February 28, 1913] 



SCIENCE 



345 



the consideration of South American Indian lan- 

 guages that the material therein relating to cer- 

 tain Indian peoples of North America seems to 

 have been rather overlooked. Pilling, who, in his 

 "Proof Sheets,"' cites Teza, observes (p. 754): 

 "Mainly devoted to South American languages; 

 but contains a brief discussion and a few ex- 

 amples of Algonkin and Iroquois, pp. 14-22. Our 

 Father in Tarasco, pp. 00-62. ' ' Through the 

 courtesy of the library of the University of Penn- 

 sylvania, Chamberlain has been enabled to consult 

 the copy of Teza belonging to the Brinton collec- 

 tion, once the personal property of that great 

 Americanist. A colophon, at the end, informs us 

 that "the 'Appunti' were published in the Annali 

 della Vniversita di Pisa, MDCCCLXVIII., Vol. 

 X.," and that "of this Edition in octavo, to 

 which has been added an Appendix, only LXX. 

 copies were printed, and they are not for sale. ' ' 

 It is the "Appendice," occupying pages 77-91 

 (pages 77 and 78 are blank) of the octavo edition 

 of 1868 that interests us here, for it contains 

 ethnological and linguistic information concerning 

 some of the Indian tribes of California. On pages 

 80-86, under the heading, ' ' Balli de ' Calif ornesi, ' ' 

 is printed the Spanish text of an account by 

 "P. Jak" of ball-games and dances of certain 

 Calif ornian Indians. Those mentioned are: 

 ' ' Jumos, apaches, dieguinos christianos, sanlui- 

 senos, que somos nosotros, sanjuanenos, gabriel- 

 enos, f ernandinos ; y los de Monte Eey. ' ' The 

 Luiseiios are said to play well the ball-game of 

 uauquis. One game is termed general, and "nos- 

 tros Uamamos tannis, bailar, o mejor dar pa- 

 tadas. " On pages 81-84, 84-85, 85-86 are given, 

 respectively, descriptions of the ' ' Primer baile, ' ' 

 ' ' Segundo baile, " " Tercero baile. ' ' A number 

 of Indian words are scattered through these de- 

 scriptions. On pages 87-91 are given the native 

 texts and Spanish versions of ' ' Versi Calif ornesi ' ' 

 — two poems composed by P. Jak in the Indian 

 language (the translations are also by him). The 

 dialect represented is probably Luiseiio. 



Pages 22-30 of the ' ' Saggi Inediti ' ' are also 

 concerned with Californian Indian languages, and 

 on pp. 24-26 P. Jak discusses the grammar of 

 Luiseno. On page 23 we are informed that P. Jak 

 had composed a ' ' Prima lingse Calif orniensis 

 Tudimenta, ' ' ea. 50 pages, and containing ' ' a 

 little of everything. ' ' The chief source of infor- 



" ' ' Proof Sheets of a Bibliography of the Lan- 

 guages of the North American Indians," Wash- 

 ington, 1885. 



mation was ' ' a Californian of S. Luis, converted 

 to Christianity, ' ' and the thing was done ' ' to 

 please Cardinal Mezzof anti. " Teza's whole book, 

 of course, owes its existence to Mezzof anti 's lin- 

 guistic collections. 



A Note on Child-invention: Alexander P. Cham- 

 berlain. 



That invention (conscious or unconscious) by 

 children, with subsequent adoption by adults of 

 the community, has played a not unimportant role 

 sometimes in the development of human culture is 

 a theory known in ethnological literature, espe- 

 cially in connection with the evolution of language 

 (von Martins, Peschel, Farrar, Newell, Hale, 

 Krauss, Sartori, Lasch, et al.). The inventiveness 

 of children in plays and games has also had some 

 influence upon primitive society and even upon its 

 civilized successors. Chamberlain has already dis- 

 cussed some aspects of "child-invention."* Sel- 

 dom, however, is one fortunate enough to be pres- 

 ent when such an addition to the stock of human 

 knowledge is actually being made. The chron- 

 icling of such events by travelers and ethnologists 

 among the more or less primitive peoples still in 

 existence is a matter of interest to the historian 

 of human civilization. A curious example of 

 ' ' child-invention ' ' is reported by A. de Calonne 

 Beaufaict, in his recent book of African studies,^ 

 in writing about the people of the islands of the 

 Uele, above the Mokwangu rapids, in the northern 

 Congo country. 



After calling attention to the fact that the 

 mentality of these Bakango Negroes is not at all 

 of such a stagnant and passive sort, as, e. g., M. 

 Coffin attributes to them in his ' ' P§cheries et 

 Poissons du Congo, ' ' by virtue of which they 

 ' ' must be incapable of taking advantage of and 

 permanently acquiring for themselves the thou- 

 sand and one little accidental inventions, which, 

 in normal times, pass unnoticed, but to which 

 every critical period gives a special value," and 

 stating that he has often had the opportunity to 

 observe just such cultural acquisitions, the author 

 says (p. 56, footnote) : 



' ' One of the most amusing was the invention 

 by a young Mobenge of a bolas to catch fowl. 

 He was gravely imitating angling, with a stick 

 and a liana, to which was attached a corn-ear 

 *See "The Child and Childhood in Folk- 

 Thought" (New York, 1896), pp. 249-269 and 

 273-275. 



■>" Etudes Bakango" (Li6ge, 1912). See p. 56 

 and footnote. 



