TRANSACTIONS OF SECTION H. 905 



The method of tattooing in New Zealand, America, the Pacific Islands, among 

 some of the tribes of India, Burmah, Borneo, New Guinea, and Japan, differs en- 

 tirely from these cicatrices. The pattern is first drawn and afterwards punctured 

 with needles, thorns, or often with sharp implements formed of human bone, and 

 into the wounds thus made a pigment is rubbed, either of charcoal or more fre- 

 quently of indigo blue, thus forming indelible marks, which sometimes cover the 

 whole body and sometimes are confined to certain parts. In the men, tattooing of 

 this kind denotes a chieftain or warrior, and is undergone as a test of coui-age and 

 endurance, but the pattern is the totem, or emblem, of the tribe or individual. One 

 great peculiarity is, that in almost all countries in which this form of tattooing 

 exists, the women are tattooed on the chin, and this mark almost invariably denotes 

 marriage. In connection with this, jSliss Buckland pointed out that the custom 

 seemed to follow the line of route indicated in her former papers on ' Prehistoric 

 Intercourse between East and West ' and ' American Shell-work,' thus corrobo- 

 rating the views therein expressed ; and further called attention to a peculiar mark 

 on the chin of a shell mask found in a grave-mound in "Virginia, U.S.A., which is 

 seen also on the chin of the great stone figure from Easter Island in the portico of 

 the British Museum. In both cases this mark may probably denote tattooing, but 

 whether in those remote times it was the distinctive mark of a female is not easily 

 determined. 



b. Report of the Committee appointed to edit a new Edition of ' Anthropo- 

 logical Notes and Queries.' — See Reports, p. 172. 



Third Report of the Committee for investigating and publishing reports 

 on the physical characters, languages, and indtistrial and social con- 

 dition of the North-Western Tribes of the Dominion of Canada. — See 

 Reports, p. 173. 



MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 5. 



The following Report and Papers were read : — 



1- Second Report of the Committee for investigating the Prehistoric Race in 

 the Greek Islands. — See Reports, p. 200. 



2. The Early Ages of Metal in South-East Spain. 

 By Henri and Louis Siret. 



The authors explored a coast region, about 75 kilometers in length, between 

 Cartagena and Almeria. They investigated some forty stations, belonging to three 

 prehistoric epochs — (1) The Neolithic; (2) Transition between Stone and Metal; 

 (3) Metal age. The following details are given : — 



(1) In the Neolithic period man employs instruments in bone, stone, and flint ; 

 also the vases in baked earth, which characterise this age in other parts of Europe ; 

 ornaments of shells, bone, and stone used. The dead are buried in polygonal 

 spaces, surrounded by stones. 



(2) Transition. — Appearance of bronze bracelets and beads ; cremation of the 

 dead. These new customs imported by some foreign people. At the same time, 

 evidence of the first attempts at a native metallurgy, utilising the ores of the 

 country ; arms and utensils cast in metal, imitating the form of those in bone and 

 stone. 



(3) Metal epoch. — Copper and bronze employed simultaneously, as in preceding 

 age ; hnt copper predominates. Stone implements still common. Silver appears : 

 this is a nexu fact in the early Bronze age. In this region prehistoric man found 



