January 7, 1909"! 



NATURE 



295 



Comet Moreiiolse, igoSc. — From Mr. R. C. Johnson, 

 one of the secretaries of the Liverpool Astronomical 

 Society, we have received an enlarged copy of an excel- 

 lent photograph of Morehouse's comet, taken by him, at 

 his observatory at West Kirby, on November 15, 1908. 

 The original photograph is one of a series of twenty taken 

 with a 6i-inch reflector of 28 inches focal length, and 

 received 42 minutes' exposure, from 5h. 42m. to 6h. 24m. 

 (G.M.T.). 



The main streamer of the tail is very bright for a 

 distance of about 40' from the head, and extends to the 

 edge of the plate, about 31 degrees ; at the end of the 

 bright portion this streamer divides into three distinct 

 branches, in each of which there are several convolutions. 

 In addition to this, there are several shorter streamers, 

 two of which curve towards the south. 



Numerous observations of this comet, made between 

 September 18 and October 30, 1908, at the Royal Observa- 

 tory, Rome, are reported in No. 4293 of the AiUonomischc 

 Kachrichten (p. 331, December 27, 1908), and afford 

 further evidence of the remarkable changes which took 

 place in the form and brightness of the tail. 



An ephemeris, covering the period January 13 to July 

 13, in ten-day intervals, appears in Circular No. 144 

 of the Harvard College Observatory. By the beginning 

 of June, when the comet again reaches a declination 

 observable in these latitudes, its computed brightness will 

 be but about one-third that at the time of discovery. 



.\ photograph of the spectrum of the comet, taken wilh 

 the S-inch Draper telescope on November 17, 1908, shows 

 six broad bright bands which appear to coincide with Hf, 

 Hf , H5, H7, H/3, and the band at \ 464-473, characteristic 

 of the spectra of stars of the fifth type (Harvard College 

 Observatory, Circular No. 145). 



The Tot.al Solar Eclipse of 19 ii April 28. — In a re- 

 print from vol. Ixix. of the Monthly Notices (R.A.S.), pp. 

 30-32, with which the author has favoured us, Dr. Down- 

 ing sets out the conditions for the total solar eclipse of 

 April 28, 191 1, as it will be observed at Neiafu, a port 

 on the south-west coast of Vavau Island, one of the Tonga 

 group. At this station totality will last about 3m. 37s., 

 the altitude and azimuth (from N.) of the sun being 43" 

 and 49° respectively. Mail steamers from Sydney call at 

 Neiafu every four weeks, and the town is the headquarters 

 of the Governor and of several English and German 

 trading firms. 



\ Sixth Tvpe of Stellar Spectra. — In Circular No. 143 

 of the Harvard College Observatory Prof. Pickering 

 suggests that, for the purpose of facilitating reference to 

 ihem, a number of stars already announced as having 

 " peculiar " spectra should be assigned a class to them- 



Ives. This class w-ould include a number of doubtful 



iiirth-type stars, the spectra of which contain rays of 

 much shorter wave-length than those of the normal fourth 

 type ; stars having spectra somewhat similar to those 

 of the fifth type, but with the bright bands apparently 

 reversed on a continuous spectrum ; and stars of which 

 the spectra are generally similar to the above, but show 

 minor peculiarities. 



It is proposed that the new class should be designated 

 type \'I., class R, and Prof. Pickering publishes a list 

 of fifty-one stars all of which would certainly be included 

 in this class ; none of these is brighter than magnitude 75. 

 Several of the spectra of this type are reproduced in the 

 circular, together with spectra of types I., IV., and V. for 

 comparison. 



The Astronomical and Astrophysical Society of 

 America. — .\ brief resume of the proceedings of this 

 -oriety, at its ninth meeting held at Put-in-Bay, Ohio, 

 August 25-8, 1908, is published by Messrs. Jacoby and 

 Sears in Science tor December 11, 1908 (N.S., vol. xxviii., 

 No. 728). Two special committees were appointed, one to 

 deal with the question of luminous meteors, the other to 

 consider comets. 



Brief abstracts of many of the papers read at the meet- 

 ing are published in Science, but they are too numerous to 

 be discussed here; mention of somo of them has already 

 been made in these columns. 



NO. 2045, vol.. 70] 



Spectroscopic Binaries. — In No. 5, vol. ii., of the 

 Journal of the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada Mr. 

 I'laskett announces that spectrograms taken at the 

 Dominion Observatory, Ottawa, show that 7 Aquarii and 

 J Andromeda; are spectroscopic binaries. 



Spectrograms of the former, taken during July and 

 .August, 1908, indicate a variation in the radial velocity 

 between —40 km. and 4-23 km., whilst spectrograms of 

 the latter, taken in August and October, 1908, indicate a 

 range from — 1 1 km. to 4- 32 km. 



The Variable Star U Geminorum. — The third volume 

 of Rechercbes astronomiques de I'Observatoire d'Utrecht 

 is devoted to a very full discussion, by M. J. van der Bilt, 

 of observations of U 'Geminorum, made between 1856 and 

 1907. This discussion occupies 115 pages, and is accom- 

 panied by twenty-seven plates giving the variously derived 

 light-curves, one plate showing the normal curves of the 

 long and the short maxima, and a final plate reproducing 

 a chart of the stars surrounding this peculiar variable. 



At the end of the discussion the author strongly 

 emphasises the necessity for making constant observations 

 of this star if its peculiarities and apparent anomalies arc 

 to be completely understood. 



In the preface. Prof. Nijland states that whilst the first 

 of these " Recherches " appeared in 1864, it is hoped that 

 in future the volumes will appear at shorter intervals ; 

 vol. iv., dealing with observations of Jupiter, is already 

 in the press. 



The Heavens at a Glance. — Mr. Mee's handy card 

 calendar for 1909 is similar to its predecessors in giving 

 a great deal of useful astronomical information in a very 

 compact form. For amateurs who wish to keep au courant 

 with astronomical events, this calendar is an extremely 

 useful aid, and may be obtained from Mr. Mee, Llanishen, 

 Cardiff, for sevenpence, post free. 



SURVIVALS OF PAGAN BELIEFS AMONG 

 THE INDLiNS OF SOUTH CALIFORNLA. 

 "TTHE Luisefio Indians of South California, who with the 

 ■'■ Icindred Dieguefio tribe are the only survivors of 

 those attached to the Franciscan missions, form the subject 

 of a monograph by Miss C. B. DuBois, issued in the 

 third bulletin of the eighth volume of the ethnological 

 publications of the University of California. 



Though they have been exposed to European influence 

 for more than a hundred years, and have lived for nearly 

 two generations under rigid Christian discipline, it is re- 

 markable that so many of their pagan beliefs and customs 

 have survived. It is still more noteworthy that, about a 

 hundred and twenty years ago, a pagan missionary move- 

 ment extended from them to the Diegueiio tribe, among 

 whom the new cult which centres round the personality 

 of Chungichnish was introduced. This new faith, like 

 others which have extended beyond their original home, 

 had every requisite of a conquering religion — a distinct 

 and difficult rule of life demanding obedience, fasting, and 

 self-sacrifice — and it enforced its commands by an appeal 

 to the fear of punishment, a threat that avengers in the 

 shape of stinging weeds, the rattle-snake and the bear 

 would punish neglect of its observances. 



The most important of the rites connected with the 

 Chungichnish cultus is that of Toloache, or the initiation 

 of vouths and girls. In the case of the former, the candi- 

 dates, in a state of nudity, are dosed w-ith a decoction 

 of the jimson-weed {Datura metcloides). which contains^ a 

 powerful narcotic and excitative principle. ."After the in- 

 toxication produced by this drug has passed away, the 

 secret dances of the tribe are performed and the mystic 

 songs are sung. The Shaman who conducts the proceed- 

 ings asserts that he is possessed of magical powers, and 

 the initiates are instructed to imitate his feats. During 

 the dance the performers appear to speak in the tongues 

 of beasts and birds, a rite possibly connected with a belief 

 in personal totem animals or guardian spirits, which up 

 to quite recent times survived among this people. These 

 rites are followed by a fast from salt and meat sometimes 

 lasting two or three weeks, and meanwhile the youth is 

 instructed in the tribal code of etiquette and morals. He 

 is told, for instance, that no one should cat immediately 



