808 REPORT— 1891. 



In Stow's Annals an elaborate description is given of a procession of Queen 

 Elizabeth on a throne chariot having a Lion on one side and a Dragon on the 

 other, as supporters of the Arms of England. 



Other customs of the early (Welsh) Britons were found to agree, like that of 

 the Draconarius, with Roman, or rather with Italian customs, for they still exist 

 in rural Italy. For example, the wooden constructions described by Cffisar as the 

 residences of the Britons are still used in Latium. The one recorded to have 

 been the house of Romulus (Casa Rovmli) was preserved by the Romans on the 

 Capitoline Hill till the time of Caractacus. Dionysius of Halicarnassus mentions it 

 in his history of Rome only a few years before. The standard of Caractacus being 

 the same as that of the cohorts, and his appeal being probably suggested by the 

 ' humble cottage 'of their own founder, which was like his own, described by him 

 as being in Britain, would have had so startling an effect that there is no wonder 

 his cliains were struck off. This singular fact shows that the customs of Italy 

 were not unlike those of the Welsh ; though Caractacus and his relations were 

 pardoned, they preferred to locate themselves in Italy and did not return home. 



There was reason to think, from recent discoveries, that the great trade in 

 metals and metallic works of art extended to the British Islands in times before 

 the Phojnician traffic. The bronzes of Etruria, as pointed out by Mr. Dennis, 

 have been found ' from Switzerland to Denmark, and from Ireland to Hungary.' 

 This being so, and there being a chain of ports from Basta in Apulia, by those 'of 

 the Bastetani, the tin workers in Spain, the name of Bassenthwaite in Cumberland 

 and Bassaleg near Cardiff indicate a commercial connection between those places 

 and Italy. It is not improbable that Basselg was in remote times the name of the 

 port, as the word is equivalent to bright metal, and an old Italian word. If so, the 

 roads reputed to have been made by Mael Mutius to and from Caerleon, and the 

 local Venta are well accounted for. 



6. The First Sea-Wanderings of the English Race. By W. M. Adajis. 



7. Foints of Contact between Old-ivorhl Myths and Customs and the Navajo 

 Myth entitled ' The Mountain Chant' By A. W. Buceland. 



In presenting a slight sketch of a very curious myth of the Navajo Indians of 

 New Mexico, which, under the name of ' The Mountain Chant,' is given at length 

 in the ' Smithsonian Report of the Bureau of Ethnology,' vol. v., Miss Buckland 

 draws attention to the numerous points in which the myth reproduces customs and 

 beliefs of the Old World. Among these may be cited the singular prohibition 

 against eating food in the under-world or abode of spirits, such as appears in the 

 classical story of Persephone, but which is found slightly modified in the fairy 

 folk-lore of Europe, in Aino and Japanese tales, and in New Zealand. In the 

 American myth the prohibition is four times repeated in the abodes of gods in the 

 form of animals. Then there is the ceremonial cutting of the hair of children in 

 their fourth year, which is both an American and Japanese custom. The use of 

 the swasttJca is also traced, both among the Navajos and the Japanese, and in both 

 countries special reverence is paid to the cardinal points, which in America are 

 symbolised by particular colours. The ceremonial use of flint implements in the 

 Navajo rites is also noteworthy, and several other points in the myth denote a very 

 early origin. 



The great peculiarity in the healing rites, which are held in connection with 

 the Navajo myth, are the use of sacrificial sticks, variously painted and adorned 

 with beads and feathers, and buried in accordance with traditional usage, and the 

 making and erasing, on the same day, of large sand pictures, regarded as of great 

 sanctity and special healing power, the pigments from the forms of the gods 

 depicted being applied to the similar afflicted parts of the patient's body. 



Miss Buckland points out the great contrast between these bloodless Navajo 



