Fkbruaet 25, 1898.] 



SCIENCE. 



275 



a modern quipu (his orthography is Kipu) 

 from Bolivia. This one is not the same 

 which he described in the Ethnologisches 

 Notizblatt, of Berlin (referred to at that time 

 in these notes). He obtained it from a 

 native on a hacienda near Lake Titicaca, 

 and its purpose was to keep the tally of the 

 sheep, rams, ewes and lambs entrusted to 

 his care. Others are used for reckoning 

 the harvest and rendering accounts of 

 various kinds. These are usually white 

 in color only, and the count is regis- 

 tered by knots. Quipus of various colors 

 are probably still in use, though Dr. Uhle 

 was unable to secure specimens. He dis- 

 cusses four ancient and modern authorities 

 on the significance of the hues, and believes 

 that by further research we shall be able to 

 extend our knowledge greatly of this curious 

 method of recording facts. 



ETEUSCAN STUDIES. 



A WHITER somewhat well known for his 

 archseological essays, Guiseppe Fregni, pub- 

 lished last year a study of some of the 

 leading Etruscan inscriptions, with what he 

 alleges are translations (Delle piu celebri 

 Iscrizione Etrusche, p. 155, Modena, 1897). 

 It is well illustrated and presents with care 

 copies of eight or nine of the longer inscrip- 

 tions and a discussion of the alphabet and 

 its variants. 



To the learned author the Etruscan 

 problem is child's play in the simplicity of 

 its solution. He allows himself humorous 

 flings at the erudite obtuseness of previous 

 students. All you have to do is to read the 

 inscriptions in any or all of the Italic dia- 

 lects, taking the words now in one, now in 

 other, and, if they don't fit, cutting them 

 up or expanding them, to make them fit, 

 and calling in the Greek or Phoenician when 

 the Italic dialects are wholly refractory. 

 To be sure, they could be read, according to 

 this method, just as well in English or 

 Dutch or Choctaw ; but this objection the 



author does not take into consideration. 

 He presents complete and fluent renderings 

 of all of them. 



THE HUICHOLA TRIBE. 



An interesting collection of ethnographic 

 objects has been brought by Dr. Carl Lum- 

 holtz from the Huichola Indians. They 

 dwell in an extremely mountainous part of 

 western central Mexico, and are rarely 

 visited by white men. They are pagans, 

 though retaining some faint traces of the 

 Christianity taught them in the last century 

 by the Jesuits and Franciscans. Much of 

 their ritual is occupied with 'rain-making,' 

 and their symbolism is markedly aboriginal 

 in spirit. The sacred plant peyotl, so com- 

 mon in the native rites thi'OughOut Mexico, 

 and prized for the intoxication it produces, 

 is held in high esteem among them. 



The Huichola language has generally 

 been considered a dialect of the Uto-Aztecan 

 stock, and perhaps in them we may recog- 

 nize some of the ancient ' Chichimecs.' 

 Dr. Lumholtz has published some account 

 of his researches in the last number of 

 the Bulletin of the American Museum of 

 Natural History. 



D. G. Bbinton. 



University op Pennsylvania. 



NOTES ON INORGANIC CEEMI8TBY. 

 Satisfactory reductions in blowpipe an- 

 alysis are often attended with more or less 

 difficulty, as, for example, the reduction of 

 tin oxid or barium sulfate. In the last 

 Zeitsehrift far anorganische Chemie a new 

 method is proposed by Professor Walther 

 Hempel, which he claims obviates many 

 difficulties. A very small piece of metallic 

 sodium is flattened out on a small piece of 

 filter paper, and the substance to be ex- 

 amined is rolled up in this and wound 

 with a close spiral of finest iron wire. 

 After the excess of paper is cut off, the roll 

 is slowly burned in the interior of a Bunsen 

 flame and cooled in the stream of gas close 



