hidden by the overlying soil and fine débris that the localities of the famous city were but vaguely known. This stone stela was found in the region of the temple of Astarte, and by many of those who examined it the relief was considered to be a figure of the Goddess Astarte feeding carnivorous, and presumably sacred, animals with the entrails and genitals of the victim of a sacrifice. I was discouraged at the very meagre results obtained by antiquarians who had studied the locality, and shocked to contemplate how entirely that great city was obliterated. Once she claimed to control the whole western Mediterranean Sea so effectually that "no one could wash his hands in it without her permission." Her fleets and armies, her agriculture and pomology, her stock raising and her temples are only known to us through her enemies, the Romans; but these naturally biased historians freely acknowledged that she excelled the world. At the time of our visit only mounds of earth were to be seen there, covered with very small fragments of different-colored marbles, some fine large pieces of marble steps that evidently had formed portions of a great stairway to the sea gate, and a number of large subterranean reservoirs supposed to have been used for water storage, these being in pretty fair condition, and in strong contrast with the utter and absolute ruin of all else. Which was followed by a verbal communication by Dr. Morris, as follows: It has been said that Abdel Kader when brought as a prisoner to Paris was taken to Versailles and asked his opinion as to the celebrated paintings of the battles in Africa, where he had borne such an heroic part. He replied that “if an Arab had portrayed them he would probably have done so very differently." It is well for us to remember that nearly all we know of the Carthaginian empire, people or customs has come to us through Roman sources, and that the “Punica fides" which we have learned of in our childhood might seem very different if heard of from the other side. While I would not be considered as an apologist for the worship of Astarte, which we know of from Syrian and Phoenician as well as from Greek and Roman sources, passing as it does into that of Aphrodite and Nero, of Venus and Juno, or of sexual love, whether normal and pure or abnormal and illicit, it still remains true that C'est toûjours l'amour, l'amour, Human nature has been and is the same in all climes, ages, civilizations and religions; and it behooves us in inquiring about them to treat them fairly as we would seek to have done to our own views. It is in this manner I would study this relic, all too rare, as our friend, Dr. Thomas C. Stellwagen has just shown us, of Carthaginian civilization. It is a white sandstone slab, the lower part of which has been broken off and the upper corners sloped nearly but not quite to a point. It is 2 feet 5 inches long, 1 foot 14 inches broad, and 5 inches thick. At the top is a *, which I take to be intended to represent the sun on each of the corners of the sloping and straight sides two small concentric circles, which I take as intended to represent planets (Mars and Jupiter?): and on the upper part of the slab the figure of Astarte with its crescent, holding a pomegranate in the right hand, from which a beast is feasting, and in the left a bunch of dates plucked at by a bird. Under this figure of Astarte, thus emblematic of the love-passion as alike furnishing fertility and prosperity to all living beings, is the entablature of a temple or house with rude Corinthian columns, and an eagle, while beneath is the figure of a man calmly standing, wrapped in a robe. Herodianus (circa 150 A.D.) tells us of the custom prevailing at the beatification of an emperor among the Romans. An eagle was bound on the funeral pyre so that when it was lighted and the bonds burned the living bird soared aloft bearing the soul of the deceased to the empyrean, and the Imperator became Divus. May not this well explain this figure standing in the porch of the house or temple ready to pass through the region presided over by Love into the vast beyond where Light and Order still prevail? and how far would such a faith differ from that held by the most of us to-day? This stone, I believe, formed the doorway of a vault or sarcophagus such as may be not infrequently found on or near the shores of the Mediterranean, and may well aid us in our inquiries into the real beliefs of those who passed so long ago into the Great Beyond. On each side of the head of the man's figure is a small hole such as would receive a tenon on a bronze plaque, which may have covered this figure, as we see brasses on the graves of Crusaders in old cathedrals. If this were so, this monument, had it contained the man's name, would have, like Horace's, proved Aere perennius." The Society was adjourned by the presiding officer. Stated Meeting, May 5, 1899. Vice-President SELLERS in the Chair. Present, 21 members. Gen. Isaac J. Wistar read an obituary notice of the late Richard A. Tilghman. The Secretaries announced the death at Philadelphia, on May 2, of Alexander Biddle, aged 80 years. The following papers were read : By Mr. R. H. Mathews, of Parramatta, New South Wales, "On Divisions of North Australian Tribes." By Dr. Rudolph Buti, of Baltimore, Fragment of the Book of the Dead." "On an Interesting By the Committee on Historical Manuscripts, "A Calendar of the Weedon and of the Richard Henry and Arthur Lee Correspondence in the Library of the Society.” Dr. Samuel G. Dixon was elected a Councillor to fill the unexpired term of Gen. Isaac J. Wistar, made vacant by his election as a Vice-President of the Society. Mr. Harold Goodwin presented a framed engraving of John Vaughan, who had served the Society as Secretary in 1789 and 1790, as Treasurer from 1791 to 1841, and as Librarian from 1803 to 1842, and on motion the thanks of the Society were returned therefor. The Society was adjourned by the presiding officer. DIVISIONS OF NORTH AUSTRALIAN TRIBES. BY R. H. MATHEWS, L.S. (Read May 5, 1899.) The division of a tribe into intermarrying sections or classes, although one of the most interesting of the institutions recognized among the Australian aborigines, has not hitherto received the attention which its importance deserves. In a former number of the PROCEEDINGS of this Society' I tabulated the names of eight sections, with the rules of marriage and descent in force over a large extent of country in the Northern Territory. Since then I have reported' a similar eight-section system, but with different sectional names, in the northwest corner of Queensland, extending southerly from the Gulf of Carpentaria for a distance of about three hundred miles, including the Wentworth, Nicholson, Gregory and Upper Georgina rivers. In an article contributed to the Royal Society of New South Wales in June, 1898, I described the eight sections of the Arrinda tribe on the Finke, Todd and other rivers, but, while that paper 1 PROC. AMER. PHILOS. SOC., xxxvii, 151–154. 2 Fourn. Roy. Soc. N. S. Wales, xxxii, 251, 252. 3 Ibid., xxxii, 72. was in the press, a correspondent furnished me with additional information which shows the line of descent in a manner that is more readily understood than by the table appended to the article in question. I propose, therefore, to supply a new table, showing how the divisions intermarry, with the sections to which the offspring belong, as follows: It will be observed by the foregoing table that the sons of the women of one group marry the daughters of the women of the other; and, also, that each group has perpetual succession through its females. For example, take the women of Group A in the table, we find that Parulla is the mother of Pungata; Pungata of Ngala; Ngala of Bultara, and Bultara is the mother of Parulla, and this order of succession is continually repeated.1 Among the women of Group B the line of descent conforms to the same rules. I have traced some of the section names of this organization, namely, Bultara, Koomara, etc., across the country from the Upper Finke river northeasterly to the Georgina river, a distance of more than four hundred miles. My correspondent also made some further investigations respecting the order of succession in four of the sections of the Warramonga tribe' at Tennant's Creek, with the result that it becomes necessary to prepare an amended table of one of the groups. As it might cause confusion to show only one group, I have included both in the subjoined table: The names of the eight sections of the Upper Finke river tribes were first reported by the Rev. L. Schulze in 1891 (Trans. Roy. Soc. S. Australia, xiv, 223, 224.) Their arrangement into two intermarrying gronps was the result of my investigations (Journ. Roy. Soc. N. S. Wales, xxxii, 72). 2 Journ. Roy. Soc. N. S. Wales, xxxii, 73. In Group A of the above table, the rotation of the section names is different from that given in my former table, which, necessarily, alters the order of descent among the women and children. Group B is the same as that previously given. If my correspondent is now correct, it can be shown by this table that a brother's son's children intermarry with a sister's son's children, instead of the son of a brother marrying the daughter of a sister, and vice versa, as stated in my former paper. In examining the two tables, I and II, it is seen that the names of several sections in the Arrinda tribe are almost identical with some of the section names of the Warramonga. On the McArthur, Kangaroo and Calvert rivers, in the Northern Territory, reaching thence along the shore of the Gulf of Carpentaria beyond the Queensland boundary, and extending inland about one hundred miles, are several native tribes, among which may be mentioned the Yuckamurri, Yanular, Leanawa, Yookala and Kurrawar. The following synopsis shows the section to which a man belongs the section into which he can marry-and the designation of the offspring: |