t908 EErouT — 1887. 



7. On Inscribed Stones from Mevagh and Barnes, Co. Donegal. 

 By G. H. KiNAHAN, M.B.I.A. 



The author exhibited rubbings of several inscribed stones from Mevagh and 

 Barnes, and read descriptive notes on their occurrence. The presence of crosses 

 associated with certain circles was very notable. Several rubbings were exhibited 

 from the inscribed monumental stones at Barnes. These standing stones are 

 known as ' dallans.' 



8. Gipsies, and an Ancient Hebrew Race, in Sus and the Sahara. 

 By R. G. Halibueton. 



Pakt I. 



The province of Sus, as respects the customs of its people, is, and always has 

 been, a terra incognita. Excepting a few lines by Herodotus, nothing has ever 

 been written as to them, and this paper is the first attempt to describe them. 



The Berbers of Morocco are divided into the Riffs and Susis ; the first, light- 

 haired and large men, living in the moimtains ; the latter, smaller, darker, and gene- 

 rally nomadic. The people of North Africa were called Libu, or Ribu, on the 

 monuments, and hence the word Libyan. But the Riffs are called RiJH, or Ribi; 

 hence, Libyan is the same as Riffian. 



The Susis speak a dialect of Berber, called Shilhach, and are most of them 

 gipsies of different descriptions. Some are skilful bellfounders, others make 

 ■ ornaments and arms, others saddlery, others dishes. Others are silver- and gold- 

 smiths, and are famous for their skill as artificers. Most of them tell fortunes — 

 some by sand, who are called Amlad, or Reviliien ; others by beads ; others by a 

 flower ; some by watching a fowl after its head has been struck off ; some by a 

 shoulder-blade. The women in some tribes tell fortunes by the hand, and are 

 called Guessani, or De Guessan. Some indulge in a sort of magic, and profess to 

 call up spirits, or to make persons at a distance appear, using a powder on a 

 fire which stupefies the inquirer. They also make charms for finding money, 

 curing illness, calling back vagrant husbands, or for the production of olive 

 branches, and for supplying all the wants of humanity. 



These people liave been for thousands of years, no doubt, connected with the 

 Timbuctoo gold trade, and have picked up wandering habits, which have become 

 hereditary. 



They have secret signs and passes among themselves, called ' the words of the 

 Kafila ' (tent or lodge), which is probably the same word as the well-known 

 ' Cabala ' of the Jews. 



It was shown that the Hyperboreans were the people to the south of the Atlas, 

 or Riffian mountains (called in Greek mythology Ripaan mountains). There the 

 prevailing N.E. wind is very pleasant in the winter, that place being beyond the 

 rage of 'rude Boreas.' Beyond the Hyperboreans were, according to Herodotus, 

 the 'one-eyed Arimaspians.' These, the writer contended, were the Susis. In 

 proof of this he exhibited a bournous with an ' all-seeing eye ' on the back, a yard 

 in length. This ornament is peculiar to the Susis, and is like ' the eye of Osiris ' 

 ■and a well-known Masonic symbol. He showed that there are vestiges of the 

 ■Osirian cult lingering amonff these people. 



There is an ancient Jewish town near the Sahara, an entrepot of the gold trade, 

 called Ophran, on the river Ophrar ; not far from it are the O tdad bu Seba, a,ni 

 farther south the Oulad bu Saba, or Sabaeen. The latter guide the caravans by the 

 Seven Stars, and are, he contended, the old vSabseans, whose caravans wandered aU 

 over the ancient world. They are superior to the other tribes, and looked up to 

 very much, as they know secret lore not laiown to others. Heeren conjectures 

 that the gold trade of Africa must always have been in the hands of a religious 

 guild. 



A bracelet from the Sahara was exhibited, of horn, in the form of a serpent, 

 with twelve divisions representing the months. In each division were two groups 

 •of seven stars, maldng twenty-four groups in all. 



