The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1903-12-27

tracted posture; and. indeed. it appears
probable. although far from being sat
.sfactcrily established. thar in Western
Europe this attitude generally indi-
Gates an interment Of the Stone age.
while those cases in which the skele-
ton wac extended, may be referred.
with little hesitation TO the age Of iron"
The most curious thing about this
strange method Of sepulture is that il is
found existing at the present day
among the Eslzimos, some Of the Tar
taIs. the natives OF AMMAN, and other
peoples Of Turanian race. II is a far
cry from, say, Harlyn, in Cornwall,
where year or two ago a Neolithic
cemetery was uncovered and many
skeletons revealed in the usual con-
tracted posture, and the Far East Of
Asia.
And the Neolithic folk were Of more
races than one. for, Of course, the stone
age is term applicable to a stage Of
culture, and the people who lived in
that stage through q long period Of
time were Of various races There is
good reason TO believe, for instance,
that among the earlier inhabitants of
this country, or part OF IL, during
the NeOlthlc period, were a race Of
pigmies or Of dwarfe-a race such as
those found by DR.. Schweinfurth, Sir
Henry Stanley and other explorers in
by the Dutch in South Africa, or SINH
lar people of whom traces or legends
nave been met with elsewhere. The
early dwarf inhabitants Of the coun-
try are probably the origin Of much,
if NOT all, of the folklore about fairies
and the little people" A similar
dwarf race in all probability existed
in prehistoric times in Scotland. and
IN the same way became the object
Of much legendary lore. France. Cen
trail Europe, and Scandinavia are also
believed to have been inhabited at one
time by little pigmy peoples. Bones
Of very small men have been found in
recent years in the NeOlthic deposits,
and it has been suggested that the
legends and tales Of elves and the Other
wee folk Of popular Continental story
may be traced back to these small peo-
pie.
If we go farther afield the same pro-
cess may be traced. In General Amer
lea there are vast remains of pyramid
and temple that must have been con-
structed by a race Of men very differ
ent from that now sparsely inhabiting
the land. North America possesses
more than one set of mysterious relics.
In the Mississippi are the strange
earthworks of the unknown mound
builders" while among the crags and
precipices Of Arizona, one of the most
singular regions on the face Of the
globe, are the remains of the stone
abodes Of the cliff dwellers." Cliff
dwelleTs," or mound builders" alike
disappeared ages ago. and very little,
indeed, can be conjectured about them,
but il is at least certain that they be-
lOnged to races Of men which have now
no living representatives.
In Polynesia, again, there are some
extraordinary remains Of gigantic
stone buildings, which must have been
erected by a very different race Of men
from those at present inhabiting the
islands where the remains are found.
And these Polynesian peoples Of today
are themselves rapidly dying out. and
will by and by be numbered among the
extinct races of mankind. The Aus
tralian natives are slowly disappear
ing, while in Tasmania the curious
and quite separate race OF people which
were once the only inhabitants of that
island, have become extinct within
living memory. The last Tasmanian.
woman, died at an advanced age in
| 1877.