44 



NA TURE 



[November 14, ,1907 



From Table XLIX., p. 147, wc extract : — 



L' = -f 0-013 67 2sP'.= -0-298 75 

 L"= +0-006 84 ■2(;P"= -0-069 oS 

 Lj= +0-023 sr «Pj= -0-275 '9 



In Prof. Newcomb's value of L' wc think a small error 



(about 000020) has been introduced. 

 Now putting 



- Pi = K,.' cos N^ 2/ CCS N 



wc get 



- Cc' COS Nj 2i] cos N 

 + D; sin N4 /■ sin N 



d 



d{nt) ' 



d 

 d(hl) ' 



d[ii/] 



C05 Njco; N 

 sin N4 sin N 

 cos Nj cos N 



sin Nj sin N 

 = 2(7j) cos Nj sin N 

 sin Njcos N 

 cos N4 sin N 

 sin Nj cos N. 



At thi 

 write 



/„^(2K,'L'-2G,;'L" = 2A|) 



+ D,'L4 

 •f D/P4 



a=t(-2K,.'a„/. + 2C,'< 

 + D.V 

 ,^^ ^ = { - 2K,%/ + 2C,V„i- = e„. 



+ D/t-,,/- 

 point we shall reject the terms in N + N, and 



(\i + jD/Lj = /;,,,,) cos (N-NJ 



-^^^»o = (t, + ^V>;eVi = e/in,c.) cos (N - Nj) 



^-^ « = {«:- 4D;«o'!- = '''<.„.) sin (N - Nj) 



~e = {h_c,,-\l>:ea'.- = /i,.,.) sin (N - NJ. i 



Puttine v'= ""g^ " mo ti on o f moon 

 mean motion of N - N4 

 we obtain on integration 



2A«= -2>'7;,,„cos (N- N4)=r2^,'cos(N-N4) 

 2eA7r= - y'2f//^,„, sin(N-N4) = 2fT; sin (N-Nj), 



and by a double integration, remembering that Aa= - ? ^" ^ 



3 » 



= /,'sin(N-N4). 



d(nt) 

 d 



Al = v'(lv'lia„ - /5,„,")sin (N 



From p. 153 we extract 

 ^' = 232-720 



Lastly 



we get 



/.'= +o"-256 

 2<-/= -i"-is8 

 7,-n,'= + i"-i64. 

 f we substitute in 

 S;' = 5/+ 2Si- sin^i^ + 2 cos j,'((;5/- 

 8j'= -l".I5sinC{-+2ir-J). 



'5,r) 



Turning now to the statement of final results on pp. 

 'S6-9. we note, with the single exception of the Jupiter 

 evection term, its mainly negative character. Results 

 previously given by Radau and Brown are only very 

 slightly modified, generally by quantities quite insensible 

 to observation. Moreover, no explanation has been 

 reached of the unknown term of long period. Thirty 

 years ago Prof. Newcomb, in what are known as New- 

 comb's corrections, assigned a coefficient i5".5 and a 

 period of 273 years with an argument arsing Vrom the 

 action of Venus to this unknown term. It is now known 

 that the argument is impossible. The present writer 

 thmks that both the coefficient and the period require 

 some increase. At any rate, Newcomb's empirical term 

 "has now ceased to represent the observed motion of the 

 moon. It is not, of course, to be expected that empiricism 

 will predict with any accuracy for any length of time. 

 ■In the last [laragraph of his memoir'. Prof. Newcomb 

 recalls his atiempt to establish an inequality in the earth's 



NO. 1985. VOL. TJ 



rotation that should simultaneously account for the motion 

 of the moon and the transits- of Mercury. About forty 

 years ago there was an impression that planetary astro- 

 nomy had been worked out by Hansen and Le Verricr. 

 The lunar tables of the one and the planetary tables of 

 the other marked immense advances on those of their 

 predecessors, and the extant observations were not 

 sufticient to sound any note of warning except that it 

 might have been- noted that Hansen's tables did not account 

 for the ancient eclipses. We now have new planetary 

 tables and the materials for new tables of the moon, but 

 we cannot share the satisfaction of our predecessors of 

 forty years ago. A very considerable list of residual 

 phenomena has accumulated. Apses and nodes and secular 

 terms do not accord with theory. In the moon some 

 periodic terms are unexplained. In Mars it seems as if 

 a term with one second as coefficient and period about 

 twenty years is required to reconcile theory and observ- 

 ation.' In the present memoir Prof. Newcomb has pre- 

 sumably excluded the action of the planets as a possible 

 explanation of the vagaries of the moon. 



.\ word ought to be said as to the excellent form of 

 presentation of the subject by Prof. Newcomb. It illus- 

 trates the Roman maxim, so often quoted by the late head- 

 master of Eton, " Divide et impera " — subdivide" into 

 sections, and you will get the grig of it. 



NEW FACTS ABOUT THE ARUNTA. 

 'T'HE Arunta of Central Australia have loomed large of 

 late in ethnological controversy, but we are destined 

 to hear further discussion in the near future. Hitherto 

 our information has been derived first from the observ- 

 ations of Mr. F. J. GiUen in part iv. of "-The Report 

 of the Horn Expedition to Central Australia," i8g6, and 

 later from the two well-known admirable books by Prof. 

 Baldwin Spencer and Mr. Gillen. In a recent number of 

 Globus (Bd. xci., No. 18, p. 285) Herr M. Freiherr 

 V. Leonhardi has an article " On" some Religious and 

 Totemic Conceptions of the Aranda and Loritja in Central 

 Australia," based upon information received from Herr C. 

 Strehlow and Herr Reuther, of the- Neuen Dettelsaur 

 Mission, who have a mastery over the language of the 

 Arunta, or Aranda. Some of the information thus obtained 

 is so different from that recorded by .Spencer and Gillen 

 that it opens a new phase in the discussions concerning 

 Ihese remarkable people. Only the more salient points of 

 Leonhardi 's article can be here given; students will have 

 to study it in detail, and they Will await with eagerness 

 the promised volume. 



The Arunta certainly believe in a supreme, good, heaven- 

 god called Altjira ; he is the- god^ of the upper world, and 

 has little to do with men. He has the appearance of a 

 tall man with a red skin and long hair falling over his 

 shoulders, but he has feet like an emu, he eats vegetable 

 food, and the flesh of the emu, which he spears. He is 

 surrounded by beautiful youths and maidens, who are 

 immortal. The stars are his camp-fires, the Milky Way 

 his hunting-ground. Only certain specially conspicuo. 

 stars, such as the evening star, the Pleiades, &c. , and sun 

 and moon are ancestors of the Arunta, who once lived 

 on earth and had certain totems. From this Altjira, who 

 lives in heaven, and of whom no Tjurunga (Churinga) 

 exists, must be clearly distinguished the ancestors, honoured 

 as gods and endowed with superhuman powers, who lived 

 on earth sometimes as animals, sometimes as men. In 

 three neighbouring groups the supreme God is distinguished 

 from the totem gods in the following way : — Dieri, supreme 

 being, Miira, deified ancestors or totem gods, Mtira-Mura ; 

 -Arunta, supreme being, Alljira (the Uncreated), totem gods, 

 Altjira-ngamitjina (the everlasting Uncreated) or Intrara 

 (the Undying) ; Loritcha, supreme being, Tii};ura (the 

 Uncreated), totem gods, Tuktitita (the eternal Uncreated). 

 Originally Gillen described a great spirit (Ulthaana), of 

 whom no mention was made in the subsequent works, 

 but in these " the most important spirit individual in the 

 Arunta tribe is Twanyirika," though, we are told he is not 

 regarded " as a supreme being who in any way whatever 

 was supposed to inculcate moral idc;:s." Neither is 

 Altjira the guardian of cults and niorals. 



