900 REPORT — 1892. 



FRIDAY, AUGUST 5. 



The following Papers and Reports -were read: — 



1. Exhibition of Photographs, Weapons, ^^c, of Toba Indians of the Gran 

 Chaco. By J. Geaham Kerr. 



The specimens exhibited had been obtained from a tribe of the Tobas on the 

 banks of the Rio Pilcomayo. Amongst weapon? the chief were bows and arrows, 

 the former being noteworthy from their reinforcement by a backstring. The 

 arrows were of cane with long wooden points made of cascaranda. An arrow 

 with an iron head was also shown, the head beiug formed of fencing wire beaten 

 out. Other weapons shown were a club made of cascaranda and a short and highly 

 artistic lance of the same material. Amongst other implements was exhibited a 

 Toba fire-drill ; the method of using it was explained : also several examples of 

 the textile productions of the Tobas and a rude sketch of the human figure as 

 drawn by a Toba chief. 



2. Exhibition of pre-Palceolithic Flints. By J. Montgomerie Bell, 



On the heights of the North Downs of Kent, at an altitude of from 600 to 750 

 feet, a large series of flints has in the past few years been collected, chiefly bj' 

 Mr. Benjamin Harrison, of Ightham, who first directed attention to them, as 

 possessing signs of human handiwork. These fiints, if accepted as the work of 

 man, possess a peculiar interest, as their age is undoubtedly very great, and their 

 general style represents an early stage in human culture. In age they are plainly 

 anterior to the River-valleys, because they are found in patches of old gravel-beds 

 which lie upon the uneroded plateaus between the valleys which slope northward 

 to the Thames. These valleys belong to the Palreolithic or River-valley age ; but 

 the valleys are eroded out of the plateaus, which form the relics of an older sur- 

 face, and may in popular speech be named pre-PaliBolithic. 



The peculiarity of the flints exhibited is that they are not shaped into particular 

 forms by the will and skill of the workman as Palajolithic flints are. They are 

 simply stones taken from the groimd, and used almost in the state in which they 

 are picked up, only the edges are altered ; they are chipped flints rather than 

 shaped flints, used tools not made tools. Historically we liave relics of such a 

 stage in the stones used by the Bushmen and by the Tasmaniaii, and it is probable 

 that such a stage was general in human history. The ditticulty in identifying 

 flints of this class as having actually been human implements is that they are 

 neither flaked nor bulbed : these, the hall-marks of flint work, are absent ; they 

 have only the marks of use. Hence some authorities hav6 accepted them, and 

 others have rejected them. The writer gave the reasons which had convinced him 

 of their authenticity, namelj", that the chipping is regular and purpose-like, such 

 as nature is not likely to have hit upon ; it is sometimes within a hollow curve, 

 where natural agencies could not act ; the edges of many unbulbed flints have far 

 more regular marks of wear, which is the true indication of use by man that 

 many bulbed flakes possess, whose edges have undoubtedly been used ; and lastly, 

 there is a sequence in the types which leads into the types of the River-valley 

 period: this is especially visible in a series of pear-shaped flints with chipped 

 edges similar to, and almost identical in form with, the pear-shaped hache of St. 

 Acheul. 



3. The Present Inhabitants of Mashonaland, and their Origin. 

 By J. Theodore Bent. 



The recognised name Makalanga, and its connection with the Portuguese name 

 for the Monomatapa people, and further identification of names as given by 

 Bocarro and the traces left of Monomatapa towns and villages, are discussed in 

 the paper. 



