the houses of the dead. They included essentially the following characters: (a) a rowing-boat; (b) a sailing-boat; (c) a granary; (d) a bakery; (e) a brewery; (f) an ox, or sacrifice; (g) a girl with geese and basket. The groups varied slightly, but these were uniformly included. They seem to have borne no relation to the profession of the deceased, but are simply of religious motive-the elaborate provision for a future journey. In one case two other vessels were deposited, but they were of warlike character, and in this case probably had a special significance. In them were armed men, shields, spears, and an interesting group of two figures playing chess.

Numerous small objects were discovered, among them a small wooden statuette of a woman carrying her babe in a shawl upon her back. She is characteristically Libyan. The photographs number about 450, and arrangements are being made for their publication.

MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 14.

The following Report and Papers were read :—

1. Report of the Committee on the Psychology and Sociology of the Todas. See Reports, p. 415.

2. Toda Kinship and Marriage. By W. H. R. RIVERS, M.D.

The kinship system and marriage institutions of the Todas were studied by means of the genealogical method. The Todas preserve their pedigrees by oral transmission for several generations, but considerable difficulty was experienced in obtaining the record owing to the existence of a taboo on the names of dead relatives.

Finally, however, a fairly complete genealogical record of the whole community was obtained, going back for two or three generations, and this furnished the basis for the study of the social organisation.

The system of kinship is of the kind known as 'classificatory,' every male of an individual's clan being either his grandfather, father, brother, son, or grandson and every female his grandmother, mother, sister, daughter, or granddaughter. A special feature of the system is that the father-in-law receives the same name as the mother's brother, and the mother-in-law the same name as the father's sister. The orthodox Toda marriage is one between the children of brother and sister: a man marries normally the daughter of his maternal uncle, or of his paternal aunt; and this custom, which is common in Southern India, has so influenced the system of kinship that both mother's brother and wife's father receive the same name, even when the two relations are not united in the same person.

There are two distinct sets of kinship terms: one set used when speaking of a person, and the other used in direct address. The latter terms are more limited in number than the former, and are used in a more general way, and the names of this kind given by individuals to one another are determined largely by the respective generations and relative ages of the speakers.

Although the Toda system is definitely of the classificatory kind, the people often used terms which define more exactly the nature of the relationship; thus, a man might speak of his nephew as my son,' or as 'my younger brother's son.' This and other similar practices seem to show that the Toda system is losing its purely classificatory character, and is approaching the descriptive stage.

The Todas have very definite marriage regulations. The people are divided into two endogamous groups, each of which is subdivided into a number of exogamous groups which may be called 'clans.'

The two chief groups are not allowed to intermarry: a man must marry a woman of his own division. The clans into which the two chief divisions are sub

divided take their names from certain important villages. The people of a clan are known as madol (village people), and a man is not allowed to marry one of his own madol.

Marriage is also regulated by kinship. A man may not marry the daughter of his father's brother. As there is paternal descent, she would be of his own clan. He is also prohibited from marrying the children of his mother's sisters, though they will usually not be members of his clan. There is thus a prohibition of marriages between the children of brothers on the one hand and between the children of sisters on the other hand. Between the children of brother and sister there is not only no such prohibition, but the orthodox marriage is of this kind. A man normally marries the daughter of his mother's brother or of his father's sister. Infant marriage is a well-established Toda custom, and children married to one another are very often cousins—the children of brother and sister. There is, however, a very general custom of transferring wives from one man to another (or from one set of men to another), and the unions which ensue are not necessarily examples of the marriage of cousins.

The Todas have long been noted as a polyandrous people, and the institution of polyandry is still in full working order among them. When a girl becomes the wife of a boy it is usually understood that she becomes also the wife of his brothers.

In nearly every case at the present time and in recent generations the husbands of a woman are own brothers. In a few cases though not brothers they are of the same clan. Very rarely do they belong to different clans.

One of the most interesting features of Toda polyandry is the method by which it is arranged who shall be regarded as the father of a child. For all social and legal purposes the father of a child is the man who performs a certain ceremony about the seventh month of pregnancy, in which an imitation bow and arrow is given to the woman.

When the husbands are own brothers the eldest brother usually gives the bow and arrow, and is the father of the child, though so long as the brothers live together the other brothers are also regarded as fathers.

It is in the cases in which the husbands are not own brothers that the ceremony often becomes of real social importance. In these cases it is arranged that one of the husbands shall give the bow and arrow, and this man is the father, not only of the child born shortly afterwards, but also of all succeeding children, till another husband performs the essential ceremony. Fatherhood is determined so absolutely by this ceremony that a man who has been dead for several years is regarded as the father of any children borne by his widow if no other man has given the bow and arrow.

There is no doubt that in former times the polyandry of the Todas was associated with female infanticide, and it is probable that the latter custom still exists to some extent, through strenuously denied. There is reason to believe that women are now more plentiful than formerly, though they are still in a distinct minority. Any increase, however, in the number of women does not appear to have led to any great diminution of polyandrous marriages, but polyandry is often combined with polygyny. Two or more brothers may have two or more wives in common. In such marriages, however, it seems to be a growing custom that one brother should give the bow and arrow to one wife, and another brother to another wife. It seems possible that the Todas are moving from polyandry towards monogamy through an intermediate stage of combined polyandry and polygyny.

3. The Toda Dairy. By W. H. R. RIVERS, M.D.

The Todas of the Nilgiri Hills practise an elaborate religious ritual which is a development of the ordinary operations of the dairy. The dairy is the temple and the dairyman is the priest.

There are several kinds of dairy-temple, of different degrees of sanctity, corresponding to the different degrees of sanctity of the buffaloes tended at each.

Of these dairies there are three chief grades. The highest kind is found in secluded spots far from any place where ordinary people live. These dairies belong to one of the two chief divisions of the Todas, the Tarthårol, but are tended by men belonging to the other division, the Teivaliol. The lowest grade of dairy is found at the villages where the people live, and these dairies are tended by men of the same division as that to which the dairy belongs. The dairies of interinediate sanctity are found only at the villages of the Tártharol, but are tended by members either of the Teivaliol or of one special clan of the Tártharol.

It is only the milk of the different kinds of sacred buffalo which is churned in the dairy-temple. There are buffaloes which are not sacred, and their milk is churned in the front part of the huts in which the people live.

The more sacred the dairy, the more elaborate is its ritual. In every case the dairy vessels are divided into two groups. The more sacred vessels are those which come into contact with the buffaloes or the milk. The less sacred are those which receive the products of the churning. In the highest kind of dairy the products of the churning do not pass directly from the more sacred to the less sacred vessels, but have to pass from one to the other by the help of an intermediate vessel. The dairy ritual is accompanied by definite prayer; and the more sacred the dairy, prayer becomes a more prominent feature of the ritual.

In most of the more sacred dairies there is a bell which is an object of reverence, and usually milk is put on this bell during the dairy operations.

The more sacred the dairy, the more is the life of the dairyman hedged about with restrictions. There are definite ordination ceremonies for each grade of office. In the lowest grade they may be completed in less than an hour; in the highest they are prolonged over more than a week.

In addition to the three chief grades of dairy, there are certain dairies in which the ritual has developed in some special direction, and there are often considerable differences in the ritual of different dairies of the same kind, especially of the highest grade. Each clan has a special prayer for use in the dairies belonging to that clan, and each of the highest kinds of dairy has also its own special prayer.

Various features of the lives of the buffaloes are made the occasion of ceremonies, often elaborate and prolonged. Whenever the buffaloes go from one dairy to another to obtain fresh pasturage, the journey becomes an elaborate ceremony which may be prolonged over two or three days. Giving salt to the buffaloes is similarly accompanied by complicated ceremonies, and ceremonies are held fifteen days after the birth of a female calf.

One of the most interesting of the ceremonies of the dairy is connected with the custom of adding buttermilk from a previous churning to the newly drawn milk. By means of the addition of buttermilk, which is called pep, a kind of continuity is kept up in the dairy operations; but under certain conditions this continuity is broken, and it becomes necessary to make new pep, and this may be the occasion of prolonged and elaborate ceremonies.

4. The Ancient Monuments of Northern Honduras and the adjacent parts of Yucatan and Guatemala, with some Account of the Former Civilisation of these Regions and the Characteristics of the Races now inhabiting them. By Dr. T. W. GANN.

The author describes

(1) The Ancient Monuments of Honduras, namely

(a) Temples: their number at present known and their situation. A typical specimen is described and resemblances are noted to similar structures elsewhere.

(b) Buildings within mounds, with stucco-ornamented walls and burial cysts or large burial chambers; some mounds contain more than one chamber.

To be published in full in Journ. Anthr. Inst.

TRANSACTIONS OF SECTION H.

(c) Stella, sculptured and plain. Similar monoliths occur in Spanish Honduras and Mexico.

(d) Stone-faced pyramids, single and in groups. A large stone-faced plateau covered with pyramids has been discovered recently.

(e) Fortifications, especially groups of fortified mounds along the sea-shore, and look-out mounds with fortifications attached, near ancient village sites. (f) Ovoid underground chambers: their distribution, size, contents, and Similar chambers occur elsewhere. probable uses.

(2) The Former Civilisation of Honduras :

:

(a) Weapons and tools and the materials from which manufactured. The author notes the unaccountable absence of metals and describes the spear and arrow heads, celts, knives, even grinders, loom-weights, net-sinkers, hammer-stones, scrapers, henequen-cleaners, and other stones of unknown use.

(b) Ornamental and ceremonial objects: head-dress ornaments, earrings, nose ornaments, labrets, gorgets, and curiously shaped flint and obsidian objects, probably ceremonial.

(c) Pottery.-There are three main varieties: (1) fine thin ware, painted in various colours and glazed; (2) coarser red ware; (3) very clumsy, coarse, unglazed ware, usually employed for sepulchral purposes.

(d) Burial customs.-There is great variety in the methods of burial: cremation and partial cremation; burial in cysts and oval chambers; earth burial. The position of corpse and the objects buried with the dead are noted, and also the local custom of burying small animal effigies with the dead.

(e) Writing and pictographic records are similar to those found at Palenque, Quiriqua, Chichen-Itza, &c. There is no satisfactory key as yet. Specimens are on stone, pottery, and stucco.

(f) Religion. The Toltec pantheon is described; the probable introduction of human sacrifice is discussed, and ancient religious rites are noted, which are still carried out by remote tribes.

(3) The Present Inhabitants of Honduras :—

(a) Personal characteristics.-General appearance of males and females; height and development; mental development; influence of diet and environment; family ties and indifference to death.

(b) Language.-Maya is practically universal, except amongst the Caribs and a few isolated individuals recently discovered. The author describes the dialects of Maya, the variation in language since the conquest, and the introduction into Maya of Spanish words.

(c) Religions.-Christianity, semi-Christianity, idolatry. The author notes the similarity of the ancient religion to Christianity.

(d) Native arts and agriculture.-Spinning, weaving, pottery manufacture, black wax candles and ornaments, flint chipping, milpa-making, preparing corn, henequen.

(e) The influence of civilisation has been disastrous from the earliest days; the reluctance of Indians to mix with whites or negroes; the influence of alcohol; epidemic and other diseases; with a civilised Indian.

5. The Progress of Islám in India.1 By WILLIAM CROOKE, B.A.

This paper discusses the question whether Islâm is or is not increasing its numbers in India. Various views have been expressed on this point. The reports of the recent and former censuses enable the question to be finally settled. There is no doubt that in certain parts of the country the rise of Islâm in recent years has gone on at a rate higher than that of Hinduism.

To be published in full in Journ. Anthr. Inst.

This increase can be due only to one or both of the following causes:—

1. That there has been a considerable conversion of Hindus to Islâm, and that a regular propaganda has been at work in this direction.

2. That there are causes at work among Muhammadans themselves which tend to produce a higher rate of fertility among them.

As to the first suggestion, there is certainly some conversion of low-caste Hindus to Islâm, due to the fact that the convert acquires a higher social position, and frees himself from the degradation which inevitably attaches to his being a member of a degraded caste. But the result of recent inquiries tends to negative the theory that there is any well-defined missionary propaganda at work among the Indian Muhammadans. On the other hand the action of some of the reformed sects which have been produced among Muhammadans in recent years requires examination.

As to the second suggested cause there is some evidence that physical causes tend to make the Muhammadan more fertile and more long-lived than the Hindu. The former have been recruited from a more vigorous race, such as the Arab and the Central Indian tribes. They discourage infant marriage and the celibacy of widows. They permit a more varied and invigorating diet, particularly as regards the use of meat.

6. The Ethnology of Early Italy and its Linguistic Relations to that of Britain. By Professor R. SEYMOUR CONWAY, Litt.D.

The general body of scholars and historical students know so little of the scanty and obscure remains of the Italic dialects, that is, of the languages akin to Latin spoken in Italy before the extension of the Roman dominion over the peninsula, that no one has yet felt surprised at their geographical distribution. Yet a glance at the map of their territories will show that it demands explanation. There are practically only three dialects: 1, Latinian (i.e. Latin and Sabine); 2, Oscan; 3, UmbroVolscian, though the distance between their areas has deterred scholars from classing Umbrian and Volscian together in spite of the complete identity of their charac teristics in the inscriptions. How then did they become geographically separate, and how did Latinian wedge itself in between the areas of so many other idioms ? There must be some historical causes behind these curious phenomena.

Some clue to the answer is to be found in a set of facts not hitherto observed, viz., the use of different suffixes by different tribes to form their ethnica, i.e. the names of communities derived from names of places in their respective district.

There are only six or seven suffixes used for this purpose in ancient Italy: of these three only (for various reasons) are significant for ethnology—viz. -CO-, -NO-, and -TI- (generally -ATI-).

i. The ethnica in -CO-, like Volsci, Hernici, Osci, are all, save for a small batch in Umbria, confined to the plain country along the west coast, and all occur in marshy districts. The word Volsci means marshmen.' Further, there are some ethnica in -CINI, i.e. with -NO- superimposed on -CO-, the result of a conquest by some -NO- folk, all in similar districts. Since Etruscan is not an Indo-European speech, the names Etrusci, Tusci, Falisci, though denoting Etruscans, must have been made by the -CO- folk, who are clearly IndoEuropean. Volsci contains the same stem as Gr. λos, O(p)sci that of Lat. opus.

ii. The -NO- ethnicon is extremely common throughout Italy, but its frequency in comparison with the others varies remarkably in the different districts; in that of the Hirpini they number 92 per cent. of the known ethnica, in Latium proper only 52 per cent., in Umbria only 31 per cent. If, then, as there is reason to believe, this suffix marks a particular race at a particular epoch, this race was Published in fullin Rivista d'Italia (1903, Agosto) under the title 'I due strati della popolazione indo-europea dell' Italia antica."

2 These statistics are based on the collections of the place-names of ancient Italy, given for each of the dialectal areas in my Italic Dialects (Camb. Univ. Press, 1897).