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they lay food for the use of their sons.

The sisters of the novices

and the other women also assemble near this spot, which is called ngurra nyalla.

When these preliminaries have been arranged, the men and boys come marching on, painted and dressed in their full regalia as men of the tribe, and as they approach the women throw sticks over their heads. The novices step forward to the nets, and eat the food which their mothers have provided for them. After this the women return to their own camp, but the graduates are taken by their guardians to a place near the single men's quarters. During that evening some of the old headmen show the novices the sacred white stones, which are so much valued by all native tribes.

These white stones, which in this district are called buggan, are said to be found in the scrubby mountains beyond Bandon Grove, near the head of the Williams river, and are supposed to be the excrement of Gæñ Mudyer Dhingga (Gœñ of the Hairy Hands), a malevolent being who has his abode in these mountain fastnesses. A number of clever old men-the so-called wizards of their tribes -used to make periodical expeditions into these regions for the purpose of obtaining supplies of the buggan. On these occasions it was not considered safe for a man to travel alone, but it was necessary that several should go in company. At their camps at night they were required to sing songs similar to those which form part of the keeparra ceremonial, and the camp-fires had to be maintained by burning certain kinds of wood to be found in that district. During the night, while the old men were asleep, Gon was supposed to appear, accompanied by some of his coadjutors, and put white stones into their dilly bags.

If any of the old men of the company had been remiss in their observance of any of the tribal customs, they would keep awake, holding a burning brand in their hand, in order to protect themselves against Goen's evil designs. The only way in which such men could secure the sacred buggan was to search for them along the sides of hills or watercourses, where they had been deposited by Gϖ.

Every youth who graduates through the Nguttan is required to attend the next keeparra ceremony which takes place among his own people-or the bürbüng of those tribes who adjoin them on the northwest-in order that he may receive further instruction in the sacred initiatory rites of the community.

Short or probationary forms of inauguration ceremonies are found in several districts, and a knowledge of them is highly valuable, as exhibiting the various stages through which a youth must pass before he is qualified to take his place as a full man of his tribe. In a different portion of the same tract of country, there is another elementary ceremony known as the Dhalgai, described by me elsewhere. Both the Nguttan and the Dhalgai are practiced in parts of the geographical area represented as No. 5 on the map of New South Wales hereto appended (Plate V).

PRELIMINARY NOTE

ON THE SELENODONT ARTIODACTYLS
OF THE UINTA FORMATION.

BY W. B. SCOTT.

(Read March 18, 1898.)

In 1895, Mr. J. B. Hatcher collected for the Princeton Museum some unusually well-preserved specimens of Selenodont Artiodactyls in the Uinta beds of northern Utah. In preparing a monograph upon these forms I have found certain new and undescribed genera which have proved to be of remarkable phylogenetic interest, and the much more complete material now available of genera previously named gives us most welcome information. As the detailed account of these fossils cannot appear for many months, it is desirable to publish a brief notice of the new forms and of the principal conclusions to which the study of the Uinta Selenodonts has led. One of the most marked changes between the mammalian life of the Bridger and that of the Uinta is in the great increase of the Artiodactyls in general and of the Selenodonts in particular. In the Bridger beds only two genera at most of the latter group have been described, and remains of even these are very rare; in the Uinta, on the other hand, Artiodactyls are the most abundant fossils and not less than eight genera of Selenodonts may be determined, while others are indicated by specimens not sufficiently well preserved for description.

The most interesting and striking result to which the study of the

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The Dhalgai Ceremony," Journ. Anthrop. Inst., Vol. xxvi, pp. 338-340.

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Uinta Selenodonts has led is the very unexpected conclusion that, with the possible exception of the Oreodonts and Agriocharids, all of the strictly indigenous North American Seienodonts are derivatives of the Tylopodan stem. The true Ruminants (Pecora) are an Old World type and did not reach this continent till late Miocene times, but the Tylopoda underwent an expansion and differentiation in America comparable to that of the Pecora in Europe, of which they took the place here. This conclusion was long ago suggested, with wonderful insight, by Rütimeyer, but as he did not discuss the question and brought forward no evidence in support of his views, the suggestion never attracted the attention which it so well deserved. The White River forms, Leptomeryx, Hypertragulus, Hypisodus and Protoceras, have long baffled the investigator who attempted to determine their true systematic position, but it has now become exceedingly probable that they are all variants of the Tylopodan type, the main line of which is represented in White River times by the genus Poebrotherium, whose position has long been recognized as ancestral to the modern camels and llamas. It should be added, however, that this somewhat surprising result has been much strengthened and confirmed by far more complete material of Leptomeryx and Hypertraguius than had previously been known. This new material, which was gathered at various times by Messrs. Hatcher and Gidley, makes the Tylopodan affinities of these White River genera much more conspicuous than any one had imagined. In the extended paper which is now in course of preparation these newly obtained specimens will be described and figured in comparison with their forerunners of the Uinta.

PARAMERYX Marsh.

Amer. Jour. Sci., third series, Vol. xiv, p. 364 (nomen nudum).
Ibid., Vol. xlviii, p. 269.

In this genus the dentition is complete, I., C., P., M. and there are no diastemata. The incisors and canines are small, the premolars simple and trenchant and the molars very brachyodont and composed of four crescents. The skull is exceedingly like that of Poebrotherium, but has a shorter muzzle, a less capacious cranium, a more widely open orbit and a very much smaller tympanic bulla, which is not filled with cancellous tissue. The ulna and radius are separate, at least in young individuals; the manus consists of four

functional digits, though the lateral metacarpals are already very much more slender than the median pair. The fibula is complete and not coössified with the tibia at any point, but its shaft is so reduced as to be a mere thread of bone. The pes contains two functional metatarsals, iii and iv, while Nos. ii and v are long, filiform and splint-like rudiments to which, apparently, no phalanges are attached, but this is still doubtful. The phalanges of the functional digits resemble those of Poebrotherium, and the unguals have the same long, pointed and slender, antelope-like shape.

There can be very little doubt that Parameryx is the direct and immediate ancestor of the White River Poebrotherium, which it so much resembles, and thus it holds an important place in the main line of Tylopodan descent.

LEPTOTRAGULUS Scott and Osborn.

PROC. AMER. PHIL. SOC., 1887, p. 258.

I'

In a former account of this genus,' the type of which is a fragment of the mandible containing P, and m I made the mistake of referring to it certain limb and foot bones which, it is now apparent, belong to the very distinct genus Parameryx, from which Leptotragulus differs in the form of the premolars and in the presence of diastemata. At present I am not able to refer to the latter genus any of the newly acquired material, and hence can add nothing to my original account of it. It differs but comparatively little, however, from the following genus, the structure of which may be very fully described.

2

MERYCODESMUS, gen. nov.

Dentition unreduced; I., C. 1, P., M.; upper incisors conical, pointed and slightly recurved; upper canine large, compressed and thick; lower canine incisiform; p 1 near canine, with diastema behind it; p 3 with deuterocone; PT caniniform and opposing upper canine; p with large deuteroconid. Molars composed of four crescentic lobes, m with fifth lobe. Forehead elongate and lozenge-shaped, sagittal crest short, as in Parameryx; mandible with very extended angle. Manus and pes having four

TRANS. AMER. PHIL. SOC., Vol. XVI, p. 479.

2 PROC. AMER. PHIL. SOC., 1887, p. 258.

functional digits; lateral metapodials less reduced than in Para

meryx.

Merycodesmus gracilis, sp. nov.

Size small; orbit small and bounded behind by very long decurved postorbital process of frontal; cranium relatively broad and capacious; mandible very slender.

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(N. B.-The apparently great length of the premolar series is due to the diastema behind p1)

The dentition of Merycodesmus is quite similar to that of Parameryx, but differs in certain very significant ways. Thus, the lower incisors have more chisel-shaped crowns, and the lower canine has become one of them in form and function; the upper canine is much larger and the first lower premolar has taken on the form and function of the canine. In each jaw a long diastema separates p 1

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