a Ne iS See ee 
; Proceedings 45 
marshes and islands of the North Sea coast? On this view, which 
I put forth tentatively, there are in Beowulf two divergent 
traditions about these Eotons. In one they remain fierce cannibal 
semi-human outcasts, in the other they have been advanced to 
a comparatively civilized condition, though still credited with 
a good deal of their native wildness. It is interesting to add that 
those critics who believe there are interpolations in Beowulf 
attribute the Finn episode to a different poet from the original 
author. 
Here I must close. Other branches of folk-lore might have 
been adduced, notably the nursery tales about ogres. But the 
field is a wide one. The evidence seems to point to the exist- 
ence of traditions regarding ferocious savages in early Europe. 
How far they had really attained to humanity is a question that 
will probably never be decided. If I have suggested any new line 
of enquiry the object of this paper is attained.t 
Meeting held at Reigate, Nov. 27th, 1908. 
Present over 50 members and friends. 
Mrs. Durrant exhibited a series of British and alien Limpets, 
and gave a description of several of them. Among them were 
some beautiful specimens of Crepidula fornicata, an alien found 
in the Oyster beds of Whitstable. 
Mr. Tonge exhibited a Saw Fly (Stvex juvencus) found in 
+ A distinguished archeologist, Miss Jane Harrison, has in her Pro- 
legomena to the Study of Greek Religion expressed views which con- 
cern the subject of this paper, but were unknown to me until it was 
in print. I quote from the 2nd edition (1908),pp.379-386. She holds 
that the Satyrs were to Homer and Pindar ‘the representatives of an 
actual primitive population,’ in fact they are the Satrae, a wild Thra- 
cian tribe who lived S. of the Rhodope range. They ‘have many traits 
in common with the more mythological Centaurs. . . Homer knew 
quite well who the opponents of Peirithods were, [p.37] not cloud- 
demons, not mountain torrents, but real wild men (pheres).’? ‘The 
Centaurs are in art what they are in reality, zez with men’s legs and 
feet, but they are shaggy mountain men with some of the qualities 
and habits of beasts; so to indicate this in a horse-loving country 
they have the hind-quarters of a horse awkwardly tacked on to their 
human bodies.’ ‘The Satyr . . . remained ... a wild man, with 
horse adjuncts of ears, tail and occasionally hoofs.’ Mr. J. C. Lawson 
also identifies the Centaurs with aborigines. 
