Manchester Memoirs^ Vol. lix. (191 5), No. 10. 9 



races a disgusting mode of preparing fermented drinks, 

 prevails, the women being in all cases the chief manu- 

 facturers ; the material employed varying according to 

 the state of agriculture in the different localities, but the 

 mode of preparation remaining virtually the same" (9, 



P- 213). 



If space permitted I should have liked to make 



extensive quotations from Park Harrison's most conclusive 

 independent demonstration of the spread of culture along 

 the same great route, at which he arrived from the study 

 of the geographical distribution of the peculiar custom of 

 artificially distending the lobe of the ear (29). This 

 practice was not infrequent in Egypt (79) in the times of 

 the new Empire, a fact which Harrison seems to have over- 

 looked : but he records it amongst the Greeks, Hebrews, 

 Etruscans, Persians, in Bceotia, Zanzibar, Natal, Southern 

 India, Ceylon, Assam, Aracan, Burma, Laos, Nicobar 

 Islands, Nias, Borneo, China, Solomon Islands, Admiralty 

 Islands, New Hebrides, New Caledonia, Pelew Islands, 

 Navigators Island, Fiji, Friendly Islands, Penrhyn, Society 

 Islands, Easter Island, Peru, Palenque, Mexico, Brazil 

 and Paraguay. This is an excellent and remarkably 

 complete [if he had used the data now available it might 

 have been made even more complete] mapping out of the 

 great " heliolithic " track. 



The identity of geographical distribution is no mere 

 fortuitous coincidence. 



It is of peculiar interest that Harrison is able to 

 demonstrate a linked association between this custom and 

 sun-worship in most of the localities enumerated. In the 

 figures illustrating his memoir other obvious associations 

 can be detected intimately binding it by manifold threads 

 into the very texture of the "heliolithic culture." If to 

 this we add the fact that in many localities the design 



