380 NATURAL HISTORY MISCELLANY. 
under ground by a child, and Dr. Shepard was told that arrow- 
heads have been found in that neighborhood, but he was unable to — 
obtain any. The locality, where the idol was found, is a swampy — 
tract some twelve to fifteen miles southwest of Sommerville, and 
from thirty to thirty-five miles from Charleston. 
An eminent archæologist to whom we submitted the photogr ; 
considers this as undoubtedly a Mexican idol, and threw out the 
suggestion that it might have been brought by some soldier from 1 
exico during the Mexican war. 
THE QUISSAMA TRIBE OF Ancota.— At a meeting of the An- | 
thropological Institute (May 29), Mr. F. G. H. Price read a paper — 
on this tribe, which inhabit that portion of Angola situated on the — 
south bank of the Quanza river. The country had lately been vis- _ 
ited by Mr. Charles Hamilton, well known for his travels among 
the Kaffirs. The Quissama bear the reputation of being canni- 
bals, but cannibalism, although undoubtedly practised by them to 
some extent, does not largely prevail. The men are well formed, 
and average about five feet, eight inches in height, they are cop- 
per-colored, have long, coarse, and in some instances, frizzled 
hair; their heads are mostly well developed, and the Roman nose 
is not unfrequently met with. Their weapons are spears, bows 
and arrows, and occasionally guns, the latter being rude copies 
from the Portuguese article. Mr. Hamilton was well received K 
the chief, who told him that he was the first white man who 
seen the tribe at home. The men and women of the Quissama are 
addicted to hunting ; they are virtuous, practice monogamy, marry 
young, and are very prolific. The men largely preponderate in 
numbers over the women, the result, it is supposed, of infanticide, 
but of that practice Mr. Hamilton had seen no evidence. 
Quissama believe i in the existence of a Supreme Being. — Nature. 
Tur Paracoxtans.— A paper was also read at a meeting of the 
Anthropological Institute by Lieut. George C. Musters, R.N., on 
the races of Patagonia inhabiting the country between the Co 
lera and the Atlantic, which the author had traversed during the 
years 1869 and 1870. The Patagonians consist of three races dis- 
tinctly differing in language and physique, and partially differing 
in religion and manners, Tehuelches or Patagonians, Pampas a 
Manzaneros, the latter being an offshoot of the ‘Arancanians of 
Chile. The Tehuelches and Pampas are nomadic tribes subsisting 
