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supports himself by the chase alone, and each family is an isolated and independent whole. Secondly, we have the nomadic life, in which each man lives upon his flocks, himself and his herds alike wandering and migratory. Thirdly, we have the genuine agricultural life, in which man supports himself on the fruits of the earth, tilling the soil, and necessarily compelled to remain in one place and to provide himself with a permanent habitation. Lastly, we have the life of a people or nation, in the modern sense of the term, in which the conditions of existence attain their highest complexity, and each individual is more or less dependent for the satisfaction of his wants upon his fellows.

The hunter-stage of civilization is undoubtedly a very ancient one, and it is one which still exists in many races at the present day Apart from the necessities of existence, the instinct of sport is one which is very deeply implanted in man; and there are many now alive who would probably travel thousands of miles for the pleasure of hunting a Mastodon or a Megatherium. Man in all stages of his career has been at heart a hunter, and the conditions of life in various parts of the world are still sufficiently elastic to allow of existence being maintained by the chase alone. Hunter-tribes, however, never attain to any high degree of civilization, and this phase of civilization is not compatible with anything but a thin and sparse popu

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TYPE OF THE RED RACE.

TYPE OF THE BLACK RACE.

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lation and extensive tracts of unsettled land. It were well, also, if man had always been content with hunting the brute creation; but there are too many instances, even at the present day, in which man is both the hunter and the hunted. Feejeeans, for example, look upon their fellow men so entirely in the light of animals to be hunted that a human being is simply known by the name of "long pig," to distinguish him readily and completely from "short pig," that is to say from genuine pig. Both alike are killed and eaten, and the Feejeean mind recognizes no perceptible difference save in the length of the carcass. In this connection, however, we may to some extent exonerate these singular islanders from the odium of another heavy charge which has been brought against them, namely, that they put their aged to death. The charge is unfortunately true, but the motives which lead to this execrable practice are not so bad as might at first sight appear. Thus, according to Sir John Lubbock, the killing of the aged is not only caused by their notions of religion, but is usually accepted with positive joy by the sufferers themselves. The Feejeeans believe that "as they die, such will be their condition in another world." Hence they greatly desire to escape extreme infirmity; for the way to their future home is, in their belief, long and toilsome, and none but the strong could possibly surmount its dangers. As soon, therefore, as a man feels the approach of old age, he generally notifies his children that it is

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time for him to die, or, if he neglects to do so, a family consultation is held, and the children take the matter into their own hands. It really would appear, however, that in so doing the children are actuated by a regard for what they imagine to be the best interests of their parents; so that we must not place this practice side by side with the much more atrocious habit of cannibalism.

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After the hunting instinct no impulse, perhaps, more strongly urges savage man than that of migration. Always migratory, even in his highest phases of civilization, man has never so plainly exhibited his restless habits as in his nomadic or pastoral condition. His condition of life presupposes two things. In the first place, a pastoral life is not possible to any race of men quainted with the art of domesticating animals; and the hunter spirit is not favorable to the acquirement of this art. In the second place, a pastoral life cannot be carried out by a whole people, except in thinly populated regions where there is ample space of level and grassy land, and plenty of room for migration whenever fodder or water may become scarce. Most people, we should presume, are familiar with Charles Kingsley's Alton Locke; but we may be excused for quoting, on account of its beauty, a passage relating to the migration of a primitive tribe of men. In the delirium of fever the tailorpoet imagines himself to be a . child upon a woman's bosom, lulled to sleep by the noise of wheels crushing slowly through meadows of of tall marigolds and asters, orchises and fragrant lilies. Day after day and week after week, he slept and woke, and slept again, "in the lazy bullock wagon, among herds of gray cattle, guarded by huge lopeared mastiffs; among shaggy white horses, heavy-horned sheep, and silky goats; among tall, bare-limbed men, with stone axes on their shoulders and horn bows at their backs.

Westward, through the boundless steppes, whither or why we knew not; but that the All-Father had sent us forth. And behind us the rosy snow-peaks died into ghastly gray, lower and lower, as every evening came; and before us the plains spread infinite, with gleaming salt-lakes, and ever fresh tribes of gaudy flowers. Behind us dark lines of living beings streamed down the mountain slopes; around us dark lines crawled along the plains-all westward, westward ever.-The tribes of the Holy Mountain poured out like water to replenish the earth and subdue it-lava-streams from the crater of that great soul-volcano-Titan babies, dumb angels of God, bearing with them in their unconscious pregnancy the law, the

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MURDER OF THE AGED.

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freedom, the science, the poetry, the Christianity of Europe and the world. Westward ever-who could stand against us? We met the wild asses on the steppe, and tamed them, and made them our slaves. We slew the bison herds, and swam broad rivers on their skins. The Python snake lay across our path; the wolves and wild dogs snarled at us out of their coverts; we slew them and went on. The forest rose in black tangled barriers; we hewed our way through them and went on. Strange giant tribes met us, and eaglevisaged hordes, fierce and foolish; we smote them hip and thigh, and went on, westward ever."

Starting from the great mountain-chains which form the nucleus of Asia, the primitive races of mankind slowly spread themselves, in ever-widening circles of migration, eastward, westward, and southward. Few races are without their traditions of early migrations, and in many cases there can be little question but that these traditions are founded upon fact. The Semitic races, more perhaps than any other, seem to have retained their original restlessness, and the modern Bedouins are the type of a nomadic people. Mounted on their untiring horses, their scanty household goods borne by the patient camels, they traverse vast stretches of arid desert; and they appear to be without the faculty of ever re

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maining for any length of time in a single locality. The modern Chinese are singularly stationary, disinclined to accept any innovation, and extraordinarily reluctant to change their place of abode; but their near relatives, the Tartars, are as unstable and restless as quicksilver; and the Chinese themselves preserve traditions of a time when they too had not acquired the respectable conservatism and unwillingness to change, by which they are at present characterized. Another race, which also had as its primitive starting-place the great plateau of Central Asia, is that of the Finns. Reduced at the present day to mere isolated remnants of their former power, the Finnish races must at one. period of the world's history have enjoyed a much greater extension than they can boast of now. In times long preceding the arrival of the German and Slavic races in the North of Europe, the Finns and Laplanders had occupied a great portion of what is now Russia. When the Teutonic races invaded Northern Europe, they found the ground already occupied by barbarous and migratory hordes of Finns and Ugrians; and it is the extirpation of these by a race of happier destinies that is celebrated in the early poems of the Scalds. At this period, the Finns dwelt in wild mountainous regions, or in the pathless forests which then covered so

much of Europe; and their mode of life must have been sufficiently precarious and wretched. Such accounts as we possess of them, it must be remembered, are those of their enemies and conquerors, and are, therefore, probably more unfavorable than the actual facts would warrant. They are described as being clothed with the skins of wild beasts, and as uttering sounds more like the cries of animals than the speech of human beings. They dwelt in caves and clefts of the rocks, whence they issued nightly in marauding bands to perpetrate deeds of blood.

Many migratory races have left traces of their religious beliefs, social habits, or superstitions in the regions which they traversed or permanently occupied; and many of these traces are of such a similar character in the most remote portions of the earth as to prove an original community of origin for these races. Forests and woods seem to have always been regarded by ancient races with a species of sacred reverence and fear; and in passing through their shady recesses many ancient tribes seem to have propitiated evil spirits and malignant influences by nightly expiations, in which fire played a principal part. These traditions and mystic rites have left no permanent evidence of their existence, but all over the world we find traces of primeval habits and beliefs in the so-called "megalithic" monuments. Everywhere

we meet with stone circles, dolmens, and standing stones, many of which are of astonishing dimensions, whilst all excite our admiration and interest by the antiquity of their origin, and the mystery of their uses. Looking into "the dark backward and abysm of time," we find no evidence by which we can certainly identify the makers of these singular structures, and antiquaries have vainly puzzled themselves in attempts to clucidate the objects for which they are constructed. The most probable view is that they are burial places for the dead; but they may possibly, in some cases at any rate, be memorial monuments of great occurrences, or they may have been connected with the rites of a lost religion. Whatever their nature may be, the similarity which they exhibit in different regions of the world is a most striking fact. In Europe, Syria, Arabia, and India, we meet commonly with circles of rough upright stones, often of great size, and commonly known as Druidical circles. In some cases, as in the circle of Northung, in India, the stone circle is combined with "dolmens," that is, with structures composed of two or three upright stones supporting a massive horizontal slab in the manner of a table. In the same way standing stones or "menhirs" are found nearly all over the world, and they are probably to be regarded as being the tombstones of eminent warriors,

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hunters, or chiefs among the pre-historic

races.

The subject of the superstitions and religious observances of the ancient peoples of the earth is far too wide and obscure to be entered upon here. We may, however, draw attention to two points of interest, namely, the prevalence of an exaggerated form of hero-worship among various ancient races and some modern savages, and the connection which has subsisted between some forms of religious belief (if such a name can fairly be applied to the degrading superstitions in question), and a more or less chronic state of war. As regards the first point, it is curious to note

ples, and paying to them divine honors. Coming to modern times, the worship of humanity is quite common among the Polynesians. The worship of a great chief seems to them quite as natural as the worship of an idol. Such deified individuals are known among them as "Atouas," and they pay the same honors to them as to their gods. Sometimes the "Atouas" are regarded as immortal, or at any rate as incapable of dying a natural death, and the same belief is held as regards the Great Lama of Thibet. The Polynesians also, and perhaps naturally, regarded Captain Cook as a supernatural being; and though such a notion may not seem compatible with

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the tendency of the human mind in certain phases of civilization to elevate distinguished individuals into demi-gods or divine beings. In some cases, it is not even necessary for an individual to have been especially eminent in any way, and it is sufficient that he should have died some time ago. Some religions consist in fact to a greater or less extent in the worship of ancestors. Idols, indeed, usually have the human form, and idolatry is nearly related to the worship of our forefathers. The Greeks and Romans, the Chaldeans, and the ancient Egyptians, all deified their distinguished dead, in many cases placing statues of them in their tem

their subsequently killing him, they ultimately assigned him a place amongst their deities.

A chronic state of warfare seems to be the normal and natural condition of things among savage races. Every man's hand is against his neighbor, and security of life and property is a thing unknown. Hence savage life is filled with suspicion and hatred, and is attended with constant vicissitudes. A great king becomes a shepherd, or the chances of war raise a simple hunter to a throne. The following account by a Caffre, as related to a missionary, portrays but too faithfully the uncertainty of savage existence, and carries with it the guarantee

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