r.Axru riiiLoLociv and baxtu life. 305 



those which do not occur, which, according' to the table, num- 

 l:)er Si. the total syllables used will be seen to be 388. * 



Now this power of Sesuto syllabisation can easily be com- 

 pared with that of English by a cursory inspection of Pitman's 

 Shorthand Primer. There are 6 long vowels, 6 short and 3 

 diphthongs — in all 15. It will be found that there are some 94 

 consonants and consonant groups, so that even supposing that 

 English could only have consonantal sounds at one end of a 

 syllable, like Bantu, which, with a single exception, so far as 

 I know, must end every syllable with a vowel, there would still 

 be nearly 1,500 possible syllables. In fact, of course, a large 

 number of the consonantal sounds will also go at the other end 

 of the syllable, and on the other hand a large number of the 

 possible syllables are unused; but I think it is clear how very 

 poor the Bantu language is on this score in comparison with 

 our own. There are. of course, compensations in other direc- 

 tions, and the dialects are undoubtedly beautiful and most ex- 

 pressive for their purpose, as any one who has read a Sesuto 

 novel by a native scholar of the French Protestant Mission, 

 lately published in Morija, will agree. 



inoinentarv spirant nasal 



*Sesuto ConsDnants : gutturals k — nij 



lateral tl hi 



palatal Q click tj, psh \- pj sh it j. fsli, bj n\- 

 dental t, ts i' \' 1 n 



labial p f & b m 



The momentaries can be nasalised (by pretixinij,' n or m) or aspirated by 

 suffixing h (ts is tsh) or both (noted as X or 1\I : the simple sound is represented 

 by a dot .) 



pshoe, roe are iilsu impossible. 

 Oi can follow h k(h) tl hi sh tl ts and s only. 

 Bj(o)a, pja, pje occur only in one word each. 



Pjoa and tshoa occur in jiassives and can therefore make pjne (either open 

 or shut). 



HABITABILITY OF MARS. — x\t a meeting of the 

 Stockholm Society of Physics, held on the 12th March, Pro- 

 fessor Arrhenius promulgated the theory that the so-called 

 canals in Mars have been caused by the formation of parallel 

 cracks in the crust of the planet, and that these cracks have, 

 by degrees, been filled up with sand containing various salts 

 which assume different colours with the varying dampness of 

 the planet's soil at different seasons. Dr. Arrhenius regards 

 the " melting snow^ " as caused by evaporation at the poles, 

 the cracks then becoming darker in colour, but regaining their 

 lighter hue when the temporary dampness passes off. The 

 Professor considered the temperature of the planet too low 

 for plant or any other organic life. 



