THE NATURE AND SCOPE
strange implements we gather into museums, and whose uncouth ways provide materials, in every generation, for travellers' tales.
There are differences enough and to spare, and, at times, when the subject is brought forward, we recollect that in appearance, practices, and beliefs the men who people the earth are of the most heterogeneous description; but, ordinarily, we dismiss the fact, or entertain it momentarily as contributory to our self-esteem. These others, indeed, even though our comrades in arms, are 'different, are 'backward,' are 'colored,' while we (whoever we may be) are 'civilized' and 'progressive.' With such indefinite phrases we escape the sense of a problem, and shield ourselves from the embarrassment of the direct question: "In what respect are these others different from ourselves?" So we are able to ignore the fact that even the 'white' race is not without Its lowly members; and our complacence is unshaken either by observation of our own byways or by recognizing that such primitive groups as the Ainus of Japan, Maotzi of China, Todas of India, Veddas of Ceylon, and even the much-discussed aborigines of Australia have been classified as "Caucasian." Furthermore, though
[3]
