588 report— 1878. 



en Sussex. Les observations de son rapport peuvent s'appliquer a plusieurs des 

 anciennes fortifications appelees en France camps de Cesar, et qui sont d'anciens 

 oppida celtiques occupe"s bien apres Cesar par les Roniains ; mais un plus grand 

 nombre de ces oppida celtiques, en France, n'ont jamais ete occup£s par les 

 Romains : je citerai le pr<5tendu camp de C6sar pres Dieppe, auquel une tradition 

 sans doute mieux foudee donne le nom de cite de Lime et ou Ton trouve des 

 objets de provenance celtique tres ancienne. 



J'tSmettais le voeu que Ton fouillat les tumulus irlaudais repute's les plus 

 anciens ; la fouille pratiquee dans un des tumulus de Moytura a deja donne un 

 resultat : ce tumulus passe pour le tombeau d'un des chefs des Fir-Bolgs. On 

 y"a trouv<5 une urne tres primitive, ou les ornements fort simples paraissent avoir 

 etc" creuses avec l'ongle dans la terre avant la cuisson. Ceci se rapporte tres bien 

 avec les traditions sur les Fir-Bolgs, qui passent pour beaucoup moins civilises que 

 leurs vainqueurs les Tuatha-De-Danann. A ceux-ci appartiendraient les urnes 

 beaucoup plus finement orne"es et de forme assez elegante, trouv<5es dans d'autres 

 tumulus, et tres analogues par le style avec celles des monuments de France. 



Je remercie la savante assembled d avoir bien voulu m'entendre et serai tres 

 satisfait si quelques-unes des personnes eclaire'es qui la composent prennent interet 

 aux questions que j'ai touchees et contribuent par leurs lumieres a les re"soudre. 



Une derniere observation me revient a propos de l'ecriture Ogharn. II ne 

 parait pas douteux qu'elle provienne des Tuatha-De-Danann. S'ils ont habite la 

 Scandinavie avant lTrlande, ils n'y einployaient pas encore l'Ogham, puisqu'on ne 

 le trouve pas sur les monuments mdgalithiques du Nord ; c'est done depuis leur 

 arrivee en Irlande qu'ils l'ont invents, et Ton peut le qualifier specialement de' 

 caractere druidique irlandais. 



2. On some objects of Ethnological Interest collected in India and its Islands. 



By V. Ball, M.A., F.O.S. 



Mr. Ball exhibited and described a number of objects which he had collected in 

 some of the least-known and wildest parts of India, and in the Nicobar and Anda- 

 man Islands. 



From the peninsular there were a series of stone implements, having a marked 

 resemblance to certain well-known forms of wide distribution. There were also 

 some peculiar adze-shaped implements, found in Western Bengal, which had served 

 to confirm a previously expressed supposition* as to a prehistoric connection having 

 existed between the Mundas of Bengal and the Mum of Bumiah. 



Other objects shown were battle-axes and musical instruments used by the 

 Khonds of Orissa ; fire-sticks from Sambalpur ; and boomerangs from Katiawar. 



Nicobar Islands. — Photographs of the villages and people of these islands served 

 to illustrate the peculiarity of the structure of the houses and the costume of the 

 people, which latter was further exemplified by some wooden figures, which the 

 author considered were rather to be regarded as effigies of the departed than as 

 idols. The tail-like strips of cloth which hang from the waist and trail on the 

 ground were probably the cause of the ancient belief in the existence of tailed men 

 on some of the islands in the Bay of Bengal. In one of the editions of Ptolomy's 

 map, islands which were not improbably intended to represent the Nicobars are 

 labelled " Satyrorum inside tres quorum incole caudas ut sunt satyrorum habere 

 ■ dicentur." Other objects from the same islands were a specimen of picture-writing ; 

 •ear-cylinders ; cocoa-nut-shell water- vessels ; a copper-headed hog-spear, and a large 

 sheet of cloth made of the beaten bark of a species of Celfis. The author gave 

 his reasons for believing in the existence of a Negrito race similar to the Andamanese 

 in the interior of the Nicobars. 



Andaman Islands. — The objects from these islands which were exhibited and 

 described were, human skulls adorned with shells, and which had been carried by 

 the relatives of the deceased slung on their shoulders; glass bottle flakes, used for 

 •shaving ; necklaces of turtle bones ; a cooking vessel of sun-dried clay in a bamboo 

 frame ; bows and arrows of peculiar shapes; bones of turtle and Dugong from a 



* By General Sir Arthur Phayre. 



