NOTES. 



H3 



front rank of such institutions. In this 

 they feel that they have succeeded in a 

 greater measure than is perhaps commonly 

 recognized by the people of the city. The 

 public services rendered by such an institu- 

 tion are comprised in the very definition of 

 education, in its broad modern sense, and 

 need demonstration in this day quite as 

 little as do its other functions in the direc- 

 tion of recreation ; yet it is doubtful if the 

 general public perceive as yet the full educa- 

 tional value of an institution that attracts at 

 the same moment, into the same path, two 

 such diiferent elements of human intelli- 

 gence as the capacity for observation and 

 the love of enjoyment. The last year's 

 season of the garden was less profitable than 

 usual, partly on account of the severity of 

 both the summer and the winter, and partly 

 also, the directors fear, because it has be- 

 come the victim of that sort of popular 

 apathy to which such institutions are ex- 

 posed which eschew sensational methods 

 and are not all the time offering novelties. 

 It is to be hoped that the intelligent people 

 of Philadelphia will not permit so worthy an 

 institution to suffer on account of its deter- 

 mination to maintain its high standard. 



Ancient Mexican and Hopi Dances. Cer- 

 tain resemblances, fancied or real, between 

 ceremonials which, according to Spanish his- 

 torians, were observed by Central American 

 aborigines at the time of the conquest, and 

 those which are at present performed in the 

 least modified of the pueblos of the South- 

 west, afford a series of interesting facts, 

 which, if they do not point to the kinship of 

 those peoples, may throw light on the study 

 of the comparative ceremoniology of the 

 American race. An example of such re- 

 semblance is found by Mr. J. Walter Fewkes 

 in a ceremony described by Padre Sahagun 

 as practiced by the ancient Mexicans, which 

 is comparable in many respects with the 

 Hopi snake dance. In his published study 

 of the subject, Mr. Fewkes gives the Nahuatl 

 text cited by Sahagun, a German translation 

 of it by Dr. Seler, an English translation of 

 that, and a Spanish version with a Mexican 

 plate or tablet illustrating the text. There 

 are many differences between the described 

 ceremony and the Hopi dance, but a strik- 

 ing resemblance appears in the carrying of 



the snake in the mouths of the participants. 

 The resemblance leads one to look for like- 

 ness in symbolism, especially as appertain- 

 ing to the mythological snake, between the 

 two peoples. A close likeness in this sym- 

 bolism has not been found among the Nahua 

 people, while with the Mayas there is a re- 

 markable case of similarity or identical sym- 

 bolism apparently connecting the plumed 

 snake of Yucatan with that of the Hopi 

 towns. From the speculative side there 

 seems probable an intimate resemblance be- 

 tween some of the ceremonials, the symbol- 

 ism, and the mythological systems of the 

 Indians of Tusayan and those of the more 

 civilized stocks of Central America. In the 

 author's opinion, we are not yet justified in 

 offering any but a theoretical explanation of 

 the origin of the Hopi ceremonial and myth- 

 ological systems, but their intimate relations 

 with those of the neighboring pueblos indi- 

 cates a close kinship. The facts recorded in 

 his study look as if the Hopi practice a cere- 

 monial system of worship with strong affini- 

 ties to the Nahuatl and Mayas. He has not 

 yet seen enough evidence to convince him 

 that the Hopi derived their cult or ceremoni- 

 als from the Zunians or from any other single 

 people. It is probably composite. 



NOTES. 



Polygonum saklmlim is the name of a 

 forest plant from the island of Sakhalien, 

 Japan, of which flattering accounts are given 

 by M. Doumet Adanson, who has cultivated 

 a few stools of it in Fi-ance. He got it as 

 an ornamental plant, and it is really very 

 handsome. It grows to be about six feet 

 high in three weeks ; produces a consider- 

 able foliage of which cattle are fond ; and 

 yields a good second crop after the first cut- 

 ting. A section of root planted will produce 

 a stool covering a square metre of surface. 

 It takes care of itself. 



A LEAGUE has been formed at Aix-en- 

 Provence, France, for promoting agricultural 

 interests by preserving the small insect-eat- 

 ing birds, and has allied itself with state and 

 local authorities. It will seek to suppress 

 nets and all machinery for capturing birds ; 

 to insure the preservation of nests ; to for- 

 bid the manufacture and sale of spring nets 

 and other bird-catching machinery, and to 

 prohibit the use of poisons and of bird-lime 

 against birds, and in general of anything 

 except the gun for their destruction. It 

 will favor the use of all means for the res- 



