634 



NATURE 



[OcTOBEai 25, 1900 



Dr. J. G. Garson read a paper, with lanlern illustrations, on 

 a system of classification of finger-print?. 

 (2) Psychology. 

 Prof. G. T- Stokes read a paper on the sense of effort and the 

 perception "of force, and Prof. Marcus Hartog contributed 

 another on interpolation in memory. In the discussion on the 

 latter paper, Prof. Lloyd Morgan contended that psychologists 

 had not so completely overlooked the practical perceptual judg- 

 ment as Prof. Hartog seemed to suppose. 



Mr. E. W. Brabrook presented the final report of a com- 

 mittee which has been acting in conjunction with the Childhood 

 Society for the scientific study of the mental and physical 

 conditions of children. 



II.— Ethnology. 

 (i) Sociology. 

 Mr. E. S. Hartland read a paper that attracted a good deal of 

 attention, on the imperfection of our knowledge of the black 

 races of the Transvaal and Orange River Colonies. 

 (2) Technology. 

 Dr. A. C. Haddon read a paper, illustrated by laptern slides 

 and specimens, on the textile patterns of the Sea-Dayaks. The 

 Sea-Dayak women weave short cotton rep petticoats and cotton 

 sleeping wraps which are covered with beautiful and often intri- 

 cate patterns. The patterns are made in the following manner : 

 the warp is stretched on a frame, the woman takes the first 

 fifteen to thirty strands and ties them tightly with strips of 

 leaves at irregular intervals, according to the design, which she 

 carries in her memory. The next fifteen to thirty strands are 

 similarly tied, and this process is repeated until all the threads 

 have been utilised. The warp is then removed from the frame 

 and dipped in a reddish dye, which colours the free portions of 

 the warp, but the tied-up portions remain undyed ; thus a light 

 pattern is left on a coloured background, when the lashing is un- 

 tied. If a three-colour design is required, as is usually the case, 

 the first lashing is retained, and various portions of the previ- 

 ously dyed warp are tied up ; the whole is immersed in a black 

 dye, and then both sets of lashing are untied. The pattern is 

 thus entirely produced in the warp. By far the greater number 

 of these designs are based upon animals, whereas most of the 

 patterns carved by the men on wooden and bamboo objects are 

 derived from plant motives. The decorative art of the Sea- 

 Dayaks of Sarawak differs in character from that of the Kayans, 

 Kenyahs, and other inland tribes. 



A paper was read by Mr. W. Rosenhain on the making of a 

 Malay " Kris." This, it was explained, was a species of native 

 sv\ord, and the paper dealt with some specimens of Malay metal 

 ■work which had been submitted to the writer for microscopic 

 and other examination by Mr. W. W. Skeat. By means of 

 many lantern views Mr. Rosenhain exhibited samples of this 

 kind of weapon, showing especially the "damask" pattern of 

 the "Kris." Swords of this description were composed of 

 many strands of two kinds of metal. The body of the blade 

 was made of steel, a layer of laminated "damask" iron was 

 welded upon each side of the central layer. A thin layer of 

 steel was then welded on, outside the " damask " iron. The 

 author was of opinion that the striated "damask" effect was 

 due to the opening of the loose welds in the "'damask" iron 

 during the forging of the blade, steel being driven between the 

 laminte. The outside layer of steel was entirely ground away 

 during the process, and when the compound surface so produced 

 was "etched" by the pickling process employed, the more 

 readily corroded steel was attacked, leaving the edges of the 

 layers of iron as a series of narrow projecting ledges. . The tools 

 of the Malay goldsmith were then carefully described, and 

 subsequently a description was given of the micro-structure and 

 composition of Malay bronzes. The concluding part of the 

 paper dealt with the Malay method of producing chains by 

 casting, a practical illustration of the method being given by Mr. 

 Rosenhain on the platform. 



Prof. Macalister said that the older Universities of this 

 country were frequently reproached for not doing anything 

 practical. He felt, however, that Mr. Rosenhain had that 

 afternoon removed a great deal of that reproach by practically 

 demonstrating for them the process of casting metal chains 

 practised by the Malays. 



Prof. H. Louis read a "Note" on the "Kingfisher" type 

 of a Malay " Kris," which was illustrated by specimens. 



This was a type of "Kris" used only in a very limited 



NO. 1617, VOL. 62] 



area in the north-east of the. Malay Peninsula ; it was, how- 

 ever, rare even in its own home. The Malay legend of its 

 origin, he remarked, was that a party of Malays from the Bugis 

 Islands invaded that portion of the Peninsula many centuries 

 ago. One of their leaders was known as "the Kingfisher" — 

 presumably on account of his rapid movements. The invasion 

 was successful, but the leader fell in one of the last engage- 

 ments, and after his death his followers carved their Kris 

 handles into shapes resembling the Kingfisher's head and beak. 

 Under Chinese influence the pattern became more and more 

 ornate, being modified by the Chinese " Dragon," until it 

 reached the present fixed type. 



Dr. Haddon gave an afternoon lantern demonstration on the 

 houses and family life in Sarawak. He exhibited a series of about 

 fifty lantern slides of photographs taken during his recent expedition 

 to Sarawak, selected to illustrate the type of houses common 

 among the settled inland tribes of Borneo and the everyday life 

 of the people. 



Mr. W. Law Bros delivered an afternoon lantern lecture on 

 some Indian monuments, illustrated by numerous beautiful slides 

 taken by himself. 



A paper, with lantern illustrations, on permanent artificial 

 skin marks was read by Mr. H. Ling Roth. Whatever might 

 have been the original idea, ultimately its objective became 

 manifold. Mr. Ling Roth described four .systems or methods 

 of tattooing. The Tahitian method of " tattaow " was per- 

 formed by pricking or tapping with pigment, and produced the 

 smooth result such as was seen in our soldiers and sailors. 

 The Maoris of New Zealand adopted this pricking method, 

 and also a cutting method performed with a sharp, adze-like 

 edge like a narrow chisel. This produced slight but permanent 

 grooves in the skin. The third method was that adopted in 

 West Africa, and was similar to the second, but the grooves 

 produced were deeper and wider, and generally no pigment was 

 used. Lastly, there were the curious raised marks of the Tas- 

 manians, Australians and Melanesians generally, and the Central 

 African tribes. In this case the cuts were made with sharp edged 

 stones, and were continually reopened or irritated by the inser- 

 tion of vegetable juices or sand. Hence was produced an abnor- 

 mal amount of reparative action, and the wounds did not heal 

 naturally as healthy concave scars, but developed into nodulous 

 growths of sometimes considerable size. For these four methods 

 Mr. Ling Roth suggested a nomenclature— namely, tatu, moko, 

 cicatrix and keloid. 



Mr. Davis read a paper on the system of writing in ancient 

 Egypt for Mr. F. LI. Griffith, and whilst doing so illustrated 

 his remarks with very clever sketches on the blackboard. 

 Egyptology has now reached a position among the sciences from 

 which it may contribute trus-tworthy information for the benefit 

 of kindred researches. Egyptian writing consists of Ideographic 

 and Phonetic Elements, the signs serving as:— (i) Word- 

 signs ; (2) Phonograms ; (3) Determinatives. The highest 

 development .shown is an alphabet, which, however, is never 

 used independently of other signs : it is apparently not acro- 

 phonic in origin ; it represents consonants and semiconsonants 

 only, vocalisation not being recorded by Egyptian writing. No 

 advance can be detected in the system from the beginning of the 

 historic period to the end, notwithstanding some improvements 

 in practical working which facilitated the use of cursive writing. 

 Phonograms derived from> word-signs. The end of the native 

 system was brought about by the gradual adoption of the Greek 

 character — beginning, perhaps, in the second century A.D. If 

 any radical improvement was ever made in the Egyptian form 

 of writing, that improvement must have taken place at or after 

 adoption by another people : e.g. some have supposed that our 

 alphabet was derived by the Phoenicians from Egypt ; but any 

 such derivations are at present entirely hypothetical. 



A paper was read by Mr. Arthur J. Evans on the new scripts 

 he has recently discovered in Crete ; an account of his researches 

 has already appeared in Nature (p. 526). 

 (3) Religion. 

 Some peculiar features of the animal-cults of the natives of 

 Sarawak, and their bearing on the problems of totemism, were 

 discussed in a paper by Dr. C. Hose and W. McDougall. 



Customs had previously been observed that seemed to indicate 

 the existence of a well-developed totemism, either at the present 

 time or in recent times, among the natives of Sarawak. Informa- 

 tion bearing on this subject was therefore collected as diligently 

 as possible from various tribes. 



A great number and variety of peculiar rites and customs were 



