The Works of Hubert Howe Bancroft Part 1

The Works of Hubert Howe Bancroft.

Volume 1.

by Hubert Howe Bancroft.

PREFACE.

In pursuance of a general plan involving the production of a series of works on the western half of North America, I present this delineation of its aboriginal inhabitants as the first. To the immense territory bordering on the western ocean from Alaska to Darien, and including the whole of Mexico and Central America, I give arbitrarily, for want of a better, the name Pacific States. Stretching almost from pole to equator, and embracing within its limits nearly one tenth of the earth's surface, this last Western Land offers to lovers of knowledge a new and enticing field; and, although hitherto its several parts have been held somewhat asunder by the force of circ.u.mstances, yet are its occupants drawn by nature into nearness of relations.h.i.+p, and will be brought yet nearer by advancing civilization; the common oceanic highway on the one side, and the great mountain ramparts on the other, both tending to this result.

The characteristics of this vast domain, material and social, are comparatively unknown and are essentially peculiar. To its exotic civilization all the so-called older nations of the world have contributed of their energies; and this composite ma.s.s, leavened by its destiny, is now working out the new problem of its future. The modern history of this West antedates that of the East by over a century, and although there may be apparent heterogeneity in the subject thus territorially treated, there is an apparent tendency toward ultimate unity.

To some it may be of interest to know the nature and extent of my resources for writing so important a series of works. The books and ma.n.u.scripts necessary for the task existed in no library in the world; hence, in 1859, I commenced collecting material relative to the Pacific States. After securing everything within my reach in America, I twice visited Europe, spending about two years in thorough researches in England and the chief cities of the Continent. Having exhausted every available source, I was obliged to content myself with lying in wait for opportunities. Not long afterward, and at a time when the prospect of materially adding to my collection seemed anything but hopeful, the _Biblioteca Imperial de Mejico_, of the unfortunate Maximilian, collected during a period of forty years by Don Jose Maria Andrade, litterateur and publisher of the city of Mexico, was thrown upon the European market and furnished me about three thousand additional volumes.

In 1869, having acc.u.mulated some sixteen thousand books, ma.n.u.scripts, and pamphlets, besides maps and c.u.mbersome files of Pacific Coast journals, I determined to go to work. But I soon found that, like Tantalus, while up to my neck in water, I was dying of thirst. The facts which I required were so copiously diluted with trash, that to follow different subjects through this trackless sea of erudition, in the exhaustive manner I had proposed, with but one life-time to devote to the work, was simply impracticable. In this emergency my friend, Mr Henry L. Oak, librarian of the collection, came to my relief. After many consultations, and not a few partial failures, a system of indexing the subject-matter of the whole library was devised, sufficiently general to be practicable, and sufficiently particular to direct me immediately to all my authorities on any given point. The system, on trial, stands the test, and the index when completed, as it already is for the twelve hundred authors quoted in this work, will more than double the practical value of the library.

Of the importance of the task undertaken, I need not say that I have formed the highest opinion. At present the few grains of wheat are so hidden by the mountain of chaff as to be of comparatively little benefit to searchers in the various branches of learning; and to sift and select from this ma.s.s, to extract from bulky tome and transient journal, from the archives of convent and mission, facts valuable to the scholar and interesting to the general reader; to arrange these facts in a natural order, and to present them in such a manner as to be of practical benefit to inquirers in the various branches of knowledge, is a work of no small import and responsibility. And though mine is the labor of the artisan rather than that of the artist, a forging of weapons for abler hands to wield, a producing of raw materials for skilled mechanics to weave and color at will; yet, in undertaking to bring to light from sources innumerable essential facts, which, from the very shortness of life if from no other cause, must otherwise be left out in the physical and social generalizations which occupy the ablest minds, I feel that I engage in no idle pastime.

A word as to the Nations of which this work is a description, and my method of treating the subject. Aboriginally, for a savage wilderness, there was here a dense population; particularly south of the thirtieth parallel, and along the border of the ocean north of that line. Before the advent of Europeans, this domain counted its aborigines by millions; ranked among its people every phase of primitive humanity, from the reptile-eating cave-dweller of the Great Basin, to the Aztec and Maya-Quiche civilization of the southern table-land,--a civilization, if we may credit Dr Draper, "that might have instructed Europe," a culture wantonly crushed by Spain, who therein "destroyed races more civilized than herself."

Differing among themselves in minor particulars only, and bearing a general resemblance to the nations of eastern and southern America; differing again, the whole, in character and cast of features from every other people of the world, we have here presented hundreds of nations and tongues, with thousands of beliefs and customs, wonderfully dissimilar for so segregated a humanity, yet wonderfully alike for the inhabitants of a land that comprises within its limits nearly every phase of climate on the globe. At the touch of European civilization, whether Latin or Teutonic, these nations vanished; and their unwritten history, reaching back for thousands of ages, ended. All this time they had been coming and going, nations swallowing up nations, annihilating and being annihilated, amidst human convulsions and struggling civilizations. Their strange destiny fulfilled, in an instant they disappear; and all we have of them, besides their material relics, is the glance caught in their hasty flight, which gives us a few customs and traditions, and a little mythological history.

To gather and arrange in systematic compact form all that is known of these people; to rescue some facts, perhaps, from oblivion, to bring others from inaccessible nooks, to render all available to science and to the general reader, is the object of this work. Necessarily some parts of it may be open to the charge of dryness; I have not been able to interlard my facts with interesting anecdotes for lack of s.p.a.ce, and I have endeavored to avoid speculation, believing, as I do, the work of the collector and that of the theorizer to be distinct, and that he who attempts to establish some pet conjecture while imparting general information, can hardly be trusted for impartial statements. With respect to the territorial divisions of the first volume, which is confined to the Wild Tribes, and the necessity of giving descriptions of the same characteristics in each, there may be an appearance of repet.i.tion; but I trust this may be found more apparent than real.

Although there are many similar customs, there are also many minor differences, and, as one of the chief difficulties of this volume was to keep it within reasonable limits, no delineation has been repeated where a necessity did not appear to exist. The second volume, which treats of the Civilized Nations, offers a more fascinating field, and with ample s.p.a.ce and all existing authorities at hand, the fault is the writer's if interest be not here combined with value. As regards Mythology, Languages, Antiquities, and Migrations, of which the three remaining volumes treat, it has been my aim to present clearly and concisely all knowledge extant on these subjects; and the work, as a whole, is intended to embody all facts that have been preserved concerning these people at the time of their almost simultaneous discovery and disappearance. It will be noticed that I have said little of the natives or their deeds since the coming of the Europeans; of their wars against invaders and among themselves; of repartimientos, presidios, missions, reservations, and other inst.i.tutions for their conquest, conversion, protection, or oppression. My reason for this is that all these things, so far as they have any importance, belong to the modern history of the country and will receive due attention in a subsequent work.

In these five volumes, besides information acquired from sources not therein named, are condensed the researches of twelve hundred writers, a list of whose works, with the edition used, is given in this volume. I have endeavored to state fully and clearly in my text the substance of the matter, and in reaching my conclusions to use due discrimination as to the respective value of different authorities. In the notes I give liberal quotations, both corroborative of the text, and touching points on which authors differ, together with complete references to all authorities, including some of little value, on each point, for the use of readers or writers who may either be dissatisfied with my conclusions, or may wish to investigate any particular branch of the subject farther than my limits allow.

I have given full credit to each of the many authors from whom I have taken material, and if, in a few instances, a scarcity of authorities has compelled me to draw somewhat largely on the few who have treated particular points, I trust I shall be pardoned in view of the comprehensive nature of the work. Quotations are made in the languages in which they are written, and great pains has been taken to avoid mutilation of the author's words. As the books quoted form part of my private library, I have been able, by comparison with the originals, to carefully verify all references after they were put in type; hence I may confidently hope that fewer errors have crept in than are usually found in works of such variety and extent.

The labor involved in the preparation of these volumes will be appreciated by few. That expended on the first volume alone, with all the material before me, is more than equivalent to the well-directed efforts of one person for ten years. In the work of selecting, sifting, and arranging my subject-matter, I have called in the aid of a large corps of a.s.sistants, and, while desiring to place on no one but myself any responsibility for the work, either in style or matter, I would render just acknowledgment for the services of all; especially to the following gentlemen, for the efficient manner in which, each in his special department, they have devoted their energies and abilities to the carrying out of my plan;--to Mr T. Arundel-Harcourt, in the researches on the manners and customs of the Civilized Nations; to Mr Walter M. Fisher, in the investigation of Mythology; to Mr Albert Goldschmidt, in the treatise on Language; and to Mr Henry L. Oak, in the subject of Antiquities and Aboriginal History.

CHAPTER I.

ETHNOLOGICAL INTRODUCTION.

FACTS AND THEORIES--HYPOTHESES CONCERNING ORIGIN--UNITY OF RACE--DIVERSITY OF RACE--SPONTANEOUS GENERATION--ORIGIN OF ANIMALS AND PLANTS--PRIMORDIAL CENTRES OF POPULATION-- DISTRIBUTION OF PLANTS AND ANIMALS--ADAPTABILITY OF SPECIES TO LOCALITY--CLa.s.sIFICATION OF SPECIES--ETHNOLOGICAL TESTS-- RACES OF THE PACIFIC--FIRST INTERCOURSE WITH EUROPEANS.

Facts are the raw material of science. They are to philosophy and history, what cotton and iron are to cloth and steam-engines. Like the raw material of the manufacturer, they form the bases of innumerable fabrics, are woven into many theories finely spun or coa.r.s.ely spun, which wear out with time, become unfas.h.i.+onable, or else prove to be indeed true and fit, and as such remain. This raw material of the scholar, like that of the manufacturer, is always a staple article; its substance never changes, its value never diminishes; whatever may be the condition of society, or howsoever advanced the mind, it is indispensable. Theories may be only for the day, but facts are for all time and for all science. When we remember that the sum of all knowledge is but the sum of ascertained facts, and that every new fact brought to light, preserved, and thrown into the general fund, is so much added to the world's store of knowledge,--when we consider that, broad and far as our theories may reach, the realm of definite, tangible, ascertained truth is still of so little extent, the importance of every never-so-insignificant acquisition is manifest. Compare any fact with the fancies which have been prevalent concerning it, and consider, I will not say their relative brilliance, but their relative importance.

Take electricity, how many explanations have been given of the lightning and the thunder, yet there is but one fact; the atmosphere, how many howling demons have directed the tempest, how many smiling deities moved in the soft breeze. For the one all-sufficient First Cause, how many myriads of G.o.ds have been set up; for every phenomenon how many causes have been invented; with every truth how many untruths have contended, with every fact how many fancies. The profound investigations of latter-day philosophers are nothing but simple and laborious inductions from ascertained facts, facts concerning attraction, polarity, chemical affinity and the like, for the explanation of which there are countless hypotheses, each hypothesis involving mult.i.tudes of speculations, all of which evaporate as the truth slowly crystallizes. Speculation is valuable to science only as it directs the mind into otherwise-undiscoverable paths; but when the truth is found, there is an end to speculation.

So much for facts in general; let us now look for a moment at the particular cla.s.s of facts of which this work is a collection.

[Sidenote: TENDENCY OF PHILOSOPHIC INQUIRY.]

The tendency of philosophic inquiry is more and more toward the origin of things. In the earlier stages of intellectual impulse, the mind is almost wholly absorbed in ministering to the necessities of the present; next, the mysterious uncertainty of the after life provokes inquiry, and contemplations of an eternity of the future command attention; but not until knowledge is well advanced does it appear that there is likewise an eternity of the past worthy of careful scrutiny,--without which scrutiny, indeed, the eternity of the future must forever remain a sealed book. Standing as we do between these two eternities, our view limited to a narrow though gradually widening horizon, as nature unveils her mysteries to our inquiries, an infinity spreads out in either direction, an infinity of minuteness no less than an infinity of immensity; for hitherto, attempts to reach the ultimate of molecules, have proved as futile as attempts to reach the ultimate of ma.s.ses. Now man, the n.o.blest work of creation, the only reasoning creature, standing alone in the midst of this vast sea of undiscovered truth,--ultimate knowledge ever receding from his grasp, primal causes only thrown farther back as proximate problems are solved,--man, in the study of mankind, must follow his researches in both of these directions, backward as well as forward, must indeed derive his whole knowledge of what man is and will be from what he has been. Thus it is that the study of mankind in its minuteness a.s.sumes the grandest proportions. Viewed in this light there is not a feature of primitive humanity without significance; there is not a custom or characteristic of savage nations, however mean or revolting to us, from which important lessons may not be drawn. It is only from the study of barbarous and partially cultivated nations that we are able to comprehend man as a progressive being, and to recognize the successive stages through which our savage ancestors have pa.s.sed on their way to civilization. With the natural philosopher, there is little thought as to the relative importance of the manifold works of creation. The tiny insect is no less an object of his patient scrutiny, than the wonderful and complex machinery of the cosmos. The lower races of men, in the study of humanity, he deems of as essential importance as the higher; our present higher races being but the lower types of generations yet to come.

Hence, if in the following pages, in the array of minute facts incident to the successive peoples of which we speak, some of them appear small and unworthy of notice, let it be remembered that in nature there is no such thing as insignificance; still less is there anything connected with man unworthy of our most careful study, or any peculiarity of savagism irrelevant to civilization.

[Sidenote: ORIGIN OF MAN.]

Different schools of naturalists maintain widely different opinions regarding the origin of mankind. Existing theories may be broadly divided into three categories; in the first two of which man is considered as a special creation, and in the third as a natural development from some lower type. The special-creation school is divided on the question of unity or diversity of race. The first party holds by the time-honored tradition, that all the nations of the earth are descended from a single human pair; the second affirms, that by one creative act were produced several special creations, each separate creation being the origin of a race, and each race primordially adapted to that part of the globe which it now inhabits. The third theory, that of the development school, denies that there ever were common centres of origin in organic creation; but claims that plants and animals generate spontaneously, and that man is but the modification of some preexisting animal form.

[Sidenote: HYPOTHESES CONCERNING ORIGIN.]

The first hypothesis, the doctrine of the monogenists, is ably supported by Latham, Prichard, and many other eminent ethnologists of Europe, and is the favorite opinion of orthodox thinkers throughout Christendom. The human race, they say, having sprung from a single pair, const.i.tutes but one stock, though subject to various modifications. Anatomically, there is no difference between a Negro and a European. The color of the skin, the texture of the hair, the convolutions of the brain, and all other peculiarities, may be attributed to heat, moisture, and food. Man, though capable of subduing the world to himself, and of making his home under climates and circ.u.mstances the most diverse, is none the less a child of nature, acted upon and molded by those conditions which he attempts to govern. Climate, periodicities of nature, material surroundings, habits of thought and modes of life, acting through a long series of ages, exercise a powerful influence upon the human physical organization; and yet man is perfectly created for any sphere in which he may dwell; and is governed in his condition by choice rather than by coercion. Articulate language, which forms the great line of demarcation between the human and the brute creation, may be traced in its leading characteristics to one common source. The differences between the races of men are not specific differences. The greater part of the flora and fauna of America, those of the circ.u.mpolar regions excepted, are essentially dissimilar to those of the old world; while man in the new world, though bearing traces of high antiquity, is specifically identical with all the races of the earth. It is well known that the hybrids of plants and of animals do not possess the power of reproduction, while in the intermixture of the races of men no such sterility of progeny can be found; and therefore, as there are no human hybrids, there are no separate human races or species, but all are one family. Besides being consistent with sound reasoning, this theory can bring to its support the testimony of the sacred writings, and an internal evidence of a creation divine and spiritual, which is sanctioned by tradition, and confirmed by most philosophic minds. Man, unlike animals, is the direct offspring of the Creator, and as such he alone continues to derive his inheritance from a divine source. The Hebraic record, continue the monogenists, is the only authentic solution of the origin of all things; and its history is not only fully sustained by science, but it is upheld by the traditions of the most ancient barbarous nations, whose mythology strikingly resembles the Mosaic account of the creation, the deluge, and the distribution of peoples.

The Semitic family alone were civilized from the beginning. A peculiar people, constantly upheld by special act of Providence from falling into paganism, they alone possessed a true knowledge of the mystery of creation. A universal necessity for some form of wors.h.i.+p, a belief inherent in all mankind, in an omnipotent deity and a life beyond the grave, point to a common origin and prophesy a common destiny. This much for the monogenists.

The second hypothesis, that of the polygenists, holds that there was not one only, but several independent creations, each giving birth to the essential, unchangeable peculiarities of a separate race; thus const.i.tuting a diversity of species with primeval adaptation to their geographical distribution. Morton, Aga.s.siz, Gliddon, and others in America, stand sponsors for this theory. The physiological differences of race, they say, which separate mankind into cla.s.ses, do not result from climatic surroundings, but are inherited from original progenitors.

They point to marked characteristics in various peoples which have remained unchanged for a period of four thousand years. In place of controverting divine revelation, they claim that Mosaic history is the history of a single race, and not the history of all mankind; that the record itself contains an implied existence of other races; and that the distribution of the various species or races of men, according to their relative organisms, was part of the creative act, and of no less importance than was the act of creation.

The third hypothesis, derived mainly from the writings of Lamarck, Darwin, and Huxley, is based upon the principle of evolution. All existing species are developments of some preexisting form, which in like manner descended by true generation from a form still lower. Man, say they, bears no impress of a divine original that is not common to brutes; he is but an animal, more perfectly developed through natural and s.e.xual selection. Commencing with the spontaneous generation of the lowest types of vegetable and animal life,--as the acc.u.mulation of mold upon food, the swarming of maggots in meat, the infusorial animalcules in water, the generation of insect life in decaying vegetable substances,--the birth of one form arising out of the decay of another, the slow and gradual unfolding from a lower to a higher sphere, acting through a long succession of ages, culminate in the grandeur of intellectual manhood. Thus much for this life, while the hope of a like continued progress is entertained for the life to come. While the tendency of variety in organic forms is to decrease, argue these latter-day naturalists, individuals increase in a proportion greater than the provisional means of support. A predominating species, under favorable circ.u.mstances, rapidly multiplies, crowding out and annihilating opposing species. There is therefore a constant struggle for existence in nature, in which the strongest, those best fitted to live and improve their species, prevail; while the deformed and ill-favored are destroyed. In courts.h.i.+p and s.e.xual selection the war for precedence continues. Throughout nature the male is the wooer; he it is who is armed for fight, and provided with musical organs and ornamental appendages, with which to charm the fair one. The savage and the wild beast alike secure their mate over the mangled form of a vanquished rival. In this manner the more highly favored of either s.e.x are mated, and natural selections made, by which, better ever producing better, the species in its constant variation is constantly improved. Many remarkable resemblances may be seen between man and the inferior animals. In embryonic development, in physical structure, in material composition and the function of organs, man and animals are strikingly alike. And, in the possession of that immaterial nature which more widely separates the human from the brute creation, the 'reasonable soul' of man is but an evolution from brute instincts. The difference in the mental faculties of man and animals is immense; but the high culture which belongs to man has been slowly developed, and there is plainly a wider separation between the mental power of the lowest zoophyte and the highest ape, than between the most intellectual ape and the least intellectual man. Physically and mentally, the man-like ape and the ape-like man sustain to each other a near relations.h.i.+p; while between the mammal and the mollusk there exists the greatest possible dissimilarity. Articulate language, it is true, acting upon the brain, and in turn being acted upon to the improvement of both, belongs only to man; yet animals are not devoid of expedients for expressing feeling and emotion. It has been observed that no brute ever fas.h.i.+oned a tool for a special purpose; but some animals crack nuts with a stone, and an accidentally splintered flint naturally suggests itself as the first instrument of primeval man. The chief difficulty lies in the high state of moral and intellectual power which may be attained by man; yet this same progressive principle is likewise found in brutes. Nor need we blush for our origin. The nations now most civilized were once barbarians. Our ancestors were savages, who, with tangled hair, and glaring eyes, and blood-besmeared hands, devoured man and beast alike.

Surely a respectable gorilla lineage stands no unfavorable comparison.

Between the first and the last of these three rallying points, a whole continent of debatable land is spread, stretching from the most conservative orthodoxy to the most scientific liberalism. Numberless arguments may be advanced to sustain any given position; and not unfrequently the same a.n.a.logies are brought forward to prove propositions directly oppugnant. As has been observed, each school ranks among its followers the ablest men of science of the day. These men do not differ in minor particulars only, meeting in general upon one broad, common platform; on the contrary, they find themselves unable to agree as touching any one thing, except that man is, and that he is surrounded by those climatic influences best suited to his organization. Any one of these theories, if substantiated, is the death-blow of the others. The first denies any diversity of species in creation and all immutability of race; the second denies a unity of species and the possibility of change in race; the third denies all special acts of creation and, like the first, all immutability of race.

[Sidenote: PLANTS AND ANIMALS.]

The question respecting the origin of animals and plants has likewise undergone a similar flux of beliefs, but with different result. Whatever the conclusions may be with regard to the origin of man, naturalists of the present day very generally agree, that there was no one universal centre of propagation for plants and animals; but that the same conditions of soil, moisture, heat, and geographical situation, always produce a similarity of species; or, what is equivalent, that there were many primary centres, each originating species, which spread out from these centres and covered the earth. This doctrine was held by early naturalists to be irreconcilable with the Scripture account of the creation, and was therefore denounced as heretical. Linnaeus and his contemporaries drew up a pleasing picture, a.s.signing the birth-place of all forms of life to one particular fertile spot, situated in a genial climate, and so diversified with lofty mountains and declivities, as to present all the various temperatures requisite for the sustenance of the different species of animal and vegetable life. The most exuberant types of flora and fauna are found within the tropical regions, decreasing in richness and profusion towards either pole; while man in his greatest perfection occupies the temperate zone, degenerating in harmony of features, in physical symmetry, and in intellectual vigor in either direction. Within this temperate zone is placed the hypothetical cradle of the human race, varying in locality according to religion and tradition. The Caucasians are referred for their origin to Mount Caucasus, the Mongolians to Mount Altai, and the Africans to Mount Atlas. Three primordial centres of population have been a.s.signed to the three sons of Noah,--Arabia, the Semitic; India, the j.a.petic; and Egypt, the Hamitic centre. Thibet, and the mountains surrounding the Gobi desert, have been designated as the point from which a general distribution was made; while the sacred writings mention four rich and beautiful valleys, two of which are watered by the Tigris and Euphrates, as the birth-place of man. It was formerly believed that in the beginning, the primeval ocean covered the remaining portion of the globe, and that from this central spot the waters receded, thereby extending the limits of terrestrial life.

Admitting the unity of origin, conjecture points with apparent reason to the regions of Armenia and of Iran, in western Asia, as the cradle of the human race. Departing from this geographical centre, in the directions of the extremities of the continent, the race at first degenerated in proportion to distance. Civilization was for many ages confined within these central limits, until by slow degrees, paths were marked out to the eastward and to the westward, terminating the one upon the eastern coast of Asia, and the other upon the American sh.o.r.es of the Pacific.

[Sidenote: PRIMORDIAL CENTERS.]

Concerning the distribution of plants and animals, but one general opinion is now sustained with any degree of reason. The beautifully varied systems of vegetation with which the habitable earth is clothed, springing up in rich, spontaneous abundance; the botanical centres of corresponding lat.i.tudes producing resemblance in genera without ident.i.ty of species; their inability to cross high mountains or wide seas, or to pa.s.s through inhospitable zones, or in any way to spread far from the original centre,--all show conclusively the impossibility that such a mult.i.tude of animal and vegetable tribes, with characters so diverse, could have derived their origin from the same locality, and disappearing entirely from their original birth-place, sprung forth in some remote part of the globe. Linnaeus, and many others of his time, held that all telluric tribes, in common with mankind, sprang from a single pair, and descended from the stock which was preserved by Noah. Subsequently this opinion was modified, giving to each species an origin in some certain spot to which it was particularly adapted by nature; and it was supposed that from these primary centres, through secondary causes, there was a general diffusion throughout the surrounding regions.

A comparison of the entomology of the old world and the new, shows that the genera and species of insects are for the most part peculiar to the localities in which they are found. Birds and marine animals, although unrestricted in their movements, seldom wander far from specific centres. With regard to wild beasts, and the larger animals, insurmountable difficulties present themselves; so that we may infer that the systems of animal life are indigenous to the great zoological provinces where they are found.

On the other hand, the harmony which exists between the organism of man and the methods by which nature meets his requirements, tends conclusively to show that the world in its variety was made for man, and that man is made for any portion of the earth in which he may be found.

Whencesoever he comes, or howsoever he reaches his dwelling-place, he always finds it prepared for him. On the icy banks of the Arctic Ocean, where mercury freezes and the ground never softens, the Eskimo, wrapped in furs, and burrowing in the earth, revels in grease and train-oil, sustains vitality by eating raw flesh and whale-fat; while the naked inter-tropical man luxuriates in life under a burning sun, where ether boils and reptiles shrivel upon the hot stone over which they attempt to crawl. The watery fruit and shading vegetation would be as useless to the one, as the heating food and animal clothing would be to the other.

The capability of man to endure all climates, his omnivorous habits, and his powers of locomotion, enable him to roam at will over the earth. He was endowed with intelligence wherewith to invent methods of migration and means of protection from unfavorable climatic influence, and with capabilities for existing in almost any part of the world; so that, in the economy of nature the necessity did not exist with regard to man for that diversity of creation which was deemed requisite in the case of plants and animals.

The cla.s.sification of man into species or races, so as to be able to designate by his organization the family to which he belongs, as well as the question of his origin, has been the subject of great diversity of opinion from the fact that the various forms so graduate into each other, that it is impossible to determine which is species and which variety. Attempts have indeed been made at divisions of men into cla.s.ses according to their primeval and permanent physiological structure, but what uniformity can be expected from such a cla.s.sification among naturalists who cannot so much as agree what is primeval and what permanent?

The tests applied by ethnologists for distinguis.h.i.+ng the race to which an individual belongs, are the color of the skin, the size and shape of the skull,--determined generally by the facial angle,--the texture of the hair, and the character of the features. The structure of language, also, has an important bearing upon the affinity of races; and is, with some ethnologists, the primary criterion in the cla.s.sification of species. The facial angle is determined by a line drawn from the forehead to the front of the upper jaw, intersected by a horizontal line pa.s.sing over the middle of the ear. The facial angle of a European is estimated at 85, of a Negro at 75, and of the ape at 60.

Representations of an adult Troglodyte measure 35, and of a Satyr 30.

Some writers cla.s.sify according to one or several of these tests, others consider them all in arriving at their conclusions.

[Sidenote: SPECIFIC CLa.s.sIFICATIONS.]