490 



NATURE 



\_Sept. 18, 1879 



of duration of animal life— the period it occupied was totally 

 insignificant in regard to that which they would require for the 

 evolution of man to his present state. There could not be the 

 slightest reason for supposing that pre-glacial man was in any 

 way different from post-glacial man. No doubt, whatever 

 habits of life were adopted during the cold period, were adopted 

 before that cold fairly set in. As the people lived like 

 Equimaux during the whole of the cold period, and for some 

 time afterwards, he could not see why they should not have 

 lived in that fashion for some time before. There could not be 

 a doubt in any reasonable man's mind, that the remains of man 

 discovered in the older part of the glacial deposit were the same 

 as those in the new. The evidence Mr. Skertchly had brought 

 forward was very satisfactory, but he confessed he did not see 

 ivhy it should not be so. 



Mr. Skertchly read a paper On a Nm> Estimate of the Date 

 of the Neolithic Age. — The Fenland occupies an area of 1,300 

 square miles around the great bay of the Wash. The surface of 

 the inland portions consists of peat, and that]]of the seaward parts 

 of marine silt. This silt is still in process of deposition, and 

 the land is consequently gaining upon the sea. From the time 

 of the Roman occupation, at least, banks have been successively 

 erected to reclaim the newly-formed ground ; and as the dates 

 of these banks are known, very accurate estimates can be formed 

 of the rate at which the deposition is going on in different parts. 

 The maximum rate is fifty-nine feet per annum, and four miles of 

 new land has been formed since the oldest banks were erected. 

 These banks are generally ascribed to the Romans ; but they are 

 probably British. In this estimate they will be taken as Roman, 

 in order that the age may not be over estimated, and the maxi- 

 mum rate of deposition will also be used as giving the minimum 

 of time. The geological evidence shows that as the silting went 

 on, and the area become converted into land, peat grew and 

 gradually spread over the newly-formed ground. But in process 

 of time the climate became unfitted for the growth of peat, 

 ivhich gradually lost its vigour, and finally ceased to form. 

 Hence a wide stretch of silt land borders the Wash, upon the 

 surface of which no peat has ever formed. The peat died upon 

 its eastward march ; the silt still travels on. The nearest 

 approach of the peat to the banks along the line of most rapid 

 accumulation is twelve miles distant therefrom. The age of 

 this, the newest peat in the Fenland, can be thus determmed. 

 Between the "Roman " banks and the sea lie four miles of silt, 

 which has taken 1,700 years to accumulate. Between these 

 banks and the sea lie twelve miles of silt, which at the same 

 rate of formation would take 5, 100 years to accumulate. Adding 

 5,100 to 1,700 years, we have 6,800 years as the least possible 

 age of the newest peat. This peat has yielded {many neolithic 

 implements, hence we may assume that 7,000 years will take us 

 back into the neolithic age. The coincidence of this estimate 

 with the two Swiss ones above-mentioned is remarkable. These 

 results do not, however, give us the date of the introduction of 

 the neoliths into Europe, for neither in the Swiss nor English 

 localities are we sure that the neolithic relics belong to the 

 early part of the neolithic age. The author, indeed, has recently 

 obtained evidence of neolithic handiwork in Fenland peat of 

 far greater age than that described, the peat bed underlying silt 

 more than 7,000 years old. He is inclined to think that the 

 neolithic age in England began at least 10,000 years ago, and 

 perhaps 20, 000 years ; but that it does not approach the close of 

 the glacial epoch seems to be shown by the fact that the older 

 Fenland beds (themselves post-glacial) do not contain human 

 relics. 



Commander Cameron read an interesting paper giving a 

 detailed account of the Manners and Customs of the People 

 of Urua, on: of the largest Native States in Central Africa. 

 This particular race maintained many places in which 

 religion was centralised. Kasango, the king or principal 

 chief, was not merely a secular chief, but was also intimately 

 mixed up with the religion of the people. He claimed divine 

 praise, and at his death was buried with savage rites, and all 

 his wives except one were slaughtered at his grave. This one 

 remained to be the pythoness of his successor, and the spirit 

 of the chief at his death was supposed to be transmigrated into 

 the body of his successor. An idol was preserved in the middle 

 of a dense jungle. He had for a wife one of the sisters of the 

 reigning sovereign. Around about the jungle were the huts of 

 a numerous class of priests, who received the tribute collected 

 for that class of people. The only person allowed to sacrifice to 

 the idol or to visit him except the idol's wife was the sovereign 



of the coantry. There was a numerous class of wizards who 

 carried about with them small idols and a large stock-in-trade in 

 charms, which they sold. Many of them were ventriloquists, 

 and it often happened when they were consulted by the natives 

 questions were asked which were communicated to the idol, and 

 then the wizard, by the exercise of very poor ventriloquism, made 

 the idol return an answer to the question put. The caste was 

 very clearly defined in this race. The chief allowed none of 

 his subjects to sit down in his presence without permission, and 

 he seldom accorded it. No one of a lower grade could sit down 

 in 'the presence of one of a superior grade. The customs in 

 eating, drinking, and cooking were various. They declined to 

 eat in the presence of each other, and, although fond of the 

 native beer, they would not drink it while anybody was looking 

 on, although it was sufficient to hold up a cloth as a screen. All 

 the different castes and ranks were marked and distinguished by 

 their dress. The attire was very simple, consisting usually of 

 an apron. They were not a hairy race, but managed to grow 

 their beards very long, and they plaited them after the manner 

 of a Chinese pi:j-tail, winding up with a ball of dirt at the end 

 to make it hang down straight. The women were tattooed most 

 extensively. The means of communicating news was by drums 

 and messengers. The men could run very fast. One man, for 

 instance, brought him a message from the king, having come a 

 distance of between 50 and 60 miles in a period of six hours. 

 By means of certain beats on the drum messages could be sent 

 immense distances, and answers immediately returned. In time 

 of war the king could send messages to a great distance, either 

 to bring up his forces at once, or to say that he was returning 

 and that they were to go back. , 



Major Serpa Pinto read a paper On the Native Races of the 

 Head Waters of the Zambesi. — He said they there found people 

 whose complexion, as compared with his, then bronzed with an 

 African sun, was white, yet they w-ere negro in feature. There 

 were also mixed races in that part of the country, with com- 

 plexions of a whitish cast, yet with negroid features. The whole 

 matter seemed to indicate in a most puzzling way the mixture 

 of races. In the Bihe district, that portion of the population 

 had, for the most part, made its appearance during the last 

 century. It was not a pure African, but probably a mixture 

 with the races which came over for elephant hunting purposes. 

 The pure African type, of course, was the flat hose, large lips, 

 and frizzled hair ; but there had been some modifications in this 

 instance with regard to feature. He declared that he had seen 

 girls in that part of the country who, if their complexions had 

 been more like that of the Europeans, would have passed for 

 beauties here. 



M. Brazza read a communication On the Native Races of the 

 Gaboon and the Ogotoi. — Major Pinto, he said, had spoken of races 

 having European characteristics. He was of opinion that those 

 people had come from the North of Africa, because under the 

 name of Ubamba he had foimd races very much resembling them 

 to the south of the Congo. The negroes Major Serpa Pinto saw 

 were probably the advanced guard of an invasion which had 

 overrun the country to the east of the Gaboon. Stanley spoke of 

 a great emigration, very much resembling what had taken place 

 among the Fan cannibals. There had been much talk indulged 

 in adverse to the cannibal races of this part of Africa. Du 

 Chaillu, who had visited for one day only one of the Fan villages, 

 had given a description of this race which had been too much 

 influenced by accounts he had received from a tribe at war with 

 the cannibals. He had said that in their villages he had found 

 quarters of human flesh exposed for sale ; that they killed and 

 ate their prisoners of war, and that they sold the bodies of their 

 own dead who had died of disease to their neighbours. M. de 

 Brazza denied the truth of such accounts. As a proof that the 

 Fans had kindly and generous sentiments he told how a Fan 

 chief had been kind to him when he was obliged to leave his 

 people sick in the bush. He owed his life to tlie Fan chief, and 

 he sfiould always be grateful to him and his people. He wished 

 therefore to do all he could to remove the prejudice against the 

 Fans which had been excited by Du Chaillu. They were a very 

 generous, coiurageous people. It was true they were cannibals 

 — that they ate their prisoners of war ; but it was with them a 

 religious idea,' for they believed that in eating the heart of a 

 brave man the courage of the dead passed into themselves. 

 M. de Brazza also gave an interesting sketch of the Akkas, a 

 dwarf race he found scattered up and down among the dif- 

 ferent peoples, like what the Jews or the gipsies were in Europe. 

 The height of the Akkas was from three to four feet. 



