1 THE ABORIGINES. 17
2 more or less rounded in form.* The abundance of fruit, herbs and roots, Theirhabitationana
3 and of beasts of prey, and feathered game, afforded them an easy means of ™°% lif.
4 subsistence, and as they possessed no knowledge of the properties of metals,
5 the only weapons they used were stones, clubs, and spears made of wood
6 hardened by fire and tipped with the horns of animals. They spoke rude
7 languages and covered their nakedness with the skins of animals. Living in
8 small numbers and in isolated communities like the families who first wan-
9 dered into Greece, Italy and the eastern tracts of Europe, they remained
10 ignorant and barbarous. Hunting, which is the first step in the progress of a
11 people after emerging from a state of savagery, seems to have been the ear-
12 liest occupation of these barbarians. When they multiplied, they formed — Thoir occupation.
13 themselves into small tribes and became owners of flocks. The possession
14 of land was valued and became a subject of dispute between the heads of
15 families, who were thus led to provide themselves with the means of defence.
16 When, at a later period, the properties of metals became known to them, they
17 began to employ iron weapons in their fights and adorned their persons — their-weapons.
18 with rude ornaments of copper and gold. They were acquainted with the
19 potter’s art, and the vessels made by them were not inelegant in shape.
20 Herodotus, speaking of these aborigines, tells us that they lived in marshes
21 on the bauks of rivers and subsisted on raw fish and raw flesh. Their boats
22 consisted of canoes made of reeds. They wore garments of bark, and, when Their dress,
23 any member of a family fell sick, the rest immediately killed him and de-
24 voured the corpse. Those who lived to old age were similarly slaughtered,
25 and the young feasted on their bodies. Some lived only on herbs, others on
26 the produce of the chase. Herodotus speaks of the Indus as the only river,
27 besides the Nile, abounding in crocodiles or alligators. Megasthenes thought
28 it was the largest of all the rivers in the world after the Nile. Ctesias speaks
29 of it as a great river which watered the lands of India, and in which grew
30 tall and stout reeds. He first described the elephant to the Greeks and gave
31 an account of certain Indian birds with red heads, crimson tails, black beaks,
32 dark-blue necks, and some of them with tongues which enabled them to speak
33 Indian, stating that these birds, if taught, would sneak Greek.
34 Megasthenes informs us that the primitive Indians were nomadic, and
35 that, like the Scythians, they did not till the soil, but subsisted on such pro-
36 duce as the earth yielded spontaneously, on the bark of trees, called by the their fooa.
37 Indians tala, or on such wild animals as they could kill. They clothed them-
38 selves in the skins of animals, as was the case with the Greeks. Dionysos _ pionysos believed to
39 having then made his appearance, taught the Indians to cultivate the land, Pave fist tinent them
40 He is described as having first yoked oxen to the plough and furnished the :
41 Indians with agricultural implements. He taught them what the Greeks call
42 the satyric dance and the use of turbans. He also taught them the worship and the worship of
43 of the gods with cymbals and drums, which they continued to use till the °&**
44 time of Alexander. Trumpets had not then beeninvented. He is said to have
45 had in his army a great host of women. According to the Greek writers, -
46 when Alexander came to the land of Asvakas he was waited upon by an
47 embassy from the Nyszans, who informed him that their city had been
48 founded by Dionysos, who had given it the name Nysa, and that the neigh-
49 bouring hill, Meron, was called after the name of that deity.
50 The aborigines were a black race, and are expressly mentioned as such in _ The aborigines a
51 the Rig Veda, the oldest existing monument of the Hindu language and *“*"°*
52 poetry. Thus, referring to an Astra, one of the names by which the abori-
53 ginal tribes were known, it is stated that “Indra tore off the black skin of the
54 * The habitations of the ancient Gauls were circular huts made of reeds and lined with
55 mud. The pile huts of Switzerland were of a similar kind.
56 2
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