The annual general meeting of the above Society was called for Tuesday evening Inst, but owing to the slender attendance, the' reception of reports, election of officers, and other routine business, had to be referred to a meeting to be hereafter fixed. Those present were, Mesars. W.
Medhurst, President; A. Wylie, 'T. W. Kingsmill, Cordier, ©. Gardiner, W.
Pryer, Dr. Macgowan, and 'T, G. Smith, Hon, Sec.—Reyret was expressed at the paucity of the attendance, especially when the number of resident members, 66, was remembered.
Mr. Wylie presented to the Shanghai Museum, from Captain Patchings, of the merchant ship Blliotts, three spears and a hich be had Cbisined from seme natives of the Solomon Islands, who had ventured out to sea ten miles' from St. Anna's Isle, iu'a canoe, and came alongside the ship.—The spears were skilfully carved out of some kind of hard, but flexible wood, the shortest being about 9 feet and the largest about 10} feet in length. About six inches of the points were smooth, but for more than a foot lower the wood was beautifully serrated in a manner to act as barbs, thus forming a deadly weapon in the hands of the savage owners. The comb appeared to have been made with the spines of some kind of fish, the longest of which formed both the handle and one tooth, the other teeth radiate from it, fan shape, but with a cons able space between, evidencing the tangled material it at times had to separate.
A vote of thanks, proposed by Mr. Write, and seconded Dr. MacGowan, was unanimously awarded to Captain Patchings, and will be conveyed to him on his arrival in Shanghai.
Mr. Corprer announced a very handsome gift to the Library of the Society As mentioned in the Report for 1874, Mr. Ernest Frenan, Secretary of the Societe Aniatique; Mr. Chevron), Director of the Museum Histoire Naturelle; and Vice-'Admiral La Roncitre lo Noury, President of the Societe de hie, had been officially addressed, with a view of obtaining the publications of those learned bodies. The Societe Asiatique hiad just sent a complete sot of their "Journal," extending over 80 volumes. 'The value of magnificent yift could not be over estimated, when it is considered that it embodied' almost all the researches of French and of continental Oriental scholars since the days of Abel Remusat, To the set of the Journal," was added copy of the large Siamese dictionary of Mgr. Pal-
The snuouncement was received with lively satisfaction, and it was understood that the thanks of the local Society would be forwarded to the donors, The Preswesr suggested that Mr, Kingemill should now read his promised paper on, "The Story of the Emperor Shun and that, for the evening to be appointed for the transaction of the annual business, another paper would be forth coming.
This having been acceded to, The Pnesrpenr said be would state for the benefit of those not initiated, if any were present, that Shun was the last of the line of eight Emperors with whom commenced the chronology of China, Mr. Kingsmill, perhaps, intended showing him to be a myth, but if he ever lived, it would have been about 2,200 years before Christ, and the line would have flourished about the time of the Biblical Patriarchs, from Shem to Abraham, Mr. Kixosss1t. then' proceeded to read his paper, of which we regret we are una ble to give an abstract; it is, we understand, lo be published in the transactions of the Svciety. The paper was listened to with attention, and at the close, Mr. Wszie rose to move a vote of thanks to Mr, Kingsmill for the pleasure he h ing forward his spe ting a subject, He an important service to ing hat obscured history, and to let them know where to bein on safe ground, and Mr, Kingsmill deserved credit for what he had done on the subject. He (Mr. Wylie) was not prepared to offer any criticism upon the paper, still less to deal with the myths in which the story of Shun was shrouded but the question was, what was the basis of those myths, if (hey were myths, that they found turning up in various countries of the world? "With respect. to those of China, were they to suppose that they were taken by the Chinese from some source, and worked into something like readable history? Were the myths older than the history of the Chinese? If the whole history of the Shoo-king was a myth, there must have been a basis for it sume: where, and where must it be looked for—in India or China? Were they to regard the Puranas or the Shoo-king as being the most ancient Mr. Kixossucr said as to the antiquity of two, there was no doubt the Shoo-kin, was the more ancient book, but the Vedas were very superior in antiquity to either the Shoo-king or the Puranas; With regard to whether the legends of ancient countries were worked up into readable history, they had the history of Rome, of Greece, and of other nations to judge by; and with respect to the question, were they to look to India or China for the basis of Chinese legends, he thought to neither the one nor the other; but that they were to be attributed to a race which lived on the great plateau of Central Asia, Everything tended to one common point of derivation—to one common story; and the further up they tried to trace the basis of these legends, the nearer they approached one another.
Mr. Were observed that it would be an interesting question to try to trace them up to their source; but where were they to look for the origin of the sources of Indian and Chinese legends?
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.