Flint Dagger, Californian IndiansFIG.73.—Chipped flint daggerof the Californian Indians, withotter-skin wrapping for grip.(From O. Mason.)
FIG.73.—Chipped flint daggerof the Californian Indians, withotter-skin wrapping for grip.(From O. Mason.)
International Life of Peoples.—The relations of ethnical groups one with another may be of three sorts—hostile, neutral, or sympathetic. The relations of the last category are only just indicated among civilised peoples in the formof international festivals, exhibitions, and congresses; international scientific, charitable, and professional gatherings, etc. Inter-gatherings are non-existent, or reduced to a few feasts and rejoicings among the uncivilised and half-civilised; on the other hand, hostile relations (or war) exist among all peoples, from the most savage to the most refined. Neutral relations (commerce) are but little developed among the uncivilised, and only begin really to assume any importance among the half-civilised; they attain a high degree of development among the civilised.
Waris made on various pretexts among the uncivilised, who have no special armies, each member having to fight in conjunction with the other members of his clan, tribe, or people, as the case may be, either to procure for himself provisions, slaves, wives, or cattle, or to avenge defeat, murder, or robbery on the individuals of a “foreign,” and consequently hostile (Hostisof the Romans) clan, tribe, or people. The conflicts are not very deadly at this stage of civilisation; frequently the hostilities are reduced to mutual insults, to manœuvres in which efforts are made to frighten the enemy by cries, by warlike dances, by disguises and masks of horrible aspect. Sometimes also the fate of the battle is decided by single combat between two chiefs or two braves selected from each of the adverse camps. Ambushes, traps, and surprises are more common than pitched battles.
On the whole, war in primitive societies is only a species ofman-hunt. Thus the offensive weapons are nearly alwaysthe same for hunting and war. It is only among the half-civilised that, with more or less permanent armies, weapons specially designed for war make their appearance, as well as works of a defensive character—fortresses, palisades, protective moats, and caltrops.
I can give here but a very brief description of offensive and defensive weapons.[301]
Offensive weaponsmay be divided into two categories—weapons held firmly in the hand and missile weapons; each of these categories comprises striking, cutting, and piercing weapons.
Among theweapons held firmly in the hand, thestrikingorbluntones play an important part among the uncivilised, for these are derived directly from the staff, pre-eminently the weapon of primitive peoples. The most common is theclub, only just distinguished from a staff by its terminal swelling inAustralia; it takes the most varied forms in Oceania, where almost every island or group of islands has its particular forms of club. The sharp-ended clubs of the New Hebrides are the connecting-link withpointed weapons, of which the spear, the lance, the assagai, the fork, are the best known forms. The point of these weapons is sometimes of flint (as among Melanesians of the Admiralty Islands), sometimes of bone, wood, shark’s teeth (natives of the Gilbert or Kingsmill Islands), sometimes of bronze (prehistoric Europe, China), of iron (Negroes), steel (Europeans).Cutting weapons, with the exception of the axe, the form of which varies infinitely (Figs.66,74,114,158), are generally piercing weaponsas well. The simplest is the knife, whether it be of flint (Fig.56), bronze, or iron (Fig.146); from it is derived the sabre; and the flint poignard or dagger, which gradually became transformed into the steel sword.[302]
Missile Weapons.—The readiest missile weapon to throw at the quarry or the enemy is the weapon carried in the hand; this is what must have happened many times to primitive man in the excitement of the combat or chase.
But to throw a staff, a stone, or any weapon whatever so adroitly as to wound an animal or a man was a difficult thing to do. It became necessary to increase the force of the propulsion, which could be done only in two ways: either by giving a special form to the projectile, or by discharging it by means of a special apparatus constructed for the purpose.
Axe of the BanyaiFIG.74.—Axe of the Banyai (Matabeleland), employed inhunting elephants; special hafting, partly by means of bands.(After Wood.)
FIG.74.—Axe of the Banyai (Matabeleland), employed inhunting elephants; special hafting, partly by means of bands.(After Wood.)
The first of these methods did not produce very brilliant results. The Zandeh peoples and their congeners of Central Africa considerably modified the knife to make use of it as a weapon to throw with the hand (trumbache); the Franks had the missile battle-axe called “francisque,” and the Romans javelins of all sorts. But the use of these weapons was very restricted in all times. Clubs are still used as missile-weapons either by reducing their size (the kerri-kerri of the Bantu Negroes) or by changing their form (the boomerang of the Australians). The boomerang (Fig.75) is a wooden blade, the form of which varies from a very gentle curve to that of a square; its surface is always slightly curved. Thrown into the air, certain kinds of boomerang have a secondary movement of gyration and return to the foot of the thrower, as a hoop returns to the child when he throws it before him, having given it first a rotatory motion. Similar weapons (singa) exist among the Khonds of Orissa (India); they existed also in ancient Egypt, and have served perhaps as models for the “trumbaches” of the Zandeh of the present day. Let us add to the boomerang the “bolas” of the Patagonians(which must not be confounded with thelasso) and the balls of bone united by little cords which the Eskimo use for killing birds, and we shall have exhausted the list of weapons thrown directly by the hand, which, moreover, are not very effective. The true improvements in missile-weapons have only been attained by the second solution of the problem—that is to say, by increasing the power of propulsion by means of special apparatus.
Missile Arms of the AustraliansFIG.75.—Missile arms of the Australians:a,b, boomerangs;c, transverse section of a boomerang;f,Lil-lil, a kind of boomerang,with geographical map representing the environs of Broken River;d, the same seen sideways.(After Br. Smyth.)
FIG.75.—Missile arms of the Australians:a,b, boomerangs;c, transverse section of a boomerang;f,Lil-lil, a kind of boomerang,with geographical map representing the environs of Broken River;d, the same seen sideways.(After Br. Smyth.)
The contrivances for hurling missiles may be divided into three categories, according to the three forces which set themin motion: direct application of the muscular force of man, elasticity of certain solid bodies, and lastly, the pressure of gases. Of the first of these forces but little use is made. Theamentumof classic antiquity had only a restricted use. The throwing-stick,[303]or stick provided with a notch which serves to increase the force of the impulse given by the arm to a javelin, is only used in some very circumscribed regions of the globe, especially on the borders of the Pacific Ocean, in Australia, where it bears the name ofWoomera, in Melanesia (Fig.76), in the north-west of America, among the Eskimo and Chukchis. It was also known in pre-Columban times in Mexico and Peru, whence, perhaps, it passed into Brazil. Another similar weapon,the sling, in former times much used by Semitic peoples, and still surviving as a common toy of our children, is scarcely used as a weapon of any importance, except by some Polynesian or American tribes (Hupa Indians, Araucans, Fuegians).
Missile weapons which make use of the pressure of gases are very little known among uncivilised peoples. We can only mention the blow-tube, theSarbacan, or more correctly speaking theZarabatana, of the South American Indians, and its homologue theSumpitanof the Malays, in common use among the Indonesians of the Asiatic Archipelago and Indo-China.
Throwing-stick of the PapuansFIG.76.—Throwing-stick of the Papuans of German New Guinea,and the manner of using it in order to hurl a javelin;below, longitudinal section of a throwing-stick.(Partly after Von Luschan.)
FIG.76.—Throwing-stick of the Papuans of German New Guinea,and the manner of using it in order to hurl a javelin;below, longitudinal section of a throwing-stick.(Partly after Von Luschan.)
This weapon is known in Europe fromthe circumstance of a child’s toy bearing the first of these names. It is a long tube from which a little arrow is expelled by the breath, resembling in size and appearance a knitting-needle, and provided at its unpointed end with a ball of elderpith or tow, which serves as wadding. The range of this arm is from 75 to 100 feet. The sumpitan may be considered as a weapon indirectly set in motion by muscular force, for the arrow is expelled from it as the result of contractions of the thoracic muscles, but it is better to regard it as the prototype of the fire-arm, as the arrow may be discharged by utilising the expansion of gas, and thus transformed into a fire-arm. As to true fire-arms, known to the Chinese and peoples of antiquity, they have only made real headway in Europe, and that from the fifteenth century.
But if the missile weapons in the two categories which I have just enumerated are little known to uncivilised peoples (setting aside, of course, the fire-arms imported by civilised man), those of the third category, in which advantage is taken of the muscular force of an elastic body (the bow), is universally employed by them, as it was formerly in Europe. The most perfected arm of this kind was the complicated cross-bow of our ancestors and the Chinese.
The Bow and Arrow.[304]—The origin of the bow is unknown; certain authors consider that a flexible twig arranged as a snare would give the first idea of it. This may be so, for among the Maoris of New Zealand there used to be a hand-weapon which bore a striking resemblance to this snare: a whip with a flexible handle, by means of which an arrow held in the hand was shot off.[305]Among several Eurasian peoples there is a toy which reproduces this weapon as a survival; among the Votiaks it even bears the name ofn’el, which means arrow inseveral Finnish languages.[306]However that may be, we may divide the infinite variety of bows into two groups: theplainbow—that is to say, the bow formed of a single piece of wood, and thecompositebow, made of various materials—wood, horn, ivory, sinews, leather, etc., glued solidly together.
The least complicated type of the composite bow is that of the eastern Eskimo, of wood and horn, or of wood and bone, the weapon being strengthened by a cord of sinews applied along the “back” or theouter side(opposed to the “belly,”inner side, which is nearest the archer when he bends the bow).[307]
Among simple bows we must mention that of the Melanesians, having a groove sometimes on the outer, sometimes on the inner side; that of the Monbuttus, provided with a “grip”; lastly, that of the Andamanese, in the form of anS, resembling in its general appearance on the one hand certain bows of the Eskimo, and on the other, those of certain Bantu Negroes of Eastern Africa (according to Foa).[308]
Methods of Arrow ReleaseFIG.77.—Different methods of arrow release.Top, primitive release.Middle, Mongolian release.Bottom, Mediterranean release.(After E. Morse.)
FIG.77.—Different methods of arrow release.Top, primitive release.Middle, Mongolian release.Bottom, Mediterranean release.(After E. Morse.)
Arrows cut wholly from one piece of wood are rare. Most of them are composed of three distinct parts fitted together: head, shaft, and feather. The head is of hard wood (sometimes hardened in the fire) or of human bone among the Melanesians; of chipped stone among certain American Indians and our quaternary ancestors; of bone, wood, and iron among various Siberian peoples; of iron among most of the other peoples. The form of the head varies infinitely; but the varieties turn around two types: sagittal (as a classic or conventional arrow) and lanceolate (as a laurel leaf). There are likewise arrow-heads with transverse or hollowed edges in the form of the fruit of the maple (Turks and Tunguses of Siberia, Negroes of the Congo). Lastly, there are arrows of which the head has nothing pointed about it, for it is shaped like a ball, an olive or cone upside down, etc. These arrows are used by several Siberian peoples (Ostiaks, Tunguses), by Negroes of the Congo, Indians of Western Brazil, etc., as a blunt weapon for killing animals whose fur, being valuable, might be spoilt by the blood flowing from a wound. The Buriats of old used whistling arrows, probably to frighten their enemies, etc. The feather is wanting in several forms of Melanesian arrows very complicated as regards the head, in certain African arrows, etc. Among the Monbuttus it consists of the hair of animals; everywhere else, however, of birds’ feathers.
The mode of shooting the arrow and bending the bow vary too with different countries. The Veddahs draw the cord lying on the back, holding the bow between the feet; the Andamanese and the Eskimo hold the bow vertically, the Omahas and the Siouans, horizontally, etc. To bend the immense Mongolian or Scythian bow it was necessary to hold it by the knees, etc. Morse[309]distinguishes five special methods of releasing the arrow. The most primitive (primary release) is that which is naturally adopted by children of every race when they attempt for the first time to draw the bow (Fig.77, top): the arrow and the cord are held between the stretched-out thumb and the second joint of the bent forefinger (Ainus, Chippewas, Assyrians, etc.). The second method is only a variant of the first, and is widespread like the first, especially among the North American Indians. Both give but a moderate propelling power to the arrow. The third method consists in holding the arrow between the thumb and the second joint of the scarcely bent forefinger, whilst the first joint of this finger draws the string, with the help of the third finger. In this method of release it is necessary to hold the bow horizontally (Omahas, Siamese, the natives of the greater Andaman Island, the Egyptians and the Greeks of antiquity). The fourth, so-called Mediterranean, method (Fig.77, bottom) consists in drawing the string by the first joints of all the fingers except the thumb and the little finger, the arrow being nipped between the fore and middle fingers and placed on the left of the bow; this is the method practised by European archers of all ages, as well as that of the Hindus, Arabs, Eskimo, andVeddahs. Lastly, the fifth method, known as the Mongolian method (Fig.77, middle), is quite different from the others. The string in this case is drawn by the bent thumb, kept in this position by the forefinger; the arrow, taken in the hollow at the base of these two fingers, is placed on the right of the bow. This method has been practised from the most remote antiquity by Asiatic peoples: Mongols, Manchus, Chinese, Japanese, Turks, Persians, and was likewise practised by the ancient Scythians; in order that the hand may be protected from the recoil of the string, it is necessary to wear a special kind of ring, either of bone, horn, ivory, or metal, on the thumb, or a peculiar three-fingered glove.
Defensive Weapons.—Originally, in their simplest forms, they would not differ appreciably from offensive weapons such as tree-branches, or clubs, perhaps a little broader and flatter than those used for attack. The inhabitants of Drummond Island (Gilbert or Kingsmill archipelago, Micronesia), as well as the natives of the Samoan Islands, can ward off hostile arrows in a marvellous way with only cudgels and clubs; several other peoples (Hawaiians, Tahitians) are acquainted neither with buckler nor cuirasse, and defend themselves with clubs, their native weapons. The Dinkas of the upper White Nile, the Mundas, their neighbours on the south, as well as the Baghirmis of the Central Sudan, can turn aside the arrows of their enemies by means of sticks, either straight or bent like a bow, and somewhat thicker in the middle.
The different forms of shield are only derivatives from the primitive weapon, the club. The evolution must have been effected in various ways, according to local conditions. We may, however, distinguish two principal lines, two types, of evolution to which all the others can be referred. The first is only the development in breadth and the flattening out of the club; this is the origin of most of the long shields. The second is characterised by the presence of a piece of wood, skin, etc., applied to the club around the place where it is held by the hand; this hand-guard was the origin of the round shields and some of the long ones.
Australian ShieldFIG.78.—Australian shield in wood; three sides shown.
FIG.78.—Australian shield in wood; three sides shown.
The most striking example of the first type is furnished by the shields of the Australians. Certain of them (theTamarangs) are only clubs a little flattened out and enlarged in the middle; others (theMulabakas) are very narrow little boards rounded towards both ends with a hilt formed by the slit made in the hinder side, which is a little bulging or ridge-like (Fig.78); others take the form of boards somewhat broad, oval, and sometimes ridge-like. Shields of a similar kind, with the ridge a little enlarged at both ends, are used by the Alfurus of the Southern Moluccas (Fig.79,b). The characteristic shield of the Dyaks and other Indonesians (including those of lower Burma, see Frontispiece) is also derived from a type analogous to theMulabaka. It is a ridge-like wooden board, sometimes adorned with human hair (Fig.79,f).
Indonesian ShieldsFIG.79.—Indonesian shields—b,of the Alfurus of the Moluccas (wood and inlayings);f, of the Dyaks (painted wood,tufts of human hair).
FIG.79.—Indonesian shields—b,of the Alfurus of the Moluccas (wood and inlayings);f, of the Dyaks (painted wood,tufts of human hair).
Shield of Zulu-KafirsFIG.80.—Shield of Zulu-Kafirs,in ox skin, with medial club.
FIG.80.—Shield of Zulu-Kafirs,in ox skin, with medial club.
The second mode of development of the shield is marked by the placing on the club some sort of wooden, metal,or skin guard. The clubs or primitive shields of the Monudus are surrounded in the middle by a band of buffalo skin, under which the hand is passed to hold them. Let us suppose that some day this annular band, becoming half-detached, formed in front of the hand a bulwark, the somewhat large surface of which protected it more effectually than the primitive ring, and we understand the origin of shields formed of bits of animal skin fixed on a club, at first very small, like those of the Hottentots, then becoming enormous, like those of the Zulus (Fig.80). Similar, butquadrangular bucklers are found among the Shulis of the upper White Nile, the Fans of the Ogowé, etc. Among other equestrian and nomadic peoples the frequent changes of place that were rendered necessary decided the rounded, lighter form of the leather shield, the club of which has disappeared, the hand-grip being made of a thong. Such are the shields of the Bejas, the Abyssinians, the Somalis, and also those of the North American Indians.
In countries where cattle are scarce, shields similar to those of the Zulus are made with rattan twigs or reeds, or palm-leaves artistically plaited; such are the large shields of the Niam-Niams, of certain Dyak and Naga tribes (Frontispiece), etc. These shields are not very strong, but there is this to be said for them, that the arrows striking them instead of rebounding, pierce them, and remain fixed, to the benefit of the owner of the defensive weapon.
The space which we have given to the description of shields hardly permits us to dwell longer onprotective armour, breast-plates, coats of mail, helmets, vantbraces, greaves,[310]etc. It may, however, be said that there exist peculiar kinds of armour among certain peoples and in certain regions of the world: the dress of the natives of the Kingsmill Islands, woven from cocoa-nut fibres, which affords an admirable protection against their wood-handled weapons with sharks’ teeth fixed in their edges; breast-plates of buffalo skin, in use among the Indians of America; the padded breast-plates of the Baghirmi warriors and Chinese soldiers, ancient Japanese and ancient Mexicans. Among the latter, armour consisting of little boards of lacquered wood was further affixed to the breast-plate, similar kinds being found all around the shores of the North Pacific, among the Eskimo, the Chukchi, the Koriaks (little ivory or bone plates), and among the Tlinkit Indians of the north-west of America (wooden plates sewn on stuffs), etc.[311]
But it would require a volume to describe all the inventions which have resulted from the hostile relations of peoples. Let us pass on to a more peaceful subject, toneutral relations, which are more profitable to men.
Commerceis almost unknown among uncivilised hunters. It could only develop in societies already numerous, inhabiting various territories, their products differing to such an extent that they might be exchanged with advantage. The progress of industry, with the division of labour and the specialisation which it involves, also had something to do with it. Thus, in Guiana, each tribe has its special industry and visits even a hostile tribe to effect exchanges.[312]This is the primitive form of commerce, originating probably in the custom of exchanging presents.
Primitive commerce is not infrequently conducted in such a way that the treating parties do not see each other. According to Humboldt, at the beginning of this century the modern Mexicans traded with savage tribes, wandering on their northern frontier, in this way. The barterers did not see each other; the goods were fastened to posts devoted to this use and then left. The purchaser came for them, replacing them by objects having an equal value. It is thus that the Sakai still traffic with the Malays, the Veddahs with the Singhalese. The Veddahs even order things in this silent way; they deposit, for example, side by side with the goods which they offer, cut leaves representing the form of the spear-head which they desire to acquire from the Singhalese blacksmiths.
Commerce, indispensable to societies at all complex, developed everywhere as soon as man emerged from savagery, and it has been a powerful agent in the diffusion of ideas, and often even an agent of civilisation. It has profoundly modified societies in which it has developed, opening out before them new horizons and making them learn foreign tongues and the manners of other societies.
It was a step towards broader solidarity, but at the sametime it opened the door to the spirit of lucre, to monopoly of wealth, to mercantile egoism, to greed of gain. This explains why in most primitive societies merchants were but little esteemed.[313]
Money.—In the primitive forms of commerce exchanges were made directly; object was bartered for object, as we see it still done to-day sporadically in many countries. But soon the need for values was felt—standards which would render exchanges more rapid, easy, and equitable. For this purpose objects coveted by the greatest number of persons were chosen. These objects were either ornaments (on which primitive commerce especially depends) or things which everybody wanted. It is thus that jewels, objects of adornment (feathers, pearls, shells, etc.), stuffs, furs (Siberian peoples, Alaska), salt (Laos), cattle (Africa, “Pecunia” of the Romans), slaves (Africa, New Guinea), became the first current money of primitive commerce. Later, certain objects were chosen which by their rarity are of great value. It is thus that the Pelew islanders treasure up as current money (Andou) a certain number of obsidian or porcelain beads (Fig.81, 1 and 8) and terra-cotta prisms, imported no one knows when and how into the country, which have a very great value; a certain tribe possessesonesingle clay prism (calledBaran) and regards it as a public treasure, etc. In the island of Yap, in the neighbourhood of the Pelews, the place of money is taken by blocks of aragonite, a rock which, being unknown on the island, has to be sought for in the Pelews. The greater the block the greater its value. Fifty pound bank-notes are replaced here by enormous mill-stones, so heavy that two men can hardly carry them; they serve rather to flatter the vanity of the rich people of the country, who exhibit them before their huts, than to facilitate exchanges.[314]It is clear from this example that the rarity of a substance is not sufficient to make it into good money. The second condition is that it may be easily handled, and though small in bulk, may represent a high value, either real or fiduciary.Such are the teeth of the Wapiti deer (Cervus canadensis), which the Shoshone Indians and the Bannocks of Idaho and Montana[315]still make use of in their transactions. Such, again, is the skin-money of the ancient Carthaginians and Scandinavians,[316]the cocoa-seed money of the ancient Mexicans, theuse of which is kept up to the present day; the animal skull-money of the Mishmee, etc.[317]
Money of Uncivilised PeoplesFIG.81.—Money of uncivilised peoples: 1, 8, pearls (Pelew Islands); 2, iron plates (Ubangi);3, rings of copper (Central Africa); 4, 5, cowries; 6, string of cowries;7, “wampum” (N. Am. Indians); 9, money pick-axe (Negroes of the Upper Nile).Figs. 1, 4, 5, and 8 are two-thirds, the others one-eighth of actual size.
FIG.81.—Money of uncivilised peoples: 1, 8, pearls (Pelew Islands); 2, iron plates (Ubangi);3, rings of copper (Central Africa); 4, 5, cowries; 6, string of cowries;7, “wampum” (N. Am. Indians); 9, money pick-axe (Negroes of the Upper Nile).Figs. 1, 4, 5, and 8 are two-thirds, the others one-eighth of actual size.
Let us give a glance at eatables employed as money: rice-grains by the ancient Coreans and the modern natives of the Philippines; grains of salt in Abyssinia and at Laos; “cakes of tea,” which serve as the monetary unit in Mongolia. Let us also make but a passing reference to the pieces of stuff of a fixed length, which have a current value in China, Thibet, Mongolia, Africa, etc., and come to the subject of shells. Several species are employed as money: theDentalum entalisby the Indians of the north-west of America, theVenus mercenaria, transformed into beads (wampum) by the Indians of the Atlantic coast of the United States (Fig.81, 7), etc. But of all shells, the cowry is the best known. Two species are specially utilised as money,Monetaria (cyprea) moneta,L.(Fig.81, 4, 5, 6), andMonetaria annulus,L.The first-mentioned seems to be most commonly used in Asia, the second in Africa.[318]Both are known all over the Indian Ocean, but they are gathered in great quantities only at two points, the Maldive Islands (to the west of Ceylon) and the Sooloo Islands (between the Philippines and Borneo). On the Asiatic continent the use of them was widespread, especially in Siam and in Laos. Twenty years ago 100 to 150 of these shells were worth a halfpenny. In Bengal, in the middle of last century, 2,400 to 2,560 cowries were worth a rupee, 100 a penny.
The true zone in which the cowry circulates is, however, tropical Africa; the fact is explained by its rarity, for the shell not being known in the Atlantic, it is only by commercial relations that it could have been propagated from east to west across the continent, from Zanzibar to the Senegal, and thesecommercial relations must have existed for a long period, for Cadamosto and other Portuguese travellers of the fifteenth century mention the use of the cowry as money among the “Moors” of the Senegal. The rate of exchange of the cowry is much higher in Africa than in Asia, which shows that this shell is an imported object. It was probably by the Arabs that the cowry was introduced to the east coast of Africa. Later on the Europeans also got hold of this trade.[319]
The cowry is still current to-day along all the west coast of Africa as far as the Cuanza River in Angola; farther south, as far as Walfisch Bay, another kind of “shell-money” is found, chaplets formed of fragments of a great land shell, theAchatina monetaria, strung on cord; they are principally made in the interior of the country of Benguela, in the district of “Selles,” and are despatched along the whole coast, and as far as London. These chaplets, about eighteen inches long, were worth fifteen years ago from fivepence to one shilling and threepence.[320]
But it is to metals especially that we may trace the origin of true money. Iron or bronze plates of fixed size or weight served as money in Assyria, among the Mycenians, and the inhabitants of Great Britain at the time of Julius Cæsar. Metal plates of varying form are in general use in Africa as money, as for example the “loggos” of the Bongos and other negroes of the Upper Nile (Fig.81, 9), the spear-heads of the Jurs, the iron plates of the peoples of the basin of the Ubangi (Fig.81, 2), the X-shaped bronze objects made in Lunda, which are current all over the Congo. Thirty years ago, in Cambodia, iron money, in the form ofthin rings, from five and a half to six inches long, and weighing about seven ounces, was used.
A general fact to be noted in regard to primitive money is that it may be transformed without much trouble into an object of use (lance-iron, shovel, hoe, arrow-head, sword). In China the first bronze money had the form of a knife, the handle of which terminated in a ring; in time the blade became shorter and shorter, and at last disappeared, leaving only the ring, which was transformed into that Chinese money, pierced with a square hole, called “sapec,” or “cash.” Brass or copper wire, of which pieces are cut up (Fig.81, 3), represents money in Central Africa. Silver bars, pieces of which are cut according to need, are also current money in China, as they were in Russia in the fifteenth century, as well as skins.
The question oftransportandmeans of communicationis closely allied to that of commerce. There is little to say about trade-routes, which most frequently are tracks made by chance in savage countries, and sometimes horrible neck-breaking roads in half-civilised countries. The means of transport are very varied, and may furnish matter for an interesting monograph, as O. Mason has shown.[321]The simplest mode of transport is that on men’s backs, with or without the aid of special apparatus, like theskiand snow-shoes in cold countries (Figs.115and116). To be noted apart are the attachments for climbing trees, used from Spain to New Caledonia, passing through Africa and India (Fig.82). We come next to the utilisation of animals, the ass, horse, mule, camel, ox, zebra, dog, etc., which at first carried the loads on their backs, and were afterwards employed as draught animals.
Tree-climbing in IndiaFIG.82.—Method of tree-climbing in India.(After B. Hurst.)
FIG.82.—Method of tree-climbing in India.(After B. Hurst.)
Primitive Vehicles.—Most uncivilised peoples are unacquainted with any form of vehicle. This is so among the Australians, Melanesians, and most of the natives of Africa and America. But there are also a number of populations pretty well advanced in civilisation whom their special circumstances do not permit the use of chariots or other vehicles on wheels; such are theEskimo and other Hyperboreans, the Polynesians, etc. The sledges of the former, the canoes of the latter, fitly take the place of the carriage. Nomadic peoples have a kind of aversion to every sort of vehicle; they prefer to carry things on the backs of camel, ass, or horse. The earliest vehicle must have been something of the same description as that seen among the Prairie Indians of the present day—two tree branches attached to the sides of a horse, that is to say, inclined shafts, the ends of which drag on the ground; on them is laden the luggage, which is used by these Indians as a seat. Let us suppose that one day this primitive vehicle happens to break, but incompletely, so that one portion of the branch drags horizontally on the ground, and we shall understand the advantage which men must have taken of this mishap. Hemust have understood at once that traction is made easier by joining at an obtuse angle one pair of horizontal branches to another serving as shafts. From this point to placing pieces of wood transversely on horizontal branches there is only a step, and the sledge, as we see it still among the Finns and Russian peasants, was invented. Primitive as is this vehicle, it is admirably adapted to primitive roads, and still remains to-day the sole means of locomotion, winter as well as summer, in the forest regions of northern Russia, where no wheeled carriage would be able to pass, the pathways being scarcely visible across the dense virgin forest, when the ground is covered with a thick bed of moss and grass. It is only later, and in less wooded countries, that man thought of putting rollers under the horizontal branches of the sledge, contrivances which afterwards became transformed into true wheels. If this genesis of the vehicle be accepted, the appearance of sledges in funeral rites, even at the time when wheeled carriages were already invented, is explained quite simply as the survival of a custom the more venerated the greater its antiquity.[322]
The two-wheeled chariot was known in Asia from the most remote antiquity; it was used either in war (Assyrians, Chaldeans, Persians) or for purposes of transport. Even at the present day in India, Ceylon, Indo-China, the light waggon drawn by zebras or asses is much more common than the four-wheeled cart drawn by buffaloes. In the far East, where man is employed for draught purposes, the wheel-barrow takes the place of the car, and the Japanesejinrickshaw, as well as the Indo-Chinesepousse-pousse, are only adaptations of modern carriages to this mode of transport by men. It is only to the north of the Yang-tse-Kiang that one comes across Chinese cars with two cogged wheels, and heavy waggons, a sort of tumbrel without springs, with massive and sometimes solid wheels, drawn by buffaloes. It is perhaps such vehiclesthat served as the type for the Russiantarantass, a box fixed on long parallel shafts which rest on the axles. It was likewise from Asia that the Greeks and Romans, and perhaps the Egyptians, brought back the models of their elegant and light war-chariots. As to four-wheeled waggons, the populations of Europe must have known them at least from the bronze age, to judge from the remains found in the lake-dwellings of Italy and the tombs of Scandinavia. The waggons of the ancient Germanic peoples, also employed in war, resembled those which are still met with at the present day among the peasants of central and western Europe. The same kind of conveyances have been transported by the Dutch Boers as far as South Africa, and by the colonists of the Latin race even into the solitudes of the Pampas.
Navigation.—Transport by water has undergone more important transformations than vehicular transport. From the air-filled leather bottle, on which, after the manner of the ancient Assyrians, rivers are still crossed in Turkestan and Persia,[323]to elegant sailing yachts; from the primitive reed rafts of the Egyptians and the natives of lake Lob-Nor (Chinese Turkestan) to the great ocean liners, there are numberless intermediate forms. Australian canoes made from a hollowed-out tree-trunk, Fuegian canoes made of pieces of bark joined together by cords of seal’s sinews, the effective Eskimo “kayaks” made with seal skins, the elegant skiffs of the Polynesians with their outriggers or balancing beams which defy the tempests of the ocean (Fig.83), heavy Chinese junks, etc. We cannot enter into the details of this subject; let us merely observe that there is a great difference in the aptitude of various peoples for navigation. It is not enough to live by the sea-shore to become a good sailor; take for example the case of the Negroes who have never been able to go far away from their coasts, and who often have not even an elementary knowledge of navigation, while the Polynesians and theMalays make bold and perilous voyages of several thousand miles across the Pacific and Indian oceans; canoes of the Malay type are seen from Honolulu and Easter Island to Ceylon and Madagascar. With the taste for navigation and voyages migrations become more numerous, and the intellectual horizons widen perceptibly. It is thus one of the great means of bringing peoples into closer relationship.