TRANSACTIONS OF THE SECTION'S. 177 



Antar asked liim, where and when he ever covenanted with him. "I was," said the 

 man, "once at such a well watering my horse. You came and wanted to do the same, 

 but your rope was too short." Bread and salt is another thing ; the refuge another. 

 Whether Christianity ever made any great progress among them we do not know. 

 There are, however, many Christian tribes, especially in Hauran and Korak. But as 

 soon as Mohammed appeared, the Arab mind took a different turn, and they became 

 a conquering race. They, iu fact, burst the bounds of their desert, and went out — 

 the Koran in one hand and the sword in the other — either submission or death. 

 After a little while came the tribute, or redemption. People redeemed themselves by 

 paying an annual tax (very small), and they lived in peace. Then they extended to 

 Syria, Mesopotamia, Bgypt, Tripoli, to the borders of the Alantire, &c. The Arabs 

 are like the Anglo-Saxons ; they conquer, give their language, manners, and customs 

 to the conquered nation, and in a short time they make them Arabs. 



On the Country to the West of the Caspian Sea. By Baron de Bode. 



On the Geography of Southern Peru. By W. Bollaert. 



On the Laws of Consanguinity and Descent of the Iroquois. 

 By Dr. W. Camps. 



On the Relation of the Domesticated Animals to Civilization. 

 By J. Craufurd. 



Mr. C. showed the great service rendered to mankind by domesticated animals, in 

 furnishing them with food, labour, and also clothing, entering into a number of 

 statistics. The total value imported of articles of clothing, the produce of domes- 

 ticated animals, was, in 1857, 31,000,000/. In the same year we imported raw and 

 manufactured silk to the value of 1 9,400,000/. Other imported commodities amounted 

 to 5,334,300/. Of domestic animals and their produce we imported in all, in that 

 year, to the value of 41,000,000/. — still a small sum compared with that furnished by 

 our own cattle. He hence concluded that civilization is deeply indebted to the 

 domestication of animals. ^^^^^^ 



Two Axe-heads in the possession of Mr. P. O. Callaghan were exhibited by Mr. 

 R. Cull. 



Remarks on the Inhabitants of the Tarai, at the foot of the Himalayas. 

 By Joseph Barnard Davis, F.S.A. 



After a description of the extensive country skirting the base of the southern slope 

 of the Himalayas, to which the name Tarai is applied, which varies in its breadth, 

 character, and elevation, and also greatly in its productions, but is uniformly the seat 

 of a malaria of a pestilent nature, so as to render it very poisonous to Europeans, and 

 even to the natives of the plains of India, reference was made to a number of tribes of 

 people, the constant inhabitants of the Tarai, who dwell there with impunity. From 

 the native name for malaria, Arval, these tribes have acquired the designation of 

 " Awalian Tribes,'' equivalent to those who breathe the awal unscathed. They are in 

 general uncivilized people, without letters, with only few and simple arts, having a 

 fermented drink made from rice or millet, and some few of them distilled spirits. 

 They practise a rude and simple agriculture; spin, weave, and dye ; the latter being 

 the domestic employments of the women. These they treat with confidence, kind- 

 ness, and respect; and in all the family relations they are exemplary. 



Notwithstanding the pestiferous emanations, the Awalian tribes occupy the very 

 districts in which these are evolved ; they erect their dwellings there, clear the forests, 

 chiefly by fire, cultivate the open grounds and depasture their herds in them all the 

 year round, — " they not only live in them, but thrice in them." The Bodos and 

 Dhimals even allege that they could not endure the climate of the open plains 

 below. 



This singular property of resistance to pestilent emanations, a property enjoyed by 

 1859. 12 



