1884. | Anthropology. 217 
ness is caused by an enemy who uses certain charms, and is 
cured by the doctor practicing the sucking cure. A very sick 
person or an exhausted traveling companion is fed upon blood 
supplied from the veins of his friends. The burial customs are 
exceedingly interesting. 
Mr. Wake sums up the later researches on group marriage 
and seeks to find its cause in two principles. First, sexual con- 
duct is natural, and therefore permissible to all—implying a sex- 
ual right in every individual who attains a certain age ; and sec- 
ond, sexual unions between persons without certain degrees of 
consanguinity are criminal. Ree 
Mr. Sibree follows up Colonel Mallery’s investigations concern- 
ing gesture speech by independent researches among the Mala- 
S 
gasy. ; 
Mr. Howitt’s paper was read by Mr. Tylor. All the tribes be- 
lieve that the earth is flat, and that the sky is propped up on 
poles. Beyond the sky is the gum-tree country, the home of 
spirits and ghosts. Every man has within him a Yamdéo, or spirit, 
which can leave his body and wander even to the gum-tree coun- 
try and talk with the spirits there, or converse with the wandering 
ghosts of other sleepers. The state of departed souls and their 
doings after leaving the human body fill a great part of Australian 
mythology. .The dead are buried doubled up, the body lying on 
the side, and the usual deposit is made of the personal effects of 
the deceased. The author closes with an extended account of 
ghost-land. 
__Mr. Ribeiro having visited England with some Botocudo In- 
tans, Mr. Keane took the occasion to explain the habitat and 
tory of the tribe. 
€ papers of Mr. Howorth are all alike in this, that they be- 
long to what may be called classic ethnology, and exhibit a great 
‘mount of close reading and critical study. 
German AnrHRopotocy.—The fourteenth annual meeting of 
le German Anthropological Society was held at Trieste on the 
» Toth, rith, 12th August of the past year. The president 
Was Professor Virchow, and the general secretary, Dr. Johannes 
ze. In attendance were 302 registered members. The chief 
the a On of the meeting was the old Roman remains, of which 
the city can boast the finest. Some of the most important ad- 
es Were the following : 
Trees Speech on the first use of metals. By Professor Virchow. 
and ifs neighborhood, until the conquest of the Franks. By Dr. Hettner 
directo eum, 
Y, Y of the mus 
5 Progress of Science, By Dr. Ranke. | An excellent summary. ] 
Asthtopological Catal | . 
ogues. Herr Schaaf hausen. 
