374 proceedings: anthropological society 



had brought their language to the highest perfection. The Vedas, or 

 hymns in praise of the Deity which were then composed, stih remain 

 the most exalted poetry in all literature. Some of the composers of 

 the Vedas were women. The Hindus, seeing the dual form, male and 

 female, pervading all the works of Deity, attributed a dual form to 

 Deity itself, and regarded all its gentle qualities as feminine, such as 

 the joy of creation. That was the apotheosis of womanhood. Not 

 only was marriage exalted to a sacrament, but woman's part in it was 

 greater than man's. Upon woman's good will were made dependent 

 man's good deeds (karma), hence, his very salvation. The building of 

 the temple was the beginning of architecture. The priest designed his 

 altar stones after the regular forms in nature — which was the beginning 

 of geometry. Astronomy began when the priesthood designed some 

 star-deity to shine on the altar stone through an orifice in the roof at ' 

 the moment of sacrifice. In Sanscrit literature the age of life on the 

 earth is estimated to be four million years. Because of this habit of 

 "thinking in millions" European critics brought the charge of gross 

 exaggeration against the Hindus. A code of war was enunciated in the 

 Mahabharata which enjoins upon a combatant to discard a superior 

 weapon if his enemy has an inferior one, and forbids him to take advan- 

 tage of an enemy in toil — in comparison with which the Hague Confer- 

 ence itself is but a code of savage warfare. Hindu civilization reached 

 its zenith about 600 B. C. Thereupon Manu codified the laws, cus- 

 toms, institutions, and even the canons of art, thus unconsciously 

 sowing the seeds of stagnation and decay. 



The Aryans found in India several Turanian races whom they con- 

 quered and ultimately allowed to enter their political and social system 

 as a subordinate caste. Only the high-caste Hindus of today are of 

 pure Aryan descent; the masses are generally of mixed descent, in the 

 South, almost entirely Turanian (Dravidian). Long continued immi- 

 gration from Europe has caused a mixture of blood among the higher 

 castes. Megasthenes, an early Greek ambassador, accorded the high- 

 est testimony to Hindu civilization. He noted with admiration the 

 chastity of the women, the valor of the men, and the three stupendous 

 facts that slavery, locks, and falsehood were unknown in India. Still 

 later India taught the arts, philosophy, and religion from Java to Ja- 

 pan. Java and Siam elected Hindu priiices as their kings. The pres- 

 ent king of Siam is of direct Hindu descent. -In the Philippines many 

 words of higher meaning are of Sanscrit origin. There is a possibility 

 of early Hindu influence having reached America, or Fatal Desha, the 

 Land of the Antipodes. Further research in Central America and Feru 

 is needed to establish this point. 



At the 482d meeting of the Society, held February 2, 1915, Dr. C. 

 L. G. Anderson, of the Medical Reserve Corps, U. S. A., read an obitu- 

 ary on Dr. A. F. A. King, a member of the Anthropological Society, 

 who died in Washington December 13, 1914. Dr. Kinc; was born in 

 Oxfordshire, England, January 18, 1841, and came to Virginia with 



