SECTION II, 1916 [475] TRANS. R.S.C. 
Signposts of Prehistoric Time. 
By VW.) LIGHTHALE, F'RS'C NE RSI: 
(Read May Meeting, 1916). 
How old are the mask-customs of American Indians? How old 
are their sweat-baths? How old their totemism, their scalping, their 
drumming, their canoe “‘eyes,’’ their offerings to root-spirits, the scalp- 
lock, the warpaint, the costume, the forms of armor, of weaving, 
of basketry ? How far is it possible to estimate the age, or at least 
the relative ages, of some of the successive waves of their tribal 
advents in America, by way of the Japan Current, the Aleutians, and 
possibly other directions? I have not the temerity to attempt 
answers to such questions as these, which crowd in from that fascinat- 
ing past—but only to briefly note a few suggestive points, because I 
know enough of the profound and painstaking work of the students 
of primitive man to shun the worst form of impertinence. Has not 
the age of Man upon the earth, from his first prehistoric representative 
been variously estimated at from a quarter of a million to a million 
years, and the process of his development been sketched for us in the 
masterly review of Professor Hill-Tout in 1914 here? From another 
end it is possible to roughly estimate the age of Egyptian, Akkadian, 
Cretan, Hittite, and early Aryan, and some other forms of early 
civilization, in the combined light of history and excavations. 
But another form of calculation on the subject, though much less 
clear and exact, is yet very valuable if it could be carefully studied. 
This is the estimation of the time taken by the spread of various 
types or strata of culture throughout the world, especially those which 
overflowed into America. For example, it is one thing to attempt to 
estimate the age of man in general calculated by the earliest and 
crudest forms of stone implements. It is obvious and trite that such 
an advance as the polished and well-shaped neolithic kfts of tools, 
represent an immense period of time to develop and spread. Again 
the presence of forms of large and well-shaped barbarian pottery 
bowls would indicate another immense advance in point of time— 
and even the appearance of any pottery at all would mark the lapse 
of vast ages since the first development of neolithic tools. And when 
we come to the sacrificial pyramids and handsome rock carvings of 
Chichen-Itza and compare their resemblance with early Japanese 
building we can note a wave of culture preceding the six thousand 
