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 .. . student of human life willever encounter. A tradition or legendwill change its form like the figments ofthe kaleidoscope. It will vanish with a 370 GREAT RACES OF MANKIND. brief lapse of time and never the manners of even wild and rov-ing tribes hold their form through everyvicissitude and long generations. Nothing is better calculated to aston-ish the inquirer than the persistency andintegrity of cus
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 .. . student of human life willever encounter. A tradition or legendwill change its form like the figments ofthe kaleidoscope. It will vanish with a 370 GREAT RACES OF MANKIND. brief lapse of time and never the manners of even wild and rov-ing tribes hold their form through everyvicissitude and long generations. Nothing is better calculated to aston-ish the inquirer than the persistency andintegrity of customs. TheyKX- can hardly be destroyed. toms and habits. They pasg through the severest crises, and come up after greatcatastrophes in all their pristine vigor shocks and revolutions, through migra-tion and famine, through the ravages ofpestilence and the horrors of war, and isindeed coexistent with the race of whichit is a part. A trivial custom easily out-lasts the life of man. It survives themountain oak which has braved thestorms of a millennium. It outlasts thegranite obelisk which the conceit of amistaken people has reared as the mostpermanent memorial of its PERSISTENCY OF ETHNIC FEATURES.—(i) Ancient Hebrew Shepherd with Sling.—Drawn by H. A. Harper. and definiteness of outline. Even thetrivial circumstance of a peculiarity oftribal speech will be perpetuated fromgeneration to generation, and the moresubstantial elements of custom seem toendure forever. Habit is, if possible,more unchangeable with a tribe orle than with the individual. Itis to be a part of the blood and nerveof national existence. It goes through There are still present in human societyforms and customs and peculiarities—modes of action and ceremonial habits—that have been transmitted to themodern world from the shadow and ob-scurity of the unknowable ages that liebelow the daydawn of civilization; andin like manner the present will contrib-ute to the coming ages its customs, itsmetho
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