ii6 



NA TURE 



[May 30, 1889 



That is, third line of (3) say, 67333, 78i333> &c. (note 

 .67 = 7 X 9 + 4, 781 = 7 X III + 4); are multiples of 7. 

 We may preface any one of the above series of numbers with, 

 •or affix to them, sextets of digits, like or unlike to those of the 

 jiumber we select. I confine my attention to sextets of like 

 figures affixed, as in this way I am able to find what values of n 

 make k a multiple of 7. 



The series in (i) is, of course, n = i, 7, 13, 19. and so on : 

 and so for the other sets. The values of n to be taken are : — 



for (i), n = 19, 61, 103, 145, . . . 



\i.e. if we write down 19 3's, we must preface these with a 

 number of the form 7/ + 6.) 



(2\ « = 2, 44, 86, 128, . . . 



(3). « = 15. 57. 99> 141. • • ■ 

 (4), n - 10, 52, 94, 136, . . . 

 (5), n = 41, 83, 125, 167, . . . 



University College School, R. Tucker, 



THE BHILS AND THEIR COUNTRY. 



TN the current number of the Asiatic Quirterly Revieiv, Si'^ 

 ■'■ Lepel Griffin has a long and mo.t interesting article on th^ 

 Bhils, an aboriginal tribe of Central India living in the jungle 

 and rough country around the Vindhya Mountains. Sir Lepel 

 says that for eight years he presided over the province which 

 includes the Bhil country, and he had ample opportunity in that 

 time of studying the habits and language of this interesting 

 people. The people themselves claim that they represent the 

 aboriginal races of India who were forced to retire before the 

 Aryan conquerors. Through their country flows the sacred 

 Nerbudda River with all its Hindu shrines. The Bhils, however, 

 seem to care very little for the Hindu deities ; they have been 

 forced by the Hindus, who treat them with profound scorn and 

 ■contempt, to give a sort of half-hearted acceptance of the chief 

 Hindu deities, but in fact they never worship the gods of their 

 superiors. In one respect, however, they agree with the Hindus, 

 and that is in regarding the Nerbudda with feelings of terror and 

 veneration. From the earliest days of the Aryan conquest of 

 India, the Bhils have been looked on as wild animals, deserving 

 of no protection or kindness. In a few States, such as Barwani 

 and Rajpur, they were so numerous, that their conquerors found 

 it more profitable to tolerate them, keeping them, however, at 

 the same time, in the most abject poverty and subjection. Since 

 the advent of the British Government, the condition of these 

 simple and harmless people has much improved, so that the poor 

 Bhils are gradually becoming less and less savage. Their know- 

 ledge of woodcraft and of the habits of birds and beasts makes 

 them invaluable to English officers. Unlike the orthodox Hindu, 

 the Bhil has always eaten the flesh of the cow and the buffalo 

 and other abhorred animals. In fact, he eats every wild animal 

 ■except the monkey, which is universally warshi[)ped in the form 

 of the forest god Hanuman. The tiger is held in great respect, 

 and the people are very unwilling to kill it, unless it is a man- 

 eater. If a bcist has thus become obnoxious, a trial is held with 

 xeligious rites, and if the animal is found guilty, sentence is 

 passed upon him, he is pursued, killed, and hung up on a tree 

 over the main road as a warning to all evil-doers of his spe.;ies. 

 It is very curious, and shows the antiquity of this race, that at 

 ■the coronation of the highest Rajput chiefs, in S ates where the 

 Bhils live, the sacred mark of kingship is impressed on the fore- 

 head of the new chief by the head of the Bhil family to which 

 this hereditary privilege belongs, and the Bhils do not regard him 

 as their king till this ceremony is performed. The Bhils are 

 noted for their endurance, for their capacity of living where 

 others would starve, their indifference to the greatest changes of 

 temperature. Not even to save his life will a Bhil tell a false- 

 hood. Their most solemn oath is by the dog, their most valuable 

 companion in the chase. They are gay and of a light-hearted 

 disposition, and take every opportunity of having a feast and a 

 drinking-bout. Their drink is made from the Mowra, a tree 

 which abounds in Central India, the white flowers of which, 

 when pounded and mixed with grain, form a palatable food, and 

 ■when distilled by a simple process produce a highly intoxicating 

 spirit. Their priests are not of any particular caste, but the 

 ■office is an hereditary one. The deities most generally worshipped 



are the ordinary Vedic deities of water, fire, and the heavens, 

 and each village has its presiding deity, who is a different person- 

 age in each village. Like Hindus they burn their dead, except 

 unmarried children of both sexes, who are buried, as also those 

 who die from small-pox. In case of cholera they also bury the 

 dead, believing that the smoke from the pyre disseminates the 

 disease. The dead are worshipped and propitiated by oflerings ; 

 tree worship is unusual ; witchcraft and omens are implicitly 

 believed in ; charms of various kinds are universally used. 



SCIENTIFIC SERIALS. 



The Quarterly Journal of Microscopical Science for April 

 1889 contains the following : — Contributions to the knowledge 

 of Amphioxus lanceolatus, Yarrell, by Prof. E. Ray Lankester, 

 F. R.S. (plates xxxiv.-xxxvi.^). Referring to his notes on 

 the anatomy of Amphioxus published in 1875, the author 

 withdraws his confirmation of Johann MiiUer's statement that 

 there is a pair of apertures on either side of the oral sphincter 

 (velum of Huxley). In reality there are no such apertures at 

 all. Those important structures, described as the "brown 

 funnels," are fully described and excellently illustrated ; some 

 few numerical data of importance for the anatomical discussion 

 of Amphioxus are given ; some errors which appear to be current 

 as to the existence or non-existence of spaces of one kind or 

 another in the body and gill bars are corrected ; and some draw- 

 ings are given, which represent in a semi-diagrammatic form the 

 structure of Amphioxus, not merely as seen in sections or dis- 

 sections, with all their obvious drawbacks, but as reconstructed 

 and corrected from the examination of numerous specimens, so 

 that they present as nearly as might be a true conception of the 

 living organism. This excellent paper will be welcomed by all 

 students. — Studies in the embryology of the Echinoderms, by 

 H. Bury (plates xxxvii.-xxxix.). In this memoir the author 

 confines his attention ; — to the primary divisions of the coelom, 

 starting from a stage in which at least two enteroccele pouches 

 are already present ; — the hydrocoele ; its development and 

 connections ;— and to the skeleton, so far as it is developed in the 

 dipleurula stage.— On the ancestral development of the respira- 

 tory organs in the Decapodous Crustacea, by Florence Buchanan 

 (plate xl.). 



The Journal ior May 1889 is a special issue, and contains a 

 memoir on the maturation of the ovum in the Cape and New 

 Zealand species of Peripatus, by Lilian Sheldon, Balhurst 

 Student, Newnham (plates i.-iii.). The ovarian structures 

 are fully described in Peripatus capcnsis, P. half our i, zxidi P. 

 novcezealandiiV. A summary of events in the maturation and 

 fertilization of the ovum in these three species is also given ; 

 these are followed by some details of the origin of the ova from 

 the germinal epithelium ; the disappearance of the germinal 

 vesicle ; the formation of the polar bodies, and the formation of 

 the yolk. Among the many interesting facts mentioned are 

 those in reference to the polar bodies : in P. novce-zealandiiC 

 they appear to be completely absent, but two very prominent 

 bodies are present in the Cape species ; they are also in these 

 species exactly similar to one another — a series of facts at vari- 

 ance with Weismann's theories. — With this number is given a 

 series of very valuable indexes : an index to the Journal from 

 1853 to 1888 ; and one to the Transactions of the Microscopical 

 Society from 1853 to 1868 ; also to the Proceedings of the 

 Dublin Microscopical Club from 1865 to 18S0. These indexes 

 are paged separately, so that they may b2 bound up as an 

 independent volume, 



Engler's yahrbilcher, vol. x., includes the following articles : 

 The first part of the description of the plants collected by Dr. 

 Marloth in South Africa in 1885-86 (wuh six plates). 'I he 

 descriptions are prepared by Dr. Engler, with the help of other 

 botanists, and include the Monocotyledons, and Archichlamydeous 

 (Choripetalous and Apetalous) Dicotyledons.— On the anatomical 

 characters of the MonimiacecE, by M, Hobein, This natural 

 order is one as to the position of which various opinions have 

 held ; the author's observations strengthen the alliance to 

 Laurinese, inasmuch as in both orders secretory cells are con- 

 stantly present. — A monographic review of the species of the 

 genus Primula, by Dr. F. Pax. An attempt to trace the 

 phylogenetic relationships of the species of this large genus.— 

 The second part of the descri^ tion of Dr. Marloth's plants fro a 



