850 KEPOET — 1888. 



China, and India, where they are worn by the Nagas. These shell discs, known in 

 America as Wampum, form the money of the Red Indiana, and are also used as 

 money by the Solomon Islanders. Similar shell discs are found in ancient graves, 

 not only in America, but in Europe ; whilst in Africa, ostrich egg-shell discs of the 

 same size and threaded in the same manner, with pieces of skin substituted for the 

 dark shell, are made and worn by Bushmen, Niam-Niams, and other wild tribes in 

 the interior. Similar ostrich egg-shell discs are found in ancient Egyptian and 

 Etruscan tombs, showing prehistoric intercourse between Etruria and Egypt, or the 

 interior of Africa. 



The pendants accompanying these necklaces are almost always teeth or shells 

 cut in the form of teeth. The beads used for necklaces and found among ancient 

 relics are of various substances, such as bone, serpentine, gold, silver, bronze, tin 

 and glass, and are often made so as to represent several discs or beads joined 

 together. Beads of this kind are found in the Swiss Lake dwellings, in Spain, in 

 Britain, in Ilissarlik and Mycenae, and of a later date in Livonia and Abyssinia. 



Beads of amber, which formed such an important article of commerce in pre- 

 historic times, are found among relics of the Stone Age, and have also been discovered 

 in tombs belonging to the Bronze Age, in all parts of Europe, in Egypt and India, 

 several trade routes being known, whereby amber found its way from the Baltic to 

 the Mediterranean. Of glass beads the most remarkable are those known as adder's 

 stones, still used as a charm to cure cattle diseases. Beads of this kind of one 

 particular pattern known as chevron beads have been found in various parts of Europe, 

 in Great Britain, in Egypt, in the Pelew Islands, and also in ancient graves in Canada 

 and Peru. Similar glass beads are dug up in Ashantee and highly valued, forming 

 part of the Royal jewels. Beads of the same shape, and from the markings upon 

 them, probably of the same kind, appear adorning the necks of monarchs on the 

 sculptured slabs brought by Layard from Assyria. 



There is also a melon-shaped bead of various materials, very widely distributed, 

 being found in ancient graves in Mexico, as well as in Assyria and all over 

 Europe. 



Many peculiar glass beads are found in Ireland, resembling those of Egypt and 

 Greece, although perhaps of native manufacture copied from older types, and it may 

 be fairly said that the history of necklaces is the history of commercial intercourse 

 both in prehistoric and in modern times. 



2. The Definition of a Nation. By J. Paek Harrison, M.A. 



The frequent misuse of the terms ' Nation ' and ' Nationality' at the present day 

 appears to be due to the idea that race and language are involved in the definition. 

 This is not the case, excepting in the primary and archaic sense of the word. 

 Johnson's definition is simply ' a distinct people : a kingdom,' but the best definition 

 is that given in the dictionary of the French Academy, viz. — ' The ivhole. popula- 

 tion born or naturalised in a country, and living under the same Government ' — irre- 

 spective of race and language. 



3. Sim-myths in Modern Hellas. By J. Theodore Bent. 



The personification of the Sun amongst the peasants of modern Greece compares 

 well with the legends of classical times ; his beauty, power, and strength endow him 

 with regal attributes, and he is supposed at night-time to seek his kingdom and 

 live in a palace where his mother tends upon him. We have also the Sun's wife 

 and the Sun's daughter, and can compare the Macedonian legend of Ileliojenni with 

 the Homeric myths of Perse and her children Circe and Aietes. The Suu, as mes- 

 senger, may be compared with the words of the dying Ajax. 



The connection between Sun worship and that of the Prophet Elias is very 

 marked in modern Greece. Elias looks after rain, and is the Greek St. Swithin. 

 Churches to him are alwaj's found on sites of ancient temples to Apollo. The 

 Macedonian ceremony of Perperouna is referred to, and its connection with other 



