[84] The Eskimo are placed in circumstances that are in some respects similar to those presumed to have conditioned the life of the blond race and its hybrids during the early phases of its life-history, and among the traits that have made for the survival of the Eskimo is undoubtedly to be counted the somewhat genial good-fellowship of that race, coupled as it is with a notable disinclination to hostilities. So also the Indians of the North-West Coast, whose situation perhaps parallels that of the neolithic Baltic culture more closely even than the Eskimo, are not among the notably warlike peoples of the earth, although they undoubtedly show more of a predatory animus than their northern neighbours. In this case it is probably safe to say that their technological achievements have in no degree been furthered by such warlike enterprise as they have shown, and that their comfort and success as a race would have been even more marked if they had been gifted with less of the warlike spirit and had kept the peace more consistently throughout their habitat than they have done.--Cf. Franz Boas, “The Central Eskimo,” _Bureau of American Ethnology_, Report, 1884–1885; The same, “The Secret Societies and Social Organisation of the Kwakiutl Indians,” _Report, National Museum_, 1895; A. P. Niblack, “Coast Indians of Southern Alaska and Northern British Columbia,” _ibid_, 1888. [85] Such loss by neglect of technological elements that have been superseded may have serious consequences in case a people of somewhat advanced attainments suffers a material set-back either in its industrial circumstances or in its cultural situation more at large,--as happened, e. g., in the Dark Ages of Europe. In such case it is likely to result that the community will be unable to fall back on a state of the industrial arts suited to the reduced circumstances into which it finds itself thrown, having lost the use of many of the technological elements familiar to earlier generations that lived under similar circumstances, and so the industrial community finds itself in many respects driven to make a virtually new beginning, from a more rudimentary starting point than the situation might otherwise call for. This in turn acts to throw the people back to a more archaic phase of technology and of institutions than the initial cultural loss sustained by the community would of itself appear to warrant. [86] Sophus Müller, _Vor Oldtid_, “Stenalderen,” sec. iii, “Tidsforhold i den ældre Stenalder;” O. Montelius, _Les temps préhistoriques en Suède_, ch. i, p. 20. [87] Compare the case of the Indians of the North-West Coast, who have occupied a region comparable to the neolithic Baltic area in the distribution of land and water as well as in the abundance of good timber. [88] Sophus Müller, _Vor Oldtid_, “Bronzealderen,” secs. xiii, xiv; Montelius, _Les temps préhistoriques en Suède_, ch. ii. [89] Cf., e. g., C. A. Haddon, _Evolution in Art_, section on “Magic and Religion.”