lOO 



NATURE 



{Dec. 5. 1889 



ing ; this animal being not only represented as a surface 

 ornament, but serving as a model for the form of such dis- 

 similar objects as whistles, rattles, tables, stools, jars, 

 vases and other utensils. Occasionally the human figure 

 appears under some grotesque form, and less frequently 

 it is used to represent a divinity. According to Mr. 

 Holmes, the entire system of the scrolls, frets, and other 

 devices used in Chiriqui art have been derived from various 

 parts of the body of an animal, probably the alligator, and 

 he regards this system of ornamentation as indigenous to 

 the district. In a separate article, the author treats of 

 textile art in its relations to the development of form 

 and ornament, and more especially with respect to the 

 industries of the early American people. 



The article on the Central Eskimo, by Dr. Franz Boas, 

 although complete and admirable of its kind, has com- 

 paratively little interest for the English reader conver- 

 sant with the results of Arctic research, since a very large 

 and important part of the information given has been 

 derived from the narratives of Franklin, Ross, Parry, and 

 other more recent British explorers. Yet some additions 

 have been made to our older knowledge of the Eskimo 

 by Dr. Boas, who gives much interesting information 

 regarding their tribal laws and customs, the musical art 

 of the people, and their capacity for drawing ; while he 

 relates several curious tales and traditions, which present 

 so remarkable a similarity to those of the Greenlanders 

 and the Behring Straits' tribes as to make it probable 

 that all these people are of one race. 



The Rev. O. N. Dorsey, to whom the Bureau is 

 indebted for the compilation of seventeen vocabularies 

 of the different dialects used by the Oregon Indians, adds 

 an interesting contribution to this volume, in which he 

 describes the results of his visit, in 1883, to the Osages 

 in the Indian Territory. During his short stay he obtained 

 information regarding the existence of a secret society of 

 seven degrees, in which a knowledge is preserved of the 

 grades and general history of the various gentes and sub- 

 gentes, with their taboo and names which are regarded 

 with reverence and not spoken of. Owing to the strict 

 secrecy usually maintained by members of this society, it 

 was with extreme difficulty that he induced two of the 

 initiated to recite to him the traditions referring to the 

 mythic history of their tribe, which had been imparted 

 to them on their initiation. These traditions, which the 

 author gives with an interlinear translation, record the 

 passage of the primaeval Osages from higher worlds before 

 they bore the semblance of birds, or had acquired from a 

 beneficent red eagle the bodies and souls with which they 

 alighted on the earth. The sacred chart on which 

 their descent was symbolized by a river flowing beside a 

 cedar, the tree of life, surrounded by sun, moon, and 

 stars, was observed by Mr. Dorsey to be tattooed on 

 the throats and chests of some of the elder men ; but 

 the younger Osages knew nothing of such symbols, and 

 he was asked not to speak to them on the subject. From 

 all he saw and heard among these and various tribes of 

 Iowa and Kansas, he believes that in this traditional 

 record of the descent of their gentes from different birds 

 and animals, we have a clue not only to the names by 

 which they are distinguished, but to the meaning of the 

 chants and war-songs which only members of the seven 

 degrees of their sacred societies have the right to sing. 



It would appear that an arrangement by sevens is common 

 to various kindred tribes, and there is reason for assum- 

 ing that wherever mythic names or taboos are in use 

 there are, or have been, secret societies or mysteries* 

 which have been derived from early traditional history. 



In an elaborate article by Prof. Cyrus Thomas, entitled 

 " Aids to the Study of the Maya Codices," we have an 

 interesting account of the far-famed Maya Codex, which, 

 was acquired by the Royal Library of Dresden in 1739, 

 and a large portion of which was collated for Lord Kings- 

 borough's great work on " Mexican Antiquities," of which 

 it forms the larger part of the third volume. According 

 to Dr. Thomas, this unique document consists not merely 

 of one, but of several original MSS., while it presents 

 no evidence, as often asserted, that its symbols, figures, 

 and signs are to be accepted as alphabetical, or phonetic, 

 characters, its series of dots and lines seeming to indicate 

 a close relationship with the pictographic system in use 

 amongst the North American Indians. He is of opinion 

 that these series have a chronological significance, based 

 on the method of counting time common to the Mexicans 

 and Mayas, in which a religious, or hierarchical, cycle of 

 260 days was recognized, as well as the solar year calendar 

 of 360 days in use among the people. This interpretation 

 must, however, for the present rank as merely conjectural^ 

 although his elaborate analyses of the Maya symbols can- 

 not fail to be of use to the few interested in the solution 

 of the curious philological problem involved in the elu- 

 cidation of this unique codex, to which special notice was 

 first drawn by Alexander von Humboldt. His acquaint- 

 ance with ancient South American MSS. enabled him to 

 show that, while its symbolic characters presented a close 

 affinity with those used by the Mexicans, the material of 

 which the MS. was composed was the Mexican plant 

 metl, Agave niexicana. 



EXACT THERMOMETRY. 

 Traite pratique de la Thet'inotm'trie de precision. Par Cli. 



Ed. Guillaume. Pp. xv. and 336. (Paris : Gauthier- 



Villars, I 889.) 

 '"T^HE thermometer, practically as we now have it, is an 

 -L instrument several centuries old, and by far the most 

 popular of all scientific apparatus. Yet probably much 

 less is generally known about it than about its companion 

 implements the barometer and the telescope. The reason 

 for this want of knowledge lies doubtless in the fact that 

 the common use of the thermometer is chiefly for rough 

 observations on the temperature of the air, and for this 

 the ordinary instruments are sufficiently accurate as they 

 leave the maker. 



Meteorologists and physicians, however, occasionally 

 have the zeros of their thermometers tested ; and, for 

 factory work, other points have sometimes to be examined. 

 But in chemical and physical laboratories, investigations 

 not unfrequently require that thermometers should be 

 corrected with all possible delicacy, if the resulting 

 measurement is to be exact and valuable. For such 

 operations there has hitherto been no exhaustive guide ; 

 and M. GuiUaume, whose ample experience in the Bureau 

 international des Poids et Mesures is a guarantee for the 

 practical value of what he writes, has done good service 

 by issuing the present work at an opportune moment. 



