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mark on the chin almost always denotes marriage. So general does this custom of tattooing the chin in women seem, that it would appear possible by it to distinguish the sex not only in the living individual, but in paintings and sculptures. The wide distribution of this peculiar custom appears to me of considerable significance, especially as it follows so nearly in the line I have previously indicated as suggestive of a pre-historic intercourse between the two hemispheres. "If," says Max Müller, "we find the same. words with the same meanings in Sanskrit, Persian, Armenian, Greek, Latin, Celtic, Slavonic, and Teutonic, what shall we say? Either the words must have been borrowed from one language by the other, or they must have belonged to an older language from which all these so-called Aryan languages were derived." This, using customs instead of languages, is what I have endeavoured to show in this volume. When we find in India, Japan, Egypt, New Guinea, New Zealand, Alaska, Greenland, and America, the custom of tattooing carried out in precisely the same manner and for the same ends, and when in addition to this we find a similarity in other ornaments, in weapons, in games, in modes of burial, and many other customs, we think it may fairly be assumed that they all derived these customs from a common source, or that at some unknown period, some intercourse existed of which these things are the surviving traces.

The antiquity of the art of tattooing is undoubted. Herodotus speaks of it as used by the Thracians, and I have always held that the Picts were probably tattooed, and perhaps the ancient Britains likewise, and that geometrical patterns and other markings similar to those in New Zealand and North America found on ancient stone monuments in Europe, probably denoted the tribal mark or totem of chieftains, as tattooed or painted upon their persons, but this of course, except from analogy, must remain a conjecture. Doubtless as at the present day, tattooing died out rapidly after contact with civilized races; but it is somewhat singular, that

no trace of tattooing, as far as I am aware,1 is to be found among the Egyptian, Assyrian, Greek, and Roman paintings and sculptures, although these civilized nations must have come in contact with tattooed peoples, unless it had not at that period spread into the regions depicted by them. The bronze head before alluded to as found in the cemetery of Marzabotto, Bologna, is the only one I know in which tattoo marks, or rather the African tribal cicatrices on the face, are distinctly to be seen. Mr. Swan, who, in his article on the Haidahs, reproduces this bronze head, fancies he sees something like tattoo marks on one of the vases found by Dr. Schliemann; and I believe it can be plainly traced on some of the Peruvian vases. I pointed out in a note to my paper on "American Shell Work," 2 the strong similarity between the tattoo marks of the Nagas as portrayed by Dr. Watt in the Colonial and Indian Exhibition, and those on the curious shell masks found in grave-mounds in America; and a still more remarkable coincidence in connection with this subject has since come to my notice. The shell masks of which I have spoken, have diagonal lines across the cheek, and some have a hole with a line or two lines proceeding from it, and sometimes two others crossing it, extending over what may be supposed to be the chin. Now it is a singular fact that exactly the same mark appears on the chin of the gigantic stone image from Easter Island now under the portico of the British Museum. Whether these marks represent tattooing, as affirmed by Mr. Dall, and whether then, as now, these markings on the chin denoted a female, must be left to further investigation; but it is a subject worthy, I believe, of the especial notice of travellers and antiquaries, for it appears to me of great anthropological interest. The implements employed are also deserving

1 Since writing this I have found that in the picture at Thebes before referred to, of the time of Sethosis I., in which the four distinct human races are depicted, tattooing is observable on one-fourth of the figures. See "President's Address," Journal of Anthropological Institute, April 1870.

2 Journal of Anthropological Institute, November 1886.

of notice, being in many places fragments of human bone, but of these I cannot treat at present.

Since writing the above, I have been favoured with a sight of a book recently published by Herr Joëst, on the subject, and if the Japanese tattooing represented in the plates is not supplemented by painting, it must be conceded that the Japanese are the most skilful tattooers in the world. The patterns resemble those on Japanese silks, and might readily be mistaken for a tight-fitting garment of that material. Such, indeed, seems to be the design, as it is only in use, we are told, among the lower orders, and takes with them the place of garments.

CHAPTER XV.

TRACES OF PRE-HISTORIC COMMERCE IN EUROPE.1

Importance of the Subject of Pre-historic Commerce-Cups of Similar Pattern in Mycenæ, Corneto, and Cornwall-The Golden Armour of Mold-Lunulæ in Ireland and in Corneto-Buttons and Fibula-Were they Manufactured in Ireland, and of Irish Gold?-Identity of Various Articles in Ireland and Etruria-Irish Legends-Firbolgs and Leather Bags of Miners-Gold the Attraction to the EtruscansIngots of Gold in Irish Bogs-The Tumuli of New Grange and Dowth possibly Etruscan-Vallancy's Reference to Etruscan Games-Mr. Walhouse on Pre-historic Commerce with India--The Beryl--Barter-Jade and Amber--Mr. Boyd-Dawkins on Etruscan and Phoenician Trade-routes.

THE subject of commerce, as carried on in pre-historic times, is of interest alike to the anthropologist, the archæologist, and the student of folklore and legends; for, if the extent of that commerce and its routes could be well defined, much that is obscure in the unwritten history of mankind would become clear; since it is evident that variations in physical type, in language, in religion, in manners and customs, in legends and in the arts, would arise from a longcontinued intercourse between barbarous and civilized, or semi-civilized races.

In the absence of written history, this intercourse can be traced only through legends, such as those recorded in the earlier part of this volume, or by the vestiges discovered in tombs, in the refuse-heaps known as kitchen-middens, or in the remains of long-buried cities destroyed by the hand of Time, by some sudden natural calamity, or by the inroads of enemies; and it 1 Journal of Anthropological Institute, August 1884.

is a singular and significant fact that, in the majority of cases, the relics brought to light by the spade of the archæological explorer, confirm in a wonderful manner legends which have been handed down from time immemorial.

As an illustration of this, I have thought it might perhaps be of interest to call attention, in the first place, to three cups of gold discovered-one some years ago in Cornwall, another at Mycena by Dr. Schliemann, and the third in the Necropolis of old Tarquinii. The first, of which a full description is given in the Archaological Journal for September 1867, has been considered of sufficient importance to be figured in two of Dr. Evans's valuable works, that on Ancient Stone Implements and that on Bronze Implements. The prominence thus given to this particular find impressed it strongly upon my mind, and I was therefore especially interested in seeing a gold cup which, as far as memory serves, is almost identical with the Cornish example, in the Museum at Corneto, being one of the numerous and very important relics found in the Necropolis of the ancient Etruscan city of Tarquinii. I was particularly struck with the crumpled-up handle, which seemed to suggest an identity with that of the British cup, as having been made of very thin gold, bent or waved, so as to resemble a ribbon. The third cup, that discovered by Dr. Schliemann among the treasures of Mycenæ, although bearing a strong general resemblance to the other two, differs from them in shape, but all three are undoubtedly of the same type: they are all of a corrugated pattern, apparently produced by the same means, that is, by beating out a thin plate of gold over a carved model of wood, stone, or perhaps bronze, the handle being riveted on afterwards. A few other articles of a similar style, and almost of the same pattern, are known, one being an armlet of gold, found in Lincolnshire, and another, the splendid gold-corselet from Mold in Flintshire, now in the British Museum; but the pattern of the latter is much more elaborate, the plain ribs being alternated with bands of raised

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