May 2, 1901] 



NA TURE 



15 



not with the Greek alphabet, which was of Phcenician, 

 and ultimately of Egyptian, origin. And how are the 

 Knossian characters more advanced in type than the 

 cuneiform characters ? Obviously they are nothing of 

 the kind ; they are in the same stage of development as 

 the Egyptian hieratic writing, to which they bear a strong 

 resemblance ; so far, then, it may be said that they 

 are "ahead" of the Egyptian hieroglyphs; but 

 cuneiform was far more conventionalised, far " ahead " 

 of either Egyptian hieroglyphic and hieratic or 

 Mycensan linear. The people who used the Knossian 

 script may turn out to have had not one drop of Aryan 

 "European" blood in them, and European-Greek 

 culture may be as thoroughly of non-Aryan (and equally 

 non-Semitic) origin as Semitic culture was in its origin 

 absolutely non-Semitic. 



The work of Messrs. Evans and Hogarth at Knossos 

 has been supplemented by the latter with the very inter- 

 esting results of his excavation of the famous cave of 

 Zeus on Mount Diktc, an account of which appears on 

 p. 94, ff. Mr. Hogarth's story of his operations, of the 

 blasting of the rocks, the unveiling of the most ancient 

 sanctuary of Zeus, the recovery of small bronze double- 

 axes and other votive objects, belonging to the same 

 period as the Knossian palace, from the crevices of the 

 stalagmitic deposit in which they had remained undis- 

 turbed for nearly four thousand years, the finding of a 

 little Egyptian bronze statuette of Amen-Ra, which shows 

 that somewhere about 1000 n.C. King Zeus was already 

 identified with Amonrasuntiru, Amen-Ra, king of the gods 

 — all this is of the highest archaeological interest, and may 

 be recommended to the notice of students of Greek 

 religion. 



It remains to speak of the articles of less importance 

 which also find a place in this number of the Annual. 

 That by yix. F. B. Welch on "The Influence of the 

 ^gean Civilisation on South Palestine " is important as 

 chronicling the occurrence of Mycenrean pottery at a 

 Palestinian site, Tell es-Safi. "This," says Mr. Welch, 

 " was certainly a Philistine stronghold, a fact which is 

 suggestive in view of the probable north-western origin 

 of the Philistines " (p. 119). This is quite true, and it 

 may be remarked that the old tradition of the Cretan 

 origin of the Philistines has lately, in view of the 

 Egyptian records of attacks by the Peoples of the Sea, 

 among whom figure the Pidcsatha or Philistines, and a 

 great deal of other evidence, both archaological and 

 legendar)', come once more to the front, and probably 

 represents a historical fact. But Mr. Welch should note 

 that Semitic authorities such as Delitzsch, Jensen, Mayer 

 and Tiele uncompromisingly claim the Philistines as 

 Semites, and specifically Aramaeans. The Egyptian 

 evidence, however, as Mr. Welch rightly implies, goes 

 absolutely against the Semitic claim, which will probably 

 have to be given up. Still, the Greek archasologists have 

 no right to ignore the opinion of the Semitists on such a 

 question as this. Mr. Welch seems, by the way, to 

 attach rather too much importance to purely " typo- 

 logical '' arguments derived solely from the study of 

 pottery, which can never be an absolutely infallible 

 guide. 



Mr. J. C. Lawson's note on " A Beast-Dance in Scyros " 

 (p. 125) will be of great interest to anthropologists. In 

 carnival time the young men of Scyros array themselves 

 in goat-skin capes — " each does his best according to his 

 lights and his means to look like a goat "—hang goat-bells 

 round their persons and solemnly dance through the 

 town, often stopping " at some friendly door to imbibe 

 spirituous encouragement to further efforts." This is 

 undoubtedly a very ancient survival, and possibly goes 

 back to Mycenaan times, a surmise with which anybody 

 who knows what a great part goat-headed and other 

 theriomorphic figures play in Mycenaean art will probably 

 agree. But alas, " thanks to the steadily increasing 



NO. 1644, VOL. 64] 



influx of Western culture during the last few years," the 

 goat-mask is often replaced nowadays by " an Ally Sloper 

 mask"! The modern Japanese wears a billycock or a 

 deerstalker on the top of his national historical costume. 

 So the free and upright civilisation of modern Europe 

 dominates the world ' 



It may be finally noted that the knowledge which the 

 contributors to this number of ih&Annita/ possess of the 

 German language appears to be defective. If German 

 terms are used at all, their proper plural forms should be 

 given to them. " Biigelkannes" may be Dutch, but is 

 neither German nor English ; Mr. Welch gets over 

 the difficulty, which might have been solved by reference 

 to a German grammar, by giving his German words 

 no plural form at all. He speaks of " Bugelkanne " 

 and " Schnabelkanne " when he means Biigelkannen and 

 Schnabelkannen. 



Despite these little imperfections, the sixth number of 

 the Annual of the British School at Athens is un- 

 doubtedly the most important contribution to our know- 

 ledge of the early history of mankind that has appeared 

 for many years. 



MAGNETIC OBSERVATIONS DURING TOTAL 

 SOLAR ECLIPSE. 



THE etifect produced by a solar eclipse on the meteor- 

 ological conditions of the atmosphere has on many 

 occasions in the past been the subject of observation, 

 but in the number of Terrestrial Magnetism ]tisi received 

 we find an account ' of a systematic examination of 

 the influence of such an eclipse on magnetic conditions 

 also. It had appeared to Dr. Bauer, chief of the U.S. 

 Magnetic Survey, that magnetic observations might 

 on such an occasion be usefully undertaken ; and the 

 occurrence of the solar eclipse of May 28 of last year, the 

 total phase of which was visible in the United States, 

 afforded an excellent opportunity of carrying such design 

 into execution. For the needs of the magnetic survey 

 simultaneous magnetic observations are made on certain 

 days throughout the year at the different magnetic stations, 

 and it was arranged that such observations should be 

 made, on theday of eclipse, at stations as near as possible 

 to the path of totality. Six stations were selected ; three 

 of them— Union Springs, Rocky Mount and Cape Charles 

 —were situated within the path of totality, the remaining 

 three— Salem, Bayard and Gaithersburg^being outside. 

 The observers received instructions to occupy such 

 stations as their special work permitted for the due ac- 

 complishment of the object in view, accompanied by a 

 detailed scheme of the observations to be made. The 

 prescribed course was carried out by all the observers 

 excepting the one at Gaithersburg, who for some reason 

 failed to receive his instructions in time ; but he made 

 observations according to directions sent him previously, 

 relating to other work. The detailed scheme of observa- 

 tions is given with the view of aiding observers making 

 preparations for similar work on future occasions. The 

 observations made are discussed at considerable length, 

 being accompanied by numerous graphical illustrations, 

 and it is stated that there can be no question that some 

 kind of magnetic disturbance made itself felt on May 28 

 at every one of the stations. 



Finally, the conclusions arrived at are given under 

 eleven separate heads, the principal points of which are 

 contained in the following summary :— A small magnetic 

 oscillation made itself felt at various stations situated in 

 the eastern part of the United States during the time of 

 the eclipse. It was detected by various persons, at 

 various stations, with different instruments, under differ- 

 ent conditions, and was also automatically recorded. 



1 Rcsuiii,- of magnelic observations made chiefly by the United States 

 Coast and Geodetic Survey on the day of the total solar eclipse May 28, 



