March: 2; 1905] 



NATURE 



417 



but French or German. The papers on experimental 

 mechanics and other parts of elementary physics, and 

 the paper on elementary inorganic chemistry are, with 

 three other papers, alternatives of which two must 

 be taken. 



The case for additional recognition of science has 

 been put so well by a distinguished naturalist who 

 was a member of the syndicate, and one of the three 

 who did not sign the report, that we cannot do better 

 than quote his words. " The real substitute for Greek, 

 and the only worthy substitute as it seemed to him, was 

 science. If they arc not to meet art let them at least 

 meet truth. Let the boys know the place man had 

 in nature. It seemed to him shocking that they 

 should turn out hundreds of men every year who 

 had not the faintest idea of what was going on in 

 nature, in combustion or chemical decomposition, 

 and who knew nothing of the relation of man to the 

 animal world." 



The present issue does not lie between the friends 

 of science and the friends of letters. Nearly one- 

 third of the classical staff at Cambridge are on the 

 side of reform, and amongst them are many of the 

 men who have built up the present classical tripos 

 until it is amongst the biggest of the Cambridge 

 schools. A majority of the university professors and 

 readers other than those in mathematics and natural 

 science are on the side of the syndicate. The head 

 masters are half-heartedly with the syndicate, a 

 majority of the Head Masters' Conference and the 

 Head Masters' .Association desiring the exemption 

 from Greek of candidates for honours in mathematics 

 and science. A very large majority of the assistant 

 masters in secondary schools are in favour of the 

 change, and it must not be forgotten that the 

 assistant masters have a far more intimate experience 

 of the actual teaching of the boys than have the head 

 masters. 



A certain number of the resident members of the 

 Senate have declared their intention of not voting. 

 Some of these are tutors and coaches, who, whil ■ 

 agreeing with the general principles of the report, 

 fear that the proposed examination will be so difficult 

 that their pupils will fail to pass. Amongst the 

 residents who intend to vote there is now a majority 

 in favour of the report. If the matter rested upon 

 the Cambridge vote there is little doubt which way 

 it would go. The result, however, rests on the vote 

 of a large electorate of which the resident members 

 form roughly one-tenth. From the fact that the 

 committee for supporting the proposals has issued 

 a very long list of supporters, and from the fact that 

 the committee opposed to the proposals has thought 

 it more politic to publish but a short, select list, 

 there is a strong feeling of confidence that reform 

 may this time win. But the duty of voting cannot 

 be too strongly urged. A single vote may decide the 

 issue. 



FOLK-TALES OF PLAINS INDIANS. 



A NOTICEABLE addition to the literature of 

 American folk-tales has been made by two recent 

 publications of the anthropological series of the Field 

 Columbian Museum Publications. Vol. v. of this 

 valuable series is devoted to the traditions of the 

 Arapaho by Drs. G. A. Dorsey and A. L. Kroeber, 

 collected under the auspices respectively of the Field 

 Columbian Museum and of the American Museum of 

 Natural History. The authors worked independently, 

 and in many instances collected variants of the same 

 tale ; but they have published all as they were collected 

 rather than amalgamate the two versions of the one 

 legend. Certain incidents in the tales are translated 



NO. 1844, VOL. 71] 



into Latin, and even some whole tales are similarly 

 translated. A synopsis is given at the end of the 

 volume of each of the hundred and forty-six tales, a 

 feature that will prove of great use to the student. 

 There are one origin-myth and three or four culture- 

 myths ; a large number of the stories refer to an in- 

 dividual called Nihangan, whose doings were fre- 

 quently of a reprehensible nature. No. i of vol. vii. 

 of the same series contains a collection of forty folk- 

 tales of the Osage by Dr. Dorsey, who admits that this 

 collection does not adequately represent the traditions 

 of the tribe. The Osage are of Siouan stock, and are 

 now degenerating rapidly, as they are very lazy and 

 much addicted to drink ; further, the use of the peyote, 

 or mescal, among them is rapidly increasing, and for 

 these reasons there was great difficulty in engaging 

 the attention of the old men for any length of time. 

 In No. 20, " The Rabbit and the Picture," we have a 

 tnr-baby episode. .'\n abstract is given of each tale. 



A third collection of folk-tales by Dr. Dorsey is 

 entitled "Traditions of the Arikara " ; these were 

 collected under the auspices of the Carnegie Institu- 

 tion at Washington, and the eighty-two tales con- 

 stitute Publication 17 of that institution. The 

 .'\rikara belong to the Caddoan linguistic stock, and 

 were formerly closely allied with the Skidi band of 

 Pawnee. Like the Skidi, they constructed the earth- 

 lodge, and their social organisation and religious 

 ceremonies in general were also similar. An examin- 

 ation of the tales shows, as might be expected, many 

 points of resemblance with those of the Skidi {cf. 

 " Traditions of the Skidi Pawnee," by G. A. Dorsey, 

 Memoirs of the Am. Foik-Lore Soc, vol. viii., 1904), 

 but it is apparent that the mythology of the Arikara 

 contains many elements not found among the Skidi ; 

 possibly it will be found that there are Mandan 

 affinities, but material for this comparison is not yet 

 available. Two talcs narrate the creation of the 

 earth by the Wolf and Lucky-Man, and the creation 

 of people by Spiders through the assistance of the 

 A\'olf. The variant tales of the emergence of the 

 .Arikara from the earth are undoubtedly original. In 

 several tales a poor boy is a culture hero ; in one case 

 he was the son of a woman who climbed to heaven 

 and married a star; his greatest work was freeing 

 the land of four destructive monsters. The Sun-Boy 

 made long life possible after a series of contests with 

 his powerful father. Another boy, Burnt-Hands, 

 saved his tribe from despotism and famine, and 

 furnished by his life a perpetual example to the poor 

 of the .Arikara of the value of honest and long-con- 

 tinued effort. Some tales are rite-myths, as they refer 

 to the origin of a ceremony or rite, or to incidents 

 connected with a ceremony. In one tale is found an 

 interesting account of the origin of the well known 

 ring and javelin game of the plains, which is really 

 part of the ceremonial calling of the buffalo (bison); 

 the tale also relates the origin of the buffalo dance. 

 Eleven tales relate to animals ; in all of them the 

 coyote plays a prominent part, always as a mean 

 trickster, and committing deeds that generally result 

 disastrously to himself. Several are ordinary tradi- 

 tions, in some of which the supernatural crops up. 

 Abstracts are given of all the tales. 



Another memoir on folk-tales, entitled " The 

 Mythology of the Wichita," by Dr. Dorsey, forms 

 Publication No. 21 of the Carnegie Institution. The 

 Wichita are a small and dwindling tribe of Caddoan 

 stock who differ somewhat from the surrourTding 

 plains tribes ; both men and women tattoo, they are 

 very moral and good natured, and their home life is 

 extremely well regulated. The pursuit of the bison 

 was secondary to that of agriculture, and, as among 

 the Pawnee, many of their most important ceremonies 



