(24. Tylor s Early History of Mankind, 1865: with respect to
gesture-language, see p. 54. Lubbock s Prehistoric Times, 2nd edit.
1869.) can hardly fail to be deeply impressed with the close similarity
between the men of all races in tastes, dispositions and habits. This
is shewn by the pleasure which they all take in dancing, rude music,
acting, painting, tattooing, and otherwise decorating themselves; in
their mutual comprehension of gesture-language, by the same expression
in their features, and by the same inarticulate cries, when excited by
the same emotions. This similarity, or rather identity, is striking,
when contrasted with the different expressions and cries made by
distinct species of monkeys. There is good evidence that the art of
shooting with bows and arrows has not been handed down from any common
progenitor of mankind, yet as Westropp and Nilsson have remarked (25.
On Analogous Forms of Implements, in Memoirs of Anthropological
Society by H.M. Westropp. The Primitive Inhabitants of Scandinavia,
Eng. translat., edited by Sir J. Lubbock, 1868, p. 104.), the stone
arrow-heads, brought from the most distant parts of the world, and
manufactured at the most remote periods, are almost identical; and this
fact can only be accounted for by the various races having similar
inventive or mental powers. The same observation has been made by
archaeologists (26. Westropp On Cromlechs, etc., Journal of
Ethnological Soc. as given in Scientific Opinion, June 2nd, 1869, p.
3.) with respect to certain widely-prevalent ornaments, such as
zig-zags, etc.; and with respect to various simple beliefs and customs,
such as the burying of the dead under megalithic structures. I remember
observing in South America (27. Journal of Researches: Voyage of the
Beagle, p. 46.), that there, as in so many other parts of the world,
men have generally chosen the summits of lofty hills, to throw up piles
of stones, either as a record of some remarkable event, or for burying
their dead.
Now when naturalists observe a close agreement in numerous small
details of habits, tastes, and dispositions between two or more
domestic races, or between nearly-allied natural forms, they use this
fact as an argument that they are descended from a common progenitor
who was thus endowed; and consequently that all should be classed under
the same species. The same argument may be applied with much force to
the races of man.
As it is improbable that the numerous and unimportant points of
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