Anthropology at the British Association. 397 
Mr. R. Campbell Thompson’s paper, ‘ Ancient Assyrian 
Medicine,’ dealt chiefly with the cuneiform fragments and 
tablets (about five hundred in number) as yet unpublished 
in the British Museum. These relate mainly to diseases of 
the various organs of the body, poultices, and enemas. More 
than a hundred drugs are given, but it is often difficult to 
identify them with their modern equivalents. Amongst those 
identified are liquorice, cassia, ‘ Heart-plant’ as one of the 
Hyocyami, and Mandrake. A great number of the sections 
consist of simple descriptions of the disease, followed by a 
brief receipt for the proper drugs and their use, but there are 
curious lapses into pure magic, with appropriate incantations. 
Mr. W. Crooke, ‘ The Stability of Tribal and Caste Groups 
in India,’ shows that there is less stability in spite of formal 
rules regulating endogamy and exogamy in the tribal and 
caste groups than Sir H. Risley supposed to exist. Many of 
the larger groups are distinctly heterogeneous. 
The origin and signification of ‘ Hook-swinging in India’ 
was discussed by Mr. J. H. Powell. The ceremony, which is 
still practised in certain villages of Chota Nagpur, consists of 
attaching the victim by means of two hooks passing through 
the fleshy part of the back to a cross-pole pivoted on a tall 
post. The rite is probably a commutated form of human 
sacrifice. Rotation of the victim (not swinging) seems to be 
characteristic of the ritual, and recalls a similar feature of the 
Meriah sacrifice of the Khands. 
Mr. W. J. Perry gave a table showing the aim of the 
practice of ‘ Orientation of the Dead in Indonesia.’ In all 
the cases investigated (seventeen) the dead are made to face 
in the direction of the Land of the Dead, which is the direction 
of the land from which the folk in question believe themselves 
to have come. 
“Sun Cult and Megaliths in Oceania,’ by Mr. W. H. R. 
Rivers contains an account of the seasonal element in the 
religious ritual of a considerable number of tribes. Evidence 
of representation of the annual movements of the sun is 
found among the Areois of Eastern Polynesia, the Dukduk 
of New Britain, the Matambala of the Solomon Islands, and 
other Melanesian peoples. 
Some interesting points were raised by Dr. G. Landtman 
in ‘The Ideas of the Kiwai Papuans regarding the Soul.’ 
These people use the same word for soul, shadow, reflection 
in the water, and picture. The soul may inhabit any part of 
the body or leave it altogether. A man might steal another’s 
soul by catching his shadow at night with a piece of bamboa 
open at one end, which he afterwards plugged up. By burning 
the bamboo the other man is killed. Dreams are attributed 
to the wanderings of the soul. The soul of a murderer is 
1913 Nov.. 1. 
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