164 



NA TURE 



[December 15, 1898 



god, and by the influence of religion. The President said that 

 so elaborate a legal system, with such sound equitable prin- 

 ciples, had seldom been brought before the Association. Sir 

 William Crookes expressed his great admiration of the paper, 

 and hoped that Miss Kingsley would read similar papers at 

 future meetings. 



Mr. H. P. FitzC'.erald Marriott then read a paper on the 

 native secret societies of the West Coast of Africa. These 

 societies maintained the religious and social principles of the 

 people, and administered justice according to native law and 

 custom. Some of them were merely temporary, such as the 

 lesser Purroh of certain parts of Sierra Leone, of which white 

 men spoke ; others, again, were ancient tribal institutions, such 

 as the secret religious or State Purroh, with its grand council, 

 of which most people were unaware. Mahommedan influence 

 was seen not only by the personal association of I he latter, but 

 by the knots that were used as charms both by some of these 

 societies as well as by individuals. The names and varieties of 

 these societies were numerous. Those nearest to each other 

 were generally on good terms, though distinct ; and all could 

 be more or less connected. In various instances the Govern- 

 ment could employ these societies lo carry out its ends, and by 

 means of methods lo which the natives were accustomed could 

 gradually habituate them to British law and order. 



M. le Conite Charles de Cardi read a paper on " The natives 

 of the Niger Delta," giving an account of the early navigators 

 who visited Western Africa : of the origin of the Benin people 

 and of many of their customs; of Jujuism in the delta, with 

 some description of devil-huts ; and concluding with an estimate 

 of the capabilities and future of the West African natives. 



Mr. C. H. Read contributed a paper, illustrated by a series 

 of lantern slides lent from the collection of the Anthropological 

 Institute, on "Ancient works of art from Benin city." He 

 pointed out that the position of Benin near the great waterway 

 of the Niger had brought it into contact with influences from 

 the north. It was thus possible that here might be found some 

 relics of the ancient civilisations of the Mediterranean. Rela- 

 tions with Abyssinia were founded on the journey of a 

 Franciscan friar from Benin to Ethiopia in the fourteenth 

 century, and some corroboration of this was found in the Benin 

 tradition that the king was subject to a powerful prince far to 

 the east. In the hope of finding evidence of these tradiiions in 

 the loot that came from Benin, Mr. Read had made represent- 

 ations 10 the Government, with the result that a large collection 

 of ancient examples of Benin art had been secured for the 

 British Museum, though it could scarcely be said that they had 

 any direct bearing on the relations of Benin with either the 

 extreme north of Africa or the East. A document of great 

 interest bearing on their origin was a report by Sir Ralph Moor, 

 giving the account of a palaver with the Court historian, three 

 Ju-ju men, the master smith, the master wood-carver, and the 

 roaster ivory carver, from which it appeared that the white men 

 first came in the time of King Esige, and one of them, named 

 Ahammangiwa, made the plaques and brass-work for the Ring. 

 Assuming an average reign of twenty to twenty-five years for 

 each of the kings, this would bring the time of Esige to about 

 300 years ago, a date that would correspond very well with the 

 date of the European costumes shown in the plaques. 



Mr. C. W. Hobley sent some vocabularies and illustrative 

 examples of the langu.ages of Kavirondo. Copies of these aie 

 to be seen and consulted in the library of the Anthropological 

 Institute. 



In the afternoon Prof. Flinders Petrie gave a summary of the 

 principal discoveries during the last five years that h,ad revealed 

 the rise of Egyptian civilisation. Various excavations at 

 Koptos, Naqada, Abydos and Hieraconpolis had discovered 

 remains belonging to the ages before 4000 li.c. , which had 

 hitherto been the starting point of known history. Beginning 

 with the Libyan stock, with some Negro mixture, which 

 occupied Egypt in its earliest civilisation, he showed some of 

 the objects he had found at Naijada. These were at first 

 temporarily assigned to a new r.ace ; but now they could be 

 safely assigned to the pre-dynastic stock alxjut 5000 Kc, and 

 even earlier. In the graves of this aboriginal race were found 

 bowls of black clay with patterns imprinted upon them. In 

 each of the countries where this type h.-vd been found, it was 

 contemporary with the introduction of metals. The proximate 

 date of this was 5000 11. c— and that accorded very well with 

 the lime necessary for arriving at the high culture attained by 

 1500 K.I'. Therefore these discoveries were of great value in 



NO. 1520, VOL. 59] 



giving the relative state of Egyptian civnlisation to that of the 

 rest of the world at the introduction of dynastic rule. There 

 was a wide diflTerence between the people of 5000 B.C. and those 

 of 4000 B.C., but no diflTerence between those of the latter 

 period and modern times. This showed that a different race 

 entered the country about that period. 



Next came the earliest dynastic remains, i".^'. the presumed 

 tomb of King Mena, the founder of the d>nastic history, of 

 about the date of 4700 B c. , then the remains of other roy»l 

 tombs found at Abydos belonging to the first three dynasties. 

 The gradual decay of flint working between 4500 B c. and 1500 

 B.C., as metals came into use and copper was gradually 

 hardened into bronze, had no parallel in the world. Prof 

 Petrie showed diagrams and impressions of cylindrical seals as 

 used by the kings of the first three dynasties, also a vase 

 exhibiting the earliest representation of Egyptian mythology 

 and other vases, tablets, and slates showing animals and birdi. 

 These finds were very important, as they showed the rise of the 

 art of modelling, ami of the Egyptian ideas and appreciation of 

 the forms of animals and of the human body, and proved that 

 Egyptian art reached its high-water mark somewhere before 

 B.C. 4000. Other finds showed the kings in triumph over their 

 enemies, receiving captive kings, opening the public works, or 

 reclaiming the marshes. The handled copper vessels showci 

 the most advanced metal work found of the tirst three dynastie.-. 

 The population of the predynastic age was different in type 

 from that of historical times, and in the early monuments thi.- 

 presence of diverse types was very clear. We had at last before 

 us evidence of the close of the period previously considered 

 prehistoric, showing the development of the art, writing, and 

 civilisation of Egypt and the composition of a race which hal 

 since maintained its character during 6000 years. Egypt was 

 then an originator in the arts and not a borrow er, but ever since 

 then most of the nations of the earth had been borrowers and 

 not originators. Here we were studying the history of a country 

 not borrowing but developing a vast and complex civilisation on 

 its own resources. 



Sir John Evans said that the wonderful flint knives mu>t 

 have been the culminating point of an art stretching over a vast 

 series of years. Where wasall that civilisation developed? He 

 hoped that the recent conquests in Egypt would materially assist 

 us in investigating that matter. 



Mr. Arthur Evans thought a comparison of the pottery nf 

 other parts of the Mediterranean basin with that of Egypt 

 helped to bridge the gap which separated early Egypt from the^ 

 dawn of civilisation in Europe. He considered that Prot. 

 Flinders Petrie would be safe in assigning his discoveries eveni 

 to an earlier date than he had done. 



Prof. Flinders Petrie, in reply, said that he himself thought: 

 that he w.as well within the mark, but he chose the date he had- 

 fixed in order lo be absolutely safe. 



Miss .\. Goodrich Hieer then read a paper on "The folk- 

 lore of the Outer Hebrides." This folk-lore has a degree "P 

 interest which justified the inconvenience attendant on its coUe 

 lion. A peculiar value attaches 10 the ancient hymns, stories) 

 and legends, and to the charms, spells and divinations, because* 

 these were more certainly becoming difticult to recover. 



On Wednesday, September 14, in the morning, the programniei 

 consisted of papers on arch.tology and folk-lore. 



Mr. Sidney Hartland presented the sixth Report of the Com- 

 mittee on the Ethnographical Survey of the United Kingdoni.i 

 emphasising the fact that, while the whole scheme of the com 

 mittee's inquiries included a number of subjects, it was not con-j 

 sidered necessary for each observer to deal with them all, anJi 

 that some subjects, such as current traditions and beliels, ardl 

 dialects, were more immediately pressing than others. 



Mr. A. Bulleid presented the third Report of the Commiltt e 

 on the Lake Village at Glastonbury. Twelve more dwellinj; 

 mounds have been examined, as well as the ground between am 

 around them, and the southern end of the settlement has noi 

 been completely explored, the timber .substructure in this localit 

 being in a better stale of preservation than in any (wrt hilhert 

 examined. Mounds .A, B, C and D showed the gradual growth 1 

 the village, easily recognised by the floor of one mound ovcp 

 lapping the floor of the mound immediately contiguous to it, 

 also for the number of bone needles found. Mound E contaimt 

 the remains of a small furnace of baked clay, fragments )( 

 crucibles, and small pieces of bronze. In Mound A A, pari )t 

 the framework ostensibly of a loom was discovered; evidenil)! 

 discarded before the first dwelling was erectid. 



