386 



NATURE 



{Sept. 5, 1872 



second, its connection with health and good fortune, in which 

 character it was tlie agatliodccmon. It was also the symbol of 

 life or immortality, as well as of wisdom. This reptile was 

 viewed by many uncultured peoples as the re-embodiment of a 

 deceased ancestor, and descent was actually traced by the Mexi- 

 cans and various other peoples from a serpent. The superstition 

 thus became a phase of ancestor worship, the superior wisdom 

 and power ascribed to denizens of the invisible world being 

 assigned also to their animal representatives. When the simple 

 idea of a spirit ancestor was transformed into that of the 

 Great Spirit, tlie father of the race, the attributes of the serpent 

 would be enlarged, and it would be thought to have power ovit 

 the rain and hurricane. Being thus transferred to the atmo- 

 sphere, the serpent would come to be associated with nature or 

 solar worship. Hence, the sun was not only a serpent-god, 

 but also the divine ancestor or benefactor of mankind. Seth, 

 the traditional divine ancestor of the Semites, was the serpent 

 sun-god, the agathoda^mon, and various facts were cited to 

 establish that the legendary ancestor of the peoples classed 

 together as Adamites was thought to possess the same character. 

 It appeared that serpent-worship, as a developed religious sys- 

 tem, originated in Central Asia, the home of the great Scythic 

 stock from which the civilised racesof the historical period sprung, 

 and that the descendants of the legendary founder of that stock, 

 the Adamites, were in a special sense serpent-worshippers. 



Sir Walter Elliot read a paper On Some 0/ the earliest IVeapoiis 

 in C^se irmoi/!,' the older Iiihabitaiits of India. These he traced to 

 a curved " throw-stick " resembling, but differing from, the 

 Australian bomerang, in as much as it does not return to the 

 hand when thrown. The Indian "throw-stick " is found among 

 the rude races inhabiting the mountain and forest tracks of 

 Central and Western India, as the Dhangars, Kolis, and Gonds, 

 and more to the South, the Kallars, Marawars, and other low 

 castes. In waste and jungle tracts the people turn out in great 

 numbers during the hot season, commencing with the first day of 

 Hindu new year in March, and continued on every succeeding 

 Sunday till the Monsoon l)egins. Hares, deer, hog, pea-fowls, 

 partridges, &c., raised by this lowly race of beaters, each carry- 

 ing a "throw-stick," are knocked over by showers of these 

 weapons, thrown with great force and precision. 



From the form of such sticks, which are from \\ to 2 feet 

 long and 3 to 6 inches broad, thrown with the concave side fore- 

 most, the author deduced the form assumed by the iron weapons 

 subsequently formed by the same races. Specimens of these wore 

 exhibited, such as the Gurkha knives of Nipal, those of the 

 Nairs, Moplas, and of the Malabar coast, and the common 

 woodman's knife used everywhere, and which the late Capt. 

 Forsyth states the Gonds, Bygas, and other tribes of the central 

 Highlands throw at game with wonderful precision. These 

 remarks apply more particularly to the Druoidian races, although 

 not exclusively so. The earliest or aboriginal people now repre- 

 sented by the servile classes, seem to have used stone imple- 

 ments like people of the same condition in Europe and elsewhere, 

 while the early Aryans passed through a bronze or copper 

 period — specimens of the weapons of which era were exhibited. 



Sir Walter observed that Prof Huxley in classifying the 

 varieties of the human race, exclusively for physical characters, 

 had included under one head the people of New South Wales, 

 of the Highlands of Central India, and of Ancient Egypt, 

 all of whom he includes under the term Australoid. Now 

 it is a remarkable coincidence that among these three far 

 distant peoples the "throw-stick" was the weapon of the 

 chase, and that examples do not occur in the intermediate 

 countries. The pictures in the tombs of the kings at Thebes 

 represent hunting scenes in which the curved sticks found at this 

 day in India are extensively represented. The bomerang of 

 Australia is precisely of the same form, but, being thinner and 

 lighter, is so fitted to have a recoiling property. 



SECTION E.— Geography 



On the Orography 0/ the Chain 0/ the Great Atlas, by John 

 Ball, F.R.S. 



The representations of the chain of the Great Atlas given on 

 the most modern maps show how very vague and incomplete our 

 knowledge still is. They agree in very little beyond the fact 

 that high mountains extend in a nearly direct line from the west 



coast, where7 they approach the Atlantic, near Agadir, in about 

 30° 30' N. lat. for about 500 miles inland, where they subside at 

 no great distance from the frontier of Algeria about the parallel 

 of 33° 3°'- 



All but the most recent maps indicate a single range similar in 

 general character to that of the Pyrenees, while in these we find 

 represented two nearly parallel ranges at an average distance of 

 sixty or seventy miles, of which the northernmost alone termi- 

 nates near the Algerian frontier, its axis lying exactly in the line 

 of the great shallow lakes, or chotts, that occupy a great part of 

 the high plateau of southern Algeria, while the southern range, 

 with some slight interruption, is continuous with the elevated 

 zone that forms the northern limit of the Algerian Sahara. The 

 details, however, as given in these recent maps, are strangely 

 discordant, especially in regard to the region lying E. and N. E. 

 from the city of Morocco, and connecting the main range with 

 the mountains of North Morocco. 



It is not surprising that such discrepancies should exist, when it 

 is known that the best maps have been compiled with no better 

 materials than the reports of natives, and that none but a very 

 small portion of the entire region has ever been traversed by 

 civilised men. In regard to Gerhard Rnhlfs, one of the most 

 remarkable of recent African travellers, it must be remembered 

 that he was forced to maintain a rigid disguise, to associate con- 

 stantly with natives, and to suit his movements to theirs. He 

 was unable to make more than scanty and occasional notes, and 

 was altogether debarred from the use of instruments. It is not sur- 

 prising that, under such conditions, his contributions to the topo- 

 graphy of a region never before vi-ited by European traveller 

 tend more to excite than to satisfy curiosity. 



During the spring of last year the Sultan of Morocco, at the 

 request of the British Minister, Sir John Drummond Hay, 

 granted permission to Dr. Hooker, the eminent Director of the 

 Koyal Gardens at Kew, to explore the portion of the Great Atlas 

 subject to the Imperial authority ; and although the main object of 

 the party, consisting of Dr. Hooker, Mr. Maw, and myself, was to 

 investigate the Flora of the mountains, it might not unreasonably 

 be expected that we should be able to make some considerable 

 addition to existing geographical knowledge in regard to a region 

 so little known. 



Those who are best acquainted with Morocco will be least sur- 

 prised to learn that in this respect the expedition has not borne 

 abundant fruit. The obstacles which stood in the way were 

 partly anticipated by us, but were in great measure insuperable. 



The authority of the Sultan extends over but a small portion of 

 the region included under the denomination Great .\tlas. It is 

 in fact limited to the northern declivity of the main chain, and 

 only throughout the western part of this, for it extends to a dis- 

 tance at the utmost not more than 120 miles E. of the city of 

 Morocco. The time at our disposal was too limited to enable 

 us to explore even the limited field that was thrown open to use 

 The cares and responsibilities attaching to his ofticial duties pre- 

 vented Dr. Hooker from prolonging his stay in and near the 

 mountains beyond about three weeks, and the private engagements 

 of Mr. Maw compelled him to separate from us and to return to 

 England at a still earlier date. But by far the most serious 

 obstacle which we encountered arose from the persistent though 

 covert opposition of all the persons holding local .authority, aggra- 

 vated and not seldom stimulated by the chief of our escort, wiiose 

 charge, as we had been assured, was to remove all impediments 

 from our path. 



But for the difficulties incessantly placed in our way, we should 

 undoubtedly have attained several of the higher peaks, and could 

 not fail to have learnt a good deal respecting the disposition of the 

 greater masses and the direction of the main valleys in the terri- 

 tory which we could not actually traverse. 



In point of fact we were able to make but two considerable 

 ascents. On the first occasion, when we ascended the Tagherot 

 Pass in a storm of snow and hail that completely intercepted all 

 distant view, the cold was so severe that we willingly turned our 

 faces from the storm when only Mr. Maw, the foremost of the 

 party, had actually set his foot upon the summit, about 12,000 feet 

 above the sea level. On the second occasion, after Mr. Maw 

 had departed from us, we attained a conspicuous peak, called 

 Diebel Tezah, about 11,500 feet in height, in a much lower p.art 

 of the range than that previously visited. In addition to the very 

 limited results of personal observation, we naturally availed our- 

 selves of every promising opportunity for obtaining topographical 

 information from natives. Much of the information obtained in 

 this way appears to me utterly unreliable, especially when derived 

 from persons holding local authority, but the particulars supplied 



