THE AMERICANISTS IN CONGRESS. 689 



shapely, were marked by ornaments and designs that were exclu- 

 sively feminine. Numerous thin sheets of earthenware, shaped 

 like a spherical triangle, and often carefully ornamented, perfo- 

 rated at the corners, appear, from the figures on the vases, to have 

 been worn as " fig-leaf " dresses by the women. The very gen- 

 eral tattooing of the women's bodies also points to their having 

 held a high position. Later strata furnished remains of another 

 race, among which this exalted position of the women was not 

 apparent. 



Prof. Virchow discussed the present condition of knowledge 

 respecting nephrite and jadeite. Ddsor had assumed, at the Ar- 

 chseological Congress in Brussels, that all the nephrite was 

 derived from two stations in central Asia, and all the jadeite 

 from Burmah. In the mean time, two natural occurrences of 

 nephrite in serpentine had been observed at Zabt, in Silesia, and 

 one in Switzerland, besides a locality of jadeite. Further, a block 

 of nephrite had been found in the Bodensee, which bore plain 

 marks of pieces having been taken from it. Thus, these stones 

 had been found, and evidently worked, in Europe. M. Arzruni 

 had discovered that both species were subject to considerable 

 variations, and that, therefore, every severed specimen found 

 should be tested for determining its origin with respect to the 

 special properties of its material. The specimens sometimes ex- 

 hibit remarkable relations. Thus, the famous Humboldt axe and 

 another South American hatchet seem to be identical in sub- 

 stance with the European mineral, and a hatchet from Venezuela 

 with one from Hissarlik. 



In his remarks upon the anthropological classification of the 

 native Americans, Prof. Virchow admitted that it would not do 

 to speak of a primitive race ; yet the ancient skulls are predomi- 

 nantly of a brachycephalic type. These forms seem to have per- 

 sisted in the South to the present time, but in the North there 

 had been a noticeable transition to long and medium forms. Herr 

 Fritsch suggested an archaeological division on the basis of his 

 studies of the hair. He distinguished two groups of people, one 

 with smooth or waving, moderately long, brown hair, like that of 

 the Polynesians, and the other with coarse, stiff hair, inclining to 

 deep black, like that of the Mongols. The former group includes 

 the Central Americans, and, generally, the ancient civilized peo- 

 ples of South America, and the other the northwestern tribes, 

 with those of single districts in the South. Even if the suppo- 

 sition of a Mongolian immigration in prehistoric times is admis- 

 sible with respect to this latter group, it can not be held, so far 

 as present researches show, with regard to the ancient civilized 

 peoples. 



Herr Nehring, speaking of the domesticated animals of the 



VOL. XXXIV. — 44 



