478 



NATURE 



\_Scpt. 1 6, 1880 



Pocket Kcgislni/nr for Anthropological Purposes, by Francis 

 Gallon, M.A., F.K.S. — The author exhibited a small instrument 

 a quarter.of an inch thick, four inches long and one and three 

 quarters wide, furnished v ith five stops, each communicating by 

 a ratchet witli a separate index arm that moves round its ow n 

 dial-plate. The registrator may be grasped and held unseen in 

 either hand h ith a separate finger over each stop. When any 

 finger is pressed on the stop below it, the corresponding index 

 arm moves forward one step. Guides are placed between 

 the stops to insure the fingers occupying their proper positions 

 when the instrument is seized and used in the pocket, or when it 

 is slipped inside a loose glove or other cover. It is possible liy 

 its means to take anthropological statistics of any kind among 

 crowds of people without exciting observation, which it is other- 

 wise exceedingly difficult to do. The statistics may be grouped 

 under any number of headings not exceeding five. If it should 

 ever be thought worth while to use a registrator in each hand, 

 ten headings could be employed. Tlie instrument that was 

 exhibited worked well, but it was the first of its kind, and might 

 be improved. It was made by Mr. Hawkesley, surgica linstru- 

 ment maker, 300, Oxford Street, London. The author also 

 drew attention to the ease with %^hich registers may be kept by 

 pricking holes in paper in different compartments with a fine 

 needle. A great many holes may be pricked at haphazard close 

 together, without their running into one another or otherwise 

 making it difficult to count them afterwards. The mark is 

 indelible, and any scrap of paper suffices. The needle ought to 

 project a very short way out of its w^ooden holder, just enough 

 to perforate the paper, but not more. It can then be freely 

 used without pricking the fingers. This method, however, 

 requires two hands, and its use excites nearly as much observation 

 as that of a pencil. 



Dr. Phene, F.S.A., F.R.G.S., read a paper On the Retention 

 of Ancient and Prehistoric Customs in the Pyrenees. He said 

 he could now repeat more confidently the peculiar features 

 which indicate beyond question that the customs of the Gallic 

 population of the South of France agreed, so far as they might 

 judge from their lithic monuments, with those who came farther 

 north and settled in Britain. On the crests and sides of the 

 mountains on both sides of the Pyrenees, i.e. in Spain and 

 France, are found sepulchral arrangements of stones somewhat 

 different to any distinctly recorded amongst our antiquities. 

 These consist of a number of circles adjoining each other ; in the 

 centi'e of each is a cist with an uni, having burnt bones, antl 

 the form of the circle is that of a wavy or serpentine cross. 

 The quaint old customs of early Celtic life are kept up all along 

 the Pyrenees, but not in the towns, in the plains, or champagne 

 cotmtry. One of these, which he described last year as still 

 existing in Brittany, that of a wooden tally, in lieu of a bill or 

 account, on which tlie baker marked by notches the number of 

 loaves he supplied, and which attracted the attention of the 

 President of the section last year, was also existent in the 

 Pyrenees. He purchased a baker's bill at Perpignan a few 

 months ago, and though not so rustic as that of Brittany, it 

 approached more to our old Exchequer tally, and to the Welsh 

 stick of writing described in "Bardas," as v.ell as to some 

 elaborate and really wonderful calendars, still to be seen in the 

 Cheetham Museum at Manchester, than to the rustic tally of 

 Brittany. On crossing into Spain and prosecuting mquiries, he 

 found the serpent or dragon emblem everywhere prominent, and 

 even learned that the Tarasque, the ceremony of which is per- 

 formed at Tarascon, in Provence, was a well-known dragon with 

 the Spanish people. He was told that, though used as a popular 

 diversion zXjetes, it had always a religious meaning. At Luchon 

 living serpents are consumed in the flames. The youths of the 

 village had miniature cloven pines which they burn. These they 

 brandish while flaming, in serpentine curves, and cry loudly, 

 " hilla-hilla " — pronounced "dla." But the Basque / often 

 stands for v, and if we used it here, we had the old classic cry of 

 the Bacchanals, who with serpents in their hands rushed about 

 wildly crying "Eva, eva." The place where these cries are 

 mostly practised has most remarkable sculptures of serpents. 

 After the burning of the pine a rush is made by the more power- 

 ful, and the burning embers carried off in their hands regardless 

 of pain. Pieces are then distributed to every household, and 

 kept religiously during the year, as was the custom with the 

 ancient Britons. 



Mr. Thomas Plunkett contributed a paper On an Ancient 

 Settlement found about .Tiuenty-one Feet beneath the Surface of 

 the Peat in the Coal Bog near Bohoe, County Fermanagh. — 



This interesting discovery consisted of the remains of two log 

 huts found in a primitive crannage. Flint implements, hand- 

 made pottery, and other objects, but no metal of any kind, were 

 found in connection with the huts, which, the author was of 

 opinion, were formed before the age of bog pine, as no pine 

 occun-ed below the level of the site on ^^hich the huts stood. 

 The fact that twenty-one feet of dark, compact peat h.ad grown 

 since the structures were formed was substantial evidence of their 

 great antiquity. 



Prof. Dawkins remarked that this discovery did not stand 

 alone, but in connection with others showed that in various parts 

 of Ireland we might look for log houses -in this way, pointing 

 back to a series of ancient \\ ooden houses which belonged to the 

 Neolithic people. 



Prof. Rolleston read papers On the Structure of Round and 

 Long Barro-Li's, his remarks being illustrated by a number of 

 diagrams. Premising that one of his objects was to preserve 

 barrows from being spoilt, and thus to prevent the destr'-"-"on of 

 certain links in the history of our species, he described the con- 

 struction of barro^^•s which he had explored, and urged the abso- 

 lute necessity of very great care being exercised in such explora- 

 tion. Speaking of urn burials in round barrows, the Professor 

 briefly referred to the cjuestion of the cremation of bodies, and 

 the idea of it. Why did the people bum their dead ? lie be- 

 lieved the idea was this — that all savage races, when they had to 

 deal with an enemy, Vere exceedingly prone to wreak certain 

 ignominies on dead bodies. Burning the bodies put it right out 

 of the power of the enemy to do this, and the urn enabled people 

 to carry aw ay their friends who were so burnt. In time of pesti- 

 lence it b- came actually necessary for sanitary considerations to 

 burn the dead, and it was only in time of plague or war that we 

 found that cremation or burning became the order of the day, 

 and that was readily explicable by the fact that men always did 

 what they could on the principle of least action, because burning 

 was a troublesome process. Any universality of burning was 

 explained by the fact that ancient .history was simply one great 

 catalogue of plague and pestilence and war and the like. Of 

 course he was an enemy to cremation, because it did a great deal 

 of harm, preventing us from knowing what sort of people our 

 predecessors «ere. Prof. Rolleston chronicled the finding in a 

 barrow of the Bronze period of a man laid out at full length, 

 the general rule being that of burial in a contracted position. 

 As regarded the date to be assigned to these things, he might 

 give it as his opinion that no Roman ever used a bronze sword, 

 nor crossed swords with an enemy using a sword of that material. 

 As regarded the long barrows, that mode of burial stretched all 

 the way from Wales to the Orkneys, and in them was found not 

 a scrap of metal. His opinion was that the idea of the construc- 

 tion of these barrows was taken from limestone mountain head- 

 lands projecting into the sea, such as might be seen by a little 

 trip in their immediate locality. The men lived in caves, and 

 the idea for the place of burial was taken from the place of 

 living, it being often found that a man made the house in which 

 he lived his burial-place. 



A short discussion having taken place on Prof. Rolleston's 

 paper. Dr. Schaafhausen, of Bonn, exhibited the Neanderthal 

 skull which was found in 1857, and which, he submitted, was not 

 the skull of an idiot, but of a man of the lowest development. 

 Prof. Rolleston agreed that the rcan whose skull it was was not 

 an idiot, and said that the abnormal development in connection 

 with it consisted in the frontal ridges. 



A paper by Miss A. W. Buckland On Surgeiy and Super- 

 stition in Acolithic Times was read. Miss Buckland said it had 

 been proved by the late Dr. Eroca that the system of trepanning 

 prevailed in Neolithic times, and the paper was to show the 

 extent of the practice, the superstitions associated with it, and 

 its connection with the use of cranial amulets. The surgical 

 operation known as trepanning consisted in making an opening 

 in the skull (chiefly of infants) in order to cure them of certain 

 internal maladies, and the individuals who survived were con- 

 sidered to be endowed with properties of a mystic character. 

 Dr. Broca stated that the custom died out with the introduc- 

 tion of bronze. Miss Buckland said the custom still existed 

 among the .South Sea Islanders, the Kabyles of Algeria, and 

 the mountaineers of Montenegro. The other papers read in this 

 department ^^■ere : On Bushmen Crania, by Prof. Rolleston ; 

 The Salting Mounds of Essex, by Mr. H. Slopes ; The Hitlites, 

 by Mr. W. St. C. Boscawen ; Further Researches on the Pre- 

 historic Relations of the Babylonian, Chinese, and Egyptian 

 Characters, and Languages, and Culture, by Mr. Hyde Clarke ; 



