be found the last relics and the final resting-places of this prehistoric race (Plate I). Of all the dolmens in the province of Traz-os-Montes, which Father Brenha and Father Rodriguez explored, the most important are those of "Châ das Arcas," not only for the good preservation of the monuments, but for the variety and interest of the funereal furnishing which they met with. Those with which we have to deal consist of a group of ten dolmens, in the district of Villa Pouca, and in the parish of Soutello do Valle. The first seven and the last two contained nothing of importance, nor which need detain us. It is with that which the discoverers distinguished as No. viii that our enquiry has to do. There must have been a gallery of approach, but no stone of it was left. One of the seven large stones of which the chamber was formed had fallen inside, dividing it into two parts, and its position appeared to prove that the chamber had never been filled with earth. The floor of the chamber was paved, and had been. covered with a slight layer of sand, which has been washed away by rain. It was the largest chamber in this group of dolmens. Of the contents, Father Brenha says: "They were of a most extraordinary description, and show that, instead of being a tomb, it was perhaps a temple or covered depository, where the tribe placed and kept secure whatever it respected and adored, or which perpetuated the traditions of its ancestors." These contents may be divided under four heads : (1) Amulets of small stones, of various shapes, perforated, some of them having designs of animals and scenes of primitive life, and zoomorphic stones. (2) Four female busts, or figurines. (3) Several large stones, with animals depicted on them; and (4) a small stone, with characters (?) traced on it, and two large perforated amulets, pointed like scrapers, with inscriptions: one of them "appearing to be the symbol of the sun." 1 Similar objects, though of less importance, were found in other groups of dolmens in the immediate neighbourhood, including some further examples of stones and amulets inscribed with alphabetiform characters and drawings of animals and zoomorphic stones. Some fragments of pottery were also found in some of the dolmens. To continue Father Brenha's account: "We met with no object of metal in the dolmens which we explored; and all the objects met with are characteristically and indubitably of the Neolithic age"; and the conclusions which he draws from his investigations are as follows: "That inhumation was practised, and the deposition of small vessels with offerings; that they believed in the future life, in the worship of the dead, the adoration of the sun, and of animals, and the deification of the implements of labour; that writing was known to Neolithic man; that the appearance of coloured objects proves that tattooing was used, as well as other ornaments, whether necklaces or amulets; that they hunted, either for necessity or pleasure, as well as ground corn; that their life was rather agricultural and sedentary than warlike." With most of these conclusions, except as regards the knowledge of writing, all experts on the subject of Neolithic man will agree, notwithstanding the remarkable character of the "finds" on which they are based in this instance. It will be observed that although Father Brenha describes minutely the condition of the chamber in the particular dolmen, No. VIII, he says nothing whatever as to its having been broken into at some date unknown. He tells a plain unvarnished tale of the discoveries which he and Father Rodriguez made together; and there is no question but that they are both perfectly honest and truthful in their narration of the facts. Don Severo's "Commentary" deals with the discoveries on the assumption of the genuiness of the objects found, of which he himself is firmly persuaded; and his Paper is, as I have already remarked, a long and erudite investigation of the significance and of the relationships of the "finds" with what is already known of Neolithic man from previous discoveries. With some portion of his Paper I will deal presently. But there is one locality and one remarkable series of "finds" which he does not refer to, no doubt because the story of it had not reached as far as Portugal; and yet this series of "finds" throws a remarkable light upon these later Portuguese ones, and, 1 both taken together, mutually support one another, and at the same time throw additional light upon what has been hitherto known of the condition of Neolithic man in Europe. I refer to the discoveries made by Messrs. Bruce and Donnelly at Dumbouie, Auchentorlie, and Cochno, and in the Dumbuck and Langbank "Crannogs;" and I may say here at once that whatever may be the ultimate verdict of the scientific world as to the value and genuineness of this series of "finds," whether in Portugal or in Scotland, I and many other competent observers are as much persuaded of the perfect honesty and good faith of Messrs. Bruce and Donnelly as Don Severo and Don Leité de Vasconcellos are of that of Fathers Brenha and Rodriguez. There is no need for me to explain that it is the mutual light shed upon one another by these remarkably coincident" finds" on the Clydeside and in Portugal, and the light which both together shed upon the religious and magical ideas of Neolithic man, which has induced me to bring this subject again before this Association; and I flatter myself that it will not be unwelcome, for nothing that can by any possibility throw any additional light upon Early Man in Britain, or elsewhere, is alien to its objects. I may, however, explain, in order to make myself perfectly clear, that when I speak of "Neolithic man," I mean "races in the Neolithic stage of culture,' whether they belong to what is more specially known as "the Neolithic Age" in Europe (as these Portuguese "finds" occurring in dolmens most probably do), or to a later period, chronologically, as the Scotch "finds" most probably do, and as the native races in Africa and Australia do at the present day. That it is possible for a race to be in the Neolithic stage of culture as regards ideas, while actually in the Iron Age, or whatever the modern Age may be called, as regards the material conditions of life, is proved, for example, by Miss Mary Kingsley's account of the state of things among the West African natives, among whom she travelled and whom she studied. There you may find a chief and his people in possession of modern firearms, wearing goods made in Manchester, and trading with the merchants; enjoying, in fact, a considerable degree of material prosperity and civilisation; while, at the same time, as regards magic and religion, you find them steeped in the ideas which have come down to them from their Neolithic ancestors-those ideas, not as with modern European nations, merely as survivals or "superstitions," but as living, active forces in their daily life. With this digression, rendered necessary by the number of misrepresentations and misapprehensions which are abroad on the subject, I proceed to the comparisons of the Clydeside and Portuguese "finds." It will be noticed that in Portugal nothing is said of any rock-markings. On that head I shall therefore add nothing to what I have advanced in previous Papers. But markings of the same character with those engraved on rocks and dolmenic stones in all parts of Europe, and painted on the rocky sides of their secret and sacred hiding-places by the natives of Central Australia, are found on the small stones or amulets both in Scotland and Portugal, i.e., cup- and ring-markings, ducts, and lines, or rays. Of the four classes of objects described by Father Brenha, two only, and perhaps a third, correspond with those found on the Clyde, viz. the perforated amulets of various shapes, and the figurines; and possibly one example of a lettered amulet at Langbank. Of the drawings of animals and the zoomorphic amulets, there is no example from Scotland. A comparison of the drawings of the two sets of objects (Plates II, III and IV) will demonstrate sufficiently the remarkable resemblance, not to say identity of motif, which is to be found in them, and which proves indisputably either that they proceed from peoples in whom the same set of ideas are dominant and vital, or that the same identical modern practical joker or jokers-to use no stronger terms-has had his innings in the Portuguese dolmens and on the Clyde. Whether the latter hypothesis is a likely one will be seen later on. It will be remembered that it is these particular Scotch "finds" of which it has been said that "no place can be |