402 report— 1879. 



ing time. Amongst vegetable remains tlie siliceous casts of large reeds, used to line 

 the plaster of houses, should be noticed. Masses of carbonised wood were not 

 uncommon, and carbonised peas or lentils were occasionally found in the domestic 

 vessels. 



All these remains occurred amongst quantities of rude potsherds, 1 amongst 

 which spinning whorls were conspicuous — debris of stone and brick walls — the 

 latter sometimes vitrefied as if they had formed the side or floor of a furnace. Dr. 

 Schliemann's half of the worked gold and bronze, found in the same layer, has 

 been generously deposited in South Kensington. The other half was the perquisite 

 of the Turkish Government. 



6. On High Africa as the Centre of a White Race. 

 By Hyde Clarke, V.P.A.I. 



The object of this paper was to support a division proposed by the author 

 between the Aryans and the other white races of early historical epoch. Treating 

 the Akkad-Babylonians, Lydiaus, Canaanites, Etruscans, as the ancient types of 

 the non- Aryan white races, he proposed as modern representatives the Georgians, 

 Circassians, Armenians, Koords, Persians, Afghans, Greeks of Scioxa. The migra- 

 tions and historical incidents of the non- Aryan whites were, he said, to be accounted 

 for by a migration from Africa, and a habitat in High Africa. He showed that the 

 languages of the great states of Africa belong to a like class with the Akkad, 

 Lydian, Phrygian, Thracian, Etruscan, Georgian, &c. He referred also to the 

 community of mythological origins. The traditions of Abyssinia treated it as a 

 paradise, and the cradle of the world. To the white race he gave the name of 

 Turano-African ; and assigned to it the foundation of Egypt, of the great empires of 

 Asia, and the kingdoms of Southern Europe and Northern Africa, He attributed 

 to it not only a knowledge of North and South America and Australia, but also 

 the occupation of those regions, the evidences of which are found in their languages, 

 mythology, and monuments. 



7. On the Turcomans between the Caspian and Merv. 

 By Professor Aeminics Vambery. 



The Turcoman tribes inhabiting the western portion of the great Turanian 

 desert, though split up into hostile divisions, have never lost their purity of race 

 and language, and are Turks par excellence. They have avoided intermixture, and 

 retain the genuine Turkish physical type, not exhibiting the peculiarities of those 

 Turks who live in the noi-th-east of Central Asia and form a transition to the 

 Mongol race. The purest Turcoman type is found in the Tekehs (particularly the 

 Tchaudors and Imolis), whilst the Goklans, a fraction of the Yomuts, and the 

 Eusaris are the most degenerate. The Salars or Salors, a tribe now living to the 

 south-east of Mery, are the first mentioned in history, and next to them, the Guz 

 or Gozz, formerly living near the present Andkhoi. 



According to modern philology, the Turcomans are nearest to the old Selju- 

 kians and the Osmanlis of to-day, the affinity being striking both as regards 

 grammar and vocabulary : for instance, an Anatolian peasant can converse with 

 greater ease with a Yomut or Goklan Turcoman than with an Aza-rbajani Turk, 

 his near neighbour. It is supposed that the migrating Seljukians who founded 

 the first Turkish principalities in Asia Minor were a brother tribe of the Turcomans 

 who remained in their ancient seat, with gradual encroachments in its immediate 

 neighbourhood. 



The general characteristic of the Turcoman tribes is a surpassing love for a 

 wandering life, resulting in the avoidance of any change (except in two isolated 

 cases), owing to the influence of political revolutions or Buddhistic or Islamite 

 culture, which have affected the Kazaks and other Turkish tribes. Thus they 

 show a laxity in the observations of the Mohammedan tenets, and exhibit many 



1 Flint chips. (Flints are still used by the local housewife to grain her corn.) 



