SECTIONAL TRANSACTIONS.—H. 471 
SECTION H.—ANTHROPOLOGY. 
(For references to the publication elsewhere of communications entered in 
the following list of transactions, see p. 506.) 
Thursday, September 13. 
1. Dr. Avs. C. Krauyt.—The Stone-using People of Central Celebes. 
Among the immigrants who came to Celebes was a people who made large 
pots in stone and earthenware. In the first they kept the corpses of their dead ; 
in the earthen pots they preserved the bones of the deceased. The name of 
these pots means ‘ vessel’; it was their intention to send back the deceased 
members of their family to their native home on the other side of the sea. 
They erected menhirs and statues in memory of their dead. 1n making 
these objects they used bronze axes, and it is certain that they did not know 
iron. It is probable that they cultivated grain, for many stone mortars for 
poundirg grain are found. If they grew rice it was planted in dry and not 
in irrigated fields. 
The contact of this stone-using people with the aborigines whom they 
found in the country must have been peaceful; but they fought strenuously 
with another immigrating people, the Betel people, who came after them, 
and introduced iron. Owing to the influence of these various peoples the 
culture of the present inhabitants of the Toradjas is of a very composite 
character. 
2. Mr. W. HE. Armstrone.—The Inhabitants of Rossel Island. 
Rossel Island is the most easterly island of the Louisiade Archipelago, 
which lies to the east of New Guinea. Its culture differs fundamentally from 
that of the Massim peoples who occupy all the islands between it and the 
mainland. The religion is elaborate. ‘Lhere are numerous gods, one of whom 
is supreme; most otf these partake of the nature of snakes and human beings. 
Connected with these gods are numerous places rigidly taboo. Cannibalism of 
a peculiar kind occurred until recently, the death of a chief necessitating the 
ceremonial consumption of one or more persons. Polygamy is common, and 
there is a supplementary form of pseudo-marriage, according to which one 
woman may be owned for sexual purposes by a number of men; she is also 
let out on hire on festive occasions. A remarkable currency occurs, all but a 
few low values of which are believed to have been made in the beginning by 
pe These coins are so denominated as to simplify the calculation of interest- 
charges. 
3. Mr. E. Torpay.—Native Traders in Central Africa. 
Commerce has played an important 7ré/e in the opening of Africa; it might 
be said that without its stimulating influence it would probably still be rightly 
called the ‘Dark Continent.’ To the white men and Arabs we owe a great 
debt for our knowledge of its ethnology, and there are good reasons to believe 
that the native traders, who long before them travelled widely over the con- 
a have considerably influenced its history and the customs of its various 
tribes. 
Usually trade is limited to the village and the tribe and its immediate 
neighbours, but there are to-day people, like the Bamputu, the Badjokwe, and 
the Bateke, who embark on long expeditions, and spread their activity over 
hundreds or thousands of miles. This we know as historical fact of the Bateke, 
‘whose very name means ‘those who sell’; the Bushongo traditions of 
expeditions, and circumstantial evidence, such as the rapidity with which useful 
plants, insect pests, and diseases nave overrun the continent, or, again, the 
finding of implements and currency, whose source can be traced to very distant 
tribes, show that before the advent of the white man there was a certain 
