, ideas 
 of future life, growth of ancestor worship — all of these give in- 
 teresting glimpses into primitive psychology. 
 
CHAPTER XXVI. 
 
 Custom and Law. 
 
 It is a common idea that savage and barbarous people are 
 without any kind of social order ; that theft, robbery, felonies, notTncfn- 01 ^ 
 murder, are matters of constant occurrence. Such a conception r ° e ' 
 is false. There is no people living, probably no people ever 
 lived, in such conditions. There are some peoples among 
 whom there is really no such thing as permanent leadership or 
 official control. Some Eskimo tribes are nearly in such posi- 
 tion ; some Indian peoples in the far north have no chiefs,- no 
 head. The man who is somewhat more successful in the hunt 
 than his fellows, or who is somewhat stronger than they, ma}' 
 have some degree of influence in counsel, or in action may 
 be allowed to assume temporary control. Yet, even among 
 such tribes, we do not find a shocking state of life, but, on the 
 contrary, peace prevails and harmony is not more frequently 
 ruffled than among many peoples who have a strong, devel- 
 oped government. 
 
 Among all such populations, two things constantly keep bad 
 men in check. The first is the constant possibility of the more Two checks on 
 
 lawlessness. 
 
 quiet, decent members of the community combining against the 
 man who is arrogant or vicious and quietly removing him ; the 
 second is the force of popular opinion. This, after all, is more 
 potent than any other influence. No other people are so much 
 bound down by custom as savages ; what has been done by 
 fathers and grandfathers is good to do, whether its meaning is 
 plain or its use apparent. The innovator must be a man of 
 
 269 
 
or/a 
 
 Some First Steps in Human Progress. 
 
 Structure of so- 
 ciety where 
 woman-right 
 prevails. 
 
 influence — bold, powerful, aggressive. There are few such ; 
 innovators are rarities and every detail of savage life is con- 
 trolled and governed by custom. Few deviate from the well- 
 marked line of behavior. 
 
 We have said but little in regard to the social structure of a 
 community where mother-right prevails. If we examine such 
 communities, we find that everything is controlled by ideas of 
 kinship. The social unit so far as it is evident is the gens ; 
 the gens, theoretically, consists of all the descendants in the 
 female line, from some old female ancestor, either imagined or 
 real. This woman, all her children, her daughters' children, 
 her daughters' daughters' children, and so on down through 
 the generations, make up the gens. Such individuals bear the 
 same name, they recognize a blood relationship among them, 
 they live in houses together, and frequently occupy the same 
 section of a village ; they have duties with reference to each 
 other and with reference to the gens as a whole. Morgan, who 
 studied the structure of the Iroquois Confederacy so carefully, 
 found the gens fully existent among them. It was also the 
 fundamental idea in a great number of North American Indian 
 communities. 
 
 In societies where gentile organization prevails, the gens 
 The influence of becomes itself a mighty instrument to maintain peace and 
 
 such structure 
 
 on behavior. orderly conduct. The tribe holds the gens, responsible for 
 the acts of every member of it. If one commits a murder, it 
 is the duty of the gens to which the murdered man belongs to 
 retaliate. When blood vengeance thus demanded cannot be 
 wreaked upon the murderer himself, any of his gens may 
 justly be sacrificed. It can be seen how the constant recog- 
 nition of this fact leads to a strong and powerful restraining in- 
 fluence on every person in the tribe. Among the Haidas a 
 young man had been guilty of insolence or insult to a girl, 
 whose family was well-to-do ; the nearest male relative of the 
 
Fig. 32. — Kaffir Sorcerer's Necklace. Africa. 
 
Custom and Law. 273 
 
 maiden, in order to punish the offender, destroyed a large 
 amount of property of his own. Custom— that is, law— de- 
 manded that the young man himself should destroy an equal 
 value of property ; but as he did not have any such amount, 
 his fellow gens members were obliged to make up the defi- 
 ciency, which, of course, was done with no good grace. A 
 man may well be left for punishment to the unpleasant condi- 
 tions which would certainly prevail in his home after his kin- 
 folk had all been taxed to pay for his lack of prudence. 
 
 Thus we see that both in societies with no very distinct or- 
 ganization and in societies where female control and descent 
 prevail there is not that lawlessness and unchecked violence 
 which we might assume. In fact, there might easily be found 
 governments inferior to those of many of our Indian tribes. 
 The Iroquois Confederacy was a marvel. It consisted, ulti- The Iroquois 
 mately, of six distinct nations, or tribes, each of which was on e eracy - 
 represented in the Great Council of the Confederacy. Each of 
 these tribes had a local government for local interests ; each 
 had a council, the membership in which was elective. Repre- 
 sentation was by gentes, each gens selecting its own members. 
 The council of the Confederacy was patterned after the coun- 
 cil of the tribes and consisted of members elected from each 
 tribe. In the council meeting all matters of importance to 
 the Confederacy were discussed and the representative of every 
 tribe had the power of negativing the action voted by all the 
 others. After a matter had been fully presented to the coun- 
 cil the representatives from each tribe withdrew and discussed 
 the matter from the point of view of their own tribe. If here 
 a single member objected to the action planned, it necessitated 
 a negative vote from the full representation of the tribe to 
 which he belonged ; but a negative vote from one tribe settled 
 the matter adversely, no matter if the other five believed it 
 advisable. It can easily be seen that a man would think long 
 
274 
 
 Some First Steps in Human Progress. 
 
 The Mexican 
 Confederacy. 
 
 The local < 
 ernment of 
 Aztecs. 
 
 the 
 
 before allowing his personal interests and personal opposition 
 to block decisions of importance. 
 
 We are in the habit of thinking of democracies as being nec- 
 essarily the crowning, final form of government. As a matter 
 of fact, there was nothing but democracies in North America 
 when it was discovered by the white man ; and also, as a mat- 
 ter of fact, a democratic government is a simpler, less devel- 
 oped form in some ways than a monarchy. 
 
 The statement that only democracies existed in North Amer- 
 ica at the time of the discovery may surprise some readers. 
 All of us have heard much of the mighty Aztec Empire and of 
 the Mexican Montezuma — its ruler. But Montezuma was only 
 the head war chief of a confederacy of three Indian tribes. 
 What has been said of the Iroquois Confederacy will assist us to 
 understand this structure. 
 
 The whole governmental organization was based on kin. 
 Mexico City was a great pueblo not unlike — not totally unlike — 
 the pueblos in Mexico to-day. When this pueblo began, the 
 little tribe of the Aztecs, much reduced in numbers, consisted 
 of but four gentes. Thus the new town was subdivided into 
 four quarters, on a gentile basis. As the tribe throve it grew ; 
 gens after gens became unwieldy and divided into new 
 gentes until at last there were about twenty of these, still 
 grouped into the four quarters, which might now be called, 
 properly enough, phratries. Each of the four quarters of the 
 city had considerable independence in local affairs ; each had 
 its own god, religious house or temple, and governmental 
 house ; each had its council with executive officers. The 
 council was based on kin and each gens had representation. 
 The four quarters together made up the town or tribe. The 
 affairs of the tribe were decided and controlled by the council 
 of the tribe which represented all the quarters and their subdivi- 
 sions. It did not interfere' with the affairs of individual gentes, 
 
Custom and Law. 275 
 
 but decided matters in dispute between gentes and dealt with 
 outside affairs. In functions it was at once directive, arbitra- 
 tive, and judicial. Its presiding officers were the Foreman in 
 Council ( "the wise old man" ) and the War Chief ( "big 
 warrior " ). So far we have pure tribal government. 
 
 Now, when the Aztecs gained in strength and power they T he Confeder- 
 united with such neighbors as they could not crush into a con- ?JZi. t ™ 
 federacy which finally extended its sway over a wide region. 
 The two tribes with which they united were the Aculhuas of 
 Tezcoco and the Tecpanecas of Tlacopan. The union was 
 chiefly for conquest. Matters of confederate interest were 
 considered and decided by a council of the Confederacy ; this 
 was representative, comprising members from Mexico, Tezcoco, 
 and Tlacopan. The " Chief of Men" was the elected execu- 
 tive officer of the Confederacy. He represented it in all foreign 
 affairs and possessed great though delegated power. He 
 could be deposed for cowardice or other good cause. It was 
 this Chief of Men who is commonly called the Emperor of the 
 Aztecs ; it was he who as Montezuma II. met Cortez. He is 
 best called the great war chief of the Confederacy. There was 
 a second great dignitary in the city of Mexico, the cihua-coatt, 
 or " snake woman." Elected by the council for life, or during 
 good behavior, he was the supreme judge, voicing the decisions 
 of the council. When the Chief of Men led the confederate 
 forces, the snake woman was at the head of the Aztecs ; he 
 was the tribal war chief. The terms of the Confederacy 
 required that its great war chief should always be an Aztec. 
 Either of the three tribes might wage independent warfare, and 
 all of them enjoyed independence in local government. Gains 
 secured by confederate action were divided according to set 
 rules of partition — two fifths to Mexico, two fifths to Tezcoco, 
 and one fifth to Tlacopan. This curious confederacy, a master- 
 piece of barbarous politics, deserves careful study ; it shows 
 
276 Some First Steps in Human Progress. 
 
 what firm concentration of power and consolidation may be 
 secured even in purely tribal society. Morgan and Bandelier 
 have shattered romantic ideas of the " Empire of the Monte- 
 zumas," but have brought clearly to view something far more 
 interesting. 
 A most important matter among ourselves is property. 
 Property among Primitive ideas regarding property are markedly different from 
 
 lower peoples. 
 
 our own. At first, but few things were looked upon in the 
 property. light of personal possessions. What a man wore was his ; his 
 
 weapons and his tools were personal. What he killed when hunt- 
 ing was only partly his ; his kindred and, in fact, the whole 
 community to which he belonged had their rights in regard to 
 it. Some of the rules and ideas in regard to game which occur 
 among the Eskimo illustrate this matter well and are exceed- 
 ingly interesting. Hospitality is everywhere among ruder 
 people not a virtue but a natural and necessary quality. Those 
 closely related by blood, of course, are entitled to their share ; 
 but so were all the gens members ; so was all the village ; so 
 was every stranger who might come. In the olden days, be- 
 fore they were affected by the white man and before that greed 
 of gold and avarice which the white man ever teaches the 
 children of nature was aroused in their hearts, a whole village 
 or tribe of Eskimo might starve to death, but a single indi- 
 vidual, never. 
 
 As for land, it was the property of the tribe. It was common 
 property, to be used in any way desired, but chiefly as a hunt- 
 ing-ground. The limits of the tribal territory were well de- 
 fined. Trespassers upon it might be killed immediately. 
 Wandering from it was likely to bring the vengeance of neigh- 
 bors upon the wanderer. When agriculture began, those who 
 wished to cultivate the soil would be allowed the use of a suffi- 
 cient plot out of the tribal stock ; it was his so long as he cul- 
 tivated it ; on his neglect it reverted to the tribe and might be 
 
 Land. 
 
Custom and Law. 277 
 
 assigned to another. This was the form of land tenure found 
 among all North American Indians who practiced agriculture. 
 The idea of personal ownership of land was no more thought 
 of by most Indians than personal ownership of village springs, 
 of forests, or the air itself. Little by little these primitive 
 notions of property and ownership disappeared, replaced by 
 other and, to our conception, higher views. 
 
 Bandelier has fully studied the land tenure of the Aztec Land tenure of 
 Mexicans. As it finely illustrates the whole conception of land 
 property among well-advanced barbarians, a brief summary of 
 his views follows : When the Aztecs first settled in the valley 
 of Mexico, the area occupied was the tribal territory ; the 
 houses and gardens of each quarter were held by the quarter 
 as a unit ; tracts of land for cultivation were set apart for each 
 family. At the beginning there were four of these great sub- 
 divisions of the tribe and of the territory. With growth 
 these were subdivided. Each sub-quarter, although govern- 
 mentally part of the old quarter, was the owner of its own land. 
 The persons living in each sub-quarter were kin and owed each 
 other gentile help and service. If any man could not work 
 his own land on account of official duties or public service, his 
 allotment was worked for him by his kin. In each little dis- 
 trict the council of old men — a truly representative body — 
 selected one man, the "elder brother," who, among other 
 duties, attended to the assignment of the plots of land, or 
 tlalmilli. A plot was assigned to every married man, for 
 himself and his family ; if he neglected to cultivate it for two 
 consecutive years it reverted to the group and could be re- 
 assigned. A plot held by a father went, on his decease, to 
 the eldest son for the benefit of the family. When the Aztecs 
 became conquerors they set apart a portion of the conquered 
 land to be worked for their benefit, as tribute producing land. 
 There were thus several kinds of land recognized. First of all 
 
278 
 
 Some First Steps in Human Progress. 
 
 Personal prop- 
 erty in Old 
 Mexico. 
 
 Moral codes 
 vary. 
 
 was the territory, the tribal domain ; there were then the parts 
 of it, the land of the gens or sub-quarter ; this was subdivided 
 into tlalmilli, or garden patches for individual use ; there 
 were also lands set apart for working for benefit of officers 
 and those employed in tribal service ; lastly, there were tribute 
 lands in other territories yielding tribute crops to the gov- 
 ernment. Nowhere was there an idea of land owned abso- 
 lutely by an individual. 
 
 As to other property, Aztecs had such, of course, but there 
 was little of our idea of personal accumulation of great wealth. 
 Moreover, what a man did acquire in his life-time was usually 
 burned with him at his decease or buried in his grave. 
 
 Moral codes vary infinitely. We have our ideas of right and 
 wrong ; most barbarians have just as definite conceptions of 
 right and wrong but sometimes markedly different from our 
 own. We pretend to teach that taking property of others is 
 wrong ; the savage or barbarian would think it wrong for 
 others to take his property, wrong for him to take the property 
 of a fellow tribesman, but not wrong for him to take what be- 
 longs to a man of another tribe. It is probable that among, 
 ourselves it would invariably be admitted that to kill a man in- 
 tentionally and not as an act of warfare, would be wrong ; that 
 to kill the parent would be heinous. Yet, there are ruder 
 peoples where ideas of right and wrong are excellently devel- 
 oped who believe that duty demands that sons should kill their 
 parents. Nor judged from their standpoint is the thing aught 
 but commendable. Such people commonly believe that as a 
 man is when he dies, so will he continue to be throughout the 
 future life ; if he be blind or deaf or weak with age, he is 
 bound to continue the same in the world beyond the grave. 
 Of course, where such a belief forms a genuine part of the life 
 nothing could be sadder than for men to live beyond their 
 prime ; nothing could be more truly the duty of a son, who had 
 
Custom and Law. 279 
 
 his father's real interest at heart, than to kill him at that time, 
 to secure his future happiness. A thorough comparison of 
 codes of ethics among primitive folk still remains to make. It 
 would be interesting and most instructive. 
 
 We have considered a few of man's achievements. We have 
 seen how he has subdued nature and made fire his servant ; 
 how he has supplied himself with food and has devised means 
 for preparing it to advantage ; how he has learned to make tools 
 and weapons ; how he has improved the plants and animals 
 that nature supplied him ; how he has developed the clothes 
 he wears and how they have developed him ; how he has 
 housed himself and learned to transport himself. We have 
 traced the history of his modes of expressing thought, and of 
 transmitting the thought of to-day to the generations to follow. 
 We have seen how he reasoned about the world around him, 
 and have glanced at his crudest thoughts in the direction of 
 religion and government. When we consider the progress that 
 he has made, we look forward justly with hope to the progress 
 that lies before. 
 
APPENDICES. 
 
APPENDIX A. 
 What is Anthropology? 
 
 [The chapters in this little book deal with but one of the 
 several great subdivisions of the science of anthropology, viz. : 
 Culture History. It has therefore been thought well to give 
 here a sketch, which shall show somewhat fully the scope and 
 field of the whole study. Accordingly we reprint from The 
 Chautauquan for April, 1894, the article "What is Anthro- 
 pology?"] 
 
 In no other science probably is there so much indefiniteness in 
 terminology as in anthropology. The word anthropology itself 
 is used with several different meanings, and the names of the 
 subordinate sciences usually considered as comprised within 
 it are variously applied. We cannot in this article attempt to 
 bring order out of this chaos : we can only try to show what 
 subjects the anthropologist studies and how they are related to 
 each other. 
 
 Taken as it stands, looking only to its etymology, anthro- 
 pology means a discourse upon man. The great Frenchman, 
 De Quatrefages, says : ' ' The word anthropology signifies the 
 history of men, as mammology means the history of mammals, 
 as entomology means the history of insects ; rigorously it 
 ought to be taken in the same way." "It includes the exter- 
 nal description, the comparative examination of the internal 
 organs and that of the functions, the study of the variations, 
 which the fundamental type presents, of instincts and of 
 habits." "The anthropologist, in treating of the various 
 
 283 
 
284 Appendix A. 
 
 human groups, has not only to occupy himself with the physical 
 man ; the intellectual man, the moral man, demand on his part 
 an equal attention." 
 
 Broca called anthropology "the natural history of man," and 
 held that one must study structure, function, habitat, conditions 
 of existence, faculties, instincts, mode of life, migrations, in- 
 dustries, societies. These French writers give much the same 
 scope to the word that Dr. Tylor does in his admirable little 
 work, "Anthropology." In his treatment of the subject he 
 first considers man's age and origin ; he then describes and 
 geographically locates the races of mankind ; then after study- 
 ing language and its relations to race he passes to a study of 
 culture history in a series of chapters upon Arts of Life, Arts 
 of Pleasure, Science, The Spirit World, History and Mythol- 
 ogy, Society. 
 
 Dr. Brinton in a recent pamphlet, "Anthropology as a Science 
 and as a Branch of University Education," takes a similar view. 
 He says : " The study of man, pursued under the guidance of 
 accurate observation and experimental research, embracing all 
 his nature and all manifestations of his activity, in the past as 
 well as in the present, .... is anthropology." 
 
 We have gone quite fully into these quotations because to 
 some the word is not so comprehensive ; many writers would 
 limit anthropology to a study of the physical man. In this 
 article the word is used in its more general sense. 
 
 In a science comprehending so much, subdivision of the field 
 is necessary and the subordinate fields should be carefully sep- 
 arated and characterized. But here we find serious confusion. 
 There are at least four divisions, but the names applied to them 
 vary greatly. Perhaps the most commonly accepted names for 
 these four divisions are physical anthropology, ethnology, eth- 
 nography, archeology. We must consider each of these in 
 some detail. 
 
What is Anthropology ? 285 
 
 Physical anthropology is called somatology by Brinton ; 
 Topinard would use anthropology or general anthropology 
 as its equivalent ; man as an animal, a living thing, is the ob- 
 ject of study. There are two distinct ways in which man may 
 be considered in somatology. What is his position in the ani- 
 mal series ? What amount and kind of variation does he pre- 
 sent? To answer these two questions man's anatomy and 
 physiology are carefully investigated. Not only must he be 
 studied in health but the lessons of disease must be learned. 
 Not only normal but abnormal man must be examined. Man 
 is a mammal. He has the same type of structure as other 
 mammals ; his organic systems are the same as theirs and they 
 perform the same functions ; his embryology is of the same 
 type. Where in the group must he be classified ? The anthro- 
 pologist is interested in the answer. 
 
 He studies the form, size, position, and relation of every 
 bone ; he examines the shape, development, and attachment of 
 every muscle ; he measures the skull in a hundred directions ; 
 he weighs the brain and follows its every convolution and sul- 
 cus ; the viscera are scanned, the blood subjected to micro- 
 scopical examination, the digestive fluids analyzed, all to find 
 out what sort of an animal man is and who are his nearest 
 brute relatives. 
 
 But more — has he the same diseases as they ? Do pestilence 
 and sickness show him to be truly flesh of their flesh ? And 
 again, what does his embryology show in this direction ? How 
 does his foetus compare with that of his brute neighbors? 
 What are monsters and freaks— such as hairy men, albinos, 
 small-headed idiots ? Each has its lesson, and a most interest- 
 ing lesson it is. And after all this has been done, it is still the 
 province of somatology to study the amount of variation in 
 the human species. The whole field must be traversed again 
 but instead of comparing man with the anthropoid ape we 
 
286 Appendix A. 
 
 compare man with man. Are the anatomy, physiology, and 
 pathology of groups of men, far separated geographically, sub- 
 ject to variations, and if so what is their extent? Are there 
 races of mankind, and if so how must they be distinguished ? 
 
 In pursuing these lines of investigation special methods must 
 be followed. The characters studied are of two kinds — those 
 capable of instrumental measurement and those which can 
 only be more or less accurately described — anthropometric 
 and descriptive characters. For taking the former special in- 
 struments have been devised. Peculiar forms of compasses, 
 sliding rules, machines for measuring angles and for taking pro- 
 jections, elaborate devices for drawing outlines suitable for 
 after-measurement and study, are in the outfit of an anthro- 
 pological laboratory. Descriptive characters are difficult of 
 accurate statement, as a personal element is likely to enter in. 
 Hence series of careful directions are prepared for the student, 
 scales of standard colors are issued, diagrams of type forms 
 are printed, so that a careful observer closely following set rules 
 should be able to accurately describe an individual whom he 
 studies. 
 
 Every one knows how these methods of study are applied 
 to the criminal. Criminal anthropology, so called, is based 
 upon the examination of criminals by anthropological methods: 
 The men in our jails and prisons may be readily identified after 
 their anthropometric characters have been taken by instru- 
 ments and their descriptive characters have been secured by 
 comparing their hair and eyes, their features and bodily form, 
 with standard scales of colors, and sets of type diagrams. 
 Busy as they have been, however, the criminologists have 
 hardly yet demonstrated a criminal type. As yet we scarcely 
 know what non-criminal man's type may be. Can we know 
 abnormal man's characteristics until we know the normal 
 man ? 
 
F J G. 33.— Dancing Mask. New Britain Archipelago. 
 
 287 
 
What is Anthropology? 289 
 
 Many great general questions grow out of somatology. 
 There are fields of research yet to be worked. What, if any, 
 influence has environment on man ? Can a race take posses- 
 sion of a new continent and thrive in its novel conditions? 
 Why do some races flourish, while others are dying out ? Do 
 children inherit acquired traits or character from their parents ? 
 Can we, as Galton would have us, improve the race by pur- 
 posive selection in marriage ? 
 
 A second division of anthropology is what is commonly 
 called ethnology: Brinton calls this ethnography ; Topinard 
 calls it special anthropology and general ethnography. It con- 
 cerns itself with the idea of race and races. It investigates 
 the origin of races and assails the problem of the unity of man. 
 This is the much discussed question of monogenism and polyg- 
 enism. Is there one species of man or more ? Are all men 
 brothers, or are we only collateral descendants of a non-human 
 ancestor ? The question is a ghost that will not be laid. Time 
 and again scientific opinion has swung first to one side and 
 then to the other. Ethnology also studies the races of the 
 present ; it attempts to describe and classify them ; it seeks to 
 find relationships ; it endeavors to trace back lines of migra- 
 tion, followed by moving populations. 
 
 The term ethnography as generally used includes the descrip- 
 tion of the life, customs, languages, arts, religious beliefs, etc., 
 of peoples. Brinton calls this ethnology and Topinard calls it 
 special ethnography. This is perhaps the most generally pop- 
 ular branch of anthropology. Every one lingers in front of 
 cases of curious objects brought from ruder peoples and all 
 delight to read books wherein are described the life and ways 
 of outlandish folk. Yet relatively little good ethnographic work 
 has been done. A good observer should note every detail : 
 how do the people dress ; what ornaments do they make ; as 
 to houses, how are they constructed, located, considered ; what 
 
290 Appendix A. 
 
 furniture ; how is food prepared ; what implements of fishing, 
 hunting, agriculture, domestication ; what arts pursued ; what 
 is the grammatical structure and the- word-content of the lan- 
 guage ; what of writing ; what of history and tradition ; gov- 
 ernmental and social organization ; what of religion and super- 
 stitious ideas ? Few books in our language answer all these 
 questions for any people. Books like Nansen's " Eskimo 
 Life," Batchelor's "Ainu," and Doolittle's "Social Life of the 
 Chinese," are very rare. But before ethnography will have its 
 fullest value we must have such books concerning every 
 people. 
 
 Ethnographic museums are common in Europe. The oldest 
 probably is that at Copenhagen ; probably the most extensive 
 is that at Berlin ; but there are such collections in every great 
 city and in many small towns. In this respect America is far 
 behind ; at Boston, Salem, New York, Philadelphia, Washing- 
 ton are good collections, or at least good beginnings. 
 Chicago will no doubt have much ethnographic material of 
 value in the Field-Columbian Museum. In all such collections 
 complete series of objects representing every phase of life in 
 fullest detail are desirable. Odds and ends, curios, series of 
 choicest masterpieces of foreign art are not valuable scientific 
 material. 
 
 A fourth subdivision of anthropology commonly recognized 
 is prehistoric archeology. It deals with those material relics 
 which men of the olden time have left behind. Nowhere bet- 
 ter than in Western Europe has it been cultivated. What a 
 wonderful story it has told ! Primitive man, the contemporary 
 of the mammoth and of the woolly rhinoceros, chipped his 
 flint tools while glacial conditions still prevailed over Northern 
 Europe. Later we find him using delicately chipped or finely 
 polished implements in varied form and made of many kinds 
 of rocks. We see the use of metal gradually spread and dis- 
 
What is Anthropology f 291 
 
 tinguish an age of bronze and a later one of iron. This in 
 Europe. But in America, too, we have a great and interesting 
 field for study. Far too superficial work has been done here 
 in many cases. But it may be that finally here, too, we shall 
 bring order out of the present confusion. Here are shell-heaps, 
 old village sites, mounds and earthworks, ruined villages in 
 Central America, Yucatan, and Mexico, old pueblos and cliff- 
 houses in the Southwest. These must tell their stories of old- 
 time life and custom, of migrations, of religious beliefs ; from 
 these we must trace the growth of arts and inventions step by 
 step. 
 
 Culture history might be separated from all the preceding as 
 a subdivision of anthropology, or it might be included in 
 archaeology and ethnography. We can trace the growth of an 
 art idea by the help of archaeology. But we may also trace the 
 same growth in another way. In the march from savagery to 
 civilization all peoples have not traveled at the same speed ; 
 some have hardly traveled at all. Belated tribes exist, who rep- 
 resent almost every stage of culture. When we have secured 
 our full series of specimens from every tribe, we may trace a 
 thousand lines of invention or of art by comparison of 
 specimens. 
 
 In the Pitt-Rivers Museum at Oxford the attempt to illustrate 
 the history of culture in this way is carried out. What is the 
 history of the gun ? Here you may see it represented in full 
 detail. The art of pottery, one of man's oldest arts, is very 
 interesting and it is not difficult to collect, even now, from 
 various peoples a series of specimens which shall tell the story 
 of its growth. The history of written language and the devel- 
 opment of the alphabet can be reconstructed by a critical study 
 of the written languages of the world to-day. When we com- 
 pare the cultures of different peoples and of different times, we 
 gain the best possible understanding of our own time and our 
 
2g2 Appendix A. 
 
 own surroundings. Some unmeaning ornament upon a vase 
 may become pregnant with meaning when compared with the 
 crude pottery of some rude tribe ; a strange custom in our so- 
 ciety may become illuminated, when we learn the social ideas 
 of a lower people ; some hampering superstition finds signifi- 
 cance and loses force, when we look into the religious notions 
 of a savage. 
 
 Such is our subject ! "Broad!" Yes. "Indefinite!" No. 
 It deals with forms and structures of society, but it is not soci- 
 ology ; it deals with arts and industries, but it is not art or 
 technique. Anthropology, by study of primitive communities 
 and by tracing the development of social organisms, lays a 
 broad and sure foundation for scientific sociology, but it does 
 not grapple with labor problems or penitentiary reforms. The 
 anthropologist may measure criminals, but he does not make 
 laws. Anthropology may include within its objects of study a 
 basket or a pot, it may investigate the pictures rudely painted 
 on a cliff, or strive to reproduce the almost vanished scratches 
 upon a bit of bone or antler ; but it does not found a pottery, 
 or study light and shade, or criticise a Rubens. 
 
 Upon the Anthropological Building at Chicago we read the 
 inscription, "Man and His Works." In anthropology when 
 we study man's works, it is not for themselves, but only as in 
 them man himself is reflected. Only as a man's mind is re- 
 vealed in products do we care for them. Nor is it particularly 
 the idea of one man that we seek, but that of the race ; not 
 the progress and the victory of the individual, but of all man- 
 kind. 
 
 How can a man deal with his fellow-man without such knowl- 
 edge ? What would seem more natural as a preparation for a 
 life of usefulness than study of one's kind ? Men and women go 
 forth, year after year, to work for others — as physicians, law- 
 yers, preachers, missionaries, teachers. They go in absolute 
 
What is Anthropology ? 293 
 
 ignorance of the material they are to work with, often with no 
 knowledge even of the physical nature of mankind. With no 
 conception of man's past, they try to mold his future ! Without 
 a thought as to his origin, they endeavor to show his destiny ! 
 Not knowing religion, they would teach a creed ! Ignorant of 
 normal development, they attempt their ill-advised reforms and 
 crush a race. Where else is there such an anomaly ? Do men 
 go from our technical schools to practical work in electricity 
 with no knowledge of cells and batteries, wires and insulation ? 
 Do veterinary surgeons graduate without having studied the 
 anatomy of a horse? But teachers, preachers, missionaries, 
 and other "leaders of mankind " go forth to work their fields 
 as ignorant of what mankind really is as a field geologist could 
 afford to be of the life of Xerxes. 
 
 The study of mankind by scientific methods is recent. An- 
 thropology is a science of this century, almost of its latter half. 
 It has had to fight its way to recognition — nay, still is fighting. 
 Europe is awake. In 1834 the Ethnographic Museum at Copen- 
 hagen was established — the first in the world ; we have seen 
 how they have sprung up since. In 1859 the SociUi d' Anthro- 
 pologic de Paris was founded ; such societies now exist in 
 every European country and a few have been established in 
 America. In Europe most of the universities have at least 
 one teacher in some line of anthropological work. In America 
 fifteen years ago probably there was not one institution where 
 the subject was taught. Professor Gilmore at Rochester and 
 Sir Daniel Wilson at Toronto were veritable pioneers in the 
 field. To-day it is taught in several of our larger universities' 
 and in about as many smaller but progressive institutions. Last 
 year for the first time a separate building of a World's Expo- 
 sition was given up to anthropology. These are signs of the 
 times. We are beginning to realize that man's proper study is 
 mankind. Anthropology is claiming its rank among the sciences. 
 
APPENDIX B. 
 
 Sign Language in Print. 
 
 In Science for May 26, 1893, I called - attention to a rather 
 interesting phase of gesture language under the above title. 
 As all readers may not have access to the original reference 
 the paper is here reproduced : 
 
 Mr. Lewis Hadley of Chicago is at present engaged upon a 
 plan for reducing the sign language to print. The purpose of 
 the work is benevolent and religious, the idea being to bring re- 
 ligious instruction to the old Indians. It is well known that old 
 Indians will never learn to read our language. It is believed 
 by Mr. Hadley and his friends that they will quickly learn a 
 printed sign language. Of course, all these old men make 
 constant use of gestures and signs ; and, if they take kindly to 
 the printed gestures, there is no question that considerable 
 progress might be made. 
 
 Mr. Hadley has had difficulties to contend with in carrying 
 out his work. He has been hampered by the lack of funds 
 and by the novelty of the undertaking. In his first experiment 
 he cut the dies for printing himself, and the resulting impres- 
 sions were black designs with the figures in white lines, and 
 the result was exceedingly ugly. He has since then simplified 
 the designs and made them in the form of ordinary type, and 
 has now an extensive font of several thousand types, which 
 will be used in printing cards and tracts for the instruction of 
 the Indians. 
 
 294 
 
Sign Language in Print. 295 
 
 There are two points to be considered in reference to this 
 plan : first, its feasibility ; second, its methodology. 
 There are three questions that arise in reference to feasibility: 
 
 1. Is there a universal sign language among the Indians ? 
 
 2. Can the signs be represented by type ? 
 
 3. Will the Indians care to learn it ? 
 
 1. As regards the first of these, Mallery says there is no 
 absolutely fixed sign language in general use among the 
 Indians. While this is true, it is also true that all Indians 
 gesture, and the gestures are so natural and so self-expressive 
 that there is no question that natural signs, although new, 
 would be generally understood. 
 
 2. There is, of course, a difficulty in representing the ges- 
 tures by type so that they can be readily recognized. This 
 difficulty all who have attempted to work in the subject of 
 gesture language realize. Mr. Hadley has changed the forms 
 of his type repeatedly. He has produced finally what appear 
 to be simple, plain, and easily understood characters. Many 
 of these may have to be still further changed, but in large 
 measure they meet the requirements. 
 
 3. There is a very serious question as to the favorable recep- 
 tion of this printed gesture language by the Indians themselves. 
 It is, however, in a certain sense, picture-writing, and picture- 
 writing is natural to the North American. Mr. Hadley is 
 doing, on a large scale and at one stroke, what the Indians have 
 begun to do in many cases. Lieutenant Mallery has shown 
 in his papers the close relationship between gesture language 
 and pictography. The picture character is often only an 
 attempt to represent a gesture. This being so, it may be 
 possible that a kind reception will be given by the Indians to 
 the printed sign language. 
 
 As to the method of introducing the printed sign language 
 into use, Mr. Hadley has devised a game of cards, which, he 
 
296 Appendix B. 
 
 believes, will help greatly in the work of teaching. Each card 
 has upon its face, in unusually large type, a gesture. Upon its 
 back is printed the English equivalent for the gesture. The 
 game to be played with these cards is based upon certain 
 gambling games, already quite familiar to the Indian, and suc- 
 cess in the game depends upon the Indian giving the English 
 word for the sign represented. All games of an instructive 
 kind are more or less of a nuisance, but it is not impossible 
 that these cards may be successful in the way they are intended. 
 Besides the game of cards, the purpose of which is really to 
 teach the speaking and reading of English through the printed 
 sign language, a considerable number of texts, mainly of a 
 religious character, are to be issued. It is expected that an 
 Indian who has a story or a passage printed in the sign char- 
 acter will himself make the signs represented, and by making 
 the signs he will gain the idea to be conveyed. 
 
 Every text of the sign type has under it the English equiva- 
 lent in words. In order to convey an idea of what this test is 
 like, I present herewith a line of the text as it appears in print. 
 
 It will be seen that, quite apart from its religious and educa- 
 tional purpose, this matter is one of scientific importance, and 
 we shall watch with interest how far it may succeed. 
 
APPENDIX C. 
 List of Books for Reference. 
 
 The author recommends the following books for further 
 reading and study. Personally he is particularly indebted to the 
 various books of Edward B. Tylor. He also has received 
 much assistance from the works of Sir John Lubbock, Lippert, 
 Letourneau, and Spencer. The list does not pretend to be 
 full, but comprises chiefly books that can be readily found in 
 libraries or easily procured. 
 
 Tylor : Anthropology. 
 
 Tylor : Primitive Culture. 
 
 Tylor : Early History of Mankind. 
 
 Lubbock : Origin of Civilization. 
 
 Lubbock : Prehistoric Times. 
 
 Lippert : Kulturgeschichte. 
 
 For many papers of value by Hough, Cushing, Mason, Mal- 
 lery, Hoffman- Holmes, Dorsey, Powell, Matthews : 
 Annual Reports of Bureau of Ethnology. 
 Annual Reports of Smithsonian Institution. 
 Annual Reports of United States National Museum. 
 
 Andree : Anthropophagie. 
 
 De Mortillet : Origines de la Chasse, etc. 
 
 De Candolle : Origin of Cultivated Plants. 
 
 De Mortillet : Le Prehistorique. 
 
 Joly : Man Before Metals. 
 
 Flower : Fashion in Deformity. 
 
 Schurtz : Philosophie der Tracht. 
 297 
 
298 Appendix C. 
 
 Brinton : Races and Peoples. 
 
 Brinton : Essays of an Americanist. 
 
 Brinton : American Hero Myths. 
 
 Brinton : The American Race. 
 
 Whitney : Life and Growth of Language. 
 
 Isaac Taylor : The Alphabet. 
 
 Isaac Taylor : The Origin of the Aryans. 
 
 Fiske : Myths and Myth-makers. 
 
 Andree : Die Metalle bei den Naturvolkern. 
 
 Balfour : Evolution of Decorative Art. 
 
 McLennan : Studies in Ancient History. 
 
 Morgan : Ancient Society. 
 
 Lefevre : Race and Language. 
 
 Mason : Woman's Share in Primitive Culture. 
 
 Darwin : Animals and Plants tmder Domestication. 
 
 Starcke : The Primitive Family. 
 
 Spencer : Principles of Sociology. 
 
 Spencer : Descriptive Sociology. 
 
 Note.— On pages 80 and 81 an error is made. The cabbage, cauliflower, 
 Brussels sprouts, etc., are one species- the variation is due to man's culti- 
 vation. The turnip is a related, but different, species. 
 
INDEX. 
 
 Abipones, mourning customs of, 264. 
 
 Abyssinia, age of marriage in, 228. 
 
 Aerology, 205. 
 
 Aculhuas, a people of Mexico, 275. 
 
 Adobe, 156. 
 
 Africa, huts in, 151 ; metallurgy in, 
 123. 
 
 Agriculture, among Australians, 73 ; 
 Bushmen and Hottentots, 73 ; No- 
 mads, 74; North American Indians, 
 75 ; perfection of, 77 ; tools used in, 
 
 75- 
 Ainu, garments of, 147 ; houses of, 152; 
 
 methods of hunting of, 60. 
 Alaskans, methods of fire-making of, 
 
 20. 
 Aleuts, garments of, 147. 
 Alphabet, origin of, 205. 
 Ancestor worship, beginning of, 266 ; 
 
 in China, 267. 
 Andamanese, food of, 30, 35 ; mourn- 
 ing customs of, 262 ; vessels of, 54. 
 Anthropology, 283. 
 Anthropomorphism, 240. 
 Archaeology, definition of, 290. 
 Arrows, poisoned, 64, 65. 
 Aryans, culture of, 189. 
 Ass, domestication of, 92. 
 Assinaboins, 36. 
 Atheism, 240. 
 Atkinson, Mrs., quoted on marriages 
 
 among the Kirghis, 229. 
 Atlatl, weapon of the Mexicans, 132, 
 Australians, absence of agriculture 
 
 among, 73 ; food of, 30 ; ideas of 
 
 death, 250; ideas of future life, 265; 
 
 method of chipping stone, 101 ; 
 
 method of hunting lizards, 59. 
 Aztecs, cannibalism of, 46, 48; ideas 
 
 of future life, 265 ; government of, 
 
 274 ; land tenure of, 277 ; mode of 
 burial, 253, 257 ; mode of hunting 
 ducks, 59 ; picture-writing of, 197 ; 
 wearing of labrets by, 137. 
 
 Bachofen, on the primitive family, 234. 
 
 Baines, quoted on chipping stone, 101. 
 
 Baking of food, 35. 
 
 Bandelier, A. F., on land tenure of the 
 Aztecs, 277. 
 
 Basketry, among Mokis, 50 ; Sacs and 
 Foxes, 50; Shoshones, 50; Vancou- 
 ver Indians, 53 ; materials used, 50; 
 ornamentation of, 53. 
 
 Batchelor, quoted on the Ainu, 60, 64. 
 
 Battas, cannibalism among, 46. 
 
 Bear-hunting among the Ainu, 63. 
 
 Bechuanas, idea of death, 250. 
 
 Belcher, Edward, quoted on Eskimo 
 fire-making, 19 ; on making of arrow- 
 heads, 102. 
 
 Blackfeet, food of, 39 et seq. 
 
 Blow-gun, 134. 
 
 Boas, Franz, on sledges of the Eski- 
 mo, 167 ; quoted on Central Eskimo, 
 66, 68 ; story from Northwest coast, 
 216. 
 
 Boats, modes of propulsion, 163; modi- 
 fications in form, 164 ; table of, 159 ; 
 types of, 160 et seq. 
 
 Boiling of food, 36. 
 
 Bolas, weapon used in South America, 
 
 133- 
 Bongos, food of, 30 ; furnace used by, 
 
 124. 
 Botocudos, huts of, 151 ; labrets worn 
 
 by, 137 ; numerals of, 189. 
 Boucan of the Caribs, 36. 
 Bow-drill, for fire-making, 19 ; of Sacs 
 
 and Foxes, 23. 
 Boyhood, savagery of, 32, 135. 
 
 299 
 
300 
 
 Index. 
 
 Brace-drill for fire-making, 19. 
 
 Brinton, D. G., quoted on anthropol- 
 ogy, 284, 285 ; on primitive concep- 
 tion of animals, 209. 
 
 Broca, quoted on anthropology, 284. 
 
 Bronze, Age of, 122. 
 
 Buffalo, pemmican made from, 42. 
 
 Burials, modes of, 251 et seq ; with the 
 dead, 239. 
 
 Bushmen, absence of agriculture 
 among, 73 ; dwellers in caves, 149. 
 
 Camas, preparation of food from, 40. 
 
 Campbell, quoted on marriage among 
 the Khonds, 229. 
 
 Cannibalism, as a punishment, 47 ; as 
 a sign of mourning, 263 ; for ven- 
 geance, 45 ; from desire, 45 ; from 
 filial piety, 46; from necessity, 44; 
 from religious motives, 46; in Egypt, 
 45 ; table concerning, 49. 
 
 Cannibals, as dog-eaters, 48 ; culture 
 of, 47. 
 
 Canoe, bark, 160; dug-out, 160; of 
 Polynesia, 164; skin, 160, 162. 
 
 Casse-tite, 131. 
 
 Catamaran, 163. 
 
 Catlin, George, quoted on mourning 
 customs of the Mandans, 262 ; on 
 use of coracle by, 162. 
 
 Cavemen of France, 149. 
 
 Caves as homes, 149. 
 
 Chatelain, on fetishes among negroes, 
 243- 
 
 Cherokees, blow-gun used by, 134. 
 
 Chibchas, marriage ceremony of, 23L 
 
 China, ancestor worship in, 267. 
 
 Chinese, age of marriage, 228 ; agri- 
 culture of, 74, 78; development of 
 writing, 199 et seq. 
 
 Chinooks, mode of burial, 259; wo- 
 man's work among, 228. 
 
 Chippeway ideal of beauty, 221. 
 
 Chippewayan age of marriage, 228. 
 
 Chipping stone, methods of, 100. 
 
 Choctaw, mode of burial, 258. 
 
 Coiled ware, 53, 57. 
 
 Comanches, woman's work among, 
 228. 
 
 Communal house-life, 156. 
 
 Comparative religion, 248. 
 
 Conservatism, in religion, 24, 27, 114; 
 in woman, 23. 
 
 Cook, Captain, quoted on Australian 
 method of fire-making, 17. 
 
 Cookery, 31. 
 
 Copper, early use of, 116; experi- 
 ments on, 119. 
 
 Copy, law of, 54 ; in house-building, 
 158. 
 
 Coracle, 162. 
 
 Cord-drill for fire-making, 18. 
 
 Coroadoes, mode of burial, 254. 
 
 Counting, beginnings of, 190. 
 
 Cox, on mythic change, 214; on simi- 
 lar folk-tales, 218. 
 
 Creek Indians, agriculture of, 75 ; 
 marriage ceremony of, 232. 
 
 Cremation, 254. 
 
 Criminal anthropology, 286. 
 
 Cultivated plants, origin of, 74, 82 ; 
 variations by selection, 80. 
 
 Cultivation, beginning of, 74. 
 
 Culture history, 291. 
 
 Cushing, F. H., on primitive copper 
 work, 117 et seq; on Pueblo pottery, 
 56. 
 
 Custom among savages, 270. 
 
 Dahomey, ancestor worship in, 267. 
 
 Dakota Indians, calendar of, 196 ; pic- 
 ture-writing of, 193. 
 
 Darwin, Charles, on the Fuegians, 
 143 ; quoted on domestication of the 
 dog, 85 ; of the pig, 92. 
 
 Dawkins, Boyd, on cavemen and 
 Eskimo, 150. 
 
 Death, primitive ideas of, 250. 
 
 Decoration, of basket-work, 53; of 
 pottery, 56, 57. 
 
 Deer-hunting among the Eskimo, 67. 
 
 Deformation of the head and feet, 138. 
 
 DeMortillet, on classification of 
 weapons, 130 ; quoted on domestica- 
 tion of the pig, 93; on origin of 
 dogs, 85 ; of the horse, 91. 
 
 De Quatrefages, A., quoted on anthro- 
 pology, 283. 
 
 Determinatives, used by Chinese, 203 ; 
 by Egyptians, 204. 
 
Index. 
 
 301 
 
 Dog, domestication of, 85, 89 ; in Den- 
 mark, 89 ; used as food, 43, 48 ; used 
 in hunting and fishing, 66. 
 
 Domestication, beginning of, 84 ; of 
 the ass, 92 ; of the cat, 90 ; of the 
 dog, 85 ; of fowls, 94 ; of the pig, 92 ; 
 of the pigeon, 94; variations under, 
 94. 
 
 Dress, materials used in, 147 ; origin 
 of, 136, 142 ; survivals in, 146 ; types 
 of, 144. 
 
 Drilling stone, methods of, 104. 
 
 Drying of meat, 35, 41. 
 
 Eggs, cooking of, by Blackfeet, 43. 
 
 Egyptians, agricultural tools of, 76 \ 
 agriculture of, 74 ; development of 
 writing, 204 ; embalming of the 
 dead, 260. 
 
 Embalmment, 260. 
 
 Endogamy, 234, 235. 
 
 Equivocation, an aid to mythic change, 
 214. 
 
 Eskimo, ancestors of, 150; as geo- 
 graphers, 167; disposition of the 
 dead by, 258 ; garments of, 147 ; hos- 
 pitality of, 276 ; hunting among, 66, 
 71 ; marriage customs of, 230 ; orna- 
 ments worn by, 137 ; sledges of, 167 ; 
 storing of food by, 31 ; use of kayak 
 by, 161. 
 
 Ethnography, 289. 
 
 Ethnology, 289. 
 
 Exogamy, 234. 
 
 Exposure of the dead, 257. 
 
 Eyre, quoted on condition of woman, 
 223. 
 
 Family, forms of, 232 ; primitive form 
 of, 234. 
 
 Feathers, use of, in dress, 147. 
 
 Fetishism, 240, 243. 
 
 Fielde, Miss, quoted on agriculture in 
 China, 78. 
 
 Fijians, culture of, 48 ; ear-piercing 
 among, 137. 
 
 Fire, as protection against spirits, 28 ; 
 influence of, 28 ; methods of making, 
 14 et seq; origin of, 13 ; uses of, 28. 
 
 Fish as food, 38 et seq. 
 
 Fishing, dogs used in, 66. 
 
 Folk-tales, 215, 216. 
 
 Food, as influencing life, 37 ; cooking 
 
 of, 31 ; range of, 30; storing of, 31, 
 
 38, 39- 
 Fowls, domestication of, 94. 
 Franklin, quoted on certain Indian 
 
 customs, 224. 
 French-Sheldon, Mrs., metallurgy in 
 
 Africa, 127. 
 Friction, for making fire, 17, 24 ; in 
 
 Europe, 27 ; in Japan, 25. 
 Fuegians, method of making fire, 20 ; 
 
 vessels of, 54. 
 Fulahs, marriage ceremony of, 231. 
 Future life, ideas of, 264 et seq. 
 Gens, 270. 
 
 Germany, need-fire in, 26. 
 Gesture language, 170 ; kinds of, 171 ; 
 
 syntax of, 174. 
 Grimm brothers, 215. 
 Grinnell, G. B., quoted on Blackfeet, 
 
 39- 
 
 Hadley, Lewis, on sign language, 294. 
 
 Haida women, labrets worn by, 136. 
 
 Haidas, food of, 38 ; force of custom 
 among, 270 ; nature worship of, 244. 
 
 Hair-dressing, 141. 
 
 Harpoon, used by Eskimo, 134. 
 
 Harris, J. C, 208. 
 
 Havasupai, method of boiling food, 54. 
 
 Hearn, Lafcadio, quoted on fire- 
 making in Japan, 25. 
 
 Herodotus, quoted on stone tools of 
 the Egyptians, 114. 
 
 Hitchcock, on Japanese pit-dwellers, 
 152. 
 
 Hoffman, W. J., on medicine society 
 of the Ojibwas, 246. 
 
 Holmes, W. H., on form and decora- 
 tion of pottery, 55. 
 
 Home, beginning of, 29. 
 
 Horse, domestication of, 91. 
 
 Hospitality of the Eskimo, 276. 
 
 Hottentots, absence of agriculture 
 among, 73 ; prohibitions against 
 women, 224; village of, 151. 
 
 Hough, Walter, on fire-making, 17, 20 ; 
 table of primitive methods of, 21. 
 
 Houses, of adobe, I56 ; of stone, 155 ; 
 
302 
 
 Index. 
 
 of the Iroquois, 156; of the Man- 
 dans, 156; of the Pueblos, 156; in- 
 fluenced by environment, 158. 
 
 Howard, B. Douglas, quoted on the 
 Ainu, 65. 
 
 Hunting, among the Ainu, 60; among 
 the Eskimo, 66 ; primitive methods 
 of, 59- 
 
 Huts, among the Eskimo, 150; in Af- 
 rica, 151 ; in North America, 152 ; 
 in South America, 150. 
 
 Ideogram, 197. 
 
 Imitative words, of children, 176 ; of 
 Indians, 175. 
 
 Improvidence of savages, 31. 
 
 Inao, used by Ainu, 64, 65. 
 
 Indians, preparation of food by, 36; 
 stories of, 210; storing of food by, 
 31 ; writing among, 192. 
 
 Indians of Northwest coast, food of, 
 .38. 
 
 Intonation, 180. 
 
 froha, Japanese syllabary, 204. 
 
 Iroquois, age of marriage, 228; agri- 
 culture among, 75; confederacy of, 
 273; houses of, 156; marriage cere- 
 mony of, 232 ; pump-drill of, 19 ; 
 wampum belts of, 193. 
 
 Itzcoatl, a Mexican chieftain, 198. 
 
 Japanese, development of writing 
 among, 203 ; pit-dwellers, 152 ; tat- 
 tooing among, 141. 
 
 Jerked beef of American Indians, 35. 
 
 Jessakkid, medicine men of the Ojib- 
 was, 247. 
 
 Jury, Judge, quoted on use of fire by 
 Australians, 28. 
 
 Kaffirs, basketry of, 53 ; dress of, 144 ; 
 ear-piercing among,^ 137 ; woman's 
 language among, 227. 
 
 Kalmucks, marriage customs of, 230. 
 
 Karens, idea of future life, 265. 
 
 Katakana, Japanese syllabary, 204. 
 
 Kayak, Eskimo canoe, 160. 
 
 Keary, quoted on the Aryans, 189. 
 
 Kerry, weapon used in Africa, 128. 
 
 Khonds, marriage customs of, 229 ; 
 prohibitions against women, 224. 
 
 Kirghis, age of marriage, 229. 
 
 Kitchen-middens, 89. 
 
 Knee pants, history of, 146. 
 
 Kwakiutl, secret societies among, 246. 
 
 Labrets, worn by Aztecs, 137 ; by Boto- 
 cudos, 137; by Haidas, 136. 
 
 Lake-Dwellers, of Switzerland, 152 ; 
 of Venezuela, 155. 
 
 Lake Superior copper mines, 121. 
 
 Land, 276 ; among the Aztecs, 277. 
 
 Language, ethnic peculiarities in, 185 ; 
 importance of the study of, 188 ; in- 
 fluence on man, 187 ; modifications 
 in, by change in root-vowel, 181 ; by 
 intonation, 180; by reduplication, 
 181 ; origin of, from imitative words, 
 177 ; from interjections, 177 ; from 
 roots, 178. 
 
 Letourneau, on Scotch cannibals, 44. 
 
 Levirate, a form of marriage, 233. 
 
 Lippert, on dress, 144 ; on ornaments, 
 143- 
 
 Livingstone, quoted on the Zambesi 
 people, 18. 
 
 Localization, an aid to mythic change, 
 214. 
 
 Lubbock, Sir John, on food of the 
 Tahitians, 35 ; on primitive family, 
 234 ; on words " fat her " and 
 "mother," 179; quoted on chipping 
 among the Mexicans, 102 ; on classi- 
 fication of religions, 240. 
 
 Malay sun and moon myth, 209. 
 
 Mallery, Garrick, on Dakota calendar, 
 196 ; on gesture language, 171 ; on 
 sign language, 295. 
 
 Mandans, coracle of, 162 ; houses of, 
 156 ; mourning customs of, 262. 
 
 Maoris, cannibalism of, 46 ; vessels of, 
 54- 
 
 Marquesans, cannibalism of, 46. 
 
 Marriage, age of, 228 ; forms of, 232 ; 
 prohibitions arising from, 224; vari- 
 ous ceremonies, 229 et seq. 
 
 Mayas, picture-writing of, 198. 
 
 McLennan, on primitive family, 234. 
 
 Metallurgy, 117 etseq; result of vanity, 
 148. 
 
 Metal-working of the Africans, 124; 
 of the Zuni, 118. 
 
Index. 
 
 303 
 
 Mexican Confederacy, 274. 
 Mexicans, method of working obsidi- 
 an, 102, 103. 
 Micams, reminders used by Sacs and 
 
 Foxes, 193. 
 Midi, Shaman of the Ojibwas, 246. 
 Mishmis, prohibitions against women 
 
 among, 224. 
 Missile knives, 133. 
 Modesty, incentive to dress, 142. 
 Modifications of the body, 136 ; origin 
 
 of, 141. 
 Mokis, basketry among, 50 ; mode of 
 
 burial of, 253. 
 Monbuttus, cannibalism of, 45 ; culture 
 
 of, 47. 
 Monogenism, 289. 
 Monogyny, 233. 
 Montezuma, 274. 
 Moorehead, W. K., on Ohio mounds, 
 
 117. 
 Moral codes, 278. 
 Morality and religion, 240. 
 Morgan, L. H., on houses of American 
 
 Indians, 156 ; on kinship terms, 234. 
 Mourning, 262. 
 Mutter, Max, quoted on Aryans, 189 ; 
 
 on folk-tales, 215. 
 Myths, changes in, 214 ; factors in 
 
 creation of, 209 ; illustrations of, 210. 
 Nansen, on the Greenland Eskimo, 71 ; 
 
 quoted on use of kayak, 161. 
 Natchez mother, speech to children, 
 
 261. 
 Nature myths, 209. 
 Nature worship, 244. 
 *' Need-fire," 26. 
 Neolithic period, 99. 
 New Caledonians, ancestor worship 
 
 among, 267; mourning customs of, 
 
 262. 
 New South Wales, mourning customs 
 
 in, 263. 
 New Zealanders, agriculture of, 74; 
 
 culture of, 48 ; marriage customs of, 
 
 230 ; mode of burial, 259. 
 Niam-niams, culture of, 47. 
 Nicaraguans, idea of future life, 266. 
 Ojibwas, medicine society of, 246. 
 
 Omahas, prohibitions arising from 
 
 marriage, 227. 
 Onomatopes, 175. 
 Ornamentation, of the skin, 138; of 
 
 the teeth, 138. 
 Ornaments, in the cheeks, 137 ; in the 
 
 ears, 137 ; in the lips, 136 ; in the 
 
 nose, 137 ; origin of, 143. 
 Otoes, mode of burial of, 251. 
 Outrigger canoe, 163. 
 Painting of the body, 138. 
 Palaeolithic period, 96. 
 Paraguay, pellet bow in, 134. 
 Parching of food, 32. 
 Parsees, age of marriage, 228 ; Towers 
 
 of Silence of, 259. 
 Patagonians, pottery of, 53. 
 Pellet bow, 133. 
 Pemmican, 42. 
 
 Percussion, for fire-making, 20. 
 Personification, 209. 
 Peruvians, cultivation of potato by, 
 
 81 • marriage ceremony of, 231. 
 Phoenicians, agriculture among, 74; 
 
 alphabet of, 205. 
 Phonogram, 197. 
 Physical anthropology, 285. 
 Picture-writing, of American Indians, 
 
 193 et seq ; of Chinese, 199; of 
 
 Egyptians, 204 ; table of develop- 
 ment, 207. 
 Pig, domestication of, 92. 
 Pigeon, domestication of, 94. 
 Pimas, mode of burial of, 251. 
 Pitt-Rivers Museum, 56, 135. 
 Plants, variation under cultivation, 80. 
 Ploss, on tenderness of woman, 222. 
 Poisoned arrows, 64, 65. 
 Polishing stone, methods of, 103. 
 Polyandry, 233. 
 Polygamy, or polygyny, 233. 
 Polygenism, 289. 
 Polynesia, canoes of, 164 ; methods of 
 
 fire-making, 17. 
 Polyonomy, an aid to mythic change, 
 
 214. 
 Possession, doctrine of, 238. 
 Pottawattamies, method of making 
 
 arrow-heads, 103. 
 
3°4 
 
 Index. 
 
 Pottery, beginnings of, 54, 55. 
 Powers, on tenderness of woman, 222. 
 Prehistoric archgeology, 290. 
 Prjevalski's horse, 92. 
 Property, primitive ideas of, 276. 
 Pueblo Indians, houses of, 156 ; pottery 
 
 of, 56 ; threshing among, 76. 
 Pump-drill for fire-making, 19. 
 Puris, numerals of, 189 ; shelters made 
 
 by, 150. 
 Putnam, F. W., on Ohio mounds, 109, 
 
 117. 
 Quippus, knotted cords of the Peru- 
 vians, 193. 
 Recapitulation, law of, 32. 
 Reduplication, 181. 
 Religion, connection with morality, 
 
 240 ; kinds of, 240. 
 Roasting of food, 32. 
 Rocky Mountain tribes, food of, 30. 
 Rotation of crops in China, 79. 
 Russia, need-fire in, 26. 
 Sacred numbers, 248. 
 Sacs and Foxes, basketry of, 50; bow- 
 drill for making fire, 23 ; burial 
 customs of, 239 ; compound words, 
 182; huts of, 151, 157; imitative 
 words, 175; mnemonic helps among, 
 192 ; painting of the body by, 141 ; 
 sign language among, 167, 171. 
 Saghalien, Ainu of, 65. 
 Saint-Hilaire, quoted on domesticated 
 
 animals, 95. 
 Santals, ancestor worship among, 267; 
 
 mourning ceremony of, 264. 
 Sarvis berries, food made from, 39. 
 Savagery of boyhood, 32, 135. 
 Saxons, cannibalism of, 44. 
 Schoolcraft, H. R., on picture-writing 
 
 of American Indians, 195. 
 Schweinfurth, on cannibalism of the 
 
 Monbuttus, 45. 
 Seal-hunting among the Eskimo, 67 
 
 et seg. 
 Senecas, 46. 
 Shamanism, 240. 
 Shamans, 245. 
 Shoshones, basketry of, 50. 
 Siamese method of making fire, 17. 
 
 Sign language in print, 294. 
 Sikhs, weapon used by, 133. 
 Simpson, on use of fire by Eskimo, 28- 
 Sioux, disposition of the dead by, 257 ; 
 
 mourning customs of, 264. 
 Slings, 131. 
 
 Societe d' Anthropologie de Paris, 293. 
 Solutr£, 91, 
 Somatology, 285. 
 
 Sopallally, food of the Indians, 39. 
 Soul, future home of, 266 ; idea of, 237,. 
 
 252. 
 Spears, types of, 131. 
 Spear-thrower, 132. 
 Spencer, Herbert, on idea of spirits,, 
 
 240; on woman's work, 228. 
 Spirits, idea of, 239. 
 Squier and Davis, on early pottery, 55.. 
 Starcke, on primitive family, 235. 
 Steenstrup, on domestication of the 
 
 dog, 90. 
 Stone-boiling, 36. 
 Stone tools, methods of making, ior> 
 
 et seg; sacred character of, in. 
 Storing of food, 31, 38, 39. 
 Subjection of women, 223. 
 Sumatra, 46. 
 Superstitions connected with stone 
 
 tools, III. 
 Survivals, of stone tools, 114; in 
 architecture, 158; in culture, 22; 
 in modern dress, 146 ; in religious- 
 rites, 145. 
 Swallow-tailed coat, history of, 146. 
 Switzerland, Lake-Dwellers of, 152. 
 Taboo, sexual, 224. 
 Tahitians, food of, 37, 224. 
 Tales, 209 et seg; value of the study 
 
 of, 216. 
 Tasmanians, numerals of, 189. 
 Tattooing, 141. 
 
 Tecpanecas, a people of Mexico, 275. 
 Theaters, use of gesture language in„ 
 
 173- 
 Thenay flints, 13. 
 
 Threshing, primitive methods of, 76. 
 Tlingits, nature worship among, 244. 
 Todas, form of marriage, 233 ; mar- 
 riage ceremony of, 231 ; mode of 
 
Index. 
 
 305 
 
 cremation, 254 ; prohibitions against 
 women, 224 ; woman's work among, 
 228 ; woi'shipers of the cow, 244. 
 
 Tools, character of primitive, 99 ; 
 efficiency of those of stone, 106 ; 
 methods of making, 100 ; used in 
 agriculture, 75, 78. 
 
 Topinard, on the word anthropology, 
 285. 
 
 Totemism, 24.0. 
 
 Towers of Silence, of the Parsees, 
 259- 
 
 Traps for catching game, 60, 66. 
 
 Tsimshians, dress of, 148 ; food of, 38. 
 
 Tucanos, a tribe of South America, 
 176. 
 
 Tupi, mode of burial, 253. 
 
 Tylor, E. B., on beginnings of count- 
 ing, 190; on Chinese picture-writing, 
 199; on fire-making, 17; on gesture 
 language, 173; on history of swallow- 
 tailed coat, 146; on homophones, 
 200 ; on idea of the soul, 237 ; on 
 myths, 209 ; on South American 
 huts, 150 ; on voice gestures, 177 ; 
 quoted on fire-making in Fakaafo, 
 28 ; on food of the Andamanese, 30, 
 
 35- 
 
 Uaupes, cannibalism of, 263; prohi- 
 bitions against women among, 224. 
 
 "Uncle Remus " stories, 208. 
 
 Vancouver Island, basketry in, 53. 
 
 Veddahs, marriage customs of, 231. 
 
 Vengeance, an incentive to cannibal- 
 ism, 45. 
 
 Wampum belts of the Iroquois, 193. 
 
 Weapons, classification of, 130 ; de- 
 velopment of, 130 ; illustrations of, 
 i$$etseq. 
 
 Wends, cannibalism of, 44. 
 
 West Africans, method of making fire, 
 20. 
 
 Whitney, W. D., on peculiarity in 
 accent, 186 ; quoted on verbal roots, 
 178. 
 
 " Wild-fire," 26. 
 
 Winnowing, among the Pueblo 
 Indians, 77. 
 
 Woman, a conservative power, 145 ; 
 condition of, 223 ; language of, 227 ; 
 love and tenderness of, 222 ; prohi- 
 bitions against, 224; strife after 
 beauty, 221 ; the first agriculturist, 
 73 ; the head of the family, 233 ; the 
 tender of the fire, 29 ; work of, 227. 
 
 Woman-right, 270. 
 
 Writing, American Indian, 192 et seq ; 
 Chinese, 199; Egyptian, 204; Japa- 
 nese, 203 ; Phoenician, 205. 
 
 Zizania, water rice, food of the 
 Indians, 31. 
 
 Zuni, copper- working among, 118; 
 fetishes of, 243; pottery of, 56; 
 symbols used by, 194- 
 

 
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