394 SECTIONAL TRANSACTIONS.— H. 



on the western fringes of Europe. It is important that the semi-legendary 

 material of the proto-historic period should be re-examined in the light of 

 the prehistoric evidence. This paper seeks to show, by plotting as far as 

 possible the journeys of prominent Celtic saints, that the conditions of travel 

 and the routes frequented in the Dark Ages were much the same as the 

 carhaeological evidence leads us to believe had been the case in these 

 western lands for nearly two thousand years before. By plotting the various 

 churches, wells, shrines, etc., dedicated to respective saints, it is possible to 

 indicate geographically their spheres of influence. An examination of 

 these shows that many areas on the western fringe of Europe which, ap- 

 parently, functioned as cultural sub-provinces in prehistoric times, stand 

 out again in the Dark Ages as the territorial limits of the missionary influence 

 of a particular saint. Very seldom does the sphere of influence of an 

 individual saint extend over the whole of the Celtic lands. 



Mile. Simone Corbiau. — Recent finds in the Indus valley (3.0). 



The object of this paper is to lay before the British Association documents 

 coming from a new archaeological area in the Indus valley. 



This region is the Peshawar district, in the uppermost corner of the North- 

 West Frontier Province of India. It was hitherto supposed to contain 

 only remains of Greco-Buddhist times. Yet a journey of investigation and 

 trial diggings have enabled me to bring back to the Brussels Museum a 

 collection of archaic pieces which I deem to be far more ancient. In my 

 opinion they represent a very early stage of the Indus valley civilisation. 

 All the parallels they afford are to be found in Sumerian Mesopotamia 

 (Jemdet-Nasr period and Susa II), protohistoric Aegean (Ancient Minoan I) 

 and at the prehistoric site of Anau in Russian Turkestan. Excavations in 

 this archaeological region might throw much light upon the origin of the 

 Indus culture. 



Dr. M. A. Murray. — Anthropology as applied to English history (3.30). 



The methods of Anthropology, when applied to the study of English 

 history, disclose some strange facts, and suggest that in the lives of the 

 monarchs of Western Europe there is a hitherto untouched field of research. 

 The evidence shows the survival as late as the eighteenth century of the 

 belief in the actual divinity of the king, and with that belief there goes 

 also the belief in the necessity of the divine victim, who was either the 

 king or a substitute. The perpetual recurrence of the number nine and 

 its multiples, either as the age of the king or as the number of years of his 

 reign, when taken in connection with the sacrifice of a victim, cannot be 

 mere coincidence. The evidence, if found in modern Africa or in ancient 

 Greece, would be received without more ado as proof positive of the existence 

 of this custom. Therefore the custom must be accepted as occurring in 

 England. In ancient pagan times the sacrificed victim was deified, prayers 

 and offerings being made at his tomb ; in Christian times he was canonised, 

 and like his pagan prototype, he received worship after death. Examples 

 of such sacrifices can be found in English history from the time of the Saxon 

 kings till the end of the Stuart period. 



Prof. H. J. Fleure, F.R.S. — The science of man and the problems of to-day 

 (5.o). 



