September 3, 1903] 



NATURE 



427 



AUERICAU ETHNOLOGY. 

 TT is with melancholy interest that we receive the nine- 

 -»■ teenth annual report of the Bureau of American 

 Ethnology, as this was the last report that was edited by 

 the late director; Major Powell's name for so many years 

 has been associated with the publications of the bureau 

 which he initiated that the two have come to be irresistibly 

 associated in our minds. We can only say that his last 

 report fully maintains that high standard to which he has 

 accustomed us. 



Sociologists as well as ethnologists will be mterested 

 in Mr. James Mooney's historical study of the Cherokee, 

 forming part i. of the nineteenth report. The title " Myths 

 of the Cherokee " is misleading, as the memoir includes 

 oral and documentary history, legendary history, legends 

 and mvths, with a valuable appendix of notes and parallels 

 to the' mvths. The true history of Sequoya, the inventor 

 of the Cherokee alphabet, is given, and the remarkable 

 effect of this innovation on the Cherokee nation is admir- 

 ably sketched, but the promise of progress was ruthlessly 

 destroyed by the action of the Georgia Legislature. In the 

 temperate language of a scientific historian, Mr. Mooney 

 narrates the invariable fate of a native population when 

 the white man wants his country, and now the five civilised 

 tribes are meditating wholesale removal from the Indian 

 territory where they are still being harassed. There seems 

 a determined purpose on the part of many full-bloods to 

 emigrate either to Mexico or South America, and there 

 purchase new homes for themselves and families. 



The second part of the report contains one or two studies 

 of the Hopi, or Moqui, Indians of Arizona. These pueblo 

 Indians are among the few surviving tribes of American 

 aborigines which still retain an ancient ritual that is 

 apparently unmodified by the Christian religion. The im- 

 portance of a careful investigation of these people is fully 

 realised by American anthropologists, and the bureau has 

 in Dr. J. Walter Fewkes a trained observer of the first 

 rank. It is impossible to interpret the Hopi ritual without 

 a clear idea of the present relationship between the existing 

 clans and of their connection with the religious societies. 

 The growth of the ritual has increased with the successive 

 addition of new clans to the pueblo, and its evolution can- 

 not be comprehended without an understanding of the social 

 development and clan organisation of the pueblo. Appreci- 

 ating this. Dr. Fewkes deals with Tusayan migration tradi- 

 tions, and unravels the history of the accretion of the clans 

 into a community. The localisation of these clans in 

 various pueblos is described by Cosmos Mindeleff, and 

 mapped in several plans ; the localisation of clans was 

 rigidly enforced in ancient times, but it is now breaking 

 down. May we suggest to American workers in the field 

 that valuable sociological results would be obtained if they 

 adopted genealogical methods devised by Dr. Rivers (Journ. 

 Anthrop. Inst., xxx., 1900, p. 74). Dr. Fewkes also gives 

 some details of the famous Snake dance ; this dance was 

 primarily a part of the ritual of the Snake clan, and 

 ancestor worship is very prominent in it, indeed, Dr. 

 Fewkes suggests it is " totemistic ancestor worship." 

 There still remain to be investigated various episodes and 

 the sacred songs. The Flute ceremony, which lasts for nine 

 days, is one of the most complicated in the Hopi ritual. 

 Three elements appear to be prominent in the Flute observ- 

 ance — sun, rain, and corn worship, symbols of which are 

 the most prominent on the altars and their accessories. 

 The same is true of the Snake dance ; but in both rites the 

 cultus heroes and cjan mothers are special deities to which 

 the supplications for rain and corn are addressed. This is 

 interpreted as a form of totemism in which the ancestors 

 of the clan take precedence. The Sun as the father of all 

 cultus heroes, and the Earth as the mother of all gods, 

 ancestral and otherwise, necessarily form an important part 

 of the worship. The relation between religion and 

 sociology is brought out by the author. 



*' The Wild Rice Gatherers of the Upper Lakes," by Dr. 

 A. E. Jenks, is a sociological study of great interest and 

 value, and should form a model for other researches on 

 sociological economics. The Indians in the wild-rice dis- 

 trict exhibited some social aspects that were quite unique 



quently spoken of. The wild rice led to the peaceful mass- 

 ing together of various tribes and to love for a common 

 country, but being a precarious food-supply, much progress 

 in culture was impossible to these barbarians. 



Other papers in the report are " Mounds in Northern 

 Honduras," by Thomas Gann ; "Mayan Calendar 

 Systems " and " Numeral Systems, of Mexico and Central 

 America," by Cvrus Thomas. The number 20 is the base 

 of the numeral system of the Mexican and Central American 

 tribes, but it does not appear to have been used as a mystic 

 number in rites. There are other peoples who use the 

 vigesimal system, but no others are known who adopt the 

 twenty-day month or eighteen-month year. W'e cannot 

 conceive how a twenty-day period could have grown out 

 of a lunar count ; probably two time systems, a secular and 

 a sacred one, were in use at the same time, and the latter 

 finally obscured the former. The author's conclusion is 

 that the priests adopted a method of counting time for their 

 ceremonial and divinatory purposes which would fit most 

 easily into their numeral system, and this system, in con- 

 sequence of the overwhelming influence of the priesthood, 

 caused the lunar count to drop into disuse. Prof. W- J. 

 McGee publishes a characteristic essay on " Primitive 

 Numbers." The memoirs in these two volumes are 

 copiously illustrated with numerous excellent plates, some 

 of which are coloured. A. C. H. 



AGRICULTURAL NOTES. 



FROM a recent number of a Scotch agricultural news- 

 paper it appears that the Earl of Rosebery has a 

 private station for agricultural research on his home farm 

 near Edinburgh, but the gratification which this inform- 

 ation might otherwise have afforded is tempered by a 

 perusal of an account, given by the newspaper, of a visit 

 paid by a party of agriculturists to the place. The experi- 

 ments, we gather, have been in existence for several years, 

 but no reports on the station's work have been published, 

 and we are left to glean something of its character from 

 the statements made by the estate agent and the district 

 analyst, who respectively represent practice and science in 

 the control of the work. In speeches which are reported 

 at some length, first the agent and then the analyst pro- 

 ceeded to ridicule the work done at other experiment 

 stations. Rothamsted, Woburn, the East of Scotland 

 Agricultural College, and the Highland and Agricultural 

 Society were singled out for condemnation, and one is 

 dismayed to find that " great laughter " was evoked by a 

 quotation of what purported to be the words of the late 

 Sir Henry Gilbert, whose fifty years' devoted service has 

 earned the respect of all right-minded agriculturists. The 

 claims made for Dalmeny — the experiment station — were 

 as amusing as the references to others were offensive. We 

 hear, for example, that " the Dalmeny station was the only 

 agricultural experiment station in the world where the re- 

 search work was carried out on biological lines," and that 

 " if imitation was the sincerest form of flattery, Dalmeny 

 had been very sincerely flattered of late years, for so-called 

 new lines of investigation were being taken up and books 

 were being written which were simply plagiarisms of 

 Dalmeny work and its results." Until some change is 

 made in the management of Dalmeny experiment station 

 it is clear that no serious consideration need be given to 

 the work being done there. 



For the past three years Mr. S. H. Collins, agricultural 

 chemist at the Durham College of Science, has been investi- 

 gating the composition of the Swedish turnip, the chief 

 root crop of the north of England. A large number of 

 varieties have been grown under identical conditions and 

 also under different conditions of soil, climate, and 

 manuring. The work is still in progress, but certain con- 

 clusions which have been come to are stated in the eleventh 

 report of the college agricultural department. They are 

 (i) the higher the percentage of dry matter in swedes the 

 greater the feeding value ; (2) swedes are very variable in 

 composition, and not less than fifty roots should be sampled 

 the purpose of analysis ; (3) the average composition 



for . . 



of some varieties is much better than that of others ; (4) the 

 Their superior physique and peaceful disposition were fre- J varieties which are best at one farm will also be best at 



NO. 1766, VOL. 68] 



