been specially called to this problem by Prof. Sayce, I shall postpone my suggestion still he has stated what he may be disposed to say on the subject. And I shall now at once proceed to the statement of the third set of facts on which my general theory of the Origins of Civilisation, and hence my special theory of the Origins of Mythology, is founded.
This third set of facts consists of those exceedingly varied and exceedingly important results of recent geographical, ethnological, and archaeological research bearing on the Cradlelands of Races, their Migrations, Conquests, and Colonisations; and including facts as to Trade-routes, Ocean-currents, and Relics of Ancient Shipwrecks; as also facts as to the distribution of Megalithic Monuments, of peculiar Weapons, and of special Artistic Designs, etc. Only on a Map could these facts be at once duly and briefly set before you; and a Map, therefore, of the World, on which all these facts would have been indicated, I had hoped to be able to prepare for you. But I found the task beyond my individual means; and, indeed, it should be undertaken rather by a Society than by an individual. And I must, therefore, make shift with these smaller Maps, on which I may, perhaps, be able to localise some of those facts which must, I think, be the scientific bases of any verifiable theory of the Origins of Civilisation, and hence of the Origins of Mythology, and of the Distribution, not only of Myths, but of Folk-tales.
First. Geographical Conditions. Former extent of European Ice-sheet, and of Eurasian Mediterranean.[1] Ocean-currents. Original Habitats and Distribution of Domesticated Animals, Cultivated Plants, and Historical Trees.
Second. Primary Seats of Civilisation: Historic and ascertained—Egypt and Chaldea. Prehistoric and hypothetical—Arabia and Central Asia (Schlegel, Uranographie Chinoise).
Third. Earlier Archaian Migrations—Southern (Dravidian)—Western (Hittites and Pelasgians, Berbers, Iberians, etc.).
Fourth. Semitic and Aryan Cradlelands.
- ↑ The only map, as far as I know, in which this former Inland Sea, called by Huxley the "Ponto-Aralian" (Nineteenth Century, June 1891, p. 921), is laid down from the most recent researches is that which I drew to illustrate a paper read to the R, Hist, Soc, Nov, 1890,
