the other figures, and, in some instances, partially covered by them, are seven human hands, done in white in the 'stencil method' of drawing. The only right hand among these is shown in the shut position, which is rather uncommon” (p. 271).

The Beginning of Agriculture. W. J. MCGEE. Ibid., pp. 350-375.

"It

Under the heads of regional characteristics, vegetable life, animal life, coöperative characteristics of life, human life, etc., Prof. McGee treats of that little known region in Arizona and Sonora (Mexico) called by the Spaniards "Papagueria," or country of the Papago Indians. It is a careful study of the influence of environment. The author's general conclusion is as follows: may appear paradoxical to affirm that it is in arid districts, where agriculture is most arduous, that agriculture began; yet the affirmation is not gainsaid by history, and is established beyond reasonable doubt by the evidence of the desert organisms and organizations. So, whatever its last estate, in its beginning, agriculture is the art of the desert."

Introduction of the Iron Age into America. O. T. MASON. Ibid., Vol. IX (1896), pp. 191-215.

Among the topics touched upon in this graphic sketch are: Absence of siderotechny from America, varieties of acculturation, intrusion of African culture, intrusión of Aryan culture, Eskimo and the Iron Age, the Iron Age and the Indians, the Russian Iron Age, the Iron Age on the Pacific coast, the Mediterranean Iron Age. The author's chief conclusions are: (1) Aboriginally there was neither smelting of iron nor working by means of it in America, -no iron products, no use of iron as a metal. (2) The Iron Age that modified America was the conservative folk-age, the Middle Age as distinguished from the Renaissance, which replaced the old in progressive Europe.

Medieval "Glamour" and its Antidotes. DAVID MACRITCHIE. Amer. Antiq., Vol. XVIII (1896), pp. 87-95.

The conclusion of the author is that "glamours" are the mediæval equivalent of "mesmerism," and that this theory "places many of the folk-tale incidents in a new light."

Devil Worship as an Early and Natural Stage in the Evolution of Religion. DR. PAUL CARUS. Ibid., pp. 95-98.

The most interesting point in this essay is the interpretation of Leviticus xvi, where Azazel ("the strength of God"), translated 66 scape-goat" in the King James' Version of the Bible, is regarded as a last remnant of a prior dualism" Azazel, the strong god,

has become a mere shadow of himself.

The Work of the Kunger-Bag. ALEX. W. BEALER. Ibid., pp. 99-106. This is an interesting contribution to the literature of "conjuring" among the negroes of the south. The bag and its contents

are fully described.

The Negro in the West Indies. F. L. HOFFMAN. Publ. Amer. Statist. Assoc. (Boston), Vol. IV (1895), pp. 181-200.

This study, well furnished with statistical tables, treats of population, elements of population, birth and death rates, conjugal condition, education. The following remark of the author is note

worthy: "The statistics of conjugal condition, previously given in this paper, prove that the prevailing moral condition of the colored population of these islands is worse to-day than it could possibly have been in the past, and that, with the exception of the Bermudas, the tendency does not seem to be upward, but toward a still lower level of immorality and vice.”

Left-Handedness in North American Aboriginal Art. D. G. BRINTON. Ibid., pp. 175-181.

This paper gives the results of the examination as to "plane of cleavage," asymmetry, etc., of several hundred flint blades in the museum of the University of Pennsylvania, taken from different parts of the United States. Dr. Brinton concludes: "The hand preferred was no doubt the right hand, but the notably large proportion of thirty-three per cent. for probably left-handed work indicates either that there were more left-handed persons, or, as I prefer to believe, that there were more who were ambidextrous. This may have been due to the fact that the methods of flint-chipping favored the use of both hands, but it is as likely that it indicates a general physiological tendency." From the observation and examination of drawings and picture-writing of the Indians, the author arrives also at the result that "the aboriginal race of North America was either left-handed or ambidextrous to a greater degree than the peoples of modern Europe." The real source of the preference for the right hand, which (though not to the same degree) has existed in the majority of mankind from earliest times, Dr. Brinton holds, lies in the erect posture of the human species.

Ueber die Vererbung erworbener Eigenschaften. G. RETZIUS. Biolog. Untersuch., Neue Folge, VII (1895), Š. 61-71.

After brief discussion of previous literature on the subject, the author résumés the results of the investigations of Prof. Havelock Charles of the medical school in Lahore, India, on the "Influence of Function as Exemplified in the Morphology of the Lower Extremity of the Panjabi," a paper published in the Journal of Anatomy and Physiology for 1893, and another paper on "Morphological Peculiarities in the Panjabi and their Bearing on the Question of the Transmission of Acquired Characters," in the same periodical for 1894. Not only does Prof. Retzius see in these data evidence of the origin of variation through difference in body-position, customs and uses, but also of the possibility of the hereditary transmission of such peculiarities. The retroversion of the tibia is one of the most noticeable of these. According to Retzius this is also a constant characteristic of the Swedish foetus; indeed, perhaps of the fœtus in general, and in it we have “an original morphological character," transmitted from grey antiquity by inheritance. But we must be careful not to mistake something else for an atavistic or hereditarily transmitted acquired characteristic. The ethnological side of the subject is still somewhat dark.

The Arrow. F. H. CUSHING. Amer. Anthrop., Vol. VIII (1895), pp. 307-349.

This is the first part of a most valuable and detailed study of the antiquity of the arrow, its influence, its relation to anthropology, the typical arrow, arrow-making, the origin of early art and of lance-form tools, the development of arrow-form missiles, the origin of the dart-flinger and the bow, — in brief, the complete history of the arrow as only an expert, like Mr. Cushing, could give it.

There is a good deal of truth in the author's remark that "as it was the chief reliance and resource of primitive man in the two main activities of his life-war and the chase, it speedily became his first, and ever remained, by representation at least, his highest, instrumentality for divining the fate or fortune its use so often decided, and in this way came to affect, as no other single object of art ever did, the development and history of mankind in general the wide world over."

Korean Games, with Notes on the Corresponding Games of China and Japan. S. CULIN. Philadelphia, 1895, 177 pp. 4to.

This volume naturally belongs with Mr. Cushing's study of the arrow. Its chief original feature is a masterly attempt to trace back all games of divination to the arrow - cards, dice, chess, etc., all belong there. The special portion of the work is treated with remarkable skill, the introduction is scholarly and philosophical, and in every respect this volume is worthy of high rank. Korea is here made to serve the whole world. The volume is well provided with plates, figures, and index, well printed and well bound.

An Iroquois Condoling Council. A Study of Aboriginal American Society and Government. HALE. Trans. Roy. Soc. Can., Sec. Series, 1895-6, Vol. I, Sect. II, pp. 45-65.

In this paper Mr. Hale describes the most important and rarest of the public ceremonies and festivals of the Iroquois Indians of Canada, 66 the Condoling Council," at which he was present in July, 1883. The distinguished author does not hesitate to pay marked tribute to the intellectual and moral qualities of the Iroquois, "a people whose achievements, institutions and language show them to have been, in natural capacity and the higher elements of character, not inferior to any race of men of whom history preserves a record."

Durée de la Génération Humaine.

Fécundité comparée de l'homme et de la femme suivant l'âge. M. V. TURQUAN. Revue Scientifique, 4e Série, Tome V (1896), pp. 8-17, 167-176.

This valuable demographic study is accompanied by numerous maps, tables and curves, with great detail of subdivision. The author's general conclusions are that at the age 15-19 years the fecundity of French women is hardly inferior to that of other Europeans, but beginning with the twentieth year the fecundity falls, and up to the thirty-fourth year is hardly two-thirds that of the Europeans, and after the thirty-fifth year one-half._In_general, the natality in France is to the natality of other European countries as two is to three, but the mortality is nearly a third larger.

La Famille Annamite. PAUL D'ENJOY. Ibid., pp. 243-244.

In Annam "the ancestor represents divine right, and the family, like the state, is an absolute monarchy, whose privileges are based

on birth."

Les Formes Primitives du Travail. G. FERRERO. Ibid., pp. 331-335. The author is scarcely correct in asserting that "idleness and savagery are synonymous," and Robertson is not the best authority on the general characters of the American aborigines. Nevertheless the author's views are interesting and to some extent well supported. His chief points are: (1) The productive labor of civilized man is regular and methodic-savage sport is irregular

and intermittent; (2) in productive labor the excitation is voluntary, while in savage sport it is almost automatic; (3) in savage sport there is a voluptuous element which is lacking in productive labor, being replaced by an element of pain; (4) modern sports, in all their forms,-bicycling, horse-riding, Alpinism, etc., are identical with the first forms of savage activity.

La Sénsibilité de la Femme. M. OTTOLENGHI. Ibid., pp. 395-398.

This article résumés experiments on 400 men and 681 women. The author concludes that it is certain that women feel pain less acutely than men, and that suggestion and auto-suggestion (emotion, example, imitation) influence much the sensitiveness of women to pain. This less sensibility to pain he regards as a characteristic of inferiority.

La Notation des Couleurs au Japon. M. A. ARRIVET. Ibid., pp. 653-656.

This is a valuable study of Japanese color-names.

Racial Anatomical Peculiarities. D. K. SHUTE. Amer. Anthrop., Vol. IX (1896), pp. 123-132.

Dr. Shute concludes that "some of the anatomical peculiarities, which, taken together, stamp a race as high or low," are the following: "Cranial sutures that are simple in arrangement and unite early; a wide nasal aperture, with the nasal bones anchylosed; undue projection of the jaws and receding chin; well developed wisdom teeth appearing early and permanent; a humerus of undue length, and perforated; an elongated calcaneum; a small calf of the leg; a flattened tibia; a narrow pelvis, etc. These characters, the author thinks, are “simioid," and the races which possess them "in largest number and development" are "lowest in the scale." Dr. Frank Baker, in the discussion on Dr. Shute's paper, took occasion to call attention to the abuse of the term "atavism" by biologists and to the misunderstanding of what are called the racial peculiarities of the negro," and remarked that "there does not seem to be adequate ground for the conclusion that his racial peculiarities are remarkably simian;" also "after examination of many bodies of Africans found in the dissecting rooms, it seems evident that ape-like characters are no more common among them than among whites." Dr. Th. Gill thought that the key-words for the explanations of these peculiarities in great part were use and disuse. The Purposes of Ethno-Botany. J. W. HARSHBERGER. Amer. Antiq., Vol. XVIII (1896), pp. 73-81.

This article is a plea for an ethno-botanical garden "to surround the museum building, to provide living plants for study in connection with the objects of vegetal origin displayed in the museum." The idea is to "arrange the plants with reference to the Indian tribes who cultivated them," and it is hoped that such a garden would soon "become a Mecca for those who desire to write upon our American plants and their uses among the aborigines."

A Contribution to Ethno-Botany. J. W. FEWKES. Amer. Anthrop., Vol. IX (1896), pp. 14-21.

This is a study of plants used for food and medicinal purposes by the Tusayan Indians, with etymological explanations of the names, where interpretation is possible. Of the Mentzelia albicaulis, it is interesting to learn that "its seeds are gathered by the girls in the afternoon, as it is asserted that the seeds will not fall until the sun has passed half way over the sky."

Beitrag zur Pflanzenkunde der Naturvölker America's. A. F. CHAMBERLAIN. Verh. d. Berl. Anthrop. Ges., 1895, pp. 551-556.

A study of plants used as food and medicine by the Kootenay Indians, with etymological interpretations where possible.

The Food of Certain American Indians and the Methods of Preparing it. L. CARR. Proc. Am. Antiq. Soc. (1894), Vol. X (Worcester, 1895), pp. 155-190.

A valuable contribution to the study of food among primitive peoples, a subject of increasing importance in ethnology.

The Whip-poor-will as Named in American Languages. A. S. GATSCHET. Amer. Antiq., Vol. XVIII (1896), pp. 39-42.

In this brief but valuable article Dr. Gatschet presents a rare onomatological study of interest to the students of the psychology of language, especially of onomatopoeia. Names of the bird are given from Algonkian, Iroquoian, Maskoki, Yuchi, Natchez, Siouan, Sahaptian and Zuñi languages and dialects, and, whenever possible, etymologies are given. It is worth noting that among the Kayowe there is a children's name for the whip-poor-will, pābi= "younger brother."

The Mystery of the Name Pamunkey. W. W. TOOKER. Ibid., Vol. XVII (1895), pp. 289-293.

In this paper Mr. Tooker skillfully interprets for us the name Pamunkey, now designating a small tribe of Indians and a river of Virginia, but also in reality “a survival to our times of one of the reminders of an esoteric system which existed among the Powhatan tribes of Virginia at the commencement of the seventeenth century."

The Algonquian Appellatives of the Siouan Tribes of Virginia. W. W. TOOKER. Amer. Anthrop., Vol. VIII (1895), pp. 376-392.

Mr. Tooker treats with his accustomed Sprachgefühl and keen analysis the names which came to be given to the Siouan tribes of Virginia from the speech of another and distinct linguistic stock, with whom they came more or less into contact. Like others of Mr. Tooker's papers, this one also is a most welcome addition to the literature of the psychologyof primitive languages.

III. MISCELLANEOUS.

Das Wesen des Humors. Von DR. JOSEPH MÜLLER. München, 1896.

Humor, the most complicated form of æsthetical perception, is, according to Müller, still an unsolved problem. It is not strange, when one considers the quality of the theories hitherto propounded. One reads with weariness, not unmixed with pity, metaphysical and "idealistic" theories of humor in which the finite and the infinite, the ideal and the divine, the sensual and the non-temporal, etc., are held to be constituent elements of all humor. It is too Ptolemaic, too theocentric, too adulto- or anthropo-centric, if I may use such terms. An inductive study based on animal, children, youth, old age and the insane is needed and will doubtless soon appear.

Dr. Müller cites the various theories, all "made in Germany; he has never heard of Herbert Spencer's view, and knows nothing of "barbarians" in general. Of the authors cited, Jean Paul makes humor to be the application of the finite to the infinite,