as the special subject of this article. Quite as striking as the loss of useful arts is the extraordinary persistence of elements of culture which seem to us wholly useless, and perhaps are so even to those who seem so careful to preserve them. This persistence of the useless combines with the disappearance of the useful to make us beware of judging human culture by purely utilitarian standards. I have perhaps in this paper gone beyond the limit warranted by my evidence in assigning the loss of useful arts to religious motives. I have done so without misgiving, however, because I am sure that I cannot be far wrong in bringing forward views, hypothetical though they be, which will put us on our guard in estimating the motives which guide the conduct of peoples with cultures widely different from our own. I hope that the facts brought forward in this paper have been sufficient to show that utilitarian motives are less important in determining the course of the ruder stages of man's history than we suppose them to be among ourselves.
APPENDIX A.
The Bow in Tahiti.
The only early visitor who records the use of the bow and arrow as a weapon is Bougainville[1] who gives the bow, the sling and a kind of pike as the weapons of the Tahitians. Cook only mentions the sling, pike and club, while Wallis expressly states that though the Tahitians use the bow and arrow, the arrow is only fit to knock down a bird, not being pointed but only headed with a round stone[2]. Wilson[3]
- ↑ Voyage round the World, 1772, p. 253.
- ↑ Hawkesworth, Account of Voyages, London, 1773, Vol. i., p. 244 and Vol. ii., p. 488.
- ↑ A Missionary Voyage to the Southern Pacific Ocean, London, 1799, p. 368.
