Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 50.djvu/480

462 It appears that language rests even more lightly upon men than do traditions and folk customs. We find that it disappears first, under pressure, leaving these others along with physical traits perhaps as sole survivors. There are several reasons for this mobility. One is that languages rarely coalesce. They may borrow and mutilate, but they seldom mix if very distinct in type. The superior, or perhaps official, language simply crowds the other out by force. Organization in this case counts for more than numbers. In this way the language of the Isle de France has prevailed over the whole country despite its once limited area, because it had an aggressive dynasty behind it. Language, moreover, requires for its maintenance unanimous consent and not mere majority rule; for, so soon as the majority changes its speech, the minority must acquiesce. Not so with folk tales or fireside customs. People cling to these all the more pertinaciously as they become rare. And still less so with physical traits of race. Many of these last are not apparent to the eye. They are sometimes unsuspected until they have well-nigh disappeared. Men mingle their blood freely. They intermarry, and a mixed type results. Thus racially organization avails nothing against the force of numbers. In linguistic affairs nothing succeeds like success; but in anthropology impetus counts for nothing.

This does not mean that we are justified to measure race by the geographical distribution of arts or customs, for they also migrate in complete independence of physical traits. With the Keltic language spread the use of polished stone implements and possibly the custom of incineration, but this did not entail a new race of men. At times a change of culture appears, accompanied by a new physical type, as when bronze was introduced into Britain, or when the European races brought the use of iron to America. Of course, contact is always implied in such migration, although a few stragglers may readily have been the cause of the spread of the custom. This may not be true in respect to the migration of religions, or in any similar case where determined opposition has to be overcome and where conquest means substitution; but in simple arts of immediate obvious application, copying takes place naturally. The art spreads in direct proportion to its immediate value to the people concerned. No missionaries are needed to introduce firearms among the aborigines. The art speedily outruns race. Moreover, cultures like languages seldom mix as men do. Parts may be accepted here and there, but complete amalgamation seldom results. The main effect of