January 26, 1893] 



NATURE 



295 



our Consul at Barcelona, and enclose his reply. There have 

 long been rumours of survivals of a dwarf or a prehistoric 

 race existing in parts of Spain, but careful inquiries at Madrid 

 failed to supply any definite information on the subject. Last 

 summer on reading over an old number o{ Kosvios (Paris, 1887), 

 I found a brief paragraph referring to a pigmy race having been 

 found in the province of Gerona, Spain, who had slightly 

 Mongolian eyes, yellow, broad, square faces, height from 

 I m. 10 to I m. 15, and red hair. 



An Austrian gentleman recently told me he had seen, in the 

 market-place at Salamanca, some very under-sized peasants, 

 ■with broad faces and mahogany-coloured woolly hair. 



You will see that these accounts all agree substantially, and 

 that these dwarfs and those of Africa are precisely similar, 



I have got a deal of information from an old Spanish woman 

 who belongs to a half-breed nano family, and who says that 

 there are in such families frequently nanos (or "enanos") who 

 have red tufts of wool, and are as small as ordinary small boys. 

 But these tufts of wool are peculiarly characteristic of dwarf 

 races nearly everywhere. 



I shall write more fully as to my inquiries among half-breed 

 nanos ; but they are of very secondary interest now that we can 

 find pure racial nanos within easy reach. 



It is most fortunate that they live in the Valley of Ribas and 

 the Col de Tosas, within a little more than a half-day's journey 

 from Toulouse. Some health-seekers or tourists in the South 

 of France may perhaps feel inclined to pay a visit to these little 

 people. 



Should the suggestion be acted on, and prove satisfactory, a 

 line to myself on the subject, addressed to 28, Pall Mall, would 

 be highly valued. R. G. Haliburton. 



Tangier, January 9. 



[copy.] 



" British Consulate, Barcelona, December 10, 1892. 



"Dear Sir, — Since I received your letter of November 18 

 and its enclosures I have endeavoured to ascertain what truth 

 there is in the statement that pigmies, or ' enanos ' (not 

 ' nanos ') exi^t in the Valley of Ribas. From conversations 

 I had with various individuals who have visited that district it 

 appears certain that a race of men, of about from one metre to 

 one metre and twenty centimetres high, of a darkish com- 

 plexion (copper-coloured), dark hair and woolly, and flat, 

 broad nose, live in that district, particularly in the ' CoUado de 

 Tosas. ' They are active, and are generally employed as shep- 

 herds. It is also asserted that they are not very intelligent, 

 and that they appear to understand and to make themselves 

 understood with difficulty. It would be an easy journey to go 

 to that place from this town. I had no little difficulty in find- 

 ing out that such a race lived in that place, for many of the 

 persons with whom I have spoken on the subject were evidently 

 confused and confused me, as besides these, evidently racial 

 pigmies, there are in that neighbourhood many ' cretins,' which 

 were at times described to me as if these were the ' enanos ' I 

 spoke about. I am now certain that there are cretins and 

 pigmies in the Valley of Ribas. It is stated that the ' enanos ' 

 are rapidly disappearing, and that latterly many have died of 

 smallpox. The men you speak of, who were seen at Salamanca, 

 are, I should say, natives of the Batuecas, or rather of Los 

 Hurdes. These men were discovered in the sixteenth century, 

 and they were then and are even now, in an almost absolute 

 state of savagery." [The remainder as to this race is omitted, 

 as it does not appear that they are nanos. — R. G. H.j 

 " Ycurs very truly, 

 (Signed) " Wm. McPherson. 



" R. G. Haliburton, Esq." 



British Earthworms. 



I WRITE to suggest— in connection with the recent letters 

 in Nature upon thi-; subject — that some one give a thoroughly 

 trustworthy list of British earthworms, with the memoirs in which 

 the species were originally described, and the chief characteristics 

 of each. Dr. Benham would he doing very useful and accept- 

 able work if he were to accomplish this. From what I under- 

 stand everybody has been 'making mistakes, and the whole 

 matter is in the utmost confusion. It is very necessary that 



NO. 12 I 3, VOL. 47] 



such a classification should exist, if only for the benefit of those 

 who are working on the earthworm more from a comparative 

 anatomist's than from a specialist's point of view. 



Frank J. Cole. 

 Zoological Department, Edinburgh, January 12. 



DANTE'S "QUA£STIO DE AQUA ET TERRA." 



" Quaestio Aurea ac perutilis edita per Z)a«/^w ^/a^>^m//w, 

 poetam florentinum clarissimum, de naturaduorum elementorum 

 Aquae et Terrac disserentem." 



"Lo, the past is hurled 



In twain : up thrust, out staggering on the world, 



Subsiding into shape, a darkness rears 



Its outline, kindles at the core, appears 



Verona." — R. Browning, " Sordello," Book i. 

 " 'X*0 all and each who shall see this document, Dante 

 -*■ Alighieri of Florence, the least amongst true 

 philosophers, wishes health in Him who is the Beginning 

 of truth and the Light. 



"Be it known unto ye all that whilst I was at Mantua there 

 arose a certain question, the which after having been many 

 times dilated upon rather for vain show than for Truth's 

 sake, still remained undecided. Wherefore I, since from 

 boyhood I have been nurtured continually in love of 

 Truth, could not bear to leave the question undiscussed ; 

 but I thought fit to show the truth concerning it and to 

 dissolve the arguments adduced to the contrary, both for 

 love of Truth and hatred of Falsehood. And lest the 

 malice of many who are wont to fabricate envious lies 

 against the absent should behind my back alter what was 

 well said, I have moreover thought fit to leave written 

 down on paper what I proved, and to set forth the form 

 of the whole disputation." 



These are the words with which Dante commences this 

 " golden and most useful " inquiry concerning the nature 

 of the two elements, earth and water. The treatise is 

 little known in comparison with the other writings of the 

 poet ;^ but although rejected by Ugo Foscolo and others 

 as "impostura indegna d'esame," its genuineness and 

 importance are now almost universally admitted ; and 

 without yielding unreservedly to the enthusiastic opinion 

 of an Italian geologist (Stoppani) that there are more 

 truths relating to cosmology to be found prognosticated, 

 affirmed, and even demonstrated in these few pages of 

 the supreme poet than in all the writings of the middle 

 ages taken together, we may nevertheless acknowledge it 

 to be a work of the greatest interest and importance, and 

 by no means unworthy of the singer of the "Divina 

 Commedia." 



It seems to be the last work of the poet's life, written 

 at that period which he himself describes in his sonnet to 

 Giovanni Ouirino : — 



" Lo Re, che merta i suoi servi a ristoro 

 Con abbondanza, e vince ogni misura. 

 Mi fa lasciare la fiera rancura, 

 E drizzar gli occhi al sommo consistoro 

 E qui pensando al glorioso coro 

 De' cittadin della cittade pura, 

 Laudando il Creatore, io creatura 

 Di pill laudarlo sempre m'innamoro." 



— Sonetto xliv. ed. Fraticelli.- 



Dante was at this time the guest of Guido Novello di 

 Polenta at Ravenna. About the commencement of the 



I It is, I believe, the only one of Dante's writings that has not yet been 

 translated into English. 



t' " The King by whose rich grace His servants be 

 With plenty beyond measure set to dwell. 

 Ordains that 1 my bitter wrath dispel 

 And lift mine ey«« to the great consistory ; 

 Till, noting how in glorious quires agree 

 The citizens of that fair citadel, 

 To the Creator I, His creature, swell 

 Their song, and all their love possesses me." 



— Rossetti's translation in " Dante and his Circle." 



