P OP ULAR MIS CELL ANY. 



137 



In those days, when the temperatures were 

 above the point of decomposition of many of 

 the carbon-nitrogen compounds, a silicon- 

 aluminum series may have presented cycles 

 of complicated syntheses, decompositions, 

 and oxidations essentially parallel to those 

 that underlie our own vital phenomena. The 

 case is at least fascinatingly plausible. If we 

 are to admit the possibility that the chemical 

 accompaniments of life were rehearsed long 

 ago and at far higher temperatures by ele- 

 ments now inert, it is not such a very long 

 step from this, an English essayist suggests, 

 to the supposition that vital, subconscious, 

 and conscious developments may have ac- 

 companied such a rehearsal. One is startled 

 toward fantastic imaginings by such a sug- 

 gestion : Why not silicon-aluminum men at 

 once wandering through an atmosphere 

 of gaseous sulphur, let us say, by the shores 

 of a sea of liquid iron some thousand degrees 

 or so above the temperature of a blast fur- 

 nace? But that, of course, is merely a 

 dream. Who will discover a silicon-alumi- 

 num fossil ? 



A Study of Maya Hieroglyphics. Amer- 

 ican students have not made as much prog- 

 ress in Central American archaeology as those 

 of Europe ; and it is only recently that the 

 Peabody Museum of Harvard University has 

 undertaken to carry on extensive and ex- 

 haustive researches in what Mi\ Marshall H. 

 Saville styles the most prolific source of 

 hieroglyphic inscriptions of which we have 

 knowledge. The ancient inhabitants of 

 Copan, Honduras, Mr. Saville says, in his 

 his paper read before the American Associ- 

 ation, appear to have been more literary in 

 character than even those of Palenque. 

 There have been found there twenty-four 

 stelae, all of which have inscriptions, besides 

 altars, slabs, and hieroglyphic steps in large 

 numbers. Pottery vessels and potsherds 

 have been found bearing glyphs, either 

 painted or engraved. These potsherds have 

 been found in such quantities as to show 

 that thousands of their vessels had hiero- 

 glyphic inscriptions. The inscriptions are 

 intimately connected with the symbolism al- 

 most invariably found with them, and an 

 understanding of the symbolic marks and 

 ornaments will largely aid in deciphering the 

 glyphs. One glyph is found so often repeat- 



ed on the potsherds as to become significant, 

 and this is the special subject of the author's 

 present study. It is at the head of most of 

 the graven inscriptions of Copan, Palenque, 

 Quirigua, Jikul, and Menche, and of the 

 three tablets of Palenque, and is named by 

 the author the Pax glyph. The heading in- 

 dicated by this glyph is found on analysis to 

 represent the month Pax, surmounted either 

 by a serpent's head, a mask, or a human 

 face, associated with a vegetal form, or rare- 

 ly a fish, above the whole of which is a 

 scroll. Having in view the ideas and the 

 nature of the festivals associated with this 

 month, the author concludes that the inscrip- 

 tions beginning with this heading relate to 

 ceremonies taking place at that time to the 

 god Kukulcan. The occurrence of the Pax 

 glyph in the text, with the hand sowing seed, 

 and again with a flower with seeds, also bears 

 out this conclusion, and it may be inferred 

 that the inscriptions, so far as these single 

 glyphs are concerned, relate to the cere- 

 monies of planting. 



Chinese Ideas of War. M. Leon de Remy 

 has made a curious communication respect- 

 ing the ideas of the Chinese concerning war. 

 Although it has often been necessary for the 

 Chinese to engage in war, the military art 

 has never been in good repute among them. 

 In their view, every war is a misfortune, if 

 not a sin. They avoid talking to their chil- 

 dren of laurels, crowns, and triumphs won in 

 war, but teach in their schools that the most 

 glorious battles are at bottom simply homi- 

 cides, abominable disasters to both parties. 

 An emperor who decides to sacrifice numer- 

 ous existences on a field of slaughter is re- 

 puted an unwise and unjust prince. A gen- 

 eral who has won a battle ought to wear 

 mourning for the quantity of blood his suc- 

 cess has cost. These doctrines are not gross 

 or immoral, but in the existing conditions of 

 society generous thoughts are not without 

 some inconveniences ; and it is easy to un- 

 derstand how, with such ideas concerning 

 war, the Middle Kingdom has been con- 

 quered sometimes by peoples of no great 

 importance and not very well armed. Nev- 

 ertheless, it is a curious ethnographical fact 

 that whenever the Chinese people have been 

 conquered they have absorbed their conquer- 

 ors to their almost entire disappearance. 



