20 ELLIOT SMITH, Distribution of Mummification. 



bulk of the data that have accumulated compels me to 

 omit a large mass of corroborative evidence of an ethno- 

 logical nature ; but no doubt there will be many oppor- 

 tunities in the near future for using up this reserve of 

 ammunition. 



Before setting out for the meeting of the British 

 Association in Australia last year I submitted the follow- 

 ing abstract of a communication (96) to be made to the 

 Section of Anthropology : — 



" After dealing with the evidence from the resem- 

 blances in the physical characteristics of widely separated 

 populations — such, for instance, as certain of the ancient 

 inhabitants of Western Asia on the one hand, and certain 

 Polynesians on the other — suggesting far-reaching pre- 

 historic migrations, the distribution of certain peculiarly 

 distinctive practices, such as mummification and the 

 building of megalithic monuments, is made use of to con- 

 firm the reality of such wanderings of peoples. 



" I have already (at the Portsmouth, Dundee, and 

 Birmingham meetings) dealt with the problem as it 

 affects the Mediterranean littoral and Western Europe. 

 On the present occasion I propose to direct attention 

 mainly to the question of the spread of culture from the 

 centres of the ancient civilisations along the Southern 

 Asiatic coast and from there out into the Pacific. From 

 the examination of the evidence supplied by megalithic 

 monuments and distinctive burial customs, studied in the 

 light of the historical information relating to the influence 

 exerted by Arabia and India in the Far East, one can 

 argue by analogy as to the nature of migrations in the 

 even more remote past to explain the distribution of the 

 earliest peoples dwelling on the shores of the Pacific. 



" Practices such as mummification and megalith- 

 building present so many peculiar and distinctive features 



