ANTHROPOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 127 



stant and multifarious admixture of strains of blood ; of ad- 

 mixture, absorption, and destruction of languages with gen- 

 eral progress toward unity ; of the diffusion of arts by vari- 

 ous processes of acculturation; and of admixture and 

 reciprocal diffusion of customs, institutions, and traditions. 

 Arts, customs, institutions, and traditions extend beyond 

 the boundaries of languages and serve to obscure them ; and 

 the admixture of strains of blood has obscured primitive 

 ethnic divisions, if such existed. 



If the physical classification fails, the most fundamental 

 grouping left is that based on language ; but for the reasons 

 already mentioned and others of like character, the classifi- 

 cation of languages is not, to the full extent, a classification 

 of peoples. 



It may be that the unity of the human race is a fact so 

 profound that all attempts at a fundamental classification to 

 be used in all the departments of anthropology will fail, 

 and that there Avill remain multifarious groupings for the 

 multifarious purposes of the science ; or otherwise expressed, 

 that languages, arts, customs, institutions, and traditions 

 may be classified, and that the human family will be con- 

 sidered as one race. 



Mythology. 



In this department the following papers have been pre- 

 sented : 



Comparative Mythology of the Two Indies ; by Gar- 

 rick Mallery. 



The "Tar Baby," and "The Three Cranberries" — 

 Two Folk-lore Stories ; by J. W. Powell. 



Four Creations of Mankind — A Tualati Myth ; by A. 

 S. Gatschet. 



Superstitions ; by A. S. Gatschet. 



Here again America presents a rich field for the scientific 

 explorer. It is now known that each linguistic stock has 

 a distinct mythology, and as in some of these, stocks there 



