TRANSACTIONS OF SECTION H. 767 



gods. The practice in Central Africa ; Melcliizedek ; the testimony of Homer ; 

 the ancient kings of Rome ; changes in custom and oral tradition ; the diagnosis 

 of blood royal by animals and other means. 



2. On Perforated Stone Amulets. By F. T. Elwokthy, F.S.A. 



There is a widespread belief in the eiScacy of naturally perforated stones a» 

 prophylactic agents against witchcraft. Examples are given of : — 



(1) Witchstones in a garden and against a door in Lincolnshire. 



(2) The preservation of these stones as family possessions. In all cases the 

 root idea is the need of protection against the Evil Eye. 



(3) The prevalence of the belief in the susceptibility of cattle, and in ' witch 

 doctors.' 



(4) The so-called ' holy llints,' used chiefly in gardens in England, but also 

 worn on the person, and employed by Dorset boatmen as protectors. 



(5) A much-worn stone from Antrim used to protect cattle. This amulet has 

 not only been tied upon cows' necks, but has been boiled in water for the cows to 

 drink. 



(6) Many specimens from Southern Italy, wbere they are also found on cow- 

 houses, though chiefly, as in Lincolnshire, on dwelling-houses. 



(7) A round piece of sea-worn pottery, with a central hole, from a house m 

 South Italy, almost identical with a similar object in Bohemian glass, made as a 

 trade article for East Africa. 



That the perforation rather than the material is the real seat of the ideal value 

 is proved by evidence from various localities, but particularly from modern 

 Somerset. The question is raised of the connection of holed pebbles with the 

 well-known larger apertures in rocks and boulders. 



3, Note on Two Japanese ^ Boku-to.' By E. S. Hartland. 



The author exhibits two boMi-to, or wooden swords, formerly worn as profes- 

 sional emblems by medical practitioners in Japan. One of them is shaped as a 

 bean-pod containing seven seeds and adorned, near the ends, with representations 

 in lacquer of a grasshopper and four other insects. The other is a rough piece 

 of willow, on one side of which are cut Japanese characters meaning spider-boat. 

 This name is connected with a Japanese legend. Attached to the boku-to in 

 question is a natural seed-vessel, or fig, for the purpose of retaining it in the 

 girdle. 



4. On Tallies. By E. Lovett. 



Tallies are records kept by cutting notches in sticks of wood, and are a sur- 

 vival of probably the earliest appliance of a commercial nature made by man. 

 The collection of these objects which is exhibited, a list of which is given below, 

 is of special interest from the fact that the specimens have been in actual use, either 

 quite recently or within the last twenty years or so. They represent two classes 

 of tally, viz. (1) The contract tally, formed by a split stick (through the notches), 

 each portion of which is retained by the two contracting parties respectively — a 

 most eflective and safe instrument. (2) The simple or memorandum tally, repre- 

 sented by single slips of wood upon which are recorded, by a series of notches of 

 various form or arrangement, the intentional record of the operator. This latter 

 form is of wide geographical distribution and of great antiquity ; tallies of ivory, 

 bone, and horn having been found in the cavern deposits of France. It is interest- 

 ing to note that whereas the siinple or folk tally has survived, the complex form, 

 as elaborated in the bankers' and Exchequer tallies, has become quite obsolete, and 

 now only exists in the form of our present commercial terms and expressions, all 



