TRANSACTIONS OF THE SECTIONS. 109 



times long' anterior to history and tradition. To tlie cave men of those days and 

 to tlie rude tribes on tlie valley of the Somme, with their rude flint implements, 

 he found a parallel among existing savages and the Esquimaux tribes of the 

 present day. Arcliteology, he said, was the link which connect* prehistoric man 

 with history ;" and, as Sir J. Lubbock had so well remarked, "they were too 

 studied in their works — houses for the living, tombs for the dead, fortifications 

 for defence, temples for worship, implements for use, and ornaments for decora- 

 tion." In their modes of sepulchre, their tumuli, cromlechs, dolmens, and 

 cistvaens, we had unmistakeable evidence of differences of race and of phases of 

 civilization, for these ancient tumuli did not belong to one period nor to one race 

 of man. In the tumuli of Denmark, during the stone and bronze ages, the di- 

 stinctive characteristics were so marked and striking as to point to men of the 

 bronze period as being a new race in a much higher state of civilization, and who 

 had exterminated the previous inhabitants. Their very general practice of crema- 

 tion had deprived us of one important source of e^-idence, in the shape of the skull, 

 as to their facial type. Human paleontology, however, had made plain to us that 

 in the pre-Celtic times there existed both a brachycephalic and a dolichocephalic 

 race, as primitive peoples, in Europe. He next passed to the consideration of 

 primeval man. After comparing civilized with savage man, our own condition 

 with that of those to whom the illuminating rays of civilization had never reached, 

 or among whom thej' had become extinguished, and after having pointed out, in 

 their respective bony crania, distinctive differences impressed and stamped upon 

 them, as vmmistakeable and indisputable evidence of elevation and degradation of 

 type, he discussed the important questions as to whether in time these types were 

 convertible, and, if so, which was primordial. 



On a Proposed Ethnological Congress at Calcutta. 

 By Sir Walter Elliott, /sT. 0.5. 



A congress of a novel kind has recently been proposed at Calcutta by Dr. Fayrer ; 

 namely, an assemblage of living examples of all the races of men of the old world 

 for ethnological study ; to take place on the occasion of the Industrial Exhibition 

 to be held in 1869-70. The proposition has been warmly taken up by the Asiatic 

 Society of Bengal. At the same time the Council of the Society suggested a 

 modified scheme confined to the subordinate governments of Bengal, for an ethno- 

 logical congress of all the tribes found in Bengal, Nipal, Burma, the Andaman and 

 Nicobar Islands ; to form part of the Local Agricultural Exhibition of 1867-68. 

 The author proposed in his paper a third scheme, intermediate between these two, 

 namely, an assemblage of individuals of all the races found in^British India. This 

 would be more practicable than the larger scheme, and more useful than the smaller. 

 To show the large field for ethnological comparison in this assemblage, the existing 

 population was described as consisting of three principal divisions. 1. As de- 

 scended from aboriginal races and the servile classes ; 2. from the Tamil or Dra- 

 vidian races ; 3. from Hindi immigrants, whose language has been modified and 

 perfected by Sanscrit. The first are represented by the small communities in- 

 habiting mountain-ranges and dense forests, and speaking the most ancient 

 dialects deemed of Tui-anian origin. The second contains the more civilized Tamil 

 peoples. The servile classes have naturally adopted the modern or polished Tamil, 

 but that it is foreign to them is shown by their inability to pronoimce words 

 containing a remarkable Tamil letter, equally a Sibboleth to Europeans, and which 

 is generally rendered by an /, or sometimes by an r. A striking characteristic of 

 all the aboriginal races is their demonolatry, in the sense of the Greek word. 

 They honom- the spirits of their ancestors as beneficent beings. A festival 

 observed annually or at longer intervals, in honour of the village goddess, to 

 propitiate her protection from loss of crops or epidemic disease, affords a curious 

 illustration of the religious belief of this class. The officiating priests all belong to 

 the servile class ; and the ceremonies consist of oflerings of cattle and saturnalia. 

 The author referred to the Dhangars as remarkable for their love of truth, and 

 their similarity in this respect to the Gonds of Central India and the Southals of 

 the North. 



