Manchester Memoirs, Vol. lix. (191 5), No. 10- 3 



customs as the building of megalithic monuments (see 

 for example Lane Fox's [Pitt Rivers'] map, 20), the 

 worship of the sun and the serpent (51 ; 103), the custom 

 of piercing the ears (see Park Harrison, 29), tattooing (see 

 Miss Buckland, 10), the practice of circumcision, the 

 curious custom known as couvade, the practice of mas- 

 sage, the complex story of the creation, the deluge, the 

 petrifaction of human beings, the divine origin of kings 

 and a chosen people sprung from an incestuous union 

 (W. J. Perry), the use of the swastika-symbol (see Wilson's 

 map, 105), the practice of cranial deformation, to mention 

 only a few of the many that might be enumerated, it will 

 be found that in most respects the areas in which this 

 extraordinary assortment of bizarre customs and beliefs 

 is found coincide one with the other. In some of the 

 series gaps occur, which probably are more often due to 

 lack of information on our part than to real absence of 

 the practice ; in other places one or other of the elements 

 of this complex culture-mixture has overflowed the com- 

 mon channel and broken into new territory. But con- 

 sidered in conjunction these data enable us definitely and 

 precisely to map out the route taken by this peculiarly 

 distinctive group of eccentricities of the human mind. If 

 each of them is considered alone there are many breaks 

 in the chain and many uncertainties as to the precise 

 course : but when taken together all of these gaps are 

 bridged. Moreover, in most areas there are traditions 

 of culture-heroes, who brought in some or all of these 

 customs at one and the same time and also introduced a 

 knowledge of agriculture and weaving. 



So far as I am aware no one hitherto has called atten- 

 tion to the fact that the practice of mummification has 

 a geographical distribution exactly corresponding to the 

 area occupied by the curious assortment of other practices 



