TRANSACTIONS OF SECTION H. 889 



and the brachycephali ; and Topinard figures as the typical Celtic skull that of an 

 Auvergnat, extremely brachycephalic, with an index of 85 ! 



Our traditional history tells that we, the Celtic-speakino: races of Britain, are 

 not of one common ancestry, hut are the descendants of two distinct series of 

 immigrants, a British and a Gaelic. Whatever may have been the origin of the 

 former, we know that the latter are not homogeneous, but are the mixed 

 descendants of the several Fomorian, Nemedian, Firbolg, Tuatha de Danaau, and 

 Milesian immigrations, with which has been combined in later times a strong 

 admixture of Scandiiiavian blood. It is now scarcely possible to ascertain to 

 which of these component strains in our ancestry we owe the Celtic tongue which 

 overmastered and supplanted the languages of the other tribes, but it is strictly in 

 accordance with what we know of the history of mankind that this change should 

 have taken place. We have instances in modern times of the adoption by conquered 

 tribes of the language of a dominant invading people. For example, Mr. Hale has 

 lately told us that the speech of the Hupas has superseded the languages of those 

 Californian Indians whom they have subdued. In like manner, nearer home, 

 the English language is slowly but surely supplanting the Celtic tongues them- 

 selves. 



We may here parenthetically note that what has been observed in the case of 

 language has also taken place in reference to ritual and custom. Observances 

 which have a history and a meaning for one race have, in not a few instances, been 

 adopted by or imposed upon other races to whom they have no such significance, 

 and who in incorporating them give to them a new local colour. These pseudo- 

 morplis of the earlier cultures are among the most perplexing of the problems 

 which the student of comparative religion or folk-lore has to resolve. 



But we want more than a perfect nomenclature to bring anthropology into range 

 with the true sciences. We need a broader basis of ascertained fact for inductive 

 reasoning in almost all parts of our subject ; we want men trained in exact method 

 who ■will work patiently at the accumulation, verification, and sorting of facts, and 

 who will not prematurely rush into theory. We have had enough of the untrained 

 writer of papers, the jerry-builder of unfounded hypotheses whose ruins cumber our 

 field of work. 



The present position of our subject is critical and peculiar ; while on the one 

 hand the facilities for anthropological research are daily growing greater, yet in 

 some directions the material is diminishing in quantity and accessibility. We are 

 accumulating in our museums treasures both of the structure and the works of man, 

 classified according to his distribution in time and space ; but at the same time 

 ome of the most interesting tribes have vanished, and others are rapidly disap- 

 pearing or becoming fused with their neighbours. As these pass out of existence 

 we, with them, have lost their thoughts, their tongues, and their traditions ; for 

 even when they survive, blended with other races, that which was a religion has 

 become a fragmentary superstition, then a nursery tale or a child's game, and is 

 destined finally to be buried in oblivion. The unifying influences of commerce, 

 aided by steam and electricity, are eifectuaUy effacing the landmarks between 

 people and people, so that if we are to preserve in a form fit for future use the 

 shreds which remain of the myths, folk-lore, and linguistic usages of many of the 

 tribes of humanity, we must be up and doing without delay. It is on this account 

 that systematic research such as that which Mr. Risley has advocated with regard 

 to the different races of India is of such pressing and urgent importance. It is for 

 this reason likewise that we hail with pleasure the gathering of folk-lore while yet 

 it survives, and welcome such societies for the purpose as the Folk-lore Congress 

 recently inaugurated. 



I have said that in the department of physical anthropology our facilities for 

 research are increasing. The newly founded anthropometric laboratories are 

 beginning to bring forth results in the form of carefully compiled statistical tables, 

 embodying the fruits of accurate observations, which are useful as far as they go. 

 W'ere these extended in their scope the same machinery might easily gather parti- 

 culars as to the physical characters of the inhabitants of different districts, which 

 would enable the anthropologist to complete in a systematic manner the work 



S' 



