reason to suppose that the arrangement of the tombs, and the treasures they contained, were such as might still be found in those great tumuli, which evidently preceded the underground painted tombs in the Necropolis of old Tarquinii, if only some competent archæologist would devote to them the attention which has been given to our own great tumuli; and if that diligent and scientific research could be extended to the desolate site of the city of Tarquinii, I feel assured that many discoveries of infinite value to archæology and anthropology would reward the explorers. I have dwelt in this paper chiefly on the evidences of prehistoric commerce between Mediterranean peoples and our own islands, as afforded by gold and bronze articles, but the subject might be indefinitely enlarged, and I trust some one more competent than myself will take the matter up, and assign to each race its proper share in spreading civilisation by means of commerce from East to West. I have spoken more particularly of the Etruscans, because there seems a tendency to ignore all prehistoric commerce except as carried on through the Phoenicians, whereas it appears to me that Etruscan influences are far more evident than Phoenician, for I do not think that any of the articles I have mentioned as discovered alike in Ireland and in the Necropolis of old Tarquinii have been found among undoubted Phoenician remains, although there are doubtless others which may be referred to that source, and some which may also be traced to Greece and to Egypt. I feel convinced that a careful study of prehistoric commerce, as revealed by relics such as those I have indicated, when undertaken by competent workers, will eventually throw a flood of light upon the anthropology and archæology of Great Britain and Ireland. In conclusion, I may say that I am quite aware that in pointing out the connection existing in the Bronze Age between Etruria and Ireland I am not bringing forward a new theory; in fact, General Vallancy many years ago gave as one indication of this intercourse, the fact that the survival of one form of divination, existing in a game played with five small stones, is called in Ireland clocha tag, or tag stones, from Tages, the prince of Etruscan diviners; but that to which I wish particularly to call attention is, that this connection appears to me to be made much clearer by recent discoveries in the course of the explorations in the Necropolis of old Tarquinii, which I think in the interests of science should be carefully watched, noted, and extended; for the discoveries made there since 1878 seem to me to supply one of the missing links in the chain of evidence connecting East and West in prehistoric times. It may be of interest in connection with this subject to note that a friend of mine has recently dug up, on the Goodrington Sands, Paignton, two vases of tin, pronounced by the authorities to be Roman, but which will perhaps turn out to be of earlier date. DISCUSSION. Mr. WALHOUSE said that he had little to offer on the subject, and that little related only to its Oriental aspects. Evidence of the extreme antiquity of communication between Europe, Western Asia, and the far East was continually accumulating. Even the folklore, nursery-tales and fairy stories of Europe were being more and more shown to be of Iranian or Buddhist origin. It had been long acknowledged that the apes and peacocks brought by Solomon's fleets must have come from the Indian Peninsula, and so no doubt did the perfumed gums and incense so largely used in the temples of Egypt, Asia Minor, Greece, and Southern Italy; the classic "Olibanum" was a product of Indian jungles, probably identical with the perfumes used to-day in Hindu temples and ceremonies. The beautiful variety of beryl, known as aquamarine, "of the colour of pure sea-water, and found only in India," as Pliny remarks, was well known in antiquity, and several engraved gems of it, of the best classic period, exist in European cabinets; now aquamarine stones of that particular colour have only been found at one particular spot in Southern India, about 140 miles from Calicut, on the Malabar coast, a port much frequented in the ancient traffic between the Red Sea and India, and it is noteworthy that deposits of Roman coins have several times been found in the neighbourhood of the aqua marine mine, which may not unreasonably be regarded as vestiges of ancient communication and traffic. Captain E. C. JOHNSON, having been called upon by the Chairman to make some observations, said that the remarkable identity of the cups, ornaments, &c., found in the Irish mounds with those of Greece and Asia Minor must strike the most casual observer; and on drawings of those in the Royal Irish Academy being taken by Mr. Oscar Wilde to Greece, and compared with Dr. Schliemann's, they were found to be scarcely distinguishable from each other. This of course may be accounted for either on the hypothesis of a simultaneous development of certain art forms in various parts of the world, or on the supposition that both were made by the same people. This latter appeared to the speaker the more probable, strengthened as it was by the fact that the spiral and ammoniteshaped markings were found in the mounds of Ireland and also at Mycena and Hissarlick, also that there was certainly a considerable flow of commerce between the shores of the Black Sea and Mediterranean and Ireland in those early times. These art forms are our only guides through the tangled labyrinth of prehistoric legends. The early Nemedian invaders of Erin were a tribe from Greece who, at first unsuccessful, returned in a later wave as the Tuatha du Dannans. They appear to have had artificers skilled in metals amongst them, as they were recorded as having made a silver hand for their king, Nuada, when he lost his own in battle with a kindred tribe, the Firbolgs. These artificers were probably, as Miss Buckland thought, Etruscans, or were largely indebted to the metal workers of Etruria for their knowledge of the art. The character of their work suggested a Turanian origin, into which Phoenician mythological ideas had entered, as shown by the demi-lune or horned ornament. The Turanian type was also very marked in faces of the peasantry in and over parts of Ireland. He had visited the tumulus of New Grange, and observed that while the mouth itself had an Etruscan form, the stones at the entrance were put up in the Druidical manner, differing from the arch gates common to Etruscan tombs. There was also a circle of stones outside, which may have had some connection with the sorceries and wizardees with which the Tuatha du Dannans were credited by their contemporaries. Mr. PARK HARRISON, Mr. G. W. ATKINSON, Signor PAGLIARDINI, and Mr. A. L. LEWIS took part in the discussion; and Miss BUCKLAND replied. FEBRUARY 26TH, 1884. EDWARD B. TYLOR, Esq., LL.D., F.R.S., Vice-President, in the Chair. The Minutes of the last meeting were read and signed. The following presents were announced, and thanks voted to the respective donors: FOR THE LIBRARY. From R. N. CUST, Esq.-A Language Map of Africa. By E. J. Ravenstein. To accompany "Modern Languages of Africa." By R. N. Cust. From the AUTHOR.-The Dominion of Canada. By Joseph G. Colmer. GEOLOGICAL AND NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY OF CANADA.-Report of Progress for 1880-82, and Maps. BERLIN ANTHROPOLOGICAL SOCIETY.-Zeitschrift für Ethnologie, 1883. Heft. VI. GERMAN ANTHROPOLOGICAL February, 1884. SOCIETY.-Correspondenz-Blatt. From the ACADEMY.-Atti della R. Accademia dei Lincei. Transunti, Vol. VIII, Fas. 3, 4. From the AssOCIATION.―Journal of the East India Association. Vol. XVI, No. 1. Proceedings of the Geologists' Association. Vol. VIII, No. 4, and Annual Report, 1883. From the SOCIETY.-Bulletin de la Société d'Anthropologie de Bruxelles. Tom. I, 1882-3. Journal of the Society of Arts. No. 1630. From the EDITOR.-Bullettino di Paletnologia Italiana. 1883. Nos. 11, 12. Matériaux pour l'Histoire de l'Homme, 1884. January and "Nature." Nos. 746, 747. Revue Politique. Tom. XXXIII, No. 8. Revue Scientifique. Tom. XXXIII, No. 8. The election of the following new members was announced :— Miss H. M. HARGREAVES and Miss HELEN E. PEARSON; Dr. WALTER H. C. COFFIN; and Dr. EMIL RIEBECK. The following paper was read by Dr. E. B. Tylor:— The NANGA, or SACRED STONE ENCLOSURE, of WAINIMALA, FIJI. By the REV. LORIMER FISON, M.A. [WITH PLATES I AND II.] THE Nanga custom which I am about to describe is one of special interest, firstly, because in Fiji it is peculiar to certain tribes, their immediate neighbours, and, as far as I have been able to ascertain, all the other Fijian tribes, being unacquainted with it; and, secondly, because it is distinctly connected with the ceremony of initiation, or "making young men," of Australia, and probably with the so-called "clubs," or "secret societies," prevalent throughout Melanesia. If, with a chart of Fiji before us, we start from Nandi, on the west coast of Navitilevu (Plate II), and proceed east to the 178th meridian, which takes us about to the centre of the island, and thence along a south-south-west course to Korolevu,1 on the south coast, we shall pass through the tribes who observe the Nanga; and everywhere, to the right of us and to the left as we go, there are tribes who are not initiated into its mysteries. Along the line of its prevalence there are differences of detail in the rites performed, and in the structure of the Stone Enclosure, but the main object of the principal ceremony is 1 Korolevu is marked "Red Bluff" on some of the charts. 2 At Nandi the Nanga is within the war-fence of the town. This seems to be made necessary by the close proximity of hostile tribes. When thus placed, it is much smaller than the Wainimala Nanga here described. When it is within the town, the women make a circuit to avoid it in passing, and the children are forbidden to play in its neighbourhood. everywhere the same, namely, the reception of young men into full membership in the tribe. Every full-born male is by birth a member of the community, but he is not a man until he has been received into the Nanga, and even then he does not attain full membership until he has attended two of its celebrations, one of which is that at which he was initiated. It will be seen that the effect of this regulation is to keep him on probation for at least two years.1 The Constitution of the Nanga. The Wainimala community, in addition to the ordinary social divisions into clans, &c., which have hereditary succession through males, is divided as to its adult males into three sections, corresponding to those of the Nanga, or Stone Enclosure. These will be seen in the accompanying sketch (Plate I), which may now be explained. This sketch was kindly made for me by Mr. Leslie J. Walker, of the Civil Service, who worked from a ground plan drawn by one of our mission teachers, named Jimi Nakoravau, and from my description, which was based solely on information carefully drawn from the natives, I having never had an opportunity of visiting the Wainimala country in person. The drawing, therefore, can only be taken as an approximate representation, but there is no doubt that it is sufficiently correct for the purpose of showing the arrangement of the structure.2 The bell-roofed house outside the farther end is the Vale tambu (Sacred House, or Temple). The division next to it, in which the kava bowl stands, is the Nanga tambutambu (Sacred Nanga). That in the middle is called the Nanga levu (Great Nanga), and the third section is the Nanga sewa, or Little Nanga. The entire structure is fenced round with stones set edgeways in the ground, the katumbas, or entrances, shown in the plan being merely low places easily stepped over. The two partition walls are about 5 feet high, by 3 feet at the base, narrowing to 2 feet at the top, which is neatly covered with flat stones. The elders of the community are the Lewe ni Nanga tambutambu, or Members of the Sacred Nanga. These are called the Vērě, the very old men among them being the Vērě matua (ripe, or old Vērě). 1 The present tense is used throughout this memoir, but the Nanga ceremonies are no longer performed. 2 An old Wainimala man, to whom I showed Mr. Walker's drawing, tells me that there are too many great stones in the outer wall, but that otherwise the structure is fairly represented. This, however, is not quite conclusive, for we can never be sure as to what a native sees when he looks at a picture. |