seek for " the eloping woman; but we may judge by analogy that it would be so. When treating of an analogous subject, Mr. Howitt refers to facts which prove that, among the Australians, a "marriage by capture was only permitted when the captor and the captive were of some classes which might legally intermarry." Among one tribe it is said that "the female war captive was at first common to the men present at her capture, and then only became the property of her captor if she were of a class from which he might take a wife." Whether or not the captor, under these circumstances, participated in the common right is not stated; but if so, it would be under the peculiar conditions of the capture, and would be in the nature of a reward, and not of the exercise of a communal right. The so-called expiation for marriage is a simpler question, for here undoubtedly the men who assert the marital right belong to the husband's family group. Mr. Fison says expressly, "the group of men who can claim expiation for 'special marriage' is no longer the whole tribe, but the group of tribal brothers who have a common right to the group of females to which the woman belongs." The suggestion here made, that the whole tribe could at one time claim expiation, is not supported by evidence; but if the practice of promiscuity, as a propitiatory measure, is sometimes allowed, this fact cannot be taken as evidence of the former existence of the undivided commune. By analogy with the present custom, we must suppose it was only under a special condition of things that the marriage restrictions were suspended, not that they did not exist. We have probably an analogous case in the curious custom which, for a limited period, allows, under certain circumstances, full licence to the exercise of unlawful actions. Thus, formerly, among the Hawaiians, on the death of a chief "the whole neighbourhood," says Ellis, "exhibited a scene of confusion, wickedness, and cruelty, seldom witnessed even in the most barbarous society. The people ran to and fro without their clothes, appearing and acting more like demons than human beings; every vice was practised, and almost every species of crime perpetrated. Houses were burnt, property plundered, even murder sometimes committed, and the gratification of every base and savage feeling sought without restraint." The death of a chief appeared to be regarded as loosening the bonds of society, or rather, as allowing each individual to give full play to his passions. There may be in such conduct something of an expiation or of an offering to the dead, but probably the chief idea in operation was freedom from restraint. Thus, among the Hovas of Madagascar, on the birth of a child in the royal family, complete sexual license was "Polynesian Researches," 2nd ed., vol. iv, p. 177. allowed. On one occasion, according to the Rev. Mr. Ellis, "the town, by reason of the scenes which the streets and lanes almost everywhere exhibited, appeared like one vast brothel." Such a period was described by a term which denoted that death could not be then inflicted for any offence. Among the hill tribes of India, similar licentious conduct takes place at religious or funeral festivals, and the same thing would seem to have been usual among some of the ancient Peruvian peoples. The removal of the restraints of authority is thus expressed, in like manner as, during the Areoi festivities of the Tahitians, the restrictions of the Tabu were removed from females; the result, in either case, being no doubt much the same as the licentiousness witnessed among the Australians on the occasions referred to by Mr. Fison. The absolute promiscuity of the Australians may be explained, therefore, in the same way as the conduct of the Polynesian and other peoples during their religious and other festivals, rather than as a case of expiation. Mr. Fison speaks of "expiation for marriage" as a compounding for the breach of a communal right on the part of the woman, but there does not appear to be any room for such an explanation where there is absolute promiscuity. If for "communal" the word "group" is substituted, we see some force in Mr. Fison's explanation; for it is the groupright which is interfered with, and which therefore requires expiation. In fact, that writer elsewhere admits that his conclusion as to the nature of the Australian system of marriage and relationship does not go beyond the statement that it is "based upon communal marriage between permitted groups.' The communism is not general, but is restricted to certain groups, the members of each of which have the right to form sexual relations with the members of another group, but not among themselves. 1 Ellis, "History of Madagascar," vol. i, p. 120. MAY 22ND, 1883. HYDE CLARKE, Esq., Vice-President, in the Chair. The Minutes of the last meeting were read and confirmed. The following presents were announced, and thanks voted to the respective donors: FOR THE LIBRARY. From the AUTHOR.-Der Schädel Raphaels. By Dr. Schaaffhausen. Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society. Vol. XV, Part 2, Bulletin de la Société d'Anthropologie de Lyon. Tom. I, Journal of the Society of Arts. Nos. 1590, 1591. From the EDITOR.-" Nature." 706, 707. Revue Scientifique. Tom. XXXI, Nos. 19, 20. Revue Politique et Littéraire. Tom. XXXI, Nos. 19, 20. Mr. E. P. RATHBONE, F.G.S., exhibited and described at some length a collection of ethnological objects which he had recently brought from Bolivia, upon which the Chairman also made a few remarks. The following paper was read by the author: NOTES ON STONE IMPLEMENTS from SOUTH AFRICA. By Major H. W. FEILDEN, F.G.S. A COLLECTION of stone implements, part of which I have the honour of laying before the meeting this evening, was made by me in the colony of Natal during the years 1881 and 1882; some of the specimens, however, are from the Transvaal and Zululand. Of late years some attention has been given to the stone age of South Africa, and Mr. Sanderson1 and Mr. Gooch have published papers in the "Journal of the Anthropological Institute" on the subject, whilst Mr. A. F. Griffith has communicated two papers to the Cambridge Antiquarian Society, the results of the notes and collections of Mr. J. C. Rickard in South Africa. In the earlier volumes of the "Journal of the Anthropological Institute," are several references to, and descriptions of, stone implements from the same country. My original intention was to have selected types from my collection, and submitted them in series; but as this method has already been adopted by the authors of the previous papers on South African stone implements, I have deemed that it may be serving as useful a purpose to group the implements from the different stations from whence they were derived, with a description of the formation or position in which they were found, leaving it to others better qualified than myself to decide whether they are palæothic or neolithic types. Many of my specimens were gathered somewhat hastily along our lines of march; but as a rule I marked the objects with the date of find, and a reference to my journal gives the information in regard to locality. This plan of inking the date on the implements I have found very useful, and would recommend it to future collectors in South Africa, as specimens are very apt to get mixed up and confused whilst travelling in that country. Transvaal.-Five specimens of implements found near Rustenburg, in the Transvaal, by Mr. Thomas Ayres, of Potchefstroom. Mr. Ayres kindly sent me these specimens, but without any further information than the neighbourhood from whence they were derived. These specimens are of interest because they have been brought from a station more to the interior of South Africa than any other with which I am acquainted: it is a further proof of the probable general distribution of stone implements throughout South Africa. These specimens, being coated with a ferruginous oxide, have a very ancient appearance; but from other localities I have taken out implements lying on the iron band quite chocolate-coloured, whilst implements in the same bed, lying only a few inches above them, retained all the original lustre of the fresh-fractured stone. Newcastle District, Natal.-The greater part of my collections 1 "Stone Implements from Natal." John Sanderson ("Journ. Anthrop. Inst.," vol. viii, 1879, pp. 15-21). 2 "The Stone Age of South Africa." W. D. Gooch ("Journ. Anthrop. Inst.," vol. xi, 1881, pp. 124-183). Paleoliths from South Africa, collected by J. C. Rickard. (South African Neoliths, by J. C. Rickard, Proc. Camb. Antiquarian Soc.). was made whilst I was quartered in the neighbourhood of Newcastle. The immediate vicinity of our camps, pitched on the slopes of the Drakensberg Mountains, was comparatively bare of stone implements. As a matter of fact, in the gorges and wooded kloofs of the higher range of the Drakensberg, I did not obtain a single trace of an implement or worked stone, though during my rambles I carefully examined any deposits I met with of gravel or recent soil that happened to be exposed. Either the rocky beds of the mountain torrents have obliterated or ground into gravel the traces of man's handicraft, or more probably these mountain fastnesses did not afford the stoneusing peoples the same inducements as the lower levels teeming with animal life. At this lower level, some 1,200 to 2,000 feet below the summits of the Drakensberg, where our camps were pitched at Bennitt's Drift, rolling country succeeds; this is much cut up by the ramifications of the present drainage system. Superficial deposits are to be found in each hollow and depression, evidently the washing down and denudation added to yearly in the wet season. At various spots where these deposits have been cut through by channels-in African parlance, "dongas "-I have come across implements. I have taken these out from depths of 20 feet and more below the present surface; but I do not claim as necessary any great lapse of time for the formation of such deposits. The difference between the rates of denudation in a climate like that of Great Britain, in a land covered more or less with perennial verdure, and that of South Africa, is immense. By the time the rainy season commences, the sun and fires have obliterated every blade of grass, the Veldt is parched and arid. Suddenly the thunder-clouds collect on the Berg, and down pours the rain not in heavy showers, but in sheets of water; each gutter and donga fills with a turbid flood, every hill-side and slope is pouring with water, and hurrying to a lower level its loosened surface soil. I have a group here of five specimens, taken by myself from below 20 feet of deposit; it consists of two spear-heads, two arrowheads, and a stone with an artificial hole bored through the centre of it; this last is of such soft material, and so friable, that it does not seem probable that it could have been carried far in a torrent course, before its final deposition. The accumulation of 20 feet of soil and stones might be of comparatively recent formation, if we suppose the " donga" to have altered its course, as they frequently do; it would not take many years for the bed of the old channel to fill up with detritus. The next groups of implements to which I beg to draw the attention of the meeting were collected from over an extended |