418 NATURAL SCIENCE [June 



facilitate discussion and tend to focus it. His description of the 

 steatite working is of much interest. 



This is followed by a general paper on the " Sioux Indians " by 

 W. J. M'Gee, describing briefly their general culture and beliefs, and 

 serving as introduction to a posthumous paper on " Siouan Sociology " 

 by J. 0. Dorsey, dealing with the tribal divisions of the Dakota. 



J. W. Fewkes furnishes a paper upon " The group of Tusayan 

 Ceremonials called Katcinas." The complex symbolic performances, 

 in which masked figures impersonating mythological beings play a 

 large part, are treated very fully, and illustrations of the performances 

 and appliances embellish the paper, which is not the least important 

 of the published results of the Hemenway expedition. 



A paper describing the work upon the " Repair of the Casa Grande 

 Ruin " by Cosmos Miudeleff terminates this volume. 



The Sixteenth Report (189i-5) commences with an elaborate 

 memoir on " Prehistoric Trephining in Peru," by M. A. Muniz and 

 W. J. M'Gee. The subject of trephining as exhibited by primitive 

 peoples has been kept very much alive of late years, and this finely- 

 produced and well-illustrated paper is a welcome addition to the 

 literature. It refers to the practice in Peru in pre-Columbian times, 

 and evidences several methods by which trepanation was effected, 

 chiefly or wholly produced by operation with stone implements. 

 Post-mortem trephining and ' cranial amulets,' as described by Broca, 

 are not evidenced in the Peruvian collection. The number of trephined 

 skulls averages 2 per cent, in a collection of one thousand brought 

 together by Dr Muniz ; one example exhibits triple trephining. 



The next paper, by Mr Cosmos Mindeleff, deals with " The Cliff 

 Ruins of Canyon de Chelly, Arizona." The extraordinary cliff dwell- 

 ings and villages, in which the caves and rock shelters of the canyon 

 have been supplemented with masonry to a greater or less extent, are 

 very fully described, and, although seemingly belonging to a specialised 

 condition of culture, they are none the less, in the writer's opinion, to 

 be regarded as, for the most part, " subordinate structures, connected 

 with and inhabited at the same time as a number of larger home 

 villages located on the canyon bottom." He urges that they served 

 not so much for purposes of defence as for outlooks, whence the 

 adjacent cultivable areas could be viewed. They present advanced 

 methods of construction, and cannot therefore be regarded as primi- 

 tive, and in many cases must be referred to comparatively recent 

 times, within the historic period. First-rate reproductions of photo- 

 graphs and plans illustrate the paper. 



The " Day Symbols of the Maya Year " by Cyrus Thomas follows, 

 and the volume ends with a description by Dr Fewkes of the " Tusayan 

 Snake Ceremonies." Since the publication of Captain J. G. Bourke's 

 well-known book on the snake dances in 1884, many fresh localities, 

 where these ceremonies obtain, have been discovered. The rituals 

 throughout are closely related, but local divergences are observable, 

 and a careful comparison of these will tend to throw light upon the 

 origin of the ceremonial. The details of the Tusayan dances are very 

 interesting, and the comparative method of treatment of the subject is 

 very instructive, though the elucidation of the true significance and 

 symbolism of the cult is one presenting great difficulties. H. B. 



