tury, must have
been very slight. In speaking of the extent of the age of man this must
be borne in mind: it must be recalled that, even if the period were not
vague for other reasons, the vagueness of its beginning must make it
indeterminate.

Bibliographical Notes.--A great mass of literature has been produced in
recent years dealing with various phases of the history of prehistoric
man. No single work known to the writer deals comprehensively with the
scientific attainments of early man; indeed, the subject is usually
ignored, except where practical phases of the mechanical arts are
in question. But of course any attempt to consider the condition of
primitive man talies into account, by inference at least, his knowledge
and attainments. Therefore, most works on anthropology, ethnology, and
primitive culture may be expected to throw some light on our present
subject. Works dealing with the social and mental conditions of existing
savages are also of importance, since it is now an accepted belief that
the ancestors of civilized races evolved along similar lines and passed
through corresponding stages of nascent culture. Herbert Spencer's
Descriptive Sociology presents an unequalled mass of facts regarding
existing primitive races, but, unfortunately, its inartistic method
of arrangement makes it repellent to the general reader. E. B. Tyler's
Primitive Culture and Anthropology; Lord Avebury's Prehistoric Times,
The Origin of Civilization, and The Primitive Condition of Man; W.
Boyd Dawkin's Cave-Hunting and Early Man in Britain; and Edward Clodd's
Childhood of the World and Story of Primitive Man are deservedly
popular. Paul Topinard's Elements d'Anthropologie Generale is one of the
best-known and most comprehensive French works on the technical phases
of anthropology; but Mortillet's Le Prehistorique has a more popular
interest, owing to its chapters on primitive industries, though this
work also contains much that is rather technical. Among periodicals, the
Revue de l'Ecole d'Anthropologie de Paris, published by the professors,
treats of all phases of anthropology, and the American Anthropologist,
edited by F. W. Hodge for the American Anthropological Association, and
intended as "a medium of communication between students of all branches
of anthropology," contains much that is of interest from the present
stand-point. The last-named journal devotes a good deal of space to
Indian languages.

CHAPTER II. EGYPTIAN S