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The following Papers were then read : — 
ON THE CONDITION OF THE PRIMJEVAL INHABITANTS OF THE 
BRITISH ISLANDS, AS EVIDENCED FROM THE REMAINS OF 
THEIR WEAPONS, IMPLEMENTS, UTENSILS, PERSONAL 
ORNAMENTS, &C, &C. BY P. o'CALLAGHAN, ESQ., B.A., 
HONORARY SECRETARY OF THE YORKSHIRE ARCHITEC- 
TURAL SOCIETY, AND HONORARY SECRETARY OF THE 
PHILOSOPHICAL AND LITERARY SOCIETY OF LEEDS. 
It is probable, that in such a numerous and highly 
respectable meeting, and more especially assembled as it is, 
in this Cathedral City, there may be some who, on purely 
religious grounds, would hesitate to believe that the primaeval 
condition of man could have been that of an ignorant savage. 
I will, therefore, beg leave to remind those of my hearers 
who may be thus influenced by conscientious scruples, that we 
are told by their highest of all authorities, that there was a 
time before Zillah, the wife of Lamech, had borne to him 
" Tubal Cain, the instructor of every artificer in brass and 
iron." In that dismal time, the primitive arts must have 
been rude and simple in the extreme, and human invention 
little more than the uninstructed efforts of human instinct. 
Through this rude and savage state all nations appear to have 
passed. For we find from their antiquarian remains, that 
the Chaldeans, Hindoos, Chinese, Egyptians, Assyrians, 
Persians, Greeks, and Romans, had what archaeologists call a 
" stone period." A time, in fact, when they used flint flakes, 
stone hatchets or celts, bone and horn implements, and per- 
sonal ornaments of shells, teeth, or pebbles. The Cromleach, 
or simple tomb of unhewn stone, is found of a similar form 
and construction, on the banks of the Ganges, the Euphrates, 
the Yellow River, the Nile, and the Danube, as it is seen on 
the banks of the Seine, the Thames, and the Shannon ; and 
the relics of human art, which are discovered from time to 
