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THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



tered in the synoptical tables, as preference 

 is given to those which were published dur- 

 ing a long series of years, or were issued 

 very irregularly. The publication of the 

 data contained in these tables was at one 

 time abandoned on account of supposed 

 typographical difficulties, but these have 

 been overcome. The catalogue does not 

 embrace transactions of learned societies, 

 these being found in the admirable " Cata- 

 logue of Scientific Serials," by Mr. S. II. 

 Scudder ; but it does embrace every branch 

 of applied science, including engineering, 

 architecture, chemical technology, geogra- 

 phy, ethnology, agriculture, horticulture, te- 

 legraphy, meteorology, etc. More than twen- 

 ty languages are represented in the work, 

 which it is hoped will be completed before 

 the close of the year. 



Sioux Superstitions. Mr. H. C. Yar- 

 row has communicated to the Anthropolog- 

 ical Society of Washington, D. C, some ob- 

 servations by Mr. William E. Everett, a 

 Government scout at Fort Custer, on some 

 superstitions of the live Indians. The Sioux 

 believe that when they die they go directly 

 to the " Great Spirit's Big Village," having 

 to cross a long divide, and perhaps fight the 

 spirits of their dead enemies on the way ; 

 for this reason they want their best horses 

 killed with them, and their arms put by 

 their side. Reaching their paradise, they 

 are received by their friends and relatives 

 and escorted to a fine lodge, where they 

 meet their wives and children that have 

 gone before ; all their war-horses that have 

 been killed in battle reappear before them ; 

 if they have been maimed in war, their miss- 

 ing members immediately return to them ; 

 if they have mutilated themselves greatly 

 for some friend or relative, that person 

 comes to them and embraces them, and 

 makes them large presents ; and they find 

 themselves encamped amid most delight- 

 ful surroundings. Their idea of sickness is 

 that a bad spirit of one of their enemies 

 has entered the sick person, and must be 

 driven out by noise ; and a great uproar is 

 made, while the invalid is made to inhale 

 the smoke of sweet grasses and herbs to 

 assist in the exorcism. Bad spirits are be- 

 lieved to be sometimes sent back to earth 

 in the shape of some animal, and Indians 



often fancy that they can talk to their friends 

 under such forms. Mr. Everett once saw 

 Sitting Bull making motions with his hands, 

 and talking to a large wolf, which apparent- 

 ly understood what he said, " for whenever 

 he would make the sign for ' Do you under- 

 stand ? ' the wolf would throw up his head 

 and howl." The chief told Mr. Everett that 

 he was making medicine to find where the 

 main herd of buffalo were, and whether it 

 would rain or snow before the hunters got 

 back ; and he said the wolf was the spirit 

 of a great hunter, and always gave him 

 warning whenever there was any danger 

 close at hand, and told him where the buf- 

 falo were to be found. He also repeated 

 some predictions the wolf had made to him, 

 which seem to have been afterward exactly 

 fulfilled. A remarkable superstition pre- 

 vails with relation to the white-tailed deer, 

 and is so strong that an Indian can seldom 

 be induced to shoot one of those animals. 

 They believe that the deer embodies the 

 spirit of a woman, who, if it is killed, will 

 appear before them and kill them, or make 

 their life a torture. Mr. Everett is ac- 

 quainted with several stories of Indians 

 who started out, in spite of the superstition, 

 to hunt the white-tailed deer and did not 

 return, but who were afterward found, by 

 their friends going out to search for them, 

 lying by the side of a dead deer strangled, 

 with the marks of a woman's hand on their 

 throat, and a woman's feet on the ground. 

 One grim story of this character, which he 

 repeats with its particulars, relates to six 

 young men who went out together and shot 

 six deer, and were found strangled, with 

 marks of fingers on their throats, and hor- 

 rified looks, as if they had seen something 

 awful. A curse was pronounced upon the 

 spot where the tragedy happened, by the 

 oldest man of the tribe, which was said by 

 the Indians to have been fulfilled to the 

 letter. 



What are Sun-Spots? Opinions respect- 

 ing the nature of the sun-spots vary widely. 

 Secchi thought they were clefts filled with 

 metallic vapors ; Weber and Kirchhoff, that 

 they were clouds of smoke ; Reis, that they 

 were clouds of vaporized oxyhydrate of iron ; 

 and Faye, Zollner, Gautier, Spiller, and Spo- 

 rer, that they were a dross formed by a ccol- 



