CURRENT LITERATURE
Tins is a valuable work ; not exciting at all and rather stiff to read, but full of information. Mr. Childe's purpose has been to survey impartially all the serious theories that have been advanced upon his subject. He displays the evidence for each theory and the objections that can be raised to it. It is true that in the end he makes no very rigid conclusions himself ; we are left with a feeling of vast ignorance. The origins of the Aryan races, for example, have been placed as far apart as Scandinavia and the extreme west of China ; there are not lacking anthropologists who would even assert that Africa is the cradle of the Aryans. Not one theory can be said to have been put entirely out of court. We are com- pelled to move through a great jungle of facts and hypotheses with only the slightest signs to guide us. The interest of Mr. Childe's volume is in the nature of those signs. Of course language itself is one of the most promising evidences ; but it is not always to be trusted. Burial modes, types of craft, religious customs, all play their part. The one avenue that Mr. Childe seems to have left comparatively unexplored is mythology and racial tradition—an approach that must be trodden with great wariness, certainly, but one which offers as much hope of success as arguments on the "diffusion of culture." We quote his own summing up :—" The great majority of the Aryan nations of historical times can be shown to be descended from the Nordic battle-axe folk of the Stone Age. By the aid of pottery and weapons they can be traced back with more or less certainty to one of two centres—South Russia or Scandinavia. The first business of future researches must be to determine which of these really has the priority."
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