LITERATURE. Buckton: "W. Australia." 1840, p. 91. Freycenet: "Voyage autour du Monde." 1827, Vol. II, p. 719. Conde de Enceira: "Portugal Restaurado." Résumé Historique d'Établissement Portugais à Timor des us et coutumes de ses habitants," in "Tijdschrift voor Indische taal land en Volkenkunde," Deel XI, 4th Series, Deel II, 1861, pp. 465, et seq. Affonso de Castro: "As Possessões Portuguesas na Oceania." Por Affonso de Castro, Membro da Soc. de Sc. et Artes de Batavia; Deputado da Nacão; Ex-Governador de Timor. Lisboa, 1867. Wallace: "Royal Geographical Soc. Journal," Vol. XXXIII, pp. 219, 222, 224, 232. Wallace: "Malay Archipelago. Dr. A. B. Meyer: "Nature." 1881, Dec. 8. Description of Plates XXVI and XXVII. PLATE XXVI. Fig. 1. Profile of native of the kingdom of Bibiçuçu, Timor (Polynesian type ?). 2. Ditto (Malayan type). 3. Full-faced portrait of a native of Saluki, Timor (Papuan Timor house-cluster, in the Kingdom of Bibiçuçu. DECEMBER 11TH, 1883. Professor W. H. FLOWER, LL.D., F.R.S., 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 A. L. LEWIS, Esq.-Renseignements sur la Population de Finlande. By C. E. F. Ignatius. From the AUTHOR.-On the Proper Names of the Panjabis. By Captain R. C. Temple. 'Aei, aiwr und das ampliativ-suffix wv, lat. ôn, sowie Wörter auf -go, -do im nominativ. By Prof. A. F. Pott. Note sur la Pelvisternum des Édentés. By Prof. Paul Albrecht. The Law of Human Increase. By Dr. Nathan Allen, M.D., Changes in the New England Population. By Dr. Nathan From the GEOGRAPHICAL SOCIETY OF SAN FRANCISCO. The Journey of Moncacht-Apé. By A. McFarland Davis. From the STATE BOARD OF HEALTH, BOSTON, MASS.-Forty-first Report to the Legislature of Massachusetts, relating to the Registry and Return of Births, Marriages, and Deaths in the Commonwealth for the year 1882. Fourth Annual Report of the State Board of Health, Lunacy, and Charity of Massachusetts. 1883. From the ASSOCIATION.-Journal of the East India Association. Vol. XV, Nos. 6, 7. From the LIBRARY COMMITTEE.-Thirty-first Annual Report to the Council of the City of Manchester, on the Working of the Public Free Libraries. From the SOCIETY.-Proceedings of the Royal Geographical Society. Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society. Vol. XV, Part 4. From the EDITOR.-Revue Scientifique. Tom. XXXII, Nos. 21-23. Revue d'Ethnographie. Tom. II, No. 5. "Science." Nos. 41, 42. "Nature." Nos. 734-736. Panjab Notes and Queries. No. 2. The election of E. W. STREETER, Esq., F.R.G.S., F.Z.S., was announced. Mr. WALTON HAYDON exhibited a collection of photographs of North American Indians. Dr. R. G. LATHAM, M.A., read a paper "On the use of the terms Celt and German," which evoked a discussion in which the PRESIDENT, Professor KEANE, Dr. E. B. TYLOR, and Mr. A. L. LEWIS took part. Dr. E. B. Tylor then read the following paper : On some AUSTRALIAN CEREMONIES of INITIATION. By A. W. HOWITT, Esq., F.G.S. TRAVELLERS, missionaries, and residents in the Australian bush have long known and reported the existence of certain aboriginal ceremonies, which attend the "making of young men," as the practice has come to be called. One of the very earliest works on Australia, namely, that of Collins,' describes and gives illustrations of parts of the ceremonies as practised at Port Jackson. Fragmentary accounts are to be found in other works and in the newspapers and magazines published since that time; but, so far as I am aware, no attempt has yet been made to give a detailed account of the ceremonies of any one tribe, nor, much more, to attempt an explanation of the meaning and intention of the ceremonies themselves. This, no doubt, arises from the difficulties in the way of obtaining correct and precise information. The aborigines are very reticent on the subject; moreover, of the very few white men who have become initiated, few have been competent to record the necessary particulars, even if they had thought of doing so, and at least one has been as reticent on the subject as the aborigines themselves. The accounts which have been made public appear to have been at second-hand, derived from the statements of blackboys living with the whites, or from persons who had been permitted to witness the more public parts of the ceremonies. Speaking generally, it may be asserted with safety that initiation ceremonies of some kind or other, and all having a certain fundamental identity, are practised by the aboriginal tribes over the whole of the Australian Continent. In this paper I propose to record only so much of the information in my possession as will enable me to give a clear and connected account of the initiation ceremonies which are common to a very large aggregate of tribes in the south-eastern part of Australia. I shall therefore leave till a future time the more complete details, and also the discussion and orderly arrangement of the scattered accounts which have been given by others. "An Account of the English Colony in New South Wales" (London, 1798). 2 Those who were initiated in the early days were mostly escaped convicts who joined some tribe; others were wandering bushmen or shipwrecked sailors. It is remarkable that Buckley makes no mention of these ceremonies in his "Life." It is scarcely likely that during the thirty-two years he lived with the Port Philip aborigines he was not present at several of their gatherings. It is most likely, in my opinion, that he refrained from describing that which during so many years he must have been told it was not lawful to disclose to the uninitiated. |