90 ELLIOT SMITH, Distribution of Mummification. 



preserving the body may fail and the skeleton alone may 

 be spared. If this contention be conceded, the demon- 

 stration given by Hertz of the remarkable geographical 

 distribution of customs of temporary burial affords a most 

 valuable confirmation of the general scheme of the present 

 communication. " Au point de vue ou nous sommes 

 places, il y a homologie rigoureuse entre l'exposition du 

 cadavre sur les branches d'un arbre, telle que la pratiquent 

 les tribus du centre de l'Australie, ou a l'interieur de la 

 maison des vivants, comme cela se rencontre chez certains 

 Papous et chez quelques peuples Bantous, ou sur une 

 plateforme elevee a. dessein, ainsi que le font en general 

 les Polynesians et de nombreuses tribus indiennes de 

 TAmerique du Nord, ou enfin l'enterrement provisoire, 

 observe en particulier par la plupart des Indiens de 

 l'Amerique du Sud" (p. 67). There can be no doubt 

 whatever of the justice of this " homology," for in every 

 one of the areas mentioned these customs exist side by 

 side with the practice of mummification ; and in many 

 cases there is definite evidence to show that the other 

 methods of treatment have been derived from it by a pro- 

 cess of degradation. In his excellent bibliography, and 

 especially the illuminating footnotes, Hertz gives a number 

 of references to the practice cf desiccation by smoking 

 or simple forms of embalming which had escaped me in 

 my search for information on these matters. He refers 

 especially to further instances of such practices in Australia, 

 New Guinea, various parts of West Africa, Madagascar 

 and America (p. 68). 



An interesting reference in the same note (p. 68, 

 footnote 5) is to the practice of simple embalming among 

 the Ainos of Sakhalin (Preuss, Bcgmbnisarten der Ameri- 

 kaner, p. 190). This seems to supply an important link 

 between the Eastern Asiatic littoral and the Aleutian 



