286 JOSHUA RUTLAND, ESQ., ON 
to the impetus given by the perfecting of the steam engine 
during the present century.” How greatly bronze entered into 
every relation of life—sacred, warlike, domestic—in the days of 
old, the records of the Jewish tabernacle and temple, the poems 
of Homer, the history of Herodotus, and its introduction into myths 
and folklore of the ancients sufficiently bear witness.* 
The Rey. G. A. Suaw, F.Z.S.—I quite agree with the Secretary 
that the distribution of plants and vegetables that have been 
cultivated by various peoples in the different islands of Oceania, 
ought not to be taken as an ethnological test as used in the paper, 
or that the presence of the same kind of vegetation observed on 
the peopling of Eastern Polynesia indicated the existence of a 
prehistoric people. It is, as the Secretary remarks, far more 
worthy of acceptation that the islands being at one time united, 
may have caused this by a survival of both the flora and fauna 
rather than that they are of recent introduction. 
I also take exception to another matter mentioned in the paper, 
having reference to the arts. The arts in Madagascar are not 
similar throughout the country. In some parts of the country 
the people work in iron. In other parts of the country they never 
work in iron, and they do not understand the working of it. In 
some parts sculpture, or rude carving, has been practised from 
time immemorial. In other parts of the country it is altogether 
unknown, and no kind of art in those parts exists. So I think it 
is not quite correct to take this as one of the points of evidence 
regarding the unity of people living widely apart. 
I agree with the last speaker that the paper is of great 
interest. 
It is not unlikely that the art of working in iron has been intro- 
duced into Madagascar by the Araks. 
Iron is dug from the hills in much the same way as we dig 
gravel here in England. And this applies to the remark made in 
the paper with regard to pottery in Polynesia. It is true there 
is no pottery, at any rate so far as I have seen, in any of the 
islands to the east of and including Samoa. That is to be ac- 
eounted for in exactly the same way as I am accounting for the 
absence of iron working amongst some of the inhabitants of 
Madagascar, viz., the non-existence of the material necessary, and 
* Also bronze (translated ‘“‘ brass” in our English version of the Bible) 
avas, probably, the metal in the composite image of the Book of Daniel. 
