VOL. XVII. (2) PRESIDENT'S ADDRESS 155 



suppose the degraded survivors of an earlier race, hating and 

 fearing their conquerors, may have done. The real flaw in the 

 theory, and it is a serious one, is that though the fairy under- 

 ground dwellings may reasonably be compared with similar 

 habitations used by the Lapps or other northern races, there 

 is no evidence to show that the pit dwellings of England go 

 back to the neohthic period, and the evidence of the finding 

 of pigmy remains in English barrows or other places of habita- 

 tion or interment is scanty. Perhaps our district may one day 

 supply the link which will connect the fairies with the neolithic 

 peoples. 



To sum up this desultory account of some of the directions 

 in which a study of the popular beliefs and usages of our district 

 usefully supplement our knowledge of our prehistoric ancestors. 

 To those whose tastes lie in the investigation of the physical, 

 rather than the psychical side of Nature, such topics may seem 

 frivolous and destitute of any practical value. But for the 

 examination of the evolution of human culture it is now almost 

 a commonplace to recognise that the study of the beliefs and 

 practices of backward races supplies the only available clue 

 to the interpretation of those archaic usuages, the meaning of 

 which is no longer apparent. The mobilier of an interment in 

 4 barrow would possess little meaning so long as it cannot be 

 compared with the customs of living savage and barbaric 

 races. Hence anthropology, and in particular that branch of 

 it which attempts to deal with peasant beliefs and survivals, 

 is an indispensable handmaid to archaeology, and archaeology 

 so far as it seeks to classify the remains of primitive man, is 

 largely indebted to both geology and palaeontology. It is the 

 geologist to whom we look for information on the age of the 

 gravels or other strata in which human remains are embedded, 

 while the palaeontologist teaches us how to interpret the 

 nature of the osteological fragments found in association with 

 human remains, and how to identify the fauna contemporaneous 

 with them. Within the limits of a Club like ours there is 

 ample room for the co-operation of workers in these allied 

 sciences. 



The moral of what I have tried to say is this. — The behefs 

 and usages of our peasantry, now unhappily obsolescent and 



