914 bepokt — 1884. 



ia entitled to more than one, and if successful he wins the woman ; and by savage 

 law controversy must then end. All three of these forms are observed among the 

 tribes of North America, and they are methods by which selection by legal appoint- 

 ment is developed into selection by personal choice. Sometimes these latter forms 

 largely prevail, and they come to be regulated more and more, until at last they 

 become mere forms, and personal choice prevails. 



When personal choice thus prevails, the old regulation that a man may not 

 marry within his own group still exists, and selection within that group is incest, 

 which is always punished with great severity. The group of persons within which 

 marriage is incest is always a highly artificial group. Hence, in early society, 

 incest laws do not recognise physiological conditions, but only social conditions. 



The above outline will make clear the following statement, that endogamy and 

 exogamy, as originally defined by Maclennan, do not exist. Every savage man is 

 exogamous with relation to the class or clan to which he may belong, and he is to 

 a certain extent endogamous in relation to the tribe to which he belongs ; that is, 

 he must marry within that tribe, but in all cases, if his marriage is the result of 

 legal appointment, he is greatly restricted in his marriage rights, and the selection 

 must be made within some limited group. Exogamy and endogamy, as thus 

 defined, are integral parts of the same law, and the tribes of mankind cannot be 

 classed in two great groups, one practising endogamy and the other exogamy. 



The law of exogamy is universal. Among all peoples there is a group, larger 

 or smaller, and natural or artificial, within which marriage is prohibited. The 

 terms ' exogamy and ' endogamy ' are misleading, and should be discarded. 



5. Report of the Committee for defining the Facial Characteristics of €h 

 Races anil Principal Crosses in the British Isles. — See Reports, p. 294. 



SATURDAY, AUGUST 30. 

 The Section did not meet. 



MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 1. 



The following Papers were read :— 



1. Remarlcs on the Customs and Language of the Iroquois. 

 By Mrs. Ekminie A. Smith. 



The literal meaning of many Iroquois nouns is extremely interesting. The 

 names of animals in very many cases refer to some peculiarity of the object. Tht 

 goat and some other animals are named from their odour^ birds generally from 

 their note ; nearly all trees are named from some quality ; tears, translate as_ eye- 

 juice; sugar, as tree-juice. The feelings and passions are even more strikingly 

 descriptive : a thing that is wonderful is scalp-raising ; anything tempting, alluring, 

 or captivating, is said ' to unhook the mind.' The peculiarity of different words 

 requiring unlike pronouns for the same person and number, and the great number 

 of these pronouns have greatly puzzled most students of Indian languages, several 

 of whom have stated that there are but two genders, a noble and an ignoble ; Mrs. 

 Smith, however, brings evidence to prove the existence of three genders in these 

 dialects. 



2. On the Development of Industrial and Ornamental Art among the Zuvis 

 of New Mexico. By E. H. Cushing. 



The author brought forward evidence, linguistic and otherwise, to prove the 

 descent of the Zufiis from the Pueblo Indians. The word Pueblo was applied to a 

 nation who lived in communal dwellings. The art of pottery was practised in the 

 Pueblo district to a very great extent, and the author gave an account of the 



