154 REPORT—1874.. 
cider and mead, while the Scotchman rejoices in brose, porridge, and oateake, and 
the Irishman is confined to the use of the potato and some cheap condiment. 
So lately as 1820 Ivish was spoken occasionally in the mountainous districts of 
both counties, and broad Scotch near the coast and in a direct line inland ; while in 
the English district Shakspeare was read without the help of a glossary, and the 
expressions in ‘ L’Allegro’ and ‘Il Penseroso’ were those of daily life. Now much 
of this has passed away, and there is a well-defined provincial dialect, but with very 
marked local differences. There is a large amount of traditional ballad poetry, and 
many of the pieces which were published by Percy and Scott are well known to 
hundreds who never saw them in print. But the most permanent difference is 
found in the creeds of the people, for time does not appear to effect any appreciable 
change, In large and in small districts, not only here but in all Ireland, the rule 
is for one of the three religious communities to amount to more than 50 per cent, 
_ of the gross population; the exception is for the three to exist in approximately 
equal number. The Irish as a whole are Roman Catholics, the Scotch are Presby- 
terians, and the English’Protestant Episcopalians. Inthe county of Down one creed 
preponderates in 81 per cent. of the places which were separately enumerated in 1861 ; 
in the province of Ulster the percentage is 78, and in all Ireland 86. Though this 
variety of population is sometimes attended with inconvenience, as in the case of 
popular riots, it is on the whole beneficial, by the sustained rivalship, not of indi- 
viduals merely, but of large associations of men. And the writer pointed with 
confidence to the state of the district in corroboration of his sentiments, 
P On the Anthropology of Prehistoric Peru. 
By T. J. Hurcurson, F.R.GS., late H.B.M. Consul for Callao. 
This memoir was illustrated by photographs, diagrams, and sketches of many 
ruins of prehistoric Peru. With these were illustrations of several items of Mr. 
Hutchinson’s collection of Peruvian antiquities, now being exhibited at the Bethnal 
Green Museum in London. The paper commenced by recording how little is 
known up to the present of the glorious days of Peru, long before the time of the 
Incas ; and the author conveyed his agreement with Mr. Baldwin as to the original 
South-Americans (notably those of Peru) being the oldest people on that continent. 
It proceeded to show how little dependence was to be placed on the romantic 
gasconading of the Spanish writers, with regard to the Incas, of whose fabulous 
origin and mythological genealogy no account was traced by them to a period 
further back than about seven centuries ago, or close to the time when William the 
Conqueror came to England. It likewise discussed the writings of various authors 
of whose works translations have been recently published by the Hakluyt Society, 
showing them to be full of anomalies and contradictions, in the vain attempt to 
make the Incas be considered the earliest civilized race of Peru. The grandeur 
in extent of the ancient burial-mounds was a wonderful thing. It was shown by 
the diagrams and illustrations, The colossal work of those done by human hands 
(and some of them measuring from 20 to 24 millions of cubic feet) proved what 
a superior race these early Peruvians must haye been. The difference in morale, 
as in physique, of modern Peruvians and Chinese was commented upon to sug= 
gest that there could not have been (though supposed by very high authority) 
a homogeneity of origin. The paper further made a comparison of the burial- 
mounds explored by ‘Messrs. Squier and Davis in the valleys of the Ohio and 
Mississippi, with those examined by the author in Peru. This showed the greater 
magnitude of the works in the latter country as regarded their size, although in 
mathematical construction both presented a similarity. A curious feature in the 
Peruvian mounds, as well as ruins of fortresses, consists in the fact that their 
terraces, bastions, squares, and other architectural features have an almost invari- 
able measurement in multiples of twelve. The prehistoric ruins of Peru, described 
by Professor Raimondy in his recent work on the mineral riches of the department 
of Ancachs, were mentioned as highly interesting. Extraordinary things are the 
tombs cut out in the solid rock. But more wonderful still is the fact that these 
are of a stony formation, entirely different to the geology of the neighbourhood in 
which they are found, thus evidencing that these immense boulders, which are of 
