Al'RIL 30, 1896] 



NATURE 



60-5 



..iluable information. And my object in addressing you now 

 is to invite discussion on the suggestion, in the hope that it may 

 be taken up by scientific men in a position to prosecute the 

 inquiry. I hope too, some of the readers of Nature, engaged 

 in kindred studies, will give us the benefit of their experience 

 and the results of any observations calculated to throw light 

 upon it. T. L. Pat 1 KKSON. 



Greenock, April 17. 



Megalithic Folk-lore. 



As I understand that many investigators have come to the 

 conclusion that there are no traces of Dravido- Tibetan races to 

 . be found west of Persia, permit me to point out a fact which 

 may not have been brought to their attention. 



I have been in Asam now thirty-two years, and during that 

 time the province, and part of Bengal, has been swept (suddenly)' 

 from end to end, by a severe scare, which folk at home would 

 find it difficult to understand. It was similar in each case, and 

 to the effect that the Queen wanted five children's heads from 

 each village. 



Our Bengali coolies nearly went frantic, in many factories 

 demanding axes and daus (knives) to defend their families. In 

 my own case they implored me to let them put their wives and 

 children on the tea-leaf lofts, while they would guard them at 

 night. In another factory all the doors in the lines were barri- 

 caded ; or at still another, all were kept wide open so that at the 

 first scream at night all could at once rush oiit and hide n the 

 jungle. 



The state of tension for a week was awful, and of course the 

 ludicrous now and then came in. Two of my near neighbours, 

 freshly out and bent on snipe, happened one morning to emerge 

 from the jungle, muddy and with guns, among the women-folk 

 at work, who all had their children with them for safety. 



For the instant they were taken for the child-stealers, and the 

 stampede and shrieks were something awful. 



At one place I found an Asamese village deserted, not a soul 

 left — all in hiding, no doubt. 



It was quite useless to argue with the common folk, and my 

 educated Babu even half believed it, for on my explaining the 

 absurdity of it all, he simply answered, " Perhaps, sir, it is 

 too foolish." 



After a lot of trouble and correspondence, it turned out that 

 the rumour (believed by all) was that the heads were wanted to 

 put under the foundation of the piers for the Gorai bridge. 

 There must be hundreds of Europeans now at home who can 

 corroborate this. 



And now to the point. It was a custom among the Kasias, I 



1 told, to sacrifice a victim by putting him in the hole if great 

 . iliculty was experienced in raising any of the huge monoliths, 

 :md the same custom existed in Polynesia when raising the great 

 1 11 )sts of Mara;, or large communal houses. 



But all over Chota Nagpur, Megalithic remains are common, 

 and our coolies are mostly from thence. 



Here then, I take it, we have fairly good evidence that one at 

 least of the " Megalithic " races preserve vividly the folk-lore 

 <if l)ast ages. Have we anything like this in European races in re 

 these remains of prehistoric times? 



That the building of houses on piles is essentially an Asiatic 

 race custom, I need hardly point out, and that the villages in the 

 Suiss lakes are on the same pattern anthropologists will allow. 



It may not be so well known that the long communal houses 



1 seen (as a survival) in Italy (Campagna) are ox\ precisely the 



!:ie pattern as those among most of our Naga, and among 

 1 )yaks 



Add to this, that the prehistoric remains of North Europe are 



like the present Lapps in character, and it seems not impossible 



even unlikely that the races who erected the Megalithic 



iiains in Europe and North Africa, may be allied to those 

 .long whom the traditions are yet so vividly remembered. 



S. E. Peal. 



Sibsagar, Asam, March 27. 



The Glacial Drift in Ireland. 



Since the publication of Prof. G. A. J. Cole's letter in 



\ rURE (vol. xlvii. p. 464), in which he records the discovery 



pebbles of the Ailsa Craig Riebeckite-eurite from the drift 



,1 ivels on Killiney strand, numerous observers have noted its 



ccurrence in several places along the east coast of Ireland, but 



litherto, I believe, not further south than Greystones, Co. 



Wicklow. Owing to the special interest of this rock, both to 

 glacial observers and petrographers, it may be worth mentioning 

 that two weeks ago I found one small pebble (about 3 cm. 

 square) of the rock on the shore of Tramore Bay, Co. Water- 

 ford, nearly 80 miles further south than the previously mentioned 

 locality, and 230 miles from Ailsa Craig. 



Henry J. Seymour. 

 Royal College of Science, Dublin, April 20. 



The Bright Meteor of April 12. 



This meteor was visible overhead at Dunstable, Beds. , precisely 

 at the time mentioned by A. G. Tansley (p. 581). I had just 

 started one of my sons to London by the 8.5 p.m. train, and I 

 saw the meteor sail slowly across the sky from north-west to 

 south-east, directly the train had started. The nucleus as seen 

 here was brilliant white and yellow-white with a bright yellow- 

 white train. The train formed an equilateral triangle, the 

 nucleus being in one angle in front. I did not see the train in 

 the form of sparks, but as light. Before it died away, both 

 nucleus and train became bright crimson and an equally brilliant 

 blue. There was no explosion heard by me. 



Dunstable. WoRTHiMi' \ (',. S\iiiii. 



Remarkable Sounds. 



The following passage in a Chinese itinerary of Central Asia 

 — Chun Yuen's " Si-yih-kien-wan-luh,"' 1777 (British Museum, 

 No. 15271, b. 14), tom. vii. fol. 13, b. — appears to describe the 

 icy sounds similar to what Ma or Head observed in North 

 America (see p. 78, ante) : — 



*' Muh-sUh-urh-tah-fan ( = Muzart), that is Ice Mountain^, is 

 situated between Hi and Ushi. ... In case that one happens 

 to be travelling there close to sunset, he should choose a rock of 

 moderate thickness and lay down on it.- In solitary night then, 

 he would hear the sounds, now like those of gongs and bells, and 

 now like those of strings and pipes, which disturb ears through 

 the night : these are produced by multifarious noises coming from 

 the cracking ice." Kumagusu Minakata. 



April 9. 



THE RO YAL OBSER VA TOR V, EDINB URGH. 



THE new Edinburgh Royal Observatory, which was 

 formally opened by the Secretary for Scotland on 

 the 7th inst., is situated on Blackford Hill, some two 

 and a half miles due south of the centre of the city, in a 

 public park, of which about three acres have been trans- 

 ferred to the Crown by the Edinburgh Town Council. 

 The centre of the observatory is about 440 feet aljove 

 the level of the sea. The name of Blackford Hill will 

 suggest to many readers the lines from " Marmion " : 



Blackford ! on whose uncultured breast 

 Among the broom, and thorn, and whin, 



A truant-boy, I sought the nest. 



Or listed, as I lay at rest. 

 While rose, on breezes thin. 



The murmur of the city crowd. 



And, from his steeple jangling loud, 

 Saint Giles's mingling din. 



The main building is T-shaped, with a tower for the 24- 

 inch reflector, removed from Gallon Hill, at the west end, 

 and a somewhat larger tower for the 15-inch Dunecht 

 refractor at the east end. The clear length of the plat- 

 form above the rooms connecting these towers is 1 10 feet. 

 The stem of the T is built in three stories. In the base- 

 ment are the gas engine and dynamo, storage cells and 

 primary batteries, the heating apparatus and a book- 

 store ; while above the library and adjoining rooms is a 

 room 66 feet by 23 feet, with its floor on a level with 

 the platform already mentioned. 



This room, which ranges exactly north and south, 

 is intended for optical experiments and spectroscopic 



1 In Prejeval.sky's " From Kuija, across the Tian-shan to Lob-nor," Lon- 

 don, 1879, foot-note, p. 177, the word Muzart, or Miissart, is stated to mean 

 " .Snowy." 



■^ The old Chinese pilgrim, Hwen-tsang, who followed this same route, 

 observed that the travellers passing thereby must sleep on the ice (Schuyler, 

 •' Turkestan," London, 1876, vol. 1. p. 391). 



XO. 1383, VOL. 53] 



