ntal evolution. The conflict with nature ended in the
development of a full-sized variety of man, dwelling largely in the open
country and much superior in intellect, as indicated by his higher
powers of thought and advanced degree of organization.
The conflict with nature took several forms, in accordance with the
conditions of the several regions inhabited by man. Its result was to
subdue nature to the use and benefit of mankind, and the methods, in the
tropical localities of original man, consisted in the reduction of
animals to the domestic state and a similar domestication of food
plants. In other words, one of its early stages was the development of
the herding habit, while a far more important one was that of the
appearance of the agricultural industries. In Europe a third and still
more vigorous influence supervened, that of the conflict with cold and
man's gradual adaptation to the conditions of a frigid climate.
If the nomad dwarfs were the aboriginal men, all later races must have
developed from them. While remaining in the forest and retaining their
primitive habits, the Pygmies presented an instance of arrested
evolution. For a new development to begin it was necessary to abandon
the old locality and with it the old habits, and this they probably
began to do at a remote period. When, indeed, the earth was their
dominion, there was no reason for their remaining restricted to a forest
residence, as they have been since the larger races took possession of
the open country. We do not need to go back far in time in the East to
find the Pygmy race in full control of the Philippine and other islands,
and probably of Malacca and parts of Hindostan. Their present
restriction and partial extermination have been due to the incursions of
the warlike Malays. The Andaman Mincopies remained undisturbed until a
recent date, and added fishing to their hunting pursuits. And the canoes
which these islanders now possess were probably the invention of their
race, and furnished the means by which the aborigines spread from island
to island of those thickly studded seas.
In Africa the only existing indication of a migration of the forest folk
into the open country is found in the Bushmen and Hottentots of the far
south. The former, confined to the desert, remain nomad hunters and
present no step of advance beyond the Akka and other equatorial tribes.
The Hottentots, on the contrary, have made an important step of
progress. W
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