NA TURE 



[July 4, 1907 



P.l irA'££ Ti?j4 DITIONS. ' 

 COME time ago Mr. Dorsey, who is curator of anthro- 

 '-^ pology at the Field Museum of Natural History, 

 Chicago, jndcrlook a series of investigations among the 

 North American tribes of the Caddoan stock, to which the 

 Pawnee among other Indians of the plains belong. The 

 investigations were begun on behalf of the Field Museum, 

 and have been continued for the last four years under the 

 auspices of the Carnegie Institution. Of the results, one 

 volume has been issued by the .American Folklore Society, 

 some detached articles have been published in the Journal 

 of the same society and the American Anthropologist, and 

 the present is the fourth volume issued by the Carnegie 

 Institution. All materials in volume form are composed 

 of traditional narratives, and it may at once be said that 

 they form an important contribution to our knowledge 

 of the aborigines. 



A collection of native tales as extensive as that in the 

 volume before us (.it contains 54b quarto pages and 148 

 tales of varying length) must of necessity reveal in- 

 cidentally much of native custom and belief. Especially 

 is the religion abundantly illustrated, since many of the 

 stories are connected either with the sacred objects or the 

 sacred ceremonies. They profess to explain the origin of 

 these, and arc told, as a rule, only during the ceremonies. 

 Moreover, they afford glimpses oi the social organisation 

 of the tribes and of their amusements, as well as of their 

 more serious business of hunting and fighting. Pawnee 

 is a word said to mean wolves, and the Pawnee were as 

 noted for their bravery, their endurance, their skill, their 

 untiring activity and relentless character as the animals 

 the name of which they were proud to bear. Their 

 religion was most actively concerned with the animals 

 with which they came into contact. These animals were 

 supposed to be organised in much the same way as them- 

 selves, and such of them as were articles of food were 

 believed to give themselves willingly to mankind, always 

 provided that they were treated with ceremonial respect 

 and that dances and other rites were performed from time 

 to time in their honour. From them and other animals 

 human beings received magical gifts and more than 

 natural powers if they obtained by prayer and fasting the 

 favour of the chiefs of the animal lodges. .Above the 

 animals were a number of superior beings called " gods," 

 most of them more or less vaguely conceived. At the 

 head of the pantheon stood Tirawa, a quasi-creator, whose 

 authority all the others acknowledged. 



The word " mythology " on the title-page is a some- 

 what unfortunate choice. On the one hand, we do not 

 get in this volume so complete a view of what may be 

 called the sacred history of the Pawnee, apart from the 

 origin of medicine ceremonies, as in Mr. Dorsey's previous 

 work on the "Traditions of the Skidi Pawnee." On the 

 other hand, many tales are included which can only be 

 called mythology by an illegitimate extension of the mean- 

 ing of that word. Such tales are not connected with the 

 religion of the tribe, nor are they believed to be true. 

 They are often concerned with the lower animals ; and 

 they correspond partly to our fairy-tales and partly to our 

 apologues. Speaking of the stories in general, it may be 

 said that the most superficial reader will at once recognise 

 that in plot and incident they are to a large extent similar 

 to those of the surrounding and allied peoples, are con- 

 ditioned by their mode of life, and are peculiar to North 

 America. At the same time many of the incidents, and 

 sometimes whole chains of incident, are common to 

 humanity. To mention only a few, we have the incident 

 of the Magical Flight and' Pursuit, the Task of Recog- 

 nition to be performed by a husband who comes to find 

 his bride, the story of Orpheus and Eurydice, the Swan- 

 maidtn Bride, the Transformation Fight.' In the form in 

 which they are presented they are so thoroughly native 

 to the soil that it cannot be suggested that they are due 

 to European intercourse. But in any case the old wild 

 borrowing theory has long been given up as discredited. 

 While it is admitted on all hands that transmission of 

 stories does take place, students who are interested in the 



My'holojy " Pan i.. Collected under ihe .\u=pic»s of ihe 

 ' Wathirgton. By George A. Dursey. Pp. 546. 

 ■ ■ • ■ 906.) 



' "TheP: 

 Carnegie In 

 (Washington, D.C.; Ciirnes 



N"). 1966, VOL. 76J 



question seek proofs of transmission within saner 

 limits. 



The second part of the work is not yet published. It 

 is intended to include the music and text of the songs 

 referred to, or given only in a free translation, in the 

 present volume. It will also comprise a comparative study 

 of the tales and incidents, in which they will be treated 

 in their relation to " the tales of other tribes of the so- 

 called Caddoan slock," and, indeed, to those of other 

 American Indians. This is a very necessary complement 

 to the author's other investigations. It is to be hoped 

 he will a\»o find opportunity then or very soon for a fuller 

 description of the social organisation, the rites and beliefs 

 of the stock than he has hitherto given. We want to 

 know, for instance, what are the marriage-rules of the 

 tribes, whether descent is traced in the male or the female 

 line, what their clan-organisation is ; wc want full de- 

 scriptions of their ceremonies, their taboos, and so forth. 

 As already intimated, something may be gathered from the 

 stories, but our inferences may be right or wrong ; we 

 need authoritative statements. Mr. Dorsey is so welt 

 qualified by life-long study, and by his eminence among 

 American anthropologists, and he has given us in these 

 collections of Caddoan traditions so much of interest and 

 value, that he will pardon our demanding a key that shall 

 unlock what at present remains closed. Our thanks to 

 him are heartfelt, but they partake very largely of that 

 gratitude which is a sense of (or at least an earnest hope 

 for) favours to come. E. Sidney Hartland. 



PLA.\T D^EASES AND REMEDIES. 

 T^HE experiment station of the Hawaiian Sugar Planters' 

 Association has issued as Bulletin No. 5 ' a remark- 

 able publication which not only deals in a very compre- 

 hensive and thorough way with the fungus enemies of the 

 sugar-cane, but also contains a series of valuable notes 

 on associated insects and nematodes. 



The volume has bound with it also Bulletin No. 4 of 

 the same station, and by the same author. This bulletin 

 is on some elements of plant pathology. In the course 

 of the work mention is made of new blights found in the 

 cane-fields of Hawaii, and of the new and threatening 

 aspects of blights already known. 



Part i. is introductory, and may be passed over. Part ii. 

 deals with the root disease of sugar-cane. In this section, 

 which covers eighty-five pages, we have a most accurate 

 an<f interesting description of the strange Ithyphallus 

 fungus, which is one of the causes of root disease. " Time 

 alone can show," Mr. Cobb tells us, " what the relative 

 importance of the Ithyphallus fungus will be among the root- 

 diseases of cane." The serious losses caused by the fungus 

 and its early history are first traced, and then the extra- 

 ordinary fructifications are detailed and admirably illus- 

 trated. Then follows an account of the relations of insects 

 to Ithyphallus. The author tells us that five species of 

 llies, a beetle, and an ant frequent the fresh fructifications, 

 and that some of the flies are so passionately fond of the 

 sticky dark-green spore-mass that they can scarcely be 

 driven away. 



Dispersal of this fungus by their agency, especially in 

 the excreta, is proved, and although the flies are not 

 named generically, they were known to be Sarcophagidae 

 and Muscidfe. The work done in this subject Is remark- 

 able. It was shown that the spores are also carried in 

 numbers on the feet. The spores from five of the fly 

 tracks on glass weic found to be 860,000 per track. Then 

 follow notes on digestive power of flies, notes on 

 defection (the number of spores found in a " fly-speck " 

 was shown to be 22,400,000 in some instances); even the 

 weight of a fly ration is gone into with wonderful exact- 

 ness. 



The use of lime as a fungicide is pointed out, and 

 methods of cultivation given. 



Parts iil. and iv. deal with the leaf-splitting blight 

 and rind disease ; the first-named is shown to be due 

 to Mycospharella. The pine-apple disease {Thiclaviof'sis 

 ethaceticus) and the relation of certain insects and mites 

 to it is detailed, and also the well-known yet little under- 



1 "Fungus Maladies of ihe Suear Cane." By N. A. Cobb. (Honolulu : 

 Hawai'an Gazette Co., Lid., igo6,) 



1 



