17 



key, was seen near the Emperor's Palace at Kioto. Mr. Fujitani, a student in 

 the Imperial University, has kindly collected a number of references in regard 

 to this animal, and while many impossible things are told about it, yet some of 

 the figures aud,descriptious recall an ape of large size, with long muzzle ami 

 protruding lips — features that ought well to accord with Oynopithicus. 



Without specimens of the recent species to compare, it is of course impossible 

 to state with certainty the character of the animal from the single fragment 

 found at Omori. 



CANNIBALISM. * 



One of the most interesting discoveries counected with the Omori Mound is 

 the evidence of cauuihalism which it affords, this beiug the first indication of a 

 race of anthropophagi in Japan. The human bones were found mixed with 

 bones of the wild boar, deer and other animals. They were all fractured in a 

 similar manner, either with the object of extracting the marrow or for conveni- 

 ence of cooking in vessels of too small dimensions to admit them at leugth. 

 When discovered, they were entirely unrelated to each other. Some hopes were 

 entertained that the place might have been used for purposes of burial, and 

 special search was made fur a continuous series of bones : but no proof was 

 obtained in support of this supposition, and this is in accordance with the ex- 

 perience of those who have examined similar deposits in other parts of the woi'ld. 

 The boues were mixed indiscriminately with other remains of feasts. Some of 

 them are strongly marked with scratches and cuts, especially in those areas of 

 muscular attachment where the muscles are separated from the bones with 

 difficulty. The very mode of fracture in some cases is conspicuously artificial, 

 and the surfaces for the attachment of muscles are strongly incised. These 

 testimonials of cannibalism are of precisely the same nature as those educed by 

 Professor AVymau in his memoir on the shell mounds of Florida. The accom- 

 panying passage is extracted from that memoir, page 68. 



" The reasons derived from our own observations for believing that the ancient 

 inhabitants of the St. John's were cannibals may be stated as follows : 



1. — The bones, an account of which we have given, were not deposited in the 

 shell heap at an ordinary burial of a dead body. In this case, after the decay 

 of the flesh, there would have remained a certain order in the position of the 

 parts of the skeleton, especially in the pelvis, the long bones of the limbs, the 

 vertebral columu and the head. The bones would be entire, as in other burials. 

 In the cases here described, the}- were, on the contrary, scattered in a disorder- 



* Bead before the Biological Society of the Impetial University, Tokio, Jan. 5. 1879. and originally 

 published in the Tokio Times Jan. 18. 1879. 



