Now we find that everywhere this festival of the Pleiades' culmination at midnight (or it may be of the slightly earlier one of their first appearance at the horizon at apparent sunset) was always connected with the memory of the dead. It was a "feast of ancestors." Among the Australians themselves, the _corroborees_ of the natives are connected with a worship of the dead. They paint a white stripe over their arms, legs, and ribs, and, dancing by the light of their fires by night, appear like so many skeletons rejoicing. What is also to be remarked, the festival lasts three days, and commences in the evening; the latter a natural result of the date depending on the appearance of the Pleiades on the horizon at that time. The Society Islanders, who, as we have seen, divided their year by the appearance of the Pleiades at sunset, commenced their year on the first day of the appearance, about November, and also celebrated the closing of one and the opening of a new year by a "usage resembling much the popish custom of mass for souls in purgatory," each man returning to his home to offer special prayers for the spirits of departed relatives. In the Tonga Islands, which belong to the Fiji group, the festival of _Inachi_, a vernal first-fruits' celebration, and also a commemoration of the dead takes place towards the end of October, and commences at sunset. In Peru the new-year's festival occurs in the beginning of November, and is "called _Ayamarca_ from _aya_, a corpse, and _marca_, carrying in arms, because they celebrated the solemn festival of the dead, with tears, lugubrious songs, and plaintive music; and it was customary to visit the tombs of relations, and to leave in them food and drink." The fact that this took place at the time of the discovery of Peru on the very same day as a similar ceremony takes place in Europe, was only an accidental coincidence, which is all the more remarkable because the two appear, as will be seen in the sequel, to have had the same origin, and therefore at first the same date, and to have altered from it by exactly the same amount. These instances from races south of the equator prove clearly that there exists a very general connection with new-year's day, as determined by the rising of the Pleiades at sunset, and a festival of the dead; and in some instances with an offering of first-fruits. What the origin of this connection may be is a more difficult matter. At first sight one might conjecture that with the year that was passed it was natural to connect the men that had passed away; and this may indeed be the true interpretation: but there are traditions and observances which may be thought by some to point to some ancient wide-spread catastrophe which happened at this particular season, which they yearly commemorated, and reckoned a new year from each commemoration. Such traditions and observances we shall notice as we trace the spread of