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Rh god-shelf. Other objects have passed through the same changes from offering to emblem, and in this respect are comparable with ideas prevalent in other religions. Among the ruder and poorer Ainu population, who are supposed to be the aborigines, similar things are used made of willow wands in the like manner, but the evidence is conflicting whether the Ainu have arrived at the final stage of believing them to embody their god. An instance of the generalisation that in these matters the human mind works in the same way at the like stage of development is noted by Mr. Aston in the fact that the ceremony which Julius Cæsar asked Mark Antony to perform at the Lupercalia:

has been performed for the last thousand years in Japan with the same objects. Mr. Tregear's paper on the Spirit of Vegetation, also published in the Journal of the Anthropological Institute, describes the ceremonies formerly connected with the worship of that spirit among the Maoris of New Zealand, and shows that the same sentiments operate to produce corresponding methods of thought among a people to whom corn was unknown, as lie at the foundation of the harvest ceremonies investigated by Mr. Frazer. Mr. Elworthy's exhibition of numerous casts of the Dischi Sacri illustrated another group of religious ideas. The papers by Miss Godden, Miss Goodrich Freer, Dr. Rivers, Mr. Rose, and Mr. Seyler shed light upon other branches of our great and complicated subject; and we have in many respects to thank all those who have taken part in the proceedings at our evening meetings for very considerable contributions to knowledge in folklore.

I must not omit to notice as one of the most important events of the year. Miss Owen's generous gift of her fine collection of Musquakie beadwork. We have not yet