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At the Wrong Time
BY L.B. REYES
At the Wrong Time

Copyright © 2019 by L.B. Reyes.


All rights reserved.
First Print Edition: January 2019

Limitless Publishing, LLC


Kailua, HI 96734
www.limitlesspublishing.com

Formatting: Limitless Publishing

ISBN-13: 978-1-64034-517-1
ISBN-10: 1-64034-517-5

No part of this book may be reproduced, scanned, or distributed in


any printed or electronic form without permission. Please do not
participate in or encourage piracy of copyrighted materials in
violation of the author’s rights. Thank you for respecting the hard
work of this author.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents


either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used
fictitiously, and any resemblance to locales, events, business
establishments, or actual persons—living or dead—is entirely
coincidental.
Dedication
To those searching for their second chance
Table of Contents
Prologue
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
Chapter 36
Chapter 37
Chapter 38
Chapter 39
Chapter 40
PROLOGUE
Hannah

Years ago…

He pushed me away, looking at me like I was a menace.


“Is it really that important to you?” Derek spat, his lip curled with
anger, his words seething with disgust.
I disgusted him.
There was no one else to blame; I had made the choice to get
involved with someone else other than my husband. What was
worse was knowing I would have never been able to commit to
Derek, not without losing everything I had…and it was too much. I
had worked too hard to get to where I was and to gain my mother’s
trust just to leave it all behind.
I was too selfish.
But I didn’t want him to leave.
“Derek, please,” I sobbed, my hands holding onto his forearms
with as much strength as I could muster. “Please understand—”
“Understand what?” The green eyes that had looked at me with
adoration just a few minutes ago were now full of disbelief and pain.
“That you care too much about your money? That fake shit you call
a marriage?” He took hold of my arms, pulling me close to him, his
gaze roaming my face with distress. “Why? Why is what we have not
enough for you, Hannah?”
My heart broke because I knew his was breaking too. I hurt him
more than anyone had before, especially with all the things he’d
been through. But I couldn’t let go of him or the life I had.
“What the hell do you want me to do?” he asked desperately.
Derek’s hands cupped my face and my heart beat faster with the
contact. Those hands knew my body more than I knew myself.
Those hands held my heart, protected it, even though I kept
shattering his. “Tell me what to do. Tell me what’s missing from us
for you to give up this life.”
I shook my head, trying to look away from him and avoid the guilt
I felt. I was stupid, behaving like I didn’t love him when he was the
only man I had truly ever cared for.
“Hannah, baby, I love you. What else do you need?” His words
were but a desperate whisper against my lips, and when he pressed
them against mine, I closed my eyes, letting myself get lost in his
loving kiss.
I whimpered against his lips, my hands gripping his shirt, afraid
he would disappear from beneath my fingertips.
He couldn’t leave me.
He loved me too much.
I would lose the only happiness I had.
Everything was better with him in my life; my future didn’t seem
so bleak; my heart beat to rhythm of him. I felt alive.
Without him, I’d go back to being the same person I had been—a
person I despised.
His forehead rested against mine and his eyes remained closed. I
knew he was hurting. I knew he was in pain.
Why can’t you fucking let go?
“Come with me,” Derek pleaded. A lump rose in my throat when I
heard the seriousness in his tone. “Let’s leave…leave all of this
behind. We can start over wherever you want, Hannah, anywhere.
Do whatever you need but let’s leave.”
Yes.
I want to.
I wish I could.
Too many lose ends.
My mind screamed, drowning out the voice of my aching heart.
“I can’t,” I whispered.
Just like that, he snapped. He pulled away from me, and I
stumbled back, not because he’d been aggressive, but because I
could feel him letting me go, this time forever. He wouldn’t take me
back; there would be no second chances. I’d fucked up all of those.
“I don’t fucking understand!” he roared, his green eyes furious
and his expression hurt.
Actual pain.
“What the fuck am I doing wrong? Why is this not enough?” He
walked up to me, blazing green eyes staring back at me with pained
anger. “Does this shit matter to you more than what we have?”
“Derek—”
“No,” he interrupted. “This is bullshit. You are full of bullshit. We
don’t matter to you. All that matters is your reputation, your
business, and your fucking money. You want that shit? Keep it. But
I’m done, Hannah. I’m done waiting around for you.”
I couldn’t blame him for being angry, couldn’t blame him for
anything, really.
He didn’t choose to fall in love with me.
And I couldn’t choose him…
Not completely.
Not in the way he deserved.
“Answer me.” His voice thundered throughout the large house,
and my attention fell back on him. I wanted him to yell, to scream
and tell me everything I deserved. I wanted to take away his pain.
I wanted him to hate me, so he could forget me.
He continued asking questions, furious, close to me. My heart
pounded in my chest and his words faded out while I tried my best
to think of the good times and the good memories, savoring the
warmth of his body near me even if it was under these
circumstances.
Until he wasn’t there.
“What the fuck are you doing?”
Just like that, reality came crashing back without compassion.
My husband stood before me, his arm pushing me back gently,
probably wondering about my upset state. He fixed his accusing
gaze on Derek while he stood there, his lips pressed together in a
tight line.
“What the fuck is wrong with you?” Nathan asked the question
again, concerned with what he’d seen. We hadn’t gotten along in
years, but I knew he would never allow anyone to physically hurt
me.
“Stay out of it,” Derek muttered. He glared at the man who he’d
considered his friend for the past few months, hating the way that
Nathan stood between us.
So many things stood between us.
“You need to take a fucking walk, Derek,” Nathan spat.
Oh, if he knew this was my fault.
Derek scoffed. Nathan wouldn’t notice. He didn’t know him well
enough to see his pain. All he could see was an angry man, one it
seemed could turn violent.
I knew he wouldn’t, but Nathan didn’t.
It’s easier this way, I lied to myself.
Let him go.
“Is this your decision?” Derek asked one last time.
When a few seconds passed by without an answer, he nodded,
and vaguely, I could see his eyes water as he contained his emotions
the best he could.
“All right, then,” he said. “I hope you don’t regret it.”
I did.
I always did.
CHAPTER 1
Years later…

Hannah

The higher you are, the harder you fall.


I snorted.
I never thought I would have to learn the meaning of those
words. For years I had everything. I lived in luxury, never worried
about what to eat, and never hesitated in getting what I wanted, no
matter who I had to hurt.
That all changed a few years ago.
I won’t bother with the full story, since it’s incredibly boring. But I
will say it changed my life in more ways than one.
Rich girl wants to stay rich.
Rich girl fucks her family over.
Family ends up putting rich girl in jail.
Rich girl ends up with nothing.
Years later, former rich girl was utterly poor and trying to figure
out what to do with her life. She didn’t have a home, didn’t have a
place to call her own, and hardly even had a family.
And there were so many things to fix.
I could make up many excuses for my actions left and right, may
even be smart enough to fool others, but I didn’t want to. For the
past years, I’d come to acknowledge what I did and confront it. To
say I was at peace would be a terrible lie. I regretted everything…
some things more than others. Just like I’d accomplished things, I’d
also suffered. I made mistakes. The worst part of it all was that I
could do nothing to take back what I’d done. I’d left permanent
scars on the souls of every person I’d hurt—every action, every
word, every single thought—it remained with them.
It stuck with me.
I sighed, laying back on the bed and staring up at the ceiling. It
was dark already, and though the day had been very eventful after
Evie’s birthday, I couldn’t say I was tired, especially not after seeing
everyone I’d damaged.
Not after seeing Derek.
I couldn’t have expected him to talk to me. To be honest, I hadn’t
expected anything at all.
And indeed, I hadn’t received anything.
I’d lost my opportunity with him years ago, and now it was my
time to finally accept it.
“Are you okay?”
Evelyn stood by the doorway, her curly hair falling down to her
shoulders, face bare of any make up, but wearing a concerned
expression. That was one of the many differences between us; her
hair was so curly while mine was straight. She was always so loving
while I had always been very superficial. We grew up in the same
home but were raised different ways. There were endless differences
between us, and we couldn’t ignore them.
We were sisters. Maybe not your conventional “steal your clothes
and gossip over boys” kind of sisters, but sisters, nonetheless. I still
believed that, even if it was difficult for me to say the words out
loud.
“Yeah, I’m fine,” I said, sitting back up. “The house is very pretty.”
I heard footsteps and immediately knew who was approaching.
Nathan appeared behind Evelyn and pressed a kiss on the top of her
head.
How the tables had turned.
He merely glanced at me. We were civil, but we weren’t friends. I
wasn’t ignorant, though. He looked at Evelyn lovingly, his hand
resting on her hip, and instantly, I saw her flush.
I suppressed a snicker. They were married, and she was still so
shy.
“Do you need anything?” Nathan asked, the first words he’d said
to me since I’d arrived.
I shook my head. “Thank you.”
With a curt nod, he turned his attention back to his wife, letting
her know he’d sent Lily to bed and that he would be waiting for her
in the bedroom. Evie nodded, thanking him as he kissed the tip of
her nose.
Envy.
I was happy for her, yet I was so damn jealous. Not because she
was with Nathan, but because I wasn’t with him.
He walked away, and Evie stepped inside the bedroom, closing
the door quietly behind her. She played with the hem of her shirt, a
clear sign that she was nervous. It was a habit Evie’d had since she
was a little girl, one I remembered clearly. Every time Mom would
scold her, she would do that, or bite her lip and brush her hair back.
My little sister had always been very easy to read. Sometimes I
wished I had been too. Maybe if everyone around me had seen how
much I struggled at times, they would have seen through the mask I
wore. However, I knew how to wear it well. Even then, in that
precise moment, I struggled to keep the mask off.
I didn’t like showing my feelings.
Mom taught me it was for the weak.
Later on, I realized it was only the brave who wore their feelings
on their sleeve, unafraid to show this cruel world how they felt.
“I’m sorry if this isn’t a big room like you’re used to,” she finally
said.
Surprised, I furrowed my eyebrows, hoping she’d carry on.
“It’s nothing like the house back in Pennsylvania, but Nathan and
I didn’t want a huge house.”
My heart sank.
She was worried I wouldn’t be comfortable or, even worse, that I
would reject her. I couldn’t blame anyone other than myself for her
fears.
You did this to her.
I took her hand in mine and squeezed it reassuringly. “The room
is perfect, Evie. Thank you.”
“Is it?” She smiled warmly.
“It is. Way better than the bunk bed in prison,” I joked, pinching
the bridge of my nose and shuddering.
Her face broke out into a full-blown grin. “No luxury mattresses
there.” She laughed. “I’m very happy you’re here.”
“Me too,” I agreed, though part of me was fearful and nostalgic.
Ironically, the place in which I learned how to make friends was a
prison, a place in which I never thought I would set foot. Now, not
only did I have to try and fix the many things I’d royally fucked up,
but I also had to learn how to reintegrate into society, which
wouldn’t be easy.
Not with my record.
It was tainted, and finding a job would be both cruel and
exhausting.
Who would hire someone who’s committed fraud and betrayed
her younger sister in the worst of ways? I wouldn’t.
“Nathan doesn’t look too happy to have me around,” I murmured.
Evie’s face lit up. “He’s the one who suggested you stay here until
you’re back on your feet.”
“He did that?”
Pride filled her features. I always knew he was a caring and
humble man, but I never thought he’d be compassionate toward me,
not after everything I had done. It dawned on me that I had lost a
good man—no—would have lost a good man if he’d ever belonged
to me.
He never had.
Nathan and I were a mismatch from the start.
We were too different, complete opposites.
I’d heard it said that opposites attract. In our case, it was never
true. Obviously, I found him attractive, and I had to imagine that
he’d once found me attractive, as well. I cared for him at some
point, and he’d cared for me, but love? We’d never felt that for each
other.
At that stage of my life, I had been too worried about keeping the
family name spotless and making my mother proud, no matter the
cost. Nathan had other goals: get money, though his main concern
was always his mother, Deborah. I could still recall how much he’d
worried about his mother and how hurt he’d been with her
diagnosis.
Perhaps it had been one of the most honest nights of our entire
marriage. There was no sex, just him talking to me, confiding in me
about his mother’s health. I remember thinking that I would have
been just as desperate if my mother had been the one ill.
“Do you need anything else? I know you don’t have many clothes,
but I’m sure I can find something for you. We can also go shopping
tomorrow, if you’d like?”
“You don’t have to do that, Evie.” I’d done so little for her, so the
fact that she even offered up a room in her house made me feel
uncomfortable. I didn’t deserve it.
“I want to.” She smiled. “We can go tomorrow, yes? It’ll give us
time to catch up.”
With her eyes hopeful, there was no way I could deny it. I owed
my freedom to her.
“Okay,” I agreed. Evie squealed, jumping up and hugging me
tightly. It felt weird at first; I didn’t know what to do or how to react,
but instinct took over and I wrapped my arms around her. “I’ll pay
you back when I start working again.”
She shook her head. “No. It’s my welcome back gift to you.”
After a few more minutes, Evie stepped out, and I laid back
down. This was my new life.
The person I’d hurt the most was the one helping me.
She was married to my ex-husband, and I…
Well, I was just there.
I closed my eyes, groaning softly.
I needed to figure out what the hell I was going to do with my
life. I couldn’t depend on Evie and Nathan forever. They had their
own family, and it would be too awkward for me to be under the
same roof as Nathan, especially when he only tolerated me for her
sake.
The job search would soon begin, and I would find a way to get
back on my feet so I could prove myself worthy of their help…
And prove to myself that I was, indeed, a better person.
CHAPTER 2
Hannah

I used to love shopping at the mall—getting my nails done,


getting the fanciest clothes and the most expensive shoes. That was
my life before.
Now, well…now I was thankful to be eating a Big Mac and
drinking Coca-Cola. They didn’t serve nice, big meals with fries in
jail, and now that I had access to them, I enjoyed them to the
fullest. But being in a place where everyone appeared to have their
lives together was upsetting because for the time being, I had no
clue what I would do with mine.
Evie took a sip of her drink while Nathan sat back, his jaw tense,
their three-year-old Lily sitting on his lap. He wasn’t happy to be
there, and though Evelyn told him we’d be fine on our own, he
insisted on coming with us.
He didn’t trust me, I realized.
I couldn’t say I blamed him, but I was too much of a coward to
look at him. His gaze held accusation. Eventually, if Nathan and I
were going to get along, we would have a long, awkward
conversation about everything that had happened between us. I
didn’t look forward to it, but with change came making amends.
A lovely two-in-one package.
“Aunt Hannah?”
Big, gray eyes looked up at me with curiosity, breaking the silence
that surrounded us. Nathan relaxed when his daughter spoke up,
and Evie smiled tenderly.
I was nervous.
Somehow, I knew what she was going to ask, and I dreaded it.
There are things that are very difficult to explain to a child, and the
food court at a mall was definitely not the place where I wanted to
tell Lily I had been in prison.
When she grew up, she would know. She’d also learn about the
harm I had caused her mother. She’d hate me eventually, and I’d
wind up alone anyway.
“Where were you all this time?”
There it is.
Nathan tensed once again, pressing his lips together.
“Remember what I told you?” Evie asked, completely unfazed.
The mother role fit her perfectly. “That sometimes people make
mistakes and do bad things?”
Lily nodded, her full attention on Evelyn.
“Well, sometimes people have to go away. Aunt Hannah did the
same thing.”
Interest piqued, the young girl raised an eyebrow. “Like jail?”
Nathan started coughing, surprised by his daughter’s question.
I smiled. She was a smart little thing.
“Yes, like jail.”
Her eyes widened, and I half expected for her to cower away.
Instead, she stood up, then sat next to me, her curls bouncing as
she did so. “Is it scary?”
I felt my heart flutter. I didn’t frighten her. To have her innocent
face looking up at me with pure interest was an experience I didn’t
think I would have.
“It’s not a good place to be,” I replied, glancing at Evelyn, hoping
I had said the right thing. She gave me an encouraging nod, resting
her head on Nathan’s shoulder.
“But sometimes people leave that place and they are better.”
“Are you?”
That was a question I’d asked myself several times before my
release.
Was I a better person?
I thought I was, but the idea of messing up terrified me. The
feeling of Nathan’s intense eyes looking at me with apprehension
forced me to meet his gaze. His arm was wrapped around Evie’s
shoulders, and the message was clear.
Don’t fuck this up.
Don’t hurt her again.
I wondered if Evelyn actually trusted me. It was clear Nathan
didn’t. It was clear nobody did other than her. Why the hell would
she trust me?
I didn’t even trust myself.
Oblivious to the death glare her husband gave me, Evie calmly
took another sip of her drink.
“I am a better person,” I stated, my eyes fixed on Nathan. He had
to know I had changed. My relationship with Evie was on the line,
and if he had the slightest doubt, I knew she’d feel it…eventually.
Once again, my attention shifted to the little girl looking up at me.
She deserved a family, a healthy one.
I could do that.
I needed to do that.
“I don’t always make the best decisions,” I said to Lily. Nathan
snorted. “But I think being around you and your mommy will help
me be a better person too.”
Lily’s face lit up, and she jumped excitedly onto her feet. “I’m
going to teach you a lot of things,” she exclaimed. “I know a lot of
things and can teach you all about princesses and playing with toys,
and I also know about cars because my daddy has a very pretty car
and…”
She continued without stopping. It astounded me how she didn’t
run out of breath because the conversation went on and on. I was
far too mesmerized with the way she expressed herself to care. With
Evie and Nathan’s help, I knew I’d get back up on my feet.
But Lily Maxwell would be the reason I became the best person I
could be.
***

“What about this shirt? This would look so pretty on you.” Evie
held up a blouse, wiggling her eyebrows playfully. “It’s cute.”
It was gorgeous. It was yellow, and I knew that it was a difficult
shade to pull off, but obviously, Evie had noticed it was a color I
always liked to wear.
“You should get it for yourself.”
Evie bit her lip thoughtfully, her cheeks taking on a rosy color.
“I’m pregnant.”
My eyes widened. “What?”
“Yeah. A few weeks only, but we want to keep it secret until…you
know…I’m further along.”
I grinned, nudging her gently with my elbow. “Congratulations.”
No wonder she was glowing. “But if it’s a secret, why did you just
tell me?”
She shrugged, laughing softly. “I trust you. Plus, we’ve never had
a sister secret. This could be our first.” My heart constricted at her
saddened demeanor. Evelyn tried to make up for lost time. It
reminded me of when we were younger, and I wanted to hang out
with my friends. She’d chase me down to get my attention. She
wanted to tell me something, said it was a secret, but I had been so
caught up with impressing my friends, I’d paid no mind to her.
I found it ironic.
I’d grown up thankful when I left high school because I no longer
had to impress anyone, only to find out being an adult was the exact
same thing.
I had a reputation to keep up with.
“All right. I’ll keep the secret.” I smiled, taking the shirt from her
hands. “But you have to buy something for yourself too, okay?”
She beamed. “Not a problem.”
Once in the dressing rooms, Evie and I tried on the crazy amount
of clothes we’d picked up in just a matter of minutes. Nathan had
taken Lily to the Disney store to give Evelyn and me some time to
talk, for which I was thankful, especially when she asked the
following question:
“When are you going to start looking for a job?”
I sighed, loud enough for her to hear, and stepped out of the
dressing room to show her the dress I wore. It flared out and looked
stunning but was far too expensive.
She smiled when she saw me, and I knew that she was going to
end up buying it no matter what I said.
“I don’t know,” I replied. “I’m not really sure where to apply. No
one will accept someone with my record. I’m not trustworthy
enough, you know?”
Her gaze softened.
“Nathan needs help at the gallery many times—”
I shook my head before she even finished. There was no way I
could work with Nathan. For starters, I had absolutely no interest in
art…never had. Now I respected it but was ignorant on the subject.
Besides, being close to Nathan would only cause problems, of that I
was sure.
“I’d rather get another job,” I admitted. “You guys are doing
enough for me as is, Evie. I’m not going to take advantage of it.”
Thoughtful, she handed me a blouse with a pair of jeans, a not-
so-subtle way of saying that she wanted me to try them on. I
snickered, stepping into the dressing room again and changing.
“I know a place,” I heard her say. “I don’t know if you’d be very
happy, but I mean, it’s something. It’s up to you, though. I don’t
want you to feel weird or forced to take the job but—”
“Quit rambling,” I teased, smoothing down the blouse.
She always had such a pretty sense of style.
Evie was already waiting for me, wearing a simple lace dress. It
contrasted against her skin perfectly, and I could already picture
what she’d look like with her pregnant belly in a few months.
“I like that,” I admitted. “It looks pretty on you.”
“Thank you.” She curtsied, reminding me of the time she’d said
she’d watched porn, when in reality, I’d known she had been with
my then husband.
So many things to talk about still.
“What job are you talking about?” I asked. The sooner I was
working, the sooner I’d feel like a normal person.
Or like I had a purpose.
She shrugged. “I’ll take you to the place, if you want. The owner
needs personnel, so I’m sure they’ll take you in.”
I nodded. “Okay, yeah. I just want to get out there, you know?
Start over.”
“I know, Han. I’m sure this is the right choice, though.”
I hope so too.
CHAPTER 3
Hannah

I stared at myself in the mirror.


I couldn’t recognize the person looking back at me. Physically, I
hadn’t changed much, but inside, I felt different.
I applied a bit of mascara and some lip gloss Evelyn had bought
for me, hoping I’d look presentable enough that the person I was
going to interview with would ignore my history.
“You messed up your life,” I said to myself.
Deciding it was pointless to obsess over the things I had done in
the past, I let my hair down and walked downstairs. I heard Evie
and Nate’s hushed whispers, and though they didn’t seem to be
arguing, it was clear that they didn’t agree on something.
Nathan quieted down when he saw me, and he forced a smile
that, quite honestly, seemed pained. Evelyn smiled, and Lily ran up
to me, greeting me with a hug.
“You ready to go?”
“Yes, I am.” I smiled nervously. “It this okay?”
The dress I wore was simple and black, something that screamed
professional. I never liked using my physical appearances to work
my way up, though I did other things that weren’t necessarily good,
like taking advantage of people. It was easier that way, but that
didn’t make it right. Now, I had to use only my brain to get ahead,
and hopefully, appearing professional would help. I considered
myself relatively smart, despite the many mistakes I made.
The people who believed this were few and far between.
“Yes, I think that’s perfect,” Evie replied, always encouraging.
I nodded, taking hold of Lily’s hand. She was quiet, yet content,
hugging a doll. It made me feel better that at least she was relaxed.
It meant that Evie and Nate’s argument wasn’t too serious, or else
she would have picked up on it.
“Well,” Nate began, scratching the back of his head, “I need to go
to the gallery, but, uh…good luck, Hannah. I hope it all goes well.”
It was obvious he meant it, and I was thankful because deep
down, I knew I needed all the good luck possible. “Thanks, Nathan.”
He smiled the first sincere smile since he’d seen me. Those smiles
were rare before, when we had been married, but now that he was
married to a woman he actually loved, he couldn’t hide them. I
turned my attention away when he pecked Evie’s lips and whispered
something in her ear.
“Mom says I’m going as your good luck charm,” Lily said with the
brightest eyes in the world.
To be honest, I firmly believed she would bring me all the luck I
needed. Lily said goodbye to her dad, and after all of us got in the
car, we were off to what would hopefully be my first step into
society.

***

I saw Evie’s grip tightening on the steering wheel several times,


and she nibbled on her lip as if she was nervous or wanted to say
something but wasn’t quite sure if she should.
I, on the other hand, couldn’t find a way of telling her how
fucking freaked out I was.
Sometimes people judge former prisoners and don’t believe they
should ever be able to step foot out of a jail, but what many people
failed to notice was that those of us who had the opportunity to
return to the real world didn’t have it easy. People judged us by our
past mistakes and no one ever wanted to give us a second chance.
While many returned to their old ways, I refused to be one of
them. I was too proud, too eager, to prove myself and everyone else
I changed.
My mom used to always tell me that it was better to look at
everything objectively because feelings could taint one’s perspective.
With time, I realized her logic was flawed. If I had been using my
heart rather than my greediness and her goals, my life would have
been completely different.
It wasn’t until we were pulling up to a very fancy-looking
establishment that I began dreading Evie’s suggestion.
Paradis.
I shook my head, not even giving Evie a chance to speak up. “Are
you serious? You brought me here?”
She gave me a small smile, one that said she’d planned
everything.
“I can’t do this, Evie. What the hell? You should have told me.” I
ran my hands through my straightened hair, wanting to pull all of it
out. This could not be happening.
“I know it isn’t ideal,” Evie said as calmly as possible. “But this is
the best for now.”
“Working with Derek?” I shrieked, sure she could sense my
disbelief. “He hates me! Why in the—why would he ever give me a
job?”
For her.
Realization slapped me in the face. I’d burned all my bridges,
destroyed the few real friendships I ever had. Now, all the help I
would receive was because of Evie, and I wasn’t sure how to feel
about that.
Uncomfortably, I shifted on my seat. I loathed feeling like a lesser
person.
“You need to find a job that will show others you can deal with
money and that your interactions with others have changed,
Hannah. It’s going to be difficult to find one like that so—”
“So you brought me here? With one of my victims?”
With a sheepish smile, Evie shrugged. “You can do both here.
You’d deal with money and prove to others that you’re a better
person. Once you’ve got someone who can give you a
recommendation, it’ll be easier for you to get a different job.”
“But out of all the options, why Derek?” I asked her, trying to stay
calm. I wasn’t doing too good of a job.
“Because I know he’ll give you the job.” She spoke without an
ounce of doubt in her voice.
“Does he know I’m here?”
“It’s a surprise, Aunt Hannah.” Lily’s interrupted our discussion. I
turned around in my seat, facing the little girl who kicked her feet
against the driver’s seat.
“A surprise? Really?” I snorted, my cheeks flushing.
I wanted to see Derek and talk to him, but not this way. It was
cruel to him, unfair.
Besides, even if Evie and Lily were there, I had no guarantee he’d
give me a job.
“I’m just trying to help you, Hannah.”
I knew she was. Evie never did anything if it wasn’t for the well-
being of others.
“I’m afraid if you don’t keep your mind busy, you’ll turn to other
stuff,” she admitted, avoiding my eyes. “I don’t want you to go back
to your old ways. And maybe it’s selfish, but you’re finally being
sisterly. I don’t want to lose that.”
I swallowed.
Doing bad things was always easier, and despite everything,
Evelyn knew that.
Deep down, however, my main worry was Derek. I’d hurt him too
much in the past, and he didn’t deserve to have me forced into his
life if he didn’t want me in it.
“Fine,” I said with a sigh. “But if he doesn’t want to, please don’t
insist. I can’t blame him for not wanting me around.”
Her gaze softened, and she nodded. “Are you ready for this?”
“Ready as I’ll ever be.”
With those words, I took Lily out of the car and we walked up to
the restaurant. I had never visited his location in New York, but I
knew Derek’s restaurants were one of the most visited and most
liked by the more prestigious families in the state. Paradis was a
place he’d worked hard to maintain and expand, a place whose
reputation I nearly ruined out of pain and selfishness.
The restaurant wasn’t open yet. It was still before noon, and if
things hadn’t changed, the restaurant would be opening at exactly
12 p.m.
Evie squeezed my hand before opening the door and walking
inside. I braced myself for however Derek would receive me, if he
did at all.
“Evelyn,” a young woman greeted, her hair up in a bun. She has
hardly any make up on. “What are you doing here? We weren’t
expecting you. Hey, little Lily. How are you?”
“I’m fine. Is Uncle Derek here?”
“Yes, he is.” The woman turned to face me, eyeing me curiously
and with an arched brow. “And this is?”
“Hannah,” Evie replied, her arm intertwining mine. “She’s my
sister.”
“Oh, nice to meet you.” The woman smiled. “I’m Lisa, the
manager. So, it’s…three siblings?”
I snorted, trying not to burst out laughing. Poor woman, she had
no clue the mess our lives had been. Even we had a hard time
making sense of our situation. How could we explain to someone
that Evie had grown up thinking we were sisters, only to find out we
didn’t share the same blood? Add Derek to the story and it all
became much more confusing. The only thing that remained clear
was that, though Evie saw Derek and me as her siblings, we weren’t
related. The bond between us would never be that of a family.
We’d met under different circumstances—we didn’t share the
same blood, but we shared the memories of the time we’d spent
together years ago.
“It’s a long story,” Evie swiftly said. “Where’s Derek?”
I didn’t have to see him to feel him. His footsteps approached,
heavy and determined, and for a moment, light-hearted. As excited
as I was to see him, I also felt terrified. He wouldn’t want to see me;
there was no way.
His gaze fell instantly on Lily, his face breaking out into a grin
when she ran up to him, throwing herself in his arms. He lifted her
up, placing a kiss on her forehead, and my heart, my poor little
heart, started doing somersaults all over the place.
“How are you?” he asked her, unable to hide his smile.
Evie remained by my side, and for that, I was infinitely thankful. I
would have run out of the place otherwise.
“Evelyn, I wasn’t—” Derek’s jaw tensed when he took in the sight
of me. “—expecting you.” His green eyes were ablaze as he studied
me. “What exactly is going on?”
Smiling, Evie walked up to him and placed a kiss on his cheek.
“You mentioned you needed more personnel. Hannah needs a job,
so I thought it would be convenient and that you two could help
each other out.”
Derek scoffed. “Does she have any experience?” he asked, his
gaze unwavering.
“Derek—”
“I’m asking her,” he interrupted.
My lips parted in a small gasp, and his eyes followed the
movement. My heart thudded in my chest when, for a moment, his
gaze turned dark and heated like it used to years ago. It was so
brief, I wasn’t sure if I imagined it, but I knew it was there.
“I—I don’t know much about this.” I blinked, surprised to hear
myself stutter. I never stuttered. “But I can try…I want to try.”
Working his jaw, Derek stared at me, and stared and stared. With
every passing minute, it was more difficult to breathe. Finally, he
cleared his throat, setting an oblivious Lily on the floor. “Can I talk to
you, Evelyn? In private?”
Evie didn’t seem surprised. “Of course.” She smiled.
I let out a long-held breath, running a hand over my face.
“Well,” Lisa muttered, her eyes wide, a hand fanning her face.
I’d totally forgotten she’d watched the whole interaction unfold.
“What?”
She grinned. “Is it just me or did it just get it hot in here?”
CHAPTER 4
Derek

Never in my life did I expect to see her again.


Especially searching for a job at a restaurant which she’d
managed to destroy.
I looked at Hannah from where I stood, and I wasn’t sure how
the fuck to feel.
Pissed.
Definitely pissed.
But being in front of her reminded me a lot of the woman I had
met years ago—the woman she was when we were together.
Pushing away the thought, I focused on Evie, who waited for me to
say something.
“Are you mad at me?” she asked, a tight smile on her face.
I shook my head. “I can’t hire her, Evelyn. I won’t.”
Her brows furrowed, her lips tilted slightly down. In the years
we’d spent together, I had learned how to read her—not that it had
ever been difficult. My little sister was an open book. Despite my
constant traveling, Evelyn and I were inseparable. Perhaps it was a
subconscious way to make up for lost time, but every day we would
talk on the phone if I was out of New York, and if not, I’d visit or
vice versa.
Another random document with
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conditions of life. The foundations of ethnical experimental
psychology were thus laid.
Professor R. W. Woodworth sums up the conclusions arrived at
from his own observations and those of others as follows: “We are
probably justified in inferring that the sensory and motor processes
and the elementary brain activities, though differing in degree from
one individual to another, are about the same from one race to
another.”[64]
64. Science, xxxi., 1910, p. 179.
Lately an attempt has been made, under the auspices of the Royal
Anthropological Institute, to provide travellers with instructions for
psychological investigations in the field.
Eugenics. During the last few years the subject of race
improvement, or Eugenics, has been greatly to the
fore, and it has been in this country mainly connected with the name
of Sir Francis Galton, who as long ago as 1865 published his views
on the subject. Eugenics is officially defined in the Minutes of the
University of London as “the study of agencies under social control
that may improve or impair the racial qualities of future generations,
either physically or mentally.” A eugenics laboratory has recently
been established in University College, London, in connection with
Professor Karl Pearson’s biometric laboratory.
Chapter VI.

THE CLASSIFICATION AND DISTRIBUTION OF MAN

Race After the age of race discrimination comes the age


Description and of race description and classification; and, as we
Classification. should expect, this second stage is not reached
until the close of the Dark Ages and the dawn of the Renaissance,
when thought had been emancipated from the bondage of scholastic
authority and stimulated by the new impulse which infected all forms
of intellectual activity.
Bernier. The first attempt at the classification of mankind
was that of a French traveller, F. Bernier (1625-
1688), whose scheme appeared in an anonymous article in the
Journal des Scavans, 1684, entitled “A new division of the earth,
according to the different species or races of men who inhabit it,” etc.
[65]

65. See T. Bendyshe, Mem. Anth. Soc., I., 1865, p. 360.

He distinguished “four or five species or races”: (1) The inhabitants


of Europe, North Africa (including the Egyptians), and a great part of
Asia (including the Indians). He notes that the Egyptians and Indians
are black or copper-coloured, but considered the complexion to be
due to climate. (2) The Africans, with thick lips, flat noses, and black
skins, due not to climate but nature, with scanty beard and woolly
hair. (3) The Asiatics not included in the first group, white, with
“broad shoulders, a flat face, a small squab nose, little pig’s-eyes
long and deep-set, and three hairs of beard.” (4) The Lapps, “little
stunted creatures, with thick legs, large shoulders, short neck, and a
face elongated immensely; very ugly, and partaking much of the
bear; they are wretched animals.” He hesitates whether to put the
Americans or the inhabitants of South Africa, who are unlike the
Negroes, into a fifth class. The latter are probably the Hottentots or
Bushmen, in spite of his statement that “some of the Dutch say they
speak turkey.”
Linnæus. The next classification was that of Linnæus. His
service to Anthropology by fixing the place of
Homo sapiens in the animal kingdom has already been noted (p.
19). In the first edition of the Systema naturæ (1735),[66] Man is
classed as a quadruped, and together with the Ape and Sloth
constitutes the order Anthropomorpha. Four varieties of Homo are
recorded: H. Europæus albesc., Americanus rubesc., Asiaticus
fuscus, Africanus nigr. In the second edition (1740) Homo is divided
into the same four varieties, which are distinguished by the colour of
their skin, located severally, one in each of the then known
continents—Europæus albus, Americanus rubescens, Asiaticus
fuscus, and Africanus niger.
66. These accounts have been taken from the original editions; but the reader is
referred to the verbatim copy given by Bendyshe in the Mem. Anth. Soc., I.,
1865, p. 421.

In the tenth edition (1758) more divisions are recognised: the


genus Homo consists of two species—Sapiens, 1 H. diurnus. Ferus,
including hairy men without speech who run about on all-fours, of
which six records are given; Americanus (α) and Europæus (β),
Asiaticus (γ), Afer (δ), Monstrosus (ε), which include (a) Alpini
(small), Patagonici (large); (b) Monorchides—Hottentotti, Junceæ—
Europæ; (c) Macrocephali—Chinenses, Plagiocephali—
Canadenses. A second species being Troglodytes 2. H. nocturnus
(Homo sylvestris Orang-Outang). This classification was retained in
the twelfth edition (1772). In these two latter editions the genera
Simia, Lemur, and Vespertilio were classed with Homo in the order
Primates.
In Fauna Suecica, published in 1746, Linnæus made a more
detailed classification of the population of Sweden, recognising three
main types, distinguished by their stature, hair, and eye colour.
These were the Goths, tall, hair white and straight, iris of the eyes
ashen blue; Finns, with muscular body, hair long and yellow, and
dark iris; and Lapps, with small, thin body, straight black hair, and iris
blackish.
Blumenbach. Blumenbach (1775) based his classification not
only on skin colour, but also on skull form. To the
four groups of Linnæus he added a fifth, dividing the one species
into five varieties—the Caucasian, the Mongolian, the Ethiopian, the
American, and the Malayan. The last group included the then little
known Australian, Papuan, and pure Malay types.
Blumenbach was the originator of the unfortunate title
“Caucasian”[67] to represent the typical European and the inhabitants
of Eastern Asia and Northern Africa. He chose the name partly
because the Caucasus produces the most beautiful race of men, and
also on account of the fine Georgian skull in his collection.[68] It was
unfortunate, since, as Ripley points out (1900, p. 436), nowhere else
in Europe is found such a heterogeneity of physical types—the only
one conspicuously missing being the fair-haired, blue-eyed
European—and such a diversity of language, sixty-eight dialects
being here jumbled together, and only one possessed of (possibly)
Aryan origin. The name “Caucasian” has, therefore, not led to
clarification of ideas in the complex problem of European ethnology.
Keane (1899), however, supports its use, saying: “Those who object
to Caucasic are apt to forget the vast field that has to be embraced
by this single collective term.” “Caucasic, when properly understood
... cannot be dispensed with until a more suitable general term be
discovered” (p. 447).
67. Anthrop. Treatises of Blumenbach, translated by T. Bendyshe, 1865, pp. 265,
269.

68. Waitz, 1863, p. 233, f.n., who adds: “without any intention on his part to
express thereby an opinion as to the cradle of these peoples.” Keane, 1896,
p. 226.
Other The next important classification was that of
Classifications. Cuvier, who derived mankind from the three sons
of Noah, Japhet being regarded as the parent of the Caucasic, Shem
of the Mongolian, and Ham of the African races. The divergence of
type between the three brothers is not explained, except that the
blackness of the descendants of Ham was attributed to the curse
imposed by Noah on Canaan, the son of Ham (Gen. ix. 25).
Other classifications followed, the divisions varying from two
species, white and black, Virey (1801), to the fifteen or sixteen of the
Polygenists, Desmoulins (1825-6), and Bory de Saint-Vincent
(1827), and the thirty-four of Haeckel (1873).
In America L. Agassiz, an uncompromising opponent of evolution,
asserted, in 1845,[69] the unity of mankind as a species; but in
1850[70] we find him distribute eleven or twelve, in 1853 (in Nott and
Gliddon) eight, human species in as many geological and botanical
provinces. But this theory had been previously promulgated by
Desmoulins (1826) and by Swainson (in 1835).[71] As Waitz rightly
says: “They are completely in error who, adopting the views of
Agassiz, assume as many original types of mankind as there are
typically different peoples on the globe” (1864, p. 203).
69. Smith, 1850, Unity of the Human Races, p. 349.

70. Christian Examiner, Boston, July, 1850.

71. Treatise on the Geography and Classification of Animals.


It was not until the nineteenth century that a really scientific
method of classification was adopted. In the majority of these
schemes the character of the hair was chosen as the primary race-
characteristic.
Pruner Bey. The hair had already been studied by Heusinger
(1822), by Blower, of Philadelphia, and by Kölliker,
the histologist, before the publication of Pruner Bey’s classic memoir,
read before the Paris Anthropological Society in 1863, and published
in the same year. Dr. Pruner Bey claimed that the quality of the hair
constituted one of the best means of race-identification, and even
that “a single hair presenting the average form characteristic of the
race might serve to define it.”
Bory de St. Long before this, in 1827, Bory de Saint-Vincent
Vincent. had chosen the hair as the chief test in race-
classification, and divided mankind into the Leiotrichi, or straight-
haired, and the Ulotrichi, or woolly-haired—a nomenclature
afterwards adopted by Professor Huxley (1870).[72] But Bory de
Saint-Vincent’s classification was robbed of permanent scientific
value by his inclusion as distinct races of such vague abstractions as
“Scythians,” “Neptunians,” and “Columbians.”
72. Journ. Eth. Soc. (N.S.), II.
Isidore Geoffroy Isidore Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire (1858) distributed
Saint-Hilaire. his eleven principal races primarily according to
the character of the hair, sub-divided according to the flatness or
projection of the nose, skin-colour, the shape of the skull, and the
character of the face.[73]
73. Cf. Topinard, 1885, p. 264.
Haeckel. Professor Ernst Haeckel adopted the following
classification from Friedrich Müller:—I. Ulotriches
(woolly-haired). A. Lophokomoi (tufted): Papuans, Hottentots; B.
Eriokomoi (fleecy): Kafirs, Negroes. II. Lissotriches (lank-haired). A.
Euthykomoi (straight): Malay, Mongol, American, Arctic, Australian;
B. Euplokomoi (curly): Dravidas, Nubians, Mediterranean.
Broca, Topinard. Broca and Topinard (1885) have three main
classes—Straight, Wavy or Curly, and Woolly—
sub-divided first by head-form, then by skin colour.
Many of the earlier classifications were based on insufficient or
erroneous evidence, and the general tendency has been to increase
the divisions as the physical characters of the populations of the
earth became gradually better known. Thus the twelve races of
Haeckel in 1873 had advanced to thirty-four in 1879; the sixteen of
Topinard in 1878 had grown to nineteen in 1885; and the thirteen
races and thirty sub-divisions of Deniker in 1889 were increased in
1900 to seventeen groups, containing twenty-nine races.
Flower. Sir William Flower (1831-1899), a distinguished
zoologist and physical anthropologist, in 1885[74]
adopted the old three-fold classification:—I. Ethiopian, Negroid, or
Melanian. A. African or typical Negroes; B. Hottentots and Bushmen;
C. Oceanic Negroes or Melanesians; D. Negritos. II. Mongolian or
Xanthous. A. Eskimo; B. Typical Mongolian (including the Mongolo-
Altaic and the Southern Mongolian groups); C. Malay; D. Brown
Polynesians or Malayo-Polynesians; E. American Indians (excluding
the Eskimo). III. Caucasian or “White.” A. Xanthochroi; B.
Melanochroi. As Flower himself says, this scheme of classification,
“in its broad outlines, scarcely differs from that proposed by Cuvier
nearly sixty years ago.... Still it can only be looked upon as an
approximation.” Although he places skin-colour first, he tacitly admits
its insufficiency as a main diagnostic character, and his three groups
coincide with a classification based on the nature of the hair.
74. Journ. Anth. Inst., xiv., pp. 378-393.
Deniker. Among the later classifications a new tendency
may be noted. The earlier schemes aimed at
producing a series of water-tight compartments into which the races
of the globe could be isolated. Further research, however,
encouraged the growing conviction that a pure race is practically
non-existent, and a different method had to be followed. This is
described by Deniker (p. 284): “Taking into account all the new data
of anthropological science, I endeavoured, as do the botanists, to
form natural groups by combining the different characters (colour of
the skin, nature of the hair, stature, form of the head, of the nose,
etc.).” This results in the formation of seventeen ethnic groups,
containing twenty-nine races, and these are ingeniously arranged (p.
289) in a two-dimensional grouping, to show their affinities, which is
a modification of his suggestive earlier scheme.[75]
75. Bull. Soc. d’Anth., 1889.

The “pigeon-hole” system of classification had, however, been


discredited in the fourth edition of Prichard’s Natural History of Man,
edited and enlarged by Edwin Norris (1855), since on p. 644 it is
stated:—
The different races of men are not distinguished from each other by
strongly-marked, uniform, and permanent distinctions, as are the several
species belonging to any given tribe of animals. All the diversities which
exist are variable, and pass into each other by insensible gradations; and
there is, moreover, scarcely an instance in which the actual transition
cannot be proved to have taken place.

This is practically the same result at which Waitz arrived in 1863.


Keane. Professor Keane (1895, p. 228), though
returning to the four-fold grouping proposed by
Linnæus, uses these divisions to represent, not actual varieties or
races, but “ideal types,” differentiated by somatic characters, and
also by language, religion, and temperament. “Although man had but
one origin, one pliocene precursor [Pithecanthropus], men had
several separate places of origin, several pleistocene precursors. In
our family tree four such precursors are assumed.” From each “ideal
type” he traces the development of the present varieties arranged in
the scheme of the family tree.
Man’s Place in Since the time of Linnæus it has been
Nature. recognised that a place for man must be found in
classification of animals; and he was naturally put at the top of the
tree. The main question, however, was his exact relationship to the
higher apes. Linnæus (p. 90) included man and apes in the
Primates, one of his seven orders of Mammalia. Cuvier divided the
Mammifères into nine groups, man being included in the Bimanes,
and apes and monkeys in the Quadrumanes. The most noteworthy
attempt to put man in his place was made when Huxley published
his Evidence as to Man’s Place in Nature (1863), based on lectures
given in 1860, in which he proved that man was more nearly allied to
the higher apes than the latter were to the lower monkeys.
Concerning this book, he wrote to Mr. E. Clodd, thirty years later,
“that a very shrewd friend of mine [Sir William Lawrence[76]] implored
me not to publish, as it would certainly ruin all my prospects.”[77]
Doubtless one reason why Huxley wrote the book was to impress on
the public that the evolution of man as an animal is perfectly
comparable with that of other mammals, since Darwin only hinted in
his Origin of Species (1859) that “Light will be thrown on the origin of
man and his history” (p. 488). His silence, he confesses in the
Introduction to the Descent of Man (1871), was due to desire “not to
add to the prejudices against his views.” Professor Haeckel fully
discussed his views concerning the genealogy of man in 1868,[78]
and several times subsequently.
76. In the Preface to the 1894 edition Huxley writes: “It was not so very long
since my kind friend Sir William Lawrence, one of the ablest men whom I
have known, had been well-nigh ostracised for his book On Man, which now
might be read in a Sunday-school without surprising anybody.”

77. Folk-Lore, VI., 1895, p. 67, f.n.

78. Natürliche Schöpfungsgeschichte.


Vogt. Carl Vogt (1864), who, like so many other
zoologists then and since, was led to study
anthropology, pointed out that “the ape-type does not culminate in
one, but in three, anthropoid apes.” On examining the species of
mankind and their history, he arrived at similar results (see also p.
66).
In the second volume of his Generelle Morphologie (1866)
Haeckel applied the theory of evolution to the whole organic
kingdom, including man, and drew up the first “genealogical trees.”
This attempt was improved and treated in a more popular form in his
Natural History of Creation (1868), and again in the Evolution of Man
(1879), an enlarged edition of which was published in 1905.
There is now a practical agreement among zoologists and
anthropologists that man is included in one of several families that
constitute the sub-order Anthropoidea of the order Primates.
As has previously been mentioned, the discovery of
Pithecanthropus raised great discussions, some of which were
concerning the exact position of man with regard to the various
higher apes. It is now generally admitted that Pithecanthropus may
be regarded as a member of a separate family of the Anthropoidea,
the Pithecanthropidæ, between the Simiidæ and the Hominidæ. The
re-examination of the previously known skulls of palæolithic age, and
the discovery of fresh specimens in recent years, have re-opened
the question whether the genus Homo contains more than the one
species, H. Sapiens. Duckworth[79] (1904) has given a careful
summary of the morphological characters of the Neanderthal, Spy,
and Krapina remains, and states as his opinion that “the individuals
thus characterised are associated in a group specifically distinct from
the modern Hominidæ, to which the name Homo primigenius or
Homo neanderthalensis has been applied.”[80]
79. L.c. pp. 520-542; cf. also Man, 1902, p. 186.

80. See also W. J. Sollas, Phil. Trans. Roy. Soc., B. 199, 1907, p. 281.

Those authors who describe and classify the various races and
peoples of mankind at the same time indicate their geographical
distribution, and in some instances notify some of the shiftings and
migrations that have taken place. Many maps have been prepared to
illustrate the human distribution in whole or in part, and these are to
be found in various memoirs and books. An atlas such as Dr. G.
Gerland’s Atlas der Völkerkunde (1892) summarises a vast amount
of information.
Our knowledge is very imperfect concerning the movements of
mankind. Historical records give some information on the subject. A
certain amount has been gleaned from traditional sources, but
doubtless much more remains to be garnered. The spoils of the
archæologist afford important data, but there are immense tracts of
country which are yet totally unexplored, or very imperfectly
investigated. All shiftings of peoples are mainly controlled by climatic
and geographical conditions; but these are continually varying, and it
is the business of the geographer and geologist to indicate what
these have probably been at various periods since the appearance
of man on this earth. It is not too much to say that, when maps have
been prepared which indicate these various changes, great light will
be thrown upon the early history of mankind.
Chapter VII.

ETHNOLOGY: ITS SCOPE AND SOURCES

Definition. “Ethnology” is a term which is often loosely used


as synonymous with “Anthropology,” to cover the
whole field of the science of man. It was in this sense that it first
came into prominence, being chosen by M. W. F. Edwards as the
title for the Société ethnologique de Paris, in 1839. The society was
concerned with what we should now call Anthropology; but it was
more especially interested in the origins and relationships of the
historical races of Europe, which was the etymological justification
for its name. The English Ethnological Society, established in 1843,
imitated the French title, and did much to fix the vague and general
interpretation of the word. Unfortunately, Professor Tylor, first and
foremost of English ethnologists, seems purposely to avoid the use
of the word in his Primitive Culture, which he refers to as “rational
ethnography.” But, with the development of the subject, its scope
became gradually more defined, until it is now generally restricted to
the comparative and genetic study of human culture and of man as a
social animal.
The materials for the study of ethnology have been always with us,
but the study itself is of very recent development, and almost alone
among the sciences can reckon its founders among the living.
Professor J. L. Myres gives excellent reasons for this “late
adolescence” in his opening address at the meeting of the British
Association at Winnipeg, 1909:—
Anthropology ... gathers its data from all longitudes, and almost all
latitudes, on this earth. It was necessary, therefore, that the study of man
should lag behind the rest of the sciences, so long as any large masses
of mankind remained withdrawn from its view; and we have only to
remember that Australia and Africa were not even crossed at all—much
less explored—by white men, until within living memory, to realise what
this limitation means. In addition to this, modern Western civilisation,
when it did at last come into contact with aboriginal peoples in new
continents, too often came, like the religion which it professed, bringing
“not peace, but a sword.” The customs and institutions of alien people
have been viewed too often, even by reasonable and good men, simply
as “ye beastlie devices of ye heathen,” and the pioneers of our culture,
perversely mindful only of the narrower creed, that “he that is not with us
is against us,” have set out to civilise savages by wrecking the civilisation
which they had (pp. 589-590).

Sources. There are, as Professor Myres points out, two


kinds of anthropologists:—
There is an anthropologist to whom we go for our facts: the painful
accurate observer of data, the storehouse of infinite detail; sometimes
himself the traveller and explorer, by cunning speech or wiser silence
opening the secrets of aboriginal hearts; sometimes the middleman, the
broker of traveller’s winnings, insatiate after some new thing, unerring by
instinct rather than by experience, to detect false coin, to disinter the
pearl of great price.... To him we go for our facts....
And there is an anthropologist to whom we look for our light. His
learning may be fragmentary, as some men count learning; his memory
faulty; his inaccuracy beyond dispute; his inconsistency the one
consistent thing about him. But with shattered and ricketty instruments he
attains results; heedless of epicycles, disrespectful to the equator, he
bequeaths his paradoxes to be demonstrated by another generation of
men. He may not know, or reason, perhaps; but he has learnt to see; and
what he sees he says (1908, p. 124).

Herodotus. In the earliest times Herodotus may be cited as


one of the most distinguished names in the former
of the two groups, and Lucretius in the latter. The writings of
Herodotus (circa 480-425 B.C.) are a veritable storehouse of
information, from the highest civilisations down to the veriest
savagery, and his work has lost none of its freshness or value
through lapse of time. As a matter of fact, modern investigations
carried out in the areas treated of by him more frequently confirm
and exemplify than refute his statements.
Lucretius. Lucretius (99 or 98-55 B.C.), the poet, teacher,
and reformer, boldly declared that there was no
Golden Age from which man has degenerated, but that his progress
has continually been slowly upward from a condition of pure
savagery:—
Arms of old were hands nails and teeth and stones and boughs broken
off from the forests, and flame and fire, as soon as they had become
known. Afterwards the force of iron and copper was discovered; and the
use of copper was known before that of iron, as its nature is easier to
work and it is found in greater quantity. With copper they would labour the
soil of the earth, with copper stir up the billows of war.... Then by slow
steps the sword of iron gained ground and the make of the copper sickle
became a byword; and with iron they began to plough through the earth’s
soil, and the struggles of wavering war were rendered equal.[81]

81. Lucretius, On the Nature of Things. Translated by H. A. J. Munro. Bohn’s


edition, 1908, p. 214.

It is evident from his poems that Lucretius was a keen observer


and a philosopher, who summed up existing Epicurean knowledge;
and we are justified in believing that these particular generalisations
were based upon tales told by travellers in distant lands, and upon
traditional lore, which, with the exception of the recently acquired
archæological evidence, is practically all upon which we have to rely.
The philosophic poet apprehended the significance of various facts,
and welded them into a consistent theory of the development of
culture, and thereby earned the honour of being the first evolutionary
anthropologist.
Strabo. Nor should we overlook the versatile Strabo
(circa 63 B.C.-21 A.D.), who was interested in many
things, from climate to botany, and from sport to Druidism and
Brahmanism. Alexander von Humboldt considered that he surpassed
all other geographical labourers of antiquity by the diversity of the
subject and the grandeur of the composition. His Geography
contains much information on the early history and traditions of
numerous peoples, their character, dress, dwellings, and mode of
life.
In the writings of the earlier travellers (to mention but three names)
—Marco Polo, in Cathay (1254-1323), Ibn Batuta (1304-1377), in
Asia; and Joao de Barros (1496-1570), who was considered the
greatest authority on Portuguese, African, and Asiatic travels of his
time—and in the records of travels contained in collections such as
those of Hakluyt (1552-1616), Purchas (1577-1626), and Pinkerton
(1758-1826), much ethnological information can be sifted from
among the marvellous tales. Sometimes the marvellous tales
themselves can, by ethnology, be interpreted in fact, as when the
“tailed men” of the Nicobars are found to owe their origin to the tail-
like method of wearing the loin-cloth.[82] These were followed by the
travellers and explorers of the nineteenth century, who brought back
a vast amount of new information, both physical and cultural, from
the lands they visited. Among these the names of Admiral Byron,
James Bruce, L. A. Bougainville, Sir John Barrow, Captain Cook, de
Lesseps, and Pallas may be mentioned.
82. E. H. Man, Journ. Anth. Inst., xv., p. 442.
Other sources of information were the works of the Jesuit
missionaries of the sixteenth to the eighteenth centuries, such as
José d’Acosta (1539-1600), J. F. Lafitau (1670-1740), and F. X. de
Charlevoix (1682-1761), who worked among the Canadian Indians,
and M. Dobrizhoffer (1717-1791).
Next come the missionaries of the nineteenth century, such as
William Ellis (1794-1872), who laboured in South Africa and
Madagascar, but is best known for his work in Polynesia; John
Williams (1796-1839); George Turner (1818-1891); W. Wyatt Gill
(1828-1896), and others who also worked in the Pacific. In Africa we
may mention Bishop Callaway (1817-1890) and David Livingstone
(1813-1873). At the same time the Roman Catholic missionary E. R.
Huc (1813-1860) was working in China and Tartary, while the Abbé
Dubois (1770-1848) was laboriously investigating the manners,
customs, and ceremonies of the Hindus.
Besides the missionaries, we owe a deep debt of gratitude to the
early explorers and civil servants in all parts of the world, who have
provided, consciously or unconsciously, a vast amount of information
about the peoples among whom they travelled or over whom they
ruled. Scientific expeditions, even before these were undertaken in
the interests of anthropology, collected further material. Lastly come
the various anthropological expeditions, consisting of trained
workers, who, besides amassing fresh evidence, check, correct, or
amplify the work of earlier writers.
These were the data on which the science of Ethnology, in its
restricted sense, was to be built. The earliest ethnologists utilised the
material mainly with a view to elucidating ethnic relationships, and to
producing systematic classifications of the various races of mankind.
Later workers such as Ratzel and Reclus produced systematic
descriptions of races, peoples, and areas. A third method was that of
Tylor, the chief exponent of Comparative Ethnology.
Systematic The earlier attempts at race classification were
Works on based merely on physical characters, and are
Ethnology. dealt with elsewhere (Chap. VI.). During the
eighteenth and early part of the nineteenth centuries geographical
discovery brought a mass of new facts to light, especially in the
realm of natural history; and in no branch of that science were the
effects so marked as in that of Anthropology.
The marshalling of a vast array of new observations and
deductions required a broad mind, wide knowledge, and shrewd
reasoning powers. These, together with a sound training in anatomy,
an unusual acquaintance with philology, and some eminence in
psychology, produced the monumental work of Prichard.
J. C. Prichard.
James Cowles Prichard (1786-1848) showed,
Prichard. when a boy, a remarkable aptness for foreign
languages. He was never sent to school, but was taught by various
tutors, from whom he learnt Latin, Greek, French, Italian, and
Spanish. His father, a merchant, and member of the Society of
Friends, lived for a time in Bristol, and there the boy began his
practical study of anthropology, spending his time by the docks,
watching the foreign sailors, and chatting with them in their own
tongues. Later on he chose medicine for his profession, less on
account of any special liking for it than because it afforded him
opportunities for indulging his anthropological tastes. His first
contribution to the science was his thesis for the degree of Doctor of
Medicine in the University of Edinburgh, which was entitled De
generis humani varietate, published in 1813 in an expanded form as
Researches into the Physical History of Man. It was still further
expanded in 1826, and a five-volume edition was issued between
1836 and 1847. In 1843 appeared another monumental work, The
Natural History of Man, “comprising inquiries into the modifying
influence of physical and moral agencies on the different tribes of the
human family.”
Speaking of Prichard at the meeting of the British Association in
Bristol in 1875, Professor Rolleston remarked: “His works remain,
massive, impressive, enduring—much as the headlands along our
southern coast stand out in the distance in their own grand outlines,
while a close and minute inspection is necessary for the discernment
of the forts and fosses added to them—indeed, dug out of their
substance in recent times.” The services of Prichard in the field of
Anthropology have often been compared with those of his
contemporary Blumenbach, by whose fame during his lifetime he
was overshadowed; but, though the latter was unequalled on the
side of physical anthropology, there is no doubt that Prichard had a
wider grasp of the subject, and his works formed the cornerstones of
Anthropology in England.
Other While Prichard was expanding his thesis,
Generalisations. Antoine Desmoulins was writing his Histoire
naturelle des races humaines, which appeared contemporaneously
with Prichard’s revised Researches in 1826. He attempted to
discover the origins and relations of the peoples of north-east
Europe, north and east Asia, and South Africa, by the evidence of
archæology, physiology, anatomy, and linguistics.
The work of systematising the mass of anthropological data and
producing an orderly scheme must always be regarded as an almost
superhuman task, and those who have attempted it deserve our
grateful recognition.
The next Englishman after Prichard was Latham, who published
his Natural History of the Varieties of Man in 1850 (the same year as
Knox’s Races of Man), and his Descriptive Ethnology in 1859. In the
latter year appeared the first instalment of the Anthropologie der
Naturvölker of Waitz, the six volumes of which were completed in
1872—a work which largely assisted in laying a secure foundation
for the new science. In 1873 Friedrich Müller published his
Allgemeine Ethnographie. The following year saw the publication of
Peschel’s Völkerkunde. Ratzel’s great work, Völkerkunde, appeared
in 1885-88. In America Pickering’s Races of Man was published in
1848, and Nott and Gliddon’s Indigenous Races of the Earth in 1857.
Paul Topinard’s L’Anthropologie (1876) is mentioned elsewhere (p.
38).
The earlier of these generalisations were composed before the
acceptance of the theory of evolution, in the new light of which all
biological sciences had to start afresh, and all were written before
the masses of new material collected by ethnologists and
archæologists, working in the field, had brought so much fresh
evidence to bear upon the whole geographical and historical aspect
of man that it was impossible “to see the wood for the trees.” Thus
the time for synthesis had arrived, and with the hour came the man.
A. H. Keane’s Ethnology appeared in 1896, to be followed by his
Man, past and present in 1899. J. Deniker’s Les races et les peuples
de la terre, together with the English translation, appeared in the
following year.
Ethnology and In summarising the sources from which the
the Classics. materials for the science of ethnology are derived,

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