the rims of which are broadened into a flange and are often ornamented with impressed or incised patterns. Applied ornament and practicable handles have been added in some instances, though in most specimens the handles are so degenerate as to be ornamental rather than useful. 3. The Anthropological Field in the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan. The dervish rule, which worked havoc in the Northern Sudan, left the pagan black zone to the south almost untouched. In the Bahr-el-Ghazel region anthropologists will therefore be able to work directly upon the foundations laid by Schweinfurth and Junker; north of this, in Dar Nuba, they will find a virgin field which, though difficult to work, may yield most valuable historical results. To the east lies another district unknown until this year--the land of the Buruns. In the Northern, or Muslim, Sudan the dervish period has completely changed the conditions. Whole tribes have been devastated, or transplanted, or mixed with black slaves or Egyptian prisoners, and written records of the past have been destroyed. The three main language groups-Nubian, Bega, and Arabic-however, remain, and scientific controversy has hitherto turned upon the origin of the people using them, the most recent conclusion being that all are African in spite of their traditions. Similar debates were raised both in the Medieval and Roman periods, and the two facts of survival and invasion appear to be both established: the issue is one of degree how far the invaders have modified their predecessors. If we apply Professor Petrie's views upon migrations, as set forth in his Huxley Lecture,' we may state the problem thus: We should expect to find three main types-a sedentary riverain type, a sedentary maritime type, and a nomad desert type, with varieties according to latitude, variants from each being classified as recent immigrants. The solution of this problem should present no more difficulties than the solution of similar problems in Europe, for the country is healthy and the people are amenable and ready to communicate their traditions and pedigrees. As special fields in which to study the plasticity of the various types and open problems of medieval history, which must be settled before ancient history can be approached, I suggest the following: (a) The sedentary Ababde at Daraw and in Berber. (b) The families claiming Arab and Turkish origin in the district south of Halfa. (c) Villages in the Shabluka cataract and on the Blue Nile claiming descent from the Anag, a mediæval people which held the Central Sudan before the last Muslim invasions. (d) The tumuli in the Bega district from Suakin to the Atbara and the Nile. When these questions have been discussed with new material, we may be able to deal with the problems raised by the exploration of Nubian temples and sites that is now beginning. 4. Notes on the Wild Tribes of the Ulu Plus, Perak.2 This paper gave preliminary anthropological results of research work amongst the aborigines inhabiting the valley of the Plus in the British protected State of Perak, in the Malay Peninsula, pending further inquiries to be carried out at a future date. After referring to the difficulties of carrying out an expedition in the remote parts of a tropical jungle, the author called attention to the problem surrounding the wild tribes of the Ulu Plus, commented on the probability of a mixed 1 Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute, xxxvi. 1906, p. 36. 2 To be published in full in Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute. 1907. TT Sakai-Semang race, and quoted evidence to support the same, though on the word of the people themselves they are a pure Sakai race. The paper then dealt with various camps separately, giving particulars of the inhabitants of each. Blowpipes and poisoned darts are not much in use, and no spears or bows and arrows were met with. Tatuing and painting of the features are practised by some, and nose-quills and necklaces of seeds and wild beasts' teeth are also worn. Absence of religious rites and ceremonies at births, marriages, and burials seems to be general, and only very little evidence was obtained respecting superstition of any sort. The men exhibit great reluctance in introducing their womenfolk to white strangers, hence there was great difficulty in gathering much interesting data. Further up-stream this reticence was found to be fortunately absent. Clothing, though scanty, is of cloth, Malay dress being largely in evidence amongst the women nearer civilisation, but bark-cloth is worn by tribes further up-stream. Agriculture of only a very primitive nature is carried out, and the basis of food is the boiled or roasted root of the wild tapioca-plant. Houses are built of bamboo, bark and palm-leaves, but all the people are more or less nomadic. They are short in stature-as are the rest of the aborigines of the Malay Peninsula-reddish brown in colour, with black hair of a varied character. Their features are negroid, but with lips only moderately thick, and prognathism is almost entirely absent. They are friendly and hospitable towards strangers, and lighthearted in disposition. They call themselves Sakai ' or 'Orang Darat,' the latter a Malay word meaning 'countrymen.' Sennoi, a heretofore supposed tribal name, they use as signifying person' or 'people.' Ethnological specimens of undoubted Semang origin were collected from amongst them, and the blowpipe and poison darts, when used, are all of Semang make. 5. A Study of the Conditions of the Maoris in 1907. By Miss B. PULLEN-BURRY. This study dealt with the population, distribution, and the Government representation of the Maoris, their transitional condition, education, religion, character, and health, and concluded with a sketch of the native land question. The census of 1906 shows an increase of over 4,000 natives from that of 1901, but the increase is only apparent. The Maori enumerations prior to 1906 are in reality valueless. The last census was taken by responsible members of lately established native village councils. The Government policy has been generous in the way of education, and with respect to the disposition of native lands, humanely conceived. Many regret that technical and industrial education is not included in the educational curriculum, and it is unfortunate that the present insecurity of land tenure has rendered the Maori indifferent and lazy. Individualising tribal communal lands in the Native Land Court is a slow and costly process, besides being accompanied with endless disputes on the part of the natives. Medical returns show that 22 per cent. of the diseases afflicting the Maori are pulmonary. Consanguineous and too early marriages conduce to racial deterioration. The village councils and 'the young Maori party' are doing much to protect, preserve, and educate the race. 6. Notes on the Ethnology of the South-west Congo Free State.1 The inhabitants of the south-west corner of the Congo Free State, that is, the tribes living in the territory drained by the Kwango, Kwilu, and Loange and their tributaries, are the Ba-Samba, Ba-Songo, Wa-Ngongo, Ba-Bunda, Ba-Yanzi, BaYaka, Ba-Pindi, Ba-Mbala, Ba-Huana, Ba-Kwese, Ba-Lua, and Ba-Djoke (also the Hollo and Tu-Kongo, with whom this paper does not deal). p. 133. Published in full in Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute, xxxvii. 1907, From a consideration of various ethnographical and historical points of evidence, the following conclusions with regard to the population of the district are reached :— The aborigines of the Kwilu were, in all probability, the Ba-Samba, Ba-Songo, Wa-Ngongo, and possibly the Ba-Bunda, the Ba-Yaka, extending from the Kwango to the Inzia. The Ba-Yanzi moved down from the north, occupying peacefully a country which was as yet very sparsely inhabited. The Ba-Pindi arrived next, from the upper Kwango, occupying the country from the Inzia to the Loange, and reaching as far north as 5°30 south. Almost immediately the Ba-Mbala were forced up from their home on the head waters of the Kwengo, between the Ba-Yaka and Ba-Pindi. This movement had its origin in troubles further south, the ultimate cause being the Ba-Djoke (Kioko, Kioque, Chiboque) applying pressure to the Ba-Lua, who, in their turn, attacked the Ba-Mbala and drove them north. At the same time a tribe of Ba-Yaka revolted from their great chief and spread eastwards to the Lukula; shortly afterwards the Ba-Huana, coming from the north-probably the region of Stanley Pool-cut through the Northern BaMbala, and occupied the banks of the Kwilu. Then followed the arrival of the Ba-Kwese from the Upper Kwango: these people occupied the two shores of the Upper Kwilu, pushing in between the Ba-Mbala and Ba-Pindi. Being a people amongst whom the tribal feeling is very strong, they had probably forced their way through the sterile country occupied by the Ba-Lua. They were stopped in the north by the Ba-Bunda, Ba-Pindi, and Ba-Mbala; probably their arrival was the cause of the extension of the Ba-Pindi to the Kasai, where they were found by Wissmann. About this time a section of those Ba-Yaka already established on the Lukula appeared to have forced their way through the Ba-Mbala eastwards, crossing the Kwilu somewhere near the present site of Michakila, fighting the Ba-Mbala, Ba-Pindi, and Ba-Huana. Further fighting resulted in the Ba-Pindi, who in this neighbourhood are very warlike, cutting off the eastern section of Ba-Yaka, which now appears as an enclave. The section of the country in the extreme north of the Southern BaMbala territory seems to have belonged at no very remote date to the last-mentioned branch of the Ba-Yaka. The enclave of Ba-Huana to the west of the main body seems to have been formed at the same time, and as a result of the same troubles. In fact, the mouth of the Kwengo appears to have been at this period the focus of deadly inter-tribal strife. Then followed the later movements of the Ba-Kwese (related in detail in a section dealing with that people) which resulted in their abandoning the right bank of the Kwilu, succeeded by the driving back of the Ba-Djoke, who had meanwhile penetrated as far north as the sixth degree of S. latitude, and the laying waste of the strip of territory which now separates them from the Ba-Lua and Ba-Pindi. 7. Considerations on the Origin of Totemism. By G. L. GOMME, F.S.A. Totemism must have arisen from conditions of human life which were universal. These conditions are supplied by the migrations by which man had spread all over the world. Migrations left the sexes differently constituted, the male being the moving element, the female the stationary element. Women in this way became more intimately associated with friendly animals, plants, and trees, and looked to them for food and protective power rather than to the males. This produced a sex-cleavage. Women influenced the totem names given to children, of which the Arunta system in Australia and the Semang system in the Malay Peninsula may be taken as instances. Natural exogamy arises from difference in totems between the fathers and the mothers. Totemism began as an artificial association of groups of people, and was not based on a kinship society. 8. Iramian Tribes of the Ottoman Empire. By MARK SYKES. 9. Egyptian Soul-houses and other Discoveries, 1907.1 10. The Excavations at Deir-el-Bahari. By Professor E. NAVILle. MONDAY, AUGUST 5. The following Papers and Reports were read: 1. The Beginnings of Iron. By Professor RIDGEWAY, M.A., Litt.D. Formerly it was generally believed that iron was the gift of Africa to mankind, and, if not of Africa, most certainly of Asia. Modern research has shown that Egypt did not use iron until about 800 B.C., that the Libyans were not using it in 480 B.C., and that the Semitic peoples did not use it from a remote past, but that they borrowed it comparatively late. I urged in 1896 and in 1902 that Central Europe was the true centre of the use of iron as a metal, and that it was first diffused from Noricum. At Hallstatt iron was seen coming into use first to decorate bronze, then to form the edge of cutting implements; next it gradually replaced bronze weapons, and finally took new forms of its own. Everywhere else iron as a metal came into use per saltum. Man probably found it ready smelted by Nature, as the Eskimo discovered it at Regent's Bay and at Ovifak. Some still imagine that it was used very early in Egypt, because its name occurs in early documents; but this is readily explained, since hematite was known and used very early in Egypt, and the same material was used very commonly in the Ægean long before the Bronze Age. But it was treated not as a metal to be smelted, but as a stone to be ground into axes and beads. The Egyptians thus knew the mineral and had a name for it, which they continued to employ when they had learned its use as a metal from Europe. Others also cling to the belief that iron was worked in Central Africa from a remote time. But in Uganda, which was in touch with Egypt by means of the great lakes and the Nile, iron, as I am informed by the Rev. J. Roscoe, became first known in the reign of a king about nineteen reigns back (about five hundred or four hundred years ago). This renders it very unlikely that the metal was worked until very late in Central Africa. It is certain that the peoples beyond the Caspian, as well as those along the Indian Ocean, did not use iron till quite late; that India herself did not know it at an early date; and that Japan only got it about A.D. 700; yet some still imagine that it must have been known to the Chinese from remote antiquity. But the earliest mention of iron in Chinese literature is about 400 B.C., whilst a bronze sword belonging to Canon Greenwell has an inscription read by Professor Giles which dates it between 247 B.C. and 220 B.C. There is evidence that bronze swords were being used till A.D. 100, and that it was only then that iron swords were coming in. It is now clear that the use of iron as a metal is due to Central Europe. 2. The Sigynna of Herodotus: a Problem of the Early Iron Age.2 Herodotus describes the Sigynnæ as a people who live mainly north of the Ister (Danube), but extend nearly to the head of the Adriatic, near the Veneti.' They wear Median dress,' i.e., trousers, and drive (but do not ride) small shaggy Published in Man, 1907. 2 Published in full in Anthropological Essays presented to Edward Burnett Tylor, 3 v. 9. Cf. Herodotus, v. 49. p. 255. ponies. The 'Ligurians up country from Marseilles' apply the name 'Sigynnæ ' to their pedlars, and the men of Cyprus to their spears. The last-named use of the word is confirmed by Aristotle, and by an ancient commentator on Plato, 384, who describes this Cypriote spear as a throwing-spear wholly made of iron.' Such spears have been found in Cypriote sites of the Hellenic Age. Their close resemblance to the Roman legionary pilum cannot be due to direct imitation, for the Cypriote examples are earlier than the period when Rome reached Cyprus. On the other hand, a very similar weapon, the gasum (which Hesychius describes as a 'spear like a spit, wholly of iron,' and which Athenæus states that the Romans borrowed later from the Celtiberians of Spain in the first half of the second century B.C.) became known to the Romans in the latter part of the third century B.C. through the invasion of the Po valley by the Transalpine Gæsatæ. The home of the latter was certainly within the region within which was developed the La Tène phase of Early Iron Age culture; and both the earlier La Tène culture, and the later Hallstatt phases which preceded it, show great experimental freedom in the modelling of their spear-heads, and close approximation to the pilum type of weapon. In view of the Herodotean description of 'Sigynnæ' as carrying on retail trade as far west as the hinterland of Marseilles, the suggestion is made that the Celtiberian prototype of the Roman gæsum is itself a western offshoot of the same iron culture as gave rise to the transalpine gæsum. Copious iron-workings have been studied by Quiquerez on the slopes of the Jura within site of La Tène and the other Swiss sites of that series; and the name of the Sigynnæ itself seems to survive in that of the Sequani, who still occupied the Jura and its neighbourhood in the first century B.C. That sections of the Sigynnæ moved similarly eastward is suggested by the recurrence of their name on the lower Danube and in Caucasus, in both cases associated with Median dress' and with the same shaggy ponies. In Caucasus they inhabit a region characterised by a notable offshoot of the same early Iron Age culture as that of the Hallstatt region. An intermediate link is supplied (1) by the repetition of the name of the 'Eneti or Veneti in Homeric times in N.W. Asia Minor; (2) by the survival, in N.E. Asia Minor, of a notable iron culture among the folk whom the Greeks knew as the Chalybes. 6 The suggestion is therefore made that Herodotus may be right in recording the same name Sigynne' as applied to the similar throwing-spear wholly made of iron' which characterised the Iron Age culture of Cyprus in early Hellenic times, more particularly as Cyprus preserves also a peculiar type of iron sword and a group of types of fibule which only find parallel in the Italo-Hallstatt region. 3. An Account of some Souterrains in Ulster. By Mrs. MARY HOBSON. The souterrains described are for the most part situated in the two counties of Antrim and Down. The materials are rough, undressed field stones, no mortar being used. The buildings display great diversity in plan, some being merely oblong chambers and long passages; others crescent-shaped, some resembling the letter F, the same letter without the middle stroke (5), an inflated stocking, an uneven capital W, &c., and some are circular. Greater variety of construction occurs in Antrim than in Down. In the former, two described were scooped out of basaltic ash; in others, rocks in situ were used and filled in artificially; in some, tunnelling had been done in harder rock. The entrances are small, but the tiny doorways between one chamber and another are even of more diminutive dimensions-great numbers being too small to admit the average-sized man-a person having to lie down flat in order to get through, and even then the width will not allow other than the shoulders of a woman or boy to pass through. Tradition assigns the souterrains and the raths in which so many of them 1 Poetics, 21. 3 Apollonius Rhodius, iv. 320. Athenæus, vi. 273. |