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superstitions. The historians, however, state that Chin-noung (b.c. 2737), 
and Hoang-ti (b.c. 2697), still employed stone in the manufacture of their 
weapons. But as early as the reign of the latter prince, the rebel Tchi- 
Yeou of the country of Kiou-li made use of metallic arms. In the Chou- 
King it is stated that in the time of Yu (b.c. 2200), the savages near the 
rivers Ho and Kiang brought as tribute, iron, silver , steel, and stone arrow- 
heads. The last were therefore already regarded as rare and precious objects, 
as they were at a later period, to judge from an anecdote here related. In 
the year 495 b.c., Confucius being at the court of Tchin, a bird pierced by 
an arrow with a stone head, fell upon the terrace at the feet of the King, 
who seems to have been rather alarmed, and consulted Confucius on the 
subject. The philosopher told his majesty that the arrow-head was exactly 
like that which Wou-wang had presented as a symbol of royalty to the prince, 
for whose benefit he founded the kingdom of Tchin. The King, searching 
among the precious relics of his ancestors, actually found a sione arrow-head. 
In the history of King-Tcheou, it is related that a block of granite existed 
in the district of Sin-ho, still having traces of the polishing of stone imple- 
ments 5 the inhabitants called it “ the dormant mill of the thunder god.” 
It is curious to find this association of stone implements with thunder pre- 
valent in China as in Europe. Among some pretended celestial presents 
brought to the Emperor Sou-Tsoung (a.d. 756-762) by a Buddhist priest, 
there were two fragments of jade forming a polished hache, which bore the 
designation, “ stones of the thunder god.” The very great antiquity of the 
civilization of China is regarded by M. Zaborowski as an additional proof 
of the great lapse of time that must have occurred since the use of stone 
implements was general there. 
With regard to the cremation of the dead, M. Zaborowski remarks 
that this practice spread over Europe at the commencement of the Bronze 
age, and that it did not come to us from Egypt or Phoenicia, as neither the 
Egyptians nor the Phoenicians burnt their dead. On the other hand, crema- 
tion was practised in India from the most remote antiquity, and in China it 
appears that before the year 1122 b.c., straw men destined to be burnt were 
earned in funerals, but at that date these were replaced by wooden figures. 
Confucius refers to this change in terms which show the religious nature of 
the practice ; he says : 11 Those who made spirits of straw were regular •, 
those who made men of wood were irregular.” The practice seems to sym- 
bolize a still older one of burning the body itself. 
At the present day in China cremation is rare, and the remains of the 
dead arc only burnt at the end of a year. But the practice prevails in Cochin- 
China : and in the time of Marco Polo it was in use all over the extreme 
east of Asia, where it may be supposed to have existed from the earliest 
times. From this same region, he believes, the bronze industry came into 
Europe. 
Capacity of the Cranium in Man. — M. Anoutchine has found reason to 
doubt the absolute truth of the maxim that in the human species the most 
voluminous crania belong to the most intellectual races, and in each race to 
the most intelligent individuals. In support of this opinion he gives the 
following list of cubic contents from various authorities, but all taken by the 
same process : — 
