274 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



strengthened; the lookout mounds; their 

 skull*, etc., indicate for them a higher place 

 in the scale of being than the majority of 

 the tribes and remnants of tribes whom the 

 white settlers of western Ohio found there. 

 Mr. Muorehead believes they were Mandans. 



Firm Annual Report of the Bureau of 

 Ethnology, lS83-'84. By J. W. Pow- 

 ell, Director. Washington. Pp. liii + 

 564. 



This handsome volume gives ample evi- 

 dence as to the active prosecution of the 

 work of the Bureau of Ethnology during the 

 year that it covers. The director reports 

 that the field-work of 1883-'84 embraced 

 explorations of mounds in several States 

 east of the Rocky Mountains ; explorations 

 of ruins in Arizona and New Mexico ; fur- 

 ther researches among the Zuiii, by Mr. 

 Cushing; and studies of signs, languages, 

 and myths in various localities. At the same 

 time office-work in preparing for publication 

 materials already gathered was being vigor- 

 ously carried on. The first of the papers 

 accompanying the director's report is on 

 Burial Mounds of the Northern Sections of 

 the United States, by Prof. Cyrus Thomas, 

 and was noticed in this magazine in March of 

 last year. There is a paper by Mr. Charles 

 C. Royce, on the Cherokee Nation of Indians, 

 being a narrative of their official relations 

 with the colonial and Federal governments. 

 This record gives attention in orderly se- 

 quence to the historical traditions of the 

 Cherokees, to their early contacts with ex- 

 plorers and colonists, to successive treaties 

 and cessions of territory, with the events 

 leading thereto, and the ensuing results. 

 Through the paper appear biographical no- 

 tices, accounts of the trials and struggles 

 due to deportation and conflict, and many 

 interesting facts showing the persistent ad- 

 vance of this intelligent people in civiliza- 

 tion, numbers, and prosperity. The paper 

 is accompanied by two large folded maps 

 showing the former and present boundaries 

 of the territory occupied by the Cherokees, 

 also by a map of the year 1597, being the 

 earliest which shows their location. The 

 Mountain Chant, a Navajo ceremony, is de- 

 scribed by Dr. Washington Matthews. The 

 essay is divided into a translation of the 

 myth on which the ceremony is based, an 



account of the nine days' exercises, and the 

 originals and translations of the songs and 

 prayers used in the course of the ceremo- 

 nial. Four colored plates representing pict- 

 ures made on the ground with colored pow- 

 ders, and many cuts showing implements 

 and actions employed during the course of 

 the rites, illustrate the paper. An account 

 of the arts and customs of the Seminole In- 

 dians of Florida, with illustrations, is con- 

 tributed to the volume by the Rev. Clay 

 MacCauley. Mrs. Tilly E. Stevenson de- 

 scribes The Religious Life of the Zuni Child, 

 which includes a ceremony, performed before 

 the child is four years old, by which he is sup- 

 posed to receive the sacred breath of super- 

 natural beings. The colored masks worn by 

 the boys, and the colored figures made on 

 the ground in this ceremony, are represented 

 on lithographic plates. 



History of Egypt. By F. C. H. Wendel. 

 New York : D. Appleton & Co. (History 

 Primers.) Pp. 159. Price, 45 cents. 



The author's purpose in preparing this 

 little book has been to give a brief account 

 of Egyptian history which would be as reli- 

 able as the present state of Egyptological 

 science presents, and to create a deeper in- 

 terest in the study of ancient Egypt. He 

 rightly believes that this study is of the 

 greatest value, and of an importance that 

 is growing more manifest every day to the 

 student of almost every branch ; for in it 

 probably lie, at least in a large part, the 

 foundations of our science and art. The 

 story is told in a careful, scholarly manner ; 

 bears the marks of a thorough study and 

 preparation ; and is brought up as nearly to 

 the latest discovery as is practicable in a book 

 which requires time to pass through the 

 press. For sources of information the Egyp- 

 tian monuments are almost wholly relied upon 

 — thus securing the correctness that is de- 

 rived from contemporary records. The vexed 

 question of chronology is ingeniously solved, 

 or rather cut, by adopting Eduard Meyer's 

 plan of "approximate dates," or of giving 

 the latest date that can be assigned to the 

 era, and leaving it understood that it is im- 

 possible to determine how much earlier the 

 event may have taken place. This date, for 

 the accession of Menes, is about 3200 b. c. 

 The book supplies a real want of a compact, 



