tribes into the
more or less cultured. In earliest times (and among the rudest tribes
to-day) the food supply is furnished entirely by natural means; there
is little or no agriculture known to speak of; there is nothing in the
way of preserving domestic animals for food; hunting the wild beasts
of the forests and fishing in the streams are the two sources.
Therefore, we call that last condition the hunting and fishing stage
of human development. You will observe that when that prevails there
can be no congregation of men into large bodies. Such a thing as a
city would be unknown. The food supply is eminently precarious. It
depends upon the season and upon a thousand matters not under the
control of man in any way. Moreover, inasmuch as the supply at the
best is uncertain, it allows but a very limited population in a
district; nor does it permit any permanent or stable inhabitations.
The towns, such as they are, must be movable; they must go to one part
of the country in the summer and another in the winter; they must
follow the game and the fruits; and in that condition, therefore, of
unstable life it is not possible for a nation or a tribe to gain any
great advance. You observe, therefore, that when the food supply is
drawn from this source it does entail a general depravity of culture
everywhere.

Above that would come the food supply which is obtained from other
sources. There is one which is not universal but still widely
extended, and that is the pastoral life. There are many tribes (as,
for instance, in southern Africa and in India and throughout the
steppes of Tartary and elsewhere) who live on their herds and drive
their herds from one pasture to another in order to obtain the best
forage. This nomadic and pastoral life extended very widely over the
old world in ancient times, but existed nowhere in the new world, for
the simple reason that they had no domesticated animals. Our own
remote ancestors--both the Aryans and the Semites--all the early
ancestors of the white race so far as known, were pastoral or nomadic;
and the Aryans of central Europe remained so until after the fall of
Rome, when, for the first time, they became practically sedentary.
This nomadic and pastoral life is a very great advance over the mere
hunting and fishing stage. It requires considerable care and attention
to domesticate the wild animals in any sufficient quantity to form a
reliable source of food. Moreover, the attention which it