TRANSACTIONS OF THE SECTIONS. 141 



tribes carried tlieir knowledge from the parent hive (probabl}' in Central Asia or 

 India, where the precious metals abound) across Asia, Africa, Europe, and even to 

 America, leaving traces of their presence everywhere in serpent symbols, serpent 

 mounds, megalithic monuments, and the earliest traces of metallm-gy, confined, 

 however, to the use of the three precious metals in their pure unsmelted form. And 

 it would further appear that the connexion with America was broken before smelted 

 metals and iron became known, the art of smelting having probably been an acci- 

 dental discovery of the Aryan successors of the early serpent tribes. This serpen- 

 tine origin of metallurgy the author has endeavoured to set forth at some length 

 in this paper, believing it to be a matter worthy of further investigation, being 

 apparently confirmed by the present veneration of the serpent existing among 

 Turanian races, and the absence of serpent traditions among savages living in a 

 purely stone age, excepting in the Fiji Islands, where the inhabitants bear traces 

 of great admixture witn Asiatic tribes. 



Observations on Professor Gennarelli's Pajoer " On the Existence of a Race of 

 Med Men in Northern Africa and Southern Europe in Prehistoric Times'^ 

 By C. H. E. Caemichael, M.A. 



This communication gave an analysis of a paper recently read before the Anthropo- 

 logical and Ethnological Society of Italy by Prof. Gennarelli. The arguments ad- 

 duced rest partly on the exposition of various myths, and partly on so-called histo- 

 rical evidence furnished by the hieroglyphics of Egypt and the pottery of Etruria, 

 where representations of men are coloured red, and those of women of a lighter shade. 

 As a consequence of the discussion of Gennarelli's hypothesis, an Italian Committee 

 has been formed for the study of the primitive races of Italy. 



On Prehistoric Names of Weapons, 5?/ Hyde Clarke. 



This was a first attempt to apply the evidence of philological science to the con- 

 sideration of the distribution of tlie names of weapons in illustration of the distri- 

 bution of the weapons themselves among various races. Examples were taken from 

 the Indian region, West Africa, North America, South America, and Australia, of 

 the roots BK, BN, KN, and DM, applied to arroio and dart, knife, axe or hatchet, 

 spear or lance. Of one of these an example was given in Naga (India) of hipi and 

 takoaha, and in Houssa (Africa) of kebia and takobi. In the latter triliteral epoch, 

 the fanciful reference of weapons to the tongue as darting was mentioned in degen 

 and tongue, lancea and lingua, gladius and glotta. Examples were also given from 

 Australia. 



On the Comparative Chronology of tlie Migrations of Man in America in 

 relation to Comparative Philology. By Hyde Ciaeke. 



The object of this paper is to show tliat, so far as the evidence of language is aa 

 yet available and so far as probabilities go, the languages and culture of 'America 

 are connected with those of the Old World, and that there is no exclusive or 

 indigenous American language, grammar, or culture. The inference drawn is that 

 there is an original community of races and of culture, but that the culture was 

 arrested in its development by the stoppage of migration of the advanced races. 

 Successive migrations are declared to represent successive geological formations, 

 and the essay is made to lay the foundation of the comparative chronology of man. 

 The earliest migration determined by philology is that of the three languages of 

 the Negi'itos or Pygmeans, allied to the Mincopies of the Andamans. To the austral 

 branch are assigned the Natchez and Muskogulge, or Creek of North America, the 

 Alikulip and Tekeenika of Tierradel Fuego ; to the septentrional belong the North- 

 American Shoshoni, Utah, Comanch, &c., the Netela and Kij, the Central American 

 Bayano and Darien, and the South-American Mayoruna andlviriri ; and to the polar 

 the Eskimo. 



To the Lenca of Honduras are joined the Coretu of South America as allied to 



