Their arms their savage appearance. Their voices are rough and uncontrolled, and are singularly harsh and unpleasing to the ear. are long in proportion to their bodies, enabling them to climb the tall stems of the palms like apes. It is curious to watch the way in which they collect the palm wine or maláfú. A wyth is passed round the tree and the body of the man, the ends being tied in a knot. Placing his feet against the tree and supported by the wyth the man ascends with remarkable ease and celerity to where the gourds are fastened, some 20 or 30 feet above the ground, when he pours the contents of the gourd into another taken up with him for that purpose and descends in the same agile way. The religion of the people of the Congo is a low fetishism accompanied by all kinds of superstitions, and amongst others ancestral worship. On the graves of their chiefs are placed bits of broken pottery and little figures rudely carved, and it is customary to bury with the chief the cloth acquired by him during his life. In Bonny, on the Niger, I saw the "juju " house, with its rows of skulls and other sacrificial offerings, but this was reported to be no longer used as a place of worship, and the priest had ceased to officiate at Old Kálábá (Calabar), the juju house had been destroyed through the influence of the missionaries, though fetishism was said to be secretly practised and the bodies of human victims offered up in sacrifice frequently floated down the river. The barbarous superstition which led to the extermination of twins had also been stopped by the efforts of the same missionaries. But these and many other barbarities are said to be practised on the Upper Congo to this day. Nor have the natives on the lower river advanced much in civilisation. Commerce has indeed taught them to value the white man's fire-water, his guns, his cloth, and his baubles; they are to some extent restrained by the fear of their mysterious visitor, but they cannot understand his motives for living among them, nor can they appreciate the advantages they may derive from his presence. It will take generations of patient missionaries wholly devoted to the task to open a brighter future to the black races of the Congo. Major-General Sir FREDERIC GOLDSMID, referring to the implements and weapons of war, musical instruments, articles of wearing apparel, tusks and hides of animals, and other specimens from the Congo, or West Coast of Africa, exhibited by him that evening, stated that they had been, for the greater part, received by him since his return to England in 1883, from Dr. Ralph Leslie, who, together with Mr. Delmar Morgan, had accompanied him on his expedition in that year. These gentlemen had, however, remained in Africa when he himself had been compelled, through ill-health, to embark for Europe. As a rule, a ticket was attached to each specimen, explanatory of its purpose. Sir Frederic Goldsmid addressed a question to Mr. Phillips as to the longevity of the natives. of the Lower Congo. He himself had been struck by the few old people he had seen there. Indeed, he had felt that he was not only old enough to be father of most people he met, but in many instances the grandfather. It might have been morbid sensitiveness on his part, but he believed that few people in those regions did attain old age, and the fact, if such it were, seemed sufficiently important for record, in reference to climate, mode of life, &c. The AUTHOR, in reply to Sir F. Goldsmid, said that the natives of the Congo seldom attain a great age, but he could not definitely say why. In answer to another inquiry he stated that combs, of which one was exhibited, were not worn as ornaments, but were used for combing the hair by both men and women. The use of a "medicine-bag" seemed a mystery, until he explained that it was to be worn round the arm as a charm. NOVEMBER 22ND, 1887. Prof. FLOWER, C.B., F.R.S., Vice-President, in the Chair. The Minutes of the last meeting were read and signed. The election of Miss HUDSON, of 71, Lancaster Gate, W., was announced. The following presents received since the last meeting were announced, and thanks voted to the respective donors : FOR THE LIBRARY. From A. W. FRANKS, Esq., M.A., F.R.S.-British Museum; Statement of the progress and acquisitions made in the Department of British and Medieval Antiquities and Ethnography in the year 1886. From the SUPERINTENDENT, GOVERNMENT CENTRAL MUSEUM, MADRAS. -Administration Report for the year 1886-87. From the GOVERNMENT OF NEW ZEALAND.-Results of a Census of the Colony of New Zealand, taken for the night of the 28th March, 1886. From the SOCIETY OF ANTIQUARIES.-Archæologia. Vol. L. From the INSTITUTE.-Proceedings of the Canadian Institute. No. 148. From the UNIVERSITY.-Mittheilungen aus der Medicinischen. Facultät der Kaiserlich-Japanischen Universität. Band I, No. 1. Journal of the College of Science, Imperial University, Japan. VOL. XVII. R From the SOCIETY.—Journal of the Society of Arts. 1826. Nos. 1825, Proceedings of the Philosophical Society of Glasgow. Vol. xviii, 1886-87. Transactions of the Asiatic Society of Japan. Vol. xv, Part 2. From the EDITOR.-Nature. Nos. 941, 942. Science. Nos. 248, 249. Photographic Times. Nos. 320, 321. Revue d'Anthropologie, 1887. No. 6. The following paper was read by the author: The ORIGIN and PRIMITIVE SEAT of the ARYANS. By CANON ISAAC TAYLOR, LL.D., Litt.D. CONTENTS.1 1. History of the Question. Views of Max Müller, Latham, Geiger, Fick, Penka, Schrader 2. The Anthropological Argument. The Aryan Physical Type 3. Probable Direction of Migration .... 4. Physical Resemblance of Finnic and Aryan Types.. 5. Ancient Extension of the Finns 6. The Cradle of the Aryan Race 238-242 243-246 246-248 248-250 251 251-252 253-254 7. Philological Argument. Identity of Proto-Aryan and Proto Finnic Tongues Grammatical Identity Identity of Verbal Roots.. Identity of Primitive Words 8. The Separation of Aryans and Finns 9. Linguistic Evidence as to the Civilization at the Time of the Separation.. 265-269 THERE is no problem connected with anthropology, as to which in recent years, scientific opinion has undergone such a revolution as the question as to the region in which the Aryan race originated. At the Manchester meeting of the British Association the theory was advocated by myself and Prof. Sayce, which five years ago would have been universally scouted, and yet it was received with general assent. Within the present century no less than four theories successively have held the field. Only thirty-five years ago when I went in for my "little go" at [It should be explained that the author, having been abroad while this paper was passing through the press, has not had an opportunity of revising the proof.-ED.] Cambridge, the worthy Examiner before whom it was my lot to go up for my viva voce examination shared the then common belief, that the present inhabitants of Asia were descended from Shem, those of Africa from Ham, and those of Europe from Japhet; the linguistic and ethnic diversities between Europeans, Africans, and Asiatics having arisen on the plains of Shinar, in the year 2247 B.C., as calculated by Archbishop Ussher. This opinion, which at all events possesses the charm of definiteness, was succeeded by the Caucasian hypothesis of Cuvier, Blumenbach, and Peschel, which traced the Indo-European race to Mount Ararat or the Caucasus, rather than to the Tower of Babel, forgetful of the fact that mountain fastnesses are not the cradles of races, but camps of refuge for the remnants of shattered tribes, and that the cradles of races are great plains, rivers, and valleys. The Caucasian hypothesis was replaced by the Central Asian theory, which has held its ground almost to this day. It was advocated by Prof. Sayce in his "Principles of Philology," published in 1874, and also in his "Introduction to the Science of Language," published in 1880, and was only surrendered in the third edition of that book, published in 1885, in favour of that which I am about to place before you. I cannot be far wrong in assuming that it is probably held by some of those present in this room. I cannot do better than state this theory in the words of one who has done more than any other man to secure its acceptance in this country. Prof. Max Müller states his opinion that "before the ancestors of the Indians and Iranians started for the South, and the leaders of the Greek, Roman, Celtic, Teutonic, and Slavonic colonies marched towards the shores of Europe, there was a small clan of Aryans settled probably on the highest elevation of Central Asia, speaking a language not yet Sanskrit or Greek or German, but containing the dialectical germs of all." (Max Müller's "Lectures," vol. I,. p. 212). The spot where this small clan lived was, he thinks, "as far east as the western slopes of the Belurtag and Mustag, near the sources of the Oxus and Jaxartes, the highest elevation of Central Asia." (Max Müller's "Lectures," vol. I, 239). This theory was stated by Prof. Sayce in his "Principles of Philology," nearly in the same words. "When the Aryan languages first make their appearance, it is in the highlands of middle Asia between the sources of the Oxus and Jaxartes." (Sayce, "Principles," p. 101). The only real ground for this opinion, was the belief that Zend and Sanskrit were nearer than any other languages to the primitive Aryan speech; but now that this opinion has yielded to further investigation, the deduction based upon it falls also to the ground. The theory, however, has had the support of the greatest names in the last generation of scholars. It was held by Lassen, Bopp, Pott, Jacob Grimm, and Prichard, and is still held by Max Müller, so no wonder, with such support, it met with almost unquestioning acceptance. A solitary protest was raised by Dr. Latham, who as early as 1862, urged that it was a mere assumption, destitute of any shadow of proof, and without even a presumption in its favour. He vainly challenged the production of any evidence in its support; but his voice was vox clamantis in eremo-he was set down as an eccentric dreamer. But at last the tide of reaction set in. Benfey in 1868 followed Latham with the philological argument that the undivided Aryans knew nothing of the palm or the tiger, but were acquainted with the birch and the beech, the bear and the wolf, which point to the temperate zone of climate, and more especially to Northern Europe as their primitive home. The beech especially, is a lover of chalk soils, which I believe, are not found westward of a line drawn from the Black Sea to the Baltic. In 1871 Geiger followed with the further argument that they also were acquainted with the oak,' and also with the characteristic northern cereals, barley and rye, but not with wheat, a more southern grain, and that they must have originated in some northern region, as they had common names for snow and ice, for winter and spring, but not for summer and autumn. summer, therefore, must have been short, and their winter long. He also followed Latham in the assertion that no solid argument had yet been advanced in favour of the then accepted hypothesis of an eastern origin. Their Fick, followed and corrected by Prof. Wilkins, has also shown that the primitive Aryan region was overgrown not only by the oak, the beech, the elm, and the birch, but also by the for (puka), the primitive name of which was transferred in India to the betel nut palm.2 To the fauna known by the primitive Aryans he added the wolf, the stag, the elk, the hedgehog, the goose, the thrush, the crane, the starling, the salmon, the eel, the wasp, and the bug. The cogency of the 1 The common name for the acorn is galandi, "that which falls," and from this are derived in lands where there are no oaks the word for the testiclesglands. 2 Proto-Aryan, puka; Greek, Tεúкη; Lithuanian, pusz-ies; Old High German, fiuk-ta; German, fich-te; English, fir; and Sanskrit, púga, the betel nut palm. |