Page:Researches into the Early History of Mankind and the Development of Civilization.djvu/286

276 It is a remarkable thing to find in Africa the practice which we associate exclusively with Siam and the neighbouring coun- tries, of paying divine honours to the pale-coloured, or as it is called, the "white" elephant. A native of Enarea (in East Africa, south of Abyssinia) told Dr. Krapf that white elephants, whose hide was like the skin of a leper, were found in his country, but such an animal must not be killed, for it is considered an Adbar or protector of man and has religious honours paid to it, and any one who killed it would be put to death. There may be a historical connexion between the veneration of the white elephant in Asia and Africa, but the habit of man to regard unusual animals, or plants, or stones, with superstitious feelings of reverence or horror is so general, that no prudent ethnologist would base an argument upon it, and still less when he finds that in Africa the albino buffalo shares the sanctity of the elephant.

On the other hand, a custom prevalent in two districts comparatively near these may be quoted as an example of sound evidence of the kind in question. In his account of the Sulu Islands, north-east of Borneo, Mr. Spenser St. John speaks of a superstition in those countries, that if gold or pearls are put in a packet by themselves they will decrease and disappear, but if a few grains of rice are added, they will keep. Pearls they believe will actually increase by this, and the natives always put grains of rice in the packets both of gold and precious stones. Now Dr. Livingstone mentions the same thing at the gold diggings of Manica in East Africa, south of the Zambesi, where the natives "bring the dust in quills, and even put in a few seeds of a certain plant as a charm to prevent their losing any of it in the way." The custom was probably transmitted through the Mahometans, who form a known channel of connexion between Africa and the Malay Islands, but its very existence alone would almost prove that there must have been a connecting link somewhere.

Intercourse between Asia and America in early times is not brought to our knowledge by the direct historical information by which, for instance, distant parts of Asia and Africa are brought into contact; still there is indirect evidence tending to prove