Manchester Memoirs, Vol. lix. (191 5), No. 10. 105 



from the west along with or before the practice of circum- 

 cision needs to be considered. 



Another remarkable practice which probably formed 

 part of the equipment of the heliolithic wanderers was 

 massage. It was employed by the Egyptians as early as 

 the Sixth Dynasty, as we know from the representations 

 of the operations in a Sakkara mastaba (C apart, 11). 

 Piorry (57) has given an account of the wide range of the 

 practice of massage, from Egypt to India, China and 

 Tahiti, and the high state of efficiency attained in its use 

 in ancient times in India and Chins. The Chinese manu- 

 script Kong-Fate contained detailed accounts of the 

 operation. Piorry remarks, " it is clear that for us its 

 development did not originate from the practices des- 

 cribed in the books of Cong-tzee or the compilation of 

 Susrata." 



From Rivers' interesting account of massage in Mela- 

 nesia (67) it is evident that the method must have an origin 

 common to it and the modern European practice, and 

 that it could not have arisen amongst a barbarous people 

 like the Melanesians, who have the most extraordinary 

 conceptions as to why and how it serves a therapeutic 

 purpose. Although we have no evidence to prove that 

 massage spread along with the heliolithic culture, the fact 

 that it has a similar geographical distribution, and cer- 

 tainly was extensively practised in Egypt long before 

 the great migration began, suggests that it may represent 

 another Egyptian element of that remarkable culture- 

 complex. 



In his masterly analysis of the cultures of Oceania (69) 

 Rivers has given a useful summary of the evidence rela- 

 ting to the practice of preserving the body, and has drawn 

 certain inferences from these and other burial practices, 

 which I propose to examine. " In some cases, as in 



