384 Chronicles of Science. [July, 



large trees were growing upon it. Besides pottery of the rudest de- 

 scription and stone hammers, a few polished celts and a typical arrow- 

 head have been picked up. The mounds, so far as they have been 

 examined, afford no evidence of human hones to support the charge 

 of cannibalism brought against the Andamanese, whose ancestors no 

 doubt left these middens, seeing that similar heaps are now being 

 formed by the natives at all their favourite places of resort around 

 the coast. 



Cannibalism in Namur. — M. Spring, the Belgian anthropolo- 

 gist, after an examination of the cavern of Mont Chauvaux (Namur), 

 has satisfied himself that the men, whose bones are there found 

 mixed with those of deer and oxen, were cannibals. He further 

 concludes that they were so from choice, not from necessity ; for 

 the roasted bones are not only those of the aged, but also of young 

 women, boys, and infants. 



Mr. Darwin mentions that the Tierra del Fuegians in times 

 of scarcity eat the old women first and their dogs last, the former 

 being an incumbrance, whilst the latter assist in procuring food. 



Ethnological Society. 



Colonel Lane Fox (March 8) read a paper " On the Opening of 

 two Cairns near Bangor, in North Wales." One was situated on 

 the summit of Moel Faben, and contained a cist, in which was 

 placed an urn, together with several small dressed stones, probably 

 arrow-heads, and flakes, worked, not in flint, but in the trap and 

 felspathic rocks of the neighbourhood. Other worked stones were 

 found beneath the cist. Professor Eamsay described the nature of 

 the materials used. The second cairn examined, called Carnedd 

 Howel, contained fragments of an urn surrounded by fragments of 

 burnt human bones, but not protected by a cist. 



The Kev. J. C. Atkinson (April 12) made a communication 

 " On the Danish Element in the Population of Cleveland in York- 

 shire." The author showed that not only many words in the 

 Cleveland dialect, and a very large proportion of personal and local 

 names in the district, are of Scandinavian origin, but also that many 

 of the idioms are markedly Scandinavian. He also traced an old 

 Anglian element in the dialect of the people. 



Dr. Donovan (April 26) read a paper " On the importance to 

 the Ethnologist of a careful study of the characters of the Brain in 

 different Kaces." This was followed by one from Mr. E. B. Tylor, 

 " On the Philosophy of Beligion among the Lower Kaces of Man- 

 kind." The author ascribed the first ideas of religion to a belief in 

 spiritual beings (Animism). The idea of a soul extended to animals, 

 plants, and even inanimate objects. To such spiritual beings are 



