ANTHROPOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 13 



longer constituted of persons following the employment for which 

 they were founded. 



Dr. Fletcher said he inferred from Mr. Blodgett's remarks that 

 cohabitation does not follow betrothal, and added that it is con- 

 sidered a disgrace if a child is not betrothed when she arrives at 

 menstruation. 



Prof. Mason referred to similar kinds of legislation in this country, 

 prohibiting marriage, especially the laws, in many states, against 

 miscegenation. He also said that caste originated at a time when 

 the conquering Aryans were in a great minority, and to preserve the 

 purity of their stock they made stringent laws against intermarriages. 

 The laws of Menu prohibit intermarriages. 



The President informed the members that the 2d volume of the 

 Transactions was now ready for distribution, and copies could be 

 obtained by calling upon the Secretary, at the May Building, 7th 

 and E streets N. W. 



Seventy-Fifth Regular Meeting, December 19, 1883. 



President Col. Garrick Mallery in the Chair. 



The Council reported, through its Secretary, the election of Mr. 

 Perry B. Pierce, of the U, S. Patent Office, as an active member. 



The Secretary of the Council read a letter from Mr. Wilson, U. 

 S. Consul at Nantes, France, relating to his antiquarian researches 

 in that country. 



Prof. Cyrus Thomas then read a paper entitled "The Houses of 



THE Mound-Builders,"* illustrated by diagrams and specimens of 



clay plastering. 



abstract. 



Prof. Thomas commenced by saying that while the ruins in Cen- 

 tral America furnished abundant materials for judging the architect- 

 ural skill of the ancient people of that region, no such opportunity 

 was offered in regard to the mound-builders, all their buildings 

 having crumbled to dust. Still we are not left wholly in the dark 

 in regard to them. He then went on to show that they must have 



* Published in Magazine of Am. History, 1884, 110-116. 



