678 SCIENTIFIC RECORD FOR 1884, 



cultivation knowledge derived from sciences so diverse, and requiring 

 such different mental attributes and systems of training as scarcely 

 ever to be found combined in one individual. The differential charac- 

 ters of the groups or races of mankind, are : 



"1. Structural or anatomical characters. 



" 2. The mental and moral characters by which races are distinguished. 



" 3. Language. 



"4. Social customs, including habitations, dress, arms, food, cere- 

 monies, beliefs, laws. 



"The subject of ethnography, or the discrimination and description of 

 race characteristics, is perhaps the most practically important of the 

 various branches of anthropology." 



The following works of general import were issued in this country 

 during the past year: 



" The Second Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology to the 

 Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, 1880-'81, by J. W. Powell, 

 Director," this year issued from the Government press, bearing the date 

 of 1883. The volume is uniform in appearance with the first, and con- 

 tains xxxvii-477 pages, 77 plates, 714 figures, and 2 maps. The follow- 

 ing is the table of contents : Report of the Director, pp. xv-xxxvii ; 

 Zuiii Fetiches, by F. A. Gushing, pp. 9-46; Myths of the Iroquois, by 

 Erminnie A. Smith, pp. 47-11G5 Animal Garviugs from the Mounds of 

 the Mississippi Valley, by H. W. Henshaw, pp. 117-166 5 Navajo Sil- 

 versmiths, by Dr. Washington Matthews, pp. 179-306; Art in Shell 

 of the Ancient Americans, by W. H. Holmes, pp. 185-305. Gatalogue 

 of Gollections, &c., by James Stevenson, pp. 307-422 ; Catalogue of 

 GoUections, by James Stevenson, pp. 425-466. 



The Director's report reviews the work of the Bureau, with comments 

 upon the papers i^ublished in the volume. 



Mr. Cushing discusses the subject of fetiches in general, but devotes 

 the most of his paper to a very interesting explanation of the hunter 

 gods of the north, south, east, west, above, below. 



Mrs. Smith's chapter is a collection of Iroquois myths, taken partly 

 from literature, but mostly from the lips of the Indians by the writer. 



Mr. Ilensh aw reviews the works of Squierand Davis, as a naturalist, 

 to show that the suggestions of the mound pipes and other carvings 

 existed in the Mississippi Valley, and none of the animals represented 

 are tropical. 



Dr. Matthews, while serving on the frontier, emi>loyed a Navajo silver- 

 smith to make some jewelry, watching him, and reporting every step 

 in the i^rocess.. 



Mr. Holmes's paper relates especially to the use of shells by the 

 ancient mound-builders, the most interesting chapter being devoted to 

 carved gorgets resembling in ornamentation Aztec specimens. 



Golonel Stevenson gives an account of a year's collecting, his cata- 

 logue being illustrated with numerous cuts. 



