Ridpath's history of the world; being an account of the ethnic origin, primitive estate, early migrations, social conditions and present promise of the principal families of men .. . nctmarks, perhaps, the very earliest stagesof human development. Whatever mayhave been the origin of man in thesewestern parts of Europe, we see him, inthese far prehistoric times, either an ab-solute savage or a barbarian, but slightlyelevated above the savage state. Per-haps if our knowledge were more com-plete we should be able to delineatemany other circumstances relative tothese hard beginnings of civilized l
Ridpath's history of the world; being an account of the ethnic origin, primitive estate, early migrations, social conditions and present promise of the principal families of men .. . nctmarks, perhaps, the very earliest stagesof human development. Whatever mayhave been the origin of man in thesewestern parts of Europe, we see him, inthese far prehistoric times, either an ab-solute savage or a barbarian, but slightlyelevated above the savage state. Per-haps if our knowledge were more com-plete we should be able to delineatemany other circumstances relative tothese hard beginnings of civilized lifein Europe. The future may still contrib-ute something to our further enlighten-ment relative to the habits and mannersof prehistoric peoples, but for the pres-ent we must remain satisfied with anapproximate view of their condition. CHAPTER OK THE TUMULI. EFORE dismissing thesubject of the prehis-toric life of man on thecontinent of Europe,still another field ofinquiry remains to beconsidered. In all partsof the European countries, from the Balticto the Mediterranean and from the Brit-ish Isles to the Ural mountains, anotherclass of facts, bearing unmistakable evi-. dence of the ancient activities of men,are plentifully distributed. These arethe mounds which the tribes builded,in burial and for other Tumuli and oth- 11 11 i er memorials of purposes, generally called primeval man inTumuli: standing stone Europe,structures of several varieties, knownas Menhirs, Cromlechs, and Dol-mens; barrows, camps, fortifications,dykes, and perhaps altars of sacrifice,besides manv other kinds of rude 332 GREAT RACES OF MANKIND. architecture and memorials. Such re-mains, hardly of sufficient dignity to beknown as ruins, are found not only inEurope but everywhere in the world.
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1890, booksub, booksubjectworldhistory
