theory of one important authority-Mr. McLennan on the later developments of society. In the second place no one has yet supplied the necessary groundwork upon which such an enquiry may be based. So far, then, as my researches are in accord with Mr. McLennan, and so far as they fill up a gap in anthropological science, I venture to hope that they may be of service as a working hypothesis for future research.

DISCUSSION.

The PRESIDENT thought that the author had done good service in bringing to notice a definite stage in the theoretical course of human evolution, which had as yet received no generally accepted name. It was the stage, as the author had shown, before any recognised system of kinship existed, and before there were any political bonds, but one in which people were aggregated solely under the compression of external influences. He had, however, some doubt whether the stage in question was aptly enough expressed by the word that the author desired to use for it. "Horde" is a term of Asiatic origin, still and always used to express aggregations of men living under very different social conditions to those just supposed. It is true that in colloquial English the word horde is often used in a vague sense, and this he suspected to be due to some confusing similarity in sound between it and the word herd, which he need hardly say was of entirely different origin and meaning. Neither did he wish to convey the slightest intimation that the author had himself unintentionally confounded the two. Still, it seemed to him that the word herd, though not free from objection, was more appropriate to the social stage that the author desired to express, than the word horde.

The

The AUTHOR in reply to the President said that the reason why he had chosen the word horde was because Mr. McLennan had already used it. Moreover, it had not come to have any very great political meaning yet, and in time the scientific meaning which was now sought to obtain for it would in the end overshadow what little political meaning was attached to it in connection with the Huns of Attila, and other famous "hordes" of men. term "herd" was already usefully and definitely used for animals, though there was nothing in its signification which would not suit the definition he sought to give to the period of human life which it might represent. As to the examples he had given of the primitive human horde, he by no means suggested that they were absolutely types of this far-off period of human history; all that he suggested was that they gave us the nearest parallel to what the primitive human horde must have been, although they might have reached their modern form by degradation from higher civilisation, for degraded types of humanity probably retraced some of their former steps of progress.

A Note on the Dieyere Tribe of South Australia by Mr. Samuel Gason, communicated by Mr. J. G. Frazer, was read by the Secretary. This is printed in the Miscellanea at the end of the present number of the Journal.

JUNE 14TH, 1887.

FRANCIS GALTON, Esq., F.R.S., President, in the Chair.

The Minutes of the last meeting were read and signed.

The election of Sir WALTER BULLER, K.C.M.G., F.R.S., of 52, Stanhope Gardens, was announced.

The following presents were announced, and thanks voted to the respective donors:

FOR THE LIBRARY.

From the UNITED STATES GEOLOGICAL SURVEY.-Dinocerata, a Monograph of an Extinct Order of Gigantic Mammals. By Othniel Charles Marsh.

From the AssOCIATION.-Report of the Fifty-sixth Meeting of British Association for the Advancement of Science; held at Birmingham, in September, 1886.

From the SOCIETY.-Proceedings of the Royal Society. No. 254. Proceedings of the Royal Geographical Society. 1887. June.

Papers and Proceedings of the Royal Society of Tasmania for 1886.

Journal of the Society of Arts. Nos. 1801-1803.

Boletim da Sociedade de Geographia de Lisboa. 6a Serie.
Nos. 9, 10 e 11.

Bulletin de la Société d'Anthropologie de Lyon. Tom. v.
1886.

From the SCOTTISH GEOGRAPHICAL SOCIETY.-The Scottish Geographical Magazine, Vol. III, No. 6.

From the EDITOR.-Nature, Nos. 917–919.
Science, Nos. 224, 225.

The Photographic Times, Nos. 296-298.

The EARL of DUCIE, FR.S., exhibited three perforated stones from Scotland, known locally as "Mare-Stanes," and the following note on the subject was read by the Secretary :—

EXHIBITION of THREE "MARE-STANES," or " HAG-STONES."

By the EARL of DUCIE.

THE following is an account of three "Mare-stanes," Anglicè Hag-stones, received by Lord Ducie, from Marykirk, Kincardineshire, N.B., May, 1887.

One of the stones has two human teeth inserted and fixed in the natural holes in the stone. It was known to have been 70 years in one house, and was given to Mr. A., of Marykirk, by an old lady. She had used it to ward off bad dreams.

The other two are thus described by the person who procured them : "Mare-stanes were very common thirty years ago in this district (Marykirk), and many are used yet, but those who are in possession of them do not like to own it. They are still common in the fishing villages along our coast.

"The old grandfather of Mrs. N. sometimes comes to Marykirk on a visit, brings his Mare-stane in his pouch, and hangs it in his bed. He comes from Stonehaven, and is an old fisherman.

"Sandy M's. wife, while she stayed at B., always kept the Mare-stane in the bed; and a Mrs. G., of Edinburgh, a lady who came to B. many years, always liked that stone in her bed.

'Old Susan S. assures me that when the females of a house had all the work, and were 'stinted' to do a given amount of work at the spinning wheel before they got any supper, and so much before they went to bed, they were very liable to take the Mare' (i.e. nightmare) owing to anxiety connected with their stints, and the Stane' was a regular preventive. Married ladies, she says, when in an interesting condition, were very particular in having the Mare-stane in the proper place, and she has known 'Stanes' hung in byres, behind cows expected to calve, to ensure safety.

"How it is that the natural worn hole gives this charm, I cannot tell.

I am assured that there are not a few in our village besides these, but one does not care to hunt for these sacred relics. We are not a superstitious people, but somehow a veneration and reverence is set on any thing or custom which our mother or grandmother had or did."

Dr. John Evans, F.R.S., writing to Lord Ducie on the subject gave the following references :-Brand's " Popular Antiquities," by Ellis, 1849, vol. iii, 279–280, in referring to nightmare, quotes thus from Aubrey's "Miscellanies," p. 147:-"To hinder the nightmare, they [people in the north of England] hang in a

string a flint with a hole in it (naturally) by the manger; but, best of all they say, hang about their necks, and a flint will not do it that hath not a hole in it. It is to prevent the nightmare, viz., the hag, from riding their horses, who will sometimes sweat at night, the flint thus hung does hinder it." He adds, "Grose says, a stone with a hole in it, hung at the bed's head, will prevent the nightmare; it is therefore called a hag-stone from that disorder, which is occasioned by a hag or witch sitting on the stomach of the party afflicted. It also prevents witches riding horses; for which purpose it is often tied to a stable key."

In "Notes and Queries," series vi, vol. 1, p. 54, is given an abstract from an old book printed in Queen Elizabeth's time, headed "Of the Nightmare," describing a "fonde foolishe charme " as follows: "Take a Flynt Stone that hath a hole of hys owne kinde, and hang it ouer hym..." to which the written charm, as there related, is to be attached.

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DISCUSSION.

Dr. EVANS observed that it was the first time that he had heard of the use of human teeth in connection with "hag-stones" or witch-stones." It seemed possible to account for the idea that horses were ridden during the night by witches, from the animals, when ill, being found in a state of sweat in the morning, for which such exercise might seem to account. But in what manner a stone with a hole in it sufficed to exclude witches, or how the nightmare was transferred to the human being, involved more difficult questions. The great prevalence of the use of the hagstones in the district of Marykirk was remarkable. The use of 'lucky-stones was common, and he had cited intances in his "Stone Implements." The use of a hollow stone to hang up in our stables to prevent the Ephialtes, or nightmare, is mentioned by Sir Thomas Browne.-" Vulgar Errors," Bk. v, ch. xxii, sec. 7.

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Mr. RUDLER remarked that the three stones exhibited varied much in mineralogical characters. One was a water-worn fragment of limestone, drilled by a boring mollusc; another was a piece of quartz, probably from the crystalline schists of the east of Scotland, containing a greenish chloritic mineral, the natural removal of which seemed to have formed the holes in the stone; while the third was a jaspery pebble, probably derived from a conglomerate in the Old Red Sandstone.

A perforated stone is sometimes known in the north of England as a Hog-stone, and in Harland and Wilkinson's "Lancashire Folk-Lore" (p. 154), it is said that a hog-stone, or stone with a hole in it, is tied to the stable-key, in Lancashire, to protect horses, or is hung at the head of the bed to protect the farmer and his family.

In the south of England, it is not uncommon to find flints with natural perforations, and these are commonly regarded by children as "lucky-stones." In Butler's " Hudibras," we read of a sorcerer who could

"Chase evil spirits away by dint,

Of sickle, horse-shoe, and hollow flint."

The following paper was read by the author:

HITTITE ETHNOLOGY.

By Captain C. R. CONDER, R.E.

THE President having done me the honour to ask me to read a paper about the Hittites, I have here sought to show the general considerations which appear to guide us to a right understanding of their race, religion, language, and customs. It is a question in which I have been interested now for seven years, and I hope that I have not failed to read every work of importance that has been written on the subject.

I propose to assume that the Kheta known to the Egyptians, the Khatti conquered by the Assyrians, and the sons of Heth mentioned in the Bible are the same people. This has been disputed, but since it is held to be the case by Prof. Sayce, Dr. Taylor, and M. Perret, and was, I believe, recognised by Lenormant, and since these writers have given their reasons for such a conclusion, it appears to be sufficiently recognised to be certain of final acceptation.

The study of any people of antiquity rests, according to Max Müller, on a knowledge of physical appearance, language, and religion. A race may lose to a certain extent its characteristic type through difference of climate, of food, or of habit, or through admixture of foreign blood. It may adopt a new foreign religion; it may forget its original language; but if we can find it preserving a type, a religion, and a language which all belong to one original pure stock, we are then able to recognise the relation of the stock to others of the same human family.

It might at one time have appeared incredible that we should ever know anything of the Canaanite tribes which preceded Israel in Palestine, and which were almost exterminated in the south at the time of the Hebrew conquest; but it was quite as unexpected in the last century that we should ever recover Sennacherib's account of the siege of Jerusalem, or know the history of Nebuchadnezzar from official records. Since we have