916 report — 1884. 



sepulture, the author trusts to be able to show clearly that the burial of articles 

 with the dead was not so much a religious act as a mark of respect to the dead. 



The archaeological relics of Canada have never been fully described, and aro 

 deserving of a higher rank, in a scientific sense, than has as yet been awarded 

 them. We have a grand field to work in, and the articles we find well repay us 

 for the trouble taken. The Aborigines of America are undoubtedly the fathers of 

 smoking, and the elaborate workmanship which was bestowed upon their pipes 

 shows the important place it took in their everyday life. There are no articles 

 found which so well portray the aboriginal ingenuity as the pipes. Animals, birds, 

 reptiles, and the human physiognomy are all carved upon the bowls and stems with 

 lifelike accurateness. Many specimens found would trouble a clever artisan of the 

 present day to copy exactly, allowing him all the modern tools to work with, 

 because stones, tools, ornaments of various kinds, &c, were also manufactured with 

 a precision simply perfect ; and, sti'ange to say, it seems to have been a matter of 

 little moment whether they worked the hardest or softest materials. 



Pottery, shell, and bone were extensively used in the manufacture of articles 

 for their everyday life, whether for ornaments or necessary utensils ; copper was 

 also utilised to some extent, principally for tools, ornaments, and sword-blades ; the 

 ore was merely pounded into the required shape. 



Shells which must have been brought a distance of nearly two thousand miles 

 are sometimes found in graves, evidencing the extraordinary fact that a trade must 

 have been carried on between the Aborigines of the North and those of the South, 

 which, extending over such a vast distance, and with their primitive mode of 

 travelling, must have made the articles exchanged of great value. 



The wampum was probably nearly altogether carved from these foreign shells. 



5. Observations on the Mexican Zodiac and Astrology. By Hyde Clarke. 



The author communicated some detailed observations on the Mexican signs, 

 and on the figure of a man to the limbs and organs of which these signs are applied. 

 These he treated in comparison with the Chinese Zodiac, that adopted in Europe, 

 the Phoenician and Hebrew alphabet, and the linguistic relations of the several 

 words. Taurus was correlated with Aleph, X (1) ; Virgo the Girl with the Chinese 

 Snake ; Scorpion (6) with the Mexican Ear ; Sagittarius (8) = Tiger, Ocelot, Navel, 

 and 8 ; Aquarius (10) with the Fiat, Water, and the Hair. For the right eye, 

 the Mexican sign is the house. In gesture language and also in speech language 

 the eye = 2. This is also the numerical value of the House 2 in the Semitic 

 alphabets. Of purely Mexican signs were illustrated Goat = Foot ; Sun = Tongue ; 

 and Lizard = Thigh. 



Mr. Clarke's conclusion'was that at one time there was in the world a common 

 symbolic, linguistic, and numeral connection of the objects, and that Chinese, 

 Egyptian, Mexican, or Aztec and Phoenician are not original types, but simply 

 derivative. The numeral relations are not to be regarded as arithmetical, but 

 serial ; and as the order of a series could be changed, the variations in existing 

 types are thus to be accounted for. The originals must have been of most remote 

 antiquity. 



6. Facts suggestive of Prehistoric Intercourse between East and West. 

 By Miss A. W. Buckland. 



The object of this paper is to point out a few facts which have been somewhat 

 overlooked, but which all tend to show that at some very early period an inter- 

 course must have subsisted between the two hemispheres, by means of which ideas 

 were interchanged, to be worked out differently, although bearing traces of a 

 common origin. 



Miss Buckland first points out the similarities between the canoes and rafts of 

 Asia and America, and then proceeds to show the relation between a few peculiar 

 American weapons, which seem to have had a very wide range and also some 

 mystic signification. The first of these is an axe-head of metal, which was used as 

 a symbol on the heads of gods, both in Peru and Mexico, and appears to have 



