512 Transactions. — Miscellaneous. 



altar of the sun, and so returns from whence it came. The 

 priests then search into the records of the time, and find that 

 it returned precisely at the end of 500 years." And then the 

 author goes on to say, "Let us consider this wonderful type 

 (or sign) of the Eesurrection, when even by a bird the Lord of 

 all shows us his power to fulfil his promise," &c." Thus, 

 again, proving to a demonstration how easy it is to swallow 

 everything related, however strange, as veritable facts, and so 

 jump to the desired conclusion. 



Of course, my only reason for bringing these two notions 

 together here is to show the very great disparity of opinion 

 then existing respecting the Phcenix, much the same as now, 

 unfortunately, appertain to the Moa age. 



P.S. — Since closing my paper I have received a copy of 

 the " Ee^Dort of the Fourth Meeting of the Australasian Asso- 

 ciation for the Advancement of Science " (just published), and 

 I find in the address of the Eev. Lorrimer Fison, M.A., the 

 president of the anthropological section, such very appropriate 

 statements — the very counterpart of my own thoughts and 

 ideas — that I hesitate not to copy a portion of them. The 

 president, too, evidently writes as a practical man well ac- 

 quainted with his subject. 



" . . . In these investigations" — anthropological — 

 " two things mainly are required : first, a patient continuance 

 in the collecting of facts ; and secondly, the faculty of seeing 

 in them what is seen by the natives themselves. We must 

 ever remember that our mind-world is very different from 

 theirs. ... As to the former of these two requisites, 

 one's natural tendency, especially in the beginning of the 

 work, is to form a theory as soon as one has got hold of a fact ; 

 and as to the latter, we are too apt to look at the facts in 

 savagery from the mental standpoint of the civilised man. 

 Both of these are extremely mischievous. They lead investi- 

 gators into fatal mistakes, and bring upon them much painful 

 experience, for the pang attending the extraction of an aching 

 double-tooth is sweetest bliss when compared with the tearing 

 up by the roots of a cherished theory. I speak feelingly here, 

 because I can hold myself up as aii awful warning against 

 theory-making." — [An instance given.] — "Even more mis- 

 chievous is the habit of looking at the facts in savagery from 

 our own standpoint. Some of our modern anthropologists' 

 books are full of errors arising from this evil habit — errors 

 which are ' gross and palpable ' to any one who has lived 

 long among savages, and taken the pains to learn to see with 

 their eyes. ' You can feel the mistakes with a stick,' said a 

 good Lutheran missionary (one of Mr. Howitt's correspond- 



* Clement, Ep. ad Corinth., c, xxv. 



