140 REPORT — 1873. 



ciate the numerous respective points of resemblance. The character is essentially 

 Teutonic, including the shrewdness, the truthfulness without candour, the perse- 

 verance, energy, and industry of the Scotch, but little of their frugality, or of 

 the theological instinct common to the Welsh and Scotch, or of the imaginative 

 genius, or the more brilliant qualities which sometimes light up the Scottish 

 character. 



The sound judgment, the spirit of fair-play, the love of comfort, order, and 

 cleanliness, and the fondness for heavy feeding are shared with the Saxon 

 Englishman ; but some of them are still more strongly marked in the Yorkshire- 

 man, as is also the bluff independence — a very fine quality when it does not degene- 

 rate into selfish rudeness. The aptitude for music was remarked by Giraldus 

 Cambrensis seven centuries ago ; and the taste for horseflesh seems to have 

 descended from the old Norsemen, though it maj' have been fostered by local 

 circumstances. The mind, like the body, is generally very vigorous and energetic, 

 and extremely well adapted to commercial and industrial pursuits, as well as to the 

 cultivation of the exact sciences ; but a certain defect in imaginative power must, 

 I think, be admitted, and is probably one reason, though obviously not the only 

 one, why Yorkshire, until quite modern times, was generally behindhand in politics 

 and religion, and why the number of her sous who, since Cajdmon, have attained 

 to high eminence in literatm'e is not above the average of England. 



Note on the Iberians. By John Beddoe, M.D., F.R.S. 



The writer briefly adverted to : — 1st. The longer heads and more frequently light 

 hair of the Spanish Basques as compared with the modem Aquitanians. 2ndly. 

 The probable presence in Aqmtaiue of a melaaochroic element of population, 

 neither Basque, Kyniric, nor Gaelic, but possibly Ligurian. 3rdly. The presence 

 of a common element in the populations of the Basque countries, of Bretagne, and 

 of Wales, indicated by certain physical types. 



The Ser])ent in connexion lulth Primitive Metallurffj/. By A. W. Bcckland, 



In considering the innumerable serpent legends which have descended to us from 

 an immeasurable antiquity, wc cannot fail to be struck with the remarkable fact 

 that by far the larger number represent the serpent either as the guardian of hidden 

 treasure and revealer of hidden knowledge, or as in some way connected with gold 

 and gems. Pursuing our inquiries further, we find almost invariably that all the 

 heroes and gods with whom the serpent is associated are also credited with some 

 mysterious power over riches, agriculture, and atmospheric phenomena : they are 

 always the pioneers of civilization, the teachers of agriculture and of mining : their 

 age is the golden age of the people over whom they reign ; and in all these instances 

 the serpent is the Agathodasmon, the good and benevolent deitj^ sometimes the 

 creator, almost always the first and oldest of gods or demigods, and in this character 

 is generally accompanied by an %g§ as an emblem of the world, or a cone symbolical 

 of the sun or fire, these serpent races being invariably worshippers of the sun and earth. 

 But we find that this character of the serpent is confined to Turanian races, or to those 

 nations who have at some time or other passed under Turanian influences. Among 

 the Aryans and Semites the serpent is looked upon as a form of evil, although this 

 idea is modified in many cases by a survival of primitive belief, so that in Hindostan 

 he is still regarded with veneration, although the origin of that veneration can 

 generally be traced to aboriginal tribes. It would therefore appear that the serpent 

 may yet become a very important ethnological guide ; and being traced back to the 

 age of totemism, and read by the light of legends confirmed by early monuments, 

 it may probably be assumed that the primitive tribe or tribes bearing the serpent 

 as a totem were also the first metal workers, and had acquired their knowledge of 

 metals in some way through the instrumentality of the totem, for this reason so 

 highly and so widely venerated. It would also appear that these early serpent 



