savages briefly summarised in a table shows that the savage believes that there is some hidden link which binds the new-born child to its father. Many curious beliefs are met with among the uncivilised showing similar belief in occult links or bonds or lines of force. These forms of belief are usually described under the general heading of witchcraft. Similarly in the custom of couvade the action of the father is to avoid bewitching his child, so that the custom, if not wholly an explanation of the change of mother right to father right, may be in effect an example of an aberrant form of reasoning.

4. On the Morong' and other Customs of the Natives of Assam.

By S. E. PEAL.

The author shows that the institution of the 'Morong,' or club-house for the unmarried of both sexes, is very widely distributed over the whole of the IndoPacific region; and he argues that it is in fact a relic of pre-marriage communism. But this custom being so often found associated with others of a distinctly nonAryan character, such as juming, tattooing, blackening the teeth, building on piles, head-hunting, &c., has led the author to suspect former racial affinity, even among such widely distinct types as Papuan and Mongol, Dravidian and Sawaiori.

1. The artificial blackening of the teeth is a fashion common amongst the IndoMongoloids and Bengalese; and there can be little doubt that the custom in some way preserves the teeth from decay.

2. The dislike of milk among the races bordering Assam is very general, possibly almost universal.

3. The extension of the ear-lobes, by large plugs of various sorts, is a wellknown custom of all these races. The Miribelles have the largest ear-plugs of any tribes in or about Assam; they are made of silver, and not unlike napkin rings, 2 or 24 inches in diameter by 1 inch in depth, the outside being closed by a large chased disc. The extended lobe passes round the ring in a wide shallow groove, like a band of vulcanised rubber.

4. Numeral affixes are found in Assam, as among the Malays.

5. Head hunting seems to be slowly dying out amongst the most eastern Nogas, and to the west of Dikhu River; but in most Noga tribes the young men cannot be tattooed until they have got or actively assisted in getting a head, hands, or feet of some Noga, not of their own or of a friendly tribe.

6. Tattooing in some tribes is on the face, in others on the body, and it is in some way a record of the numbers killed.

7. Platform burial is general amongst the Nogas of East Assam for men and adult women; it also prevails in Formosa, New Guinea, Borneo, Solomon Islands, New Britain, and amongst Lushais.

8. Communal houses of great length, 100 and 200 feet, are common in and around Assam; similar houses are found among the Dyaks of Borneo over 500 feet in length.

9. Barracks for the unmarried young men, and occasionally also for girls, are common in and around Assam, among non-Aryan races. The institution is here seen in various stages of decline or transition. In the case of 'head hunters' the young men's barracks are invariably guardhouses at the entrances to the village, and those on guard day and night keep tally of the men who leave or return. They are also guest and council houses; they contain skull trophies and the large war drums. In all cases there seem to be old and peculiar laws attaching to them, and in many instances they issue orders to the village. All these houses are strictly tabu to married women.

10. Pile dwellings are a leading feature among most of the hill races about Assam, and the custom extends all down the peninsula, and throughout the archipelago, to the Solomon Islands in the south and Formosa in the north. The pattern of these pile dwellings no doubt varies greatly, but there is a unity in the general plan which cannot be accidental.

11. The peculiar double-cylinder bellows, common in Burmah, Sumatra, Java, Madagascar, and the Philippines, is also used in and around Eastern Assam. 3 F

1891.

12. Bamboos pegged to a tall tree stem as a ladder are used in Assam and by the Dyaks of Borneo.

13. The jew's-harp' of New Britain, seen also in the Philippines, is very common in the hills of Assam.

14. The perineal bandage of New Guinea is also common amongst the Eastern Nogas.

15. Nose-plugs, as in New Guinea, are seen among the Noga women.

16. Flat wooden discs on the posts of houses, to keep out rats and mice, absolutely identical with those seen in New Britain, are also frequently met with in Assam. 17. The hide cuirasses seen in the island of Nias, west of Sumatra, and cut from a single skin, are an almost exact counterpart of those occasionally seen among Nogas, and are both spear and arrow proof.

18. Panjis or bamboo spikes, planted for defence in pathways, are as common in Assam as among the inhabitants of New Guinea, and form another link in the long chain of evidence which tends to prove that the Papuan and Mongoloid are descended from a common stock.

19. Hot stone cooking again is common in Assam as among the Papuans and other races.

20. The custom of obtaining fire by means of a long piece of cane passed under a dry log and pulled alternately by the right and left hand, so as to ignite some tinder placed in a hollow underneath, is absolutely identical amongst Nogas, Papuans, and the Dyaks of Borneo.

21. The huge canoe war drums appear to be the same as the 'Lali' or canoe drums of the Fiji Islands, and both are placed in semi-sacred houses, the Noga drums being in the Morongs.' The notable feature in these last being that they are veritable canoes, 20 to 30 feet long by 2 or 3 feet beam, hollowed out of a tree stem, and in use by races who never enter, and in most cases have not seen a canoe for ages.

22. Cane bridges identical with those seen in New Guinea are found everywhere round Assam.

23. The system of Jum cultivation is pursued in and round Assam by most of the non-Aryan races in much the same way as amongst the wilder races of the Indo-Pacific region.

24. The way in which Nogas and other hillmen notch footholds to ascend a tall tree is absolutely identical with the custom of certain tribes in Australia, who

use stone axes.

5. Burial Customs of New Britain. By the Rev. B. DANKS.

The grave is usually dug in the house the deceased inhabited while alive, or a light structure is erected over the grave to protect it from the rain. It is generally not more than eighteen inches or two feet deep, and it is the custom for the women of the family, and sometimes the men, to sleep upon it for a considerable time after the burial. A fire is also very often lighted upon or by the side of it, which is kept burning day and night for some time. Sometimes the grave is dug out in the open and fenced round with bamboos, the enclosure being kept in good order by the friends, who plant beautiful shrubs about it. They have also a method of calling to mind the circumstances and mode of death suffered by the departed by means of rude images cut out of the banana stem. Some have a piece of wood suspended from the neck; others have pieces of bamboo thrust into various parts of the body; another may have a rudely fashioned tomahawk driven deeply into it. The first shows that the individual represented has been clubbed, the second speared, the third tomahawked. The old men then instruct the young people in these matters, and this does much to promote blood-feuds.

Death is always the result of witchcraft, and details are given in the paper of the manner in which the person who has caused the death is discovered.

Sometimes a body is buried in a canoe set on poles, and the author gives a full description of a burial of this kind which took place on Duke of York Island, and was witnessed by the narrator.

Large quantities of food and property of various kinds are destroyed by the mourners, excessive grief being proved by excessive destruction; and all who come to a funeral are rewarded by a present of shell-money and food. Female mourners are always present, and are well paid for weeping.

In some parts of New Ireland the dead are buried in the sea.

SATURDAY, AUGUST 22.

This Section did not meet.

MONDAY, AUGUST 24.

The following Papers and Reports were read:

1. Barbaric Elements in Ancient Greece and Italy.

By Prof. G. HARTWELL-JONES, M.A.

The civilisation of Greece and Italy, which saved Europe from stagnation on both sides, is valuable for the study of the growth of institutions; it was evolved slowly from an original barbarism. But, as the classics are now read, their scientific value is obscured.

Their history occupies a peculiar position: (a) geographically, they were influenced by two streams of culture converging, the Aryan and Eastern; (b) their growth was parallel; (c) both were similarly, but independently, affected by immediate neighbours.

(i.) Whatever may be the truth about the seat of the Aryans, first they came south by land; secondly they brought with them a high capacity for development, but were certainly not as advanced as Gobineau assumed.

(ii.) They were both affected by Asia Minor, Assyria, and Egypt, the North Semitic races being their intermediaries.

The materials for reconstructing prehistoric society must be sought in archæology, and nomology, as much as the science of language, this was seen by Hehn.

The purpose of this paper is to show by means of a few specimens the anthropological value of the classics, aided by the excavations of Schliemann, Helbig, Chierici, &c., and Sanskrit literature, in the (i.) material and social, (ii.) mythological and religious aspects of Greek and Italian life.

(I.) They passed through three stages:-(a) hunting, (b) pastoral, (c) agricultural; but the transition was gradual. The animals hunted were the stag, bison, and probably the horse; they used the fire-drill; fishing was a recent invention; religion was marked by ferocity. The change to agriculture humanised them; they fed on milk, meat, salt, spice, mead, and roamed in search of fresh fields. The ox left a deep impression upon language, custom, and myth; it was the unit of wealth and the medium of exchange; the horse was first used for the war chariot; the supervention of horse-breeding later is reflected in language. The word for harvest was not known in the holoethnic period. Some tribes remained at the agricultural stage throughout; others, e.g. the Dorians, retained their old passion. The piledwellings of the terra mare reveal cattle-rearing giving way to husbandry and vineculture; no doubt Epeiros would exhibit the same progress. The Pelasgoi were essentially agricultural; the transition in Italy is reflected in legend. The first plough was the branch of a tree. Tillage was practised before horticulture. Agriculture left a deep impression upon language and life.

The family was highly important in Greek and Italian life. Marriage clearly passed through the (a) capture, (b) purchase stage, and once polygamy prevailed; so, too, levirate, the vendetta, the suttee, but not polyandria, as Bachofen main

tained. Their primitive savagery is proved by the destruction of the aged and infanticide.

(II.) The crudest form of their religion is

A. Animism, really a primitive philosophy. It may be divided into (a) spiritism, (b) fetishism. In both the spirit is cajoled or overcome by magic. Nowhere is the power of abstraction stronger than in Italy, to some extent owing to the influence of Etruria; the fear of these nebulous impersonal spirits and ill-omened plants was common; the fetish was widely distributed, e.g. the oracle of Pelasgian Dodona, a kind of instinctive meteorology. Further, animism was (a) vague, and (b) hypocritical.

B. Naturalism characterises Greek mythology especially. At this stage those objects were chosen which bore some resemblance to man and promoted his welfare. Magic gradually disappears, but the spirit is not omnipotent he even betrays weakness. Environment exerts an important influence here, e.g. in Etruria and Greece. A kind of totemism frequently occurs, e.g. the Hera-idols of the megalithic tombs of Mycena. Ovid's Metamorphoses' was an attempt to account for the impersonation.

C. Anthropomorphism is a nobler and more intellectual form of worship, with which idolatry is closely connected; in Greece, which was influenced by Phoenician art, it reached its perfection; in Italy it remained an exotic in spite of Etruscan artists.

Thus their religion was (a) developmental, (6) acquisitive.

It would be seen upon examination that

(1) Their primitive culture was on the level of that of many savage races of the present time.

(2) The civilisation of Aryan Europe, as a whole, begins with contact with the East.

(3) The criteria must be sought in other prehistoric sciences, not philology alone.

(4) Their civilisation is of paramount interest to anthropologists.

2. The Morocco Berbers. By J. E. BUDGETT MEAKIN.1

The people from whom Barbary takes its name occupy the mountain fastnesses of the whole of the northern coast of Africa. Notwithstanding the numerous invaders who have from time to time swept through the land, these hardy people still retain their racial characteristics, language, and customs in a comparative state of purity. They have, however, embraced Mohammedanism, in consequence of which their language has become largely adulterated with Arabic, and many new customs have been introduced. In Morocco the Berbers have to a great extent maintained their independence, and military expeditions are undertaken annually to control one section or another. Their weakness is their inter-tribal rivalry. The methods of self-rule employed in the independent districts vary considerably, including representative assemblies, hereditary autocrats, and a species of combination of these two. Among themselves there is always warfare, and every traveller must be protected by some member of the tribe he is visiting.

It is still a moot point whether the Berber language should be classed as Hamitic or Semitic. Though the construction, both of words and sentences, resembles the Semitic, its vocabulary is entirely distinct from that group. In most parts Arabic words have been introduced in great numbers. It has, however, no literature. Only one or two works are known to have been written in it, and those in Arabic characters. Its own characters are only to be found in inscriptions, which are very scarce, and hardly known in Morocco. The word Berber itself is of disputed origin, and, though used by some sections of the people, does not to them represent the whole.

The Berbers are essentially warlike, and are proud of their bravery and independCowardice is to them a heinous crime. In most other points each tribe

ence.

1 For some years acting editor of The Times of Morocco.

differs from its neighbour. No description entirely applies to more than one district, though much will be common to many. Some are religious, others indifferent; some are steeped in ignorance, while in others even the women learn to read. Dress and food differ everywhere remarkably, as also do minor social customs. A pall of gross superstition, nevertheless, casts its gloom over all alike. The physical features of the Berbers are, on the whole, good. They are strong and wiry, with much more energy than the Arab, or the mingled race of the plains. As a rule, they are well-knit, and many have fine, noble figures. Their countenances are often striking, and their looks keen and full of intelligence, though in cases debauchery wrecks the system at an early age, but not so often as in the towns. Their longevity is also greater, and their powers of endurance are wonderful.

Their hospitality, if not so profuse as that of the Arab, is sufficiently extensive, and regular systems for the entertainment of travellers are in force. Monogamy is more common than polygamy. Drunkenness prevails in some districts, but the use of strong drink at all is looked upon as a vice. Marriage customs are peculiar. In some places the women are practically sold by auction on the market once a year, and may be divorced by being brought back there on the anniversary. Intermarriage among the tribes is permissible, but not general. The Mohammedan laws as to the bar of relationship hold good throughout. Punishments are not, as a rule, severe, though great suffering is often inflicted upon the victims of powerful members of the community by imprisonment in dungeons, and by the bastirado. Criminals are subject to the lex talionis, which, as the source of the vendetta, leads to much bloodshed and loss of life.

The chief festivals are those of Islám, though several have survived from a previous creed, of which little is now really known. Some of these would point to a Christian origin, and many perceive traces of this faith among their superstitions. The festival of Midsummer (St. John's Day) is regularly observed, and it is a noteworthy fact that the European calendar, old style, is still employed among them.

The dress varies as much in the different localities as do the customs. In the interior it is almost entirely of wool, usually unsewn, made of one piece and knotted. A toga-like white blanket serves as overmantle. The most curious garment is a black goat-hair waterproof hooded cloak, with an assegai-shaped yellow patch behind. The manufactures, if rude in some parts, in others show a considerable degree of taste, as also does the ornamentation of many of their buildings. Their food is of the simplest, mostly consisting of cereals, meat being a comparative luxury. Smoking is common in many parts, and the elderly men are often much given to snuffing. Hemp is much used in the northern districts as a narcotic, with very

bad results.

The houses of the people are as varied as their dress. It is believed that they were originally nomads, and to-day they occupy tent, hut, and house in one part or another. Substantial store towers dot the Atlas and serve as citadels in time of war. Almost every ruin is ascribed to European builders, but of history little is to be found. There have been several Berber historians of note, who have written in Arabic, some being translated, and several French scholars have paid considerable attention to this interesting people, of whom we even now know so comparatively little.

3. On the Worship of Meteorites. By Professor H. A. NEWTON.

The paper consists of a series of accounts of the worship of meteorites and of myths and traditions pointing to such worship in early times. More particularly are the indications of such worship that are found in Greek and Roman history and literature put together. No attempt to discuss the relations of this worship to the other worship of natural and artificial forms has been made.