530 



NA TURE 



\Oct. 21, 1875 



which modern writers apply the old designation of 

 Nahua (Nahuatl). But his description of the Aztec civi- 

 lisation at the time of the Spanish Conquest scarcely 

 suggests a state of decay. The handicrafts of the stone- 

 cutter, the weaver, and the goldsmith, the elaborate orga- 

 nisation of the priesthood and the army, of the colleges 

 for training boys'and girls, and of the guilds of merchants, 

 were found by the Europeans in full vigour. The Mexi- 

 cans not only had a system of picture-writing and kept 

 their chronicles in it, but King Nezahualcoyotl is said to 

 have made a law prescribing the penalty of death on 

 historians who should record fictitious events. This same 

 king made severe forest-laws to prevent the supply of 

 wood in the country being exhausted, so that the people 

 did not dare even to pick up the fallen wood. Such a 

 state of things [may indicate a certain stiffness and arti- 

 ficiality of law and custom, but hardly a fall from an 

 earlier higher state. In any new discussion of the problem 

 of American civilisation, for which these volumes afford 

 the first ample collection of materials, we should prefer 

 reasoning on Aztec life as Cortes saw it, to speculating on 

 the institutions of the half mythical Toltecs of tradition. 



In looking through the present volumes two obser- 

 vations suggest themselves. Mr. Bancroft has drawn up 

 descriptions of the languages of the Pacific district which 

 are of some use in defining the general structure of each, 

 and justifying the class-arrangement which he adopts. 

 But he only gives a few specimen words of each lan- 

 guage, such as pronouns, numerals, incomplete parts of a 

 verb, and perhaps a Lord's Prayer. We wish, consider- 

 ing the space he has spared for native myths, that he had 

 found room for a series of concise grammars. The exist- 

 ing grammars and dictionaries of many of these lan- 

 guages, even such as Aztec and Maya, which are the 

 spoken languages of large populations, are so scarce and 

 costly as to be out of the reach of ordinary philologists. 

 For instance, it is difficult to get sufficient information as 

 to one of the most curious languages of Mexico, the 

 Otomi, described by several writers as a real mono- 

 syllabic language imbedded among languages like the 

 Aztec, whose formation is polysyllabic-agglutinative in the 

 extreme. This is a most interesting phenomenon in philo- 

 logy, and we looked to Mr. Bancroft at least to settle the 

 disputed point whether the Otomi tongue is really mono- 

 syllabic. There are plenty of polysyllables in it, such as 

 tayo, dog ; nxuyo, bitch ; mahetst, heaven ; nuga, I. But 

 the question is whether the statement is fully borne out, 

 that " in words compounded of more than one syllable, 

 each syllable preserves its original meaning." In the first 

 two instances this is evidently true, ta-yo, nxu-yo being 

 decomposable as "male dog," " female dog." Whether 

 the other two words can be analysed we do not know. 

 So interesting is the Otomi tongue for its bearing on the 

 theory of the monosyllabic origin of language, that it 

 would be worth while to collect and reprint everything 

 that is known about it. For one thing thanks are due to 

 Mr. Bancroft, that he insists on the merely accidental 

 character of such resemblances as exist between Otomi 

 and Chinese. Naxera's baseless theory of a connection 

 between these two languages had publicity given to it by 

 Prescott, and is not yet forgotten. 



The collection of cosmogonic traditions in the third 

 volume is remarkable, and may lead us to expect valuable 



results to science when the creation-myths of all tribes and 

 nations of the world shall be put together and carefully 

 analysed. Many of them are of course mere products of 

 childish fancy. In Central California the story is that in 

 the beginning the world was dark, so that men and beasts 

 and birds were always stumbling and dashing against one 

 another. The Hawk happening to fly in the face of the 

 Coyote (Prairie-wolf), they mutually apologised, and set to 

 improve things. The Coyote made balls of reeds and gave 

 them with some pieces of flint to the Hawk, who flew up 

 into the sky with them and set them alight. The sun-ball 

 still glows red and fierce, but the moon-ball was damp, 

 and has always burnt in a feeble, uncertain way. The 

 Southern "^CaHfornians, on the other hand, believe that 

 the sun and moon were the first man and woman ; 

 women, descendants of the moon, are fair but fickle, for 

 as she changes so they all change, say these savage 

 philosophers. Such mythical fancies, of which there are 

 numbers in this one district, fall withan the province of 

 the pure mythologist. But it is an interesting question 

 whether, among the legends of catastrophes which 

 altered the face of the earth and destroyed its inhabi- 

 tants, there may be any dim recollections of actual events; 

 recognisable by the antiquary or the naturalist. To take 

 another example from California, the natives about Lake 

 Tahoe ascribe its origin to a great natural convulsion. 

 Their story is that their ancestors were once numerous 

 and rich, but a stronger people rose up who defeated and 

 enslaved them. Then the Great Spirit sent an immense 

 wave across the continent from the sea, which engulfed 

 both oppressors and oppressed, all but a small remnant. 

 Those who remained of the ruling caste made the people 

 build a great temple for refuge in case of another flood? 

 and on the top of this the masters worshipped a perpetual 

 fire. Soon, however, the earth was troubled again, this 

 time with strong convulsions and thunders. The masters 

 took refuge in their great tower, shutting out the slaves, 

 who fled to the Humboldt River, and paddled for their 

 lives, for the land was tossing like a troubled sea, casting 

 up fire, smoke, and ashes. The Sierra was mounded up 

 from the bosom of the earth, while the place where the 

 great fort stood sank, leaving only the dome at the top 

 exposed above the waters of Lake Tahoe. 



Such is the local story, remarkable for its good descrip- 

 tions of an earthquake-wave, an eruption, and a volcanic 

 upheaval and subsidence. Whether it is founded on 

 some fragmentary reminiscences of a real local cata- 

 strophe is a question which we leave to be answered by 

 some geologist who has examined the district. 



HUXLEY AND MARTIN'S ''ELEMENTARY 

 BIOLOGY'' 



A Course of Practical Instruction in Elementary Bio- 

 logy. By T. H. Huxley, LL.D., Sec. R. S., assisted by 

 H. N. Martin, B.A., D.Sc. (London : Macmillan and 

 Co., 1875.) 



IN the preface to this work. Prof. Huxley tells that the 

 object of his book is to serve as a laboratory guide 

 to those who are incHned to study the principles of 

 Biology as a single science, and not asone divided, except 

 for the sake of convenience, into the two " disciplines," 

 Zoology and Botany. To accomplish this end a certain 



