June 10, 1898.] 



SCIENCE. 



795 



CUBBENT NOTES ON ANTHROPOLOGY. 

 LANGUAGES OF HONDURAS. 



The Spanish spoken in Central America 

 has been examined by various writers, 

 notably Ferraz, Berendt and Barbarena. On 

 that which prevails in Honduras a careful 

 study has lately appeared from the pen of 

 Alberto Membreiio. It is a well printed 

 volume of 270 pages. Many of the words 

 quoted as peculiar are derived from the 

 native dialects. The author, therefore, has 

 collected, in an appendix of 75 pages, a num- 

 ber of vocabularies and grammatical notices 

 of these idioms. They are seven in num- 

 ber, to wit, the Moreno, Zambo, Sumo, 

 Paj'a, Jicaque, Lenco and Chorti. He pre- 

 faces these with a brief sketch of the pres- 

 ent condition of the native tribes in the 

 republic. The ethnographic value of the 

 volume is considerable (' Hondurefiismos,' 

 Tegucigalpa, 1897). 



THE EUINS OF MEXICO. 



In the Aixhiv fur Ethnographie for Janu- 

 ary there is a description of the ruins 

 of the native city Mixco, in Guatemala, 

 by Dr. Carl Sapper. This was one of the 

 ancient strongholds destroyed by Alvarado 

 in 1525. There has been some uncertainty 

 as to what branch of the great Maya stock 

 inhabited it, but it would appear to have 

 been the chief city of the Pokomams or their 

 near relatives. 



In Dr. Sapper's article he introduces a 

 ground plan with elevations of the fortress 

 and town, adding detailed illustrations of 

 several of the ruins, in part restored. While 

 exhibiting some peculiarities of architec- 

 ture, a general comparison with other re- 

 mains of the Mayas permits us to class it 

 with the relics of that cultured people. Dr. 

 Sapper remarks that the ruins in north- 

 western Honduras are purely Maj'an in 

 type and in details. 



ETHNOGRAPHY OF CUBA. 



In connection with our present contest 



concerning Cuba it may be worth while to 

 note that a Spanish professor. Dr. Vidal y 

 Careta, printed last year an article of some 

 length in the scientific periodical La Na- 

 turaleza, ISTo. 8, on the different races who 

 have successively occupied that island or 

 migrated to it within the historic period. 

 He begins by calling the aboriginal stock 

 ' Caribs.' In this point it may be asked 

 whether he is not in a popular error. There 

 appears no evidence that the great Carib 

 stock of South America ever established 

 permanent settlements anywhere in Cuba, 

 although they undoubtedly made predatory 

 incursions against its inhabitants. These 

 certainly belonged to the Arawack stock of 

 the south. In reference to later time Pro- 

 fessor Vidal offers less which can be criti- 

 cised. 



D. G. Beinton. 

 University of Pennsylvania. 



ASTROPHYSIGAL NOTES. 



From the measurement of 234 out of 

 400 solar photographs taken from 1891 to 

 1894 by several Russian observers, Straton- 

 off, of Taschkent, has recently contributed, 

 in the Memoirs of the St. Petersburg 

 Academy, a valuable study of the move- 

 ments of the solar faculse. The prin- 

 cipal difficulty in such work is in identi- 

 fying the faculae on successive days. 103 

 faculse were observed on two days, and 

 5 on three days. The methods of reduction 

 are given in full, and the accuracy of the 

 measures is indicated by the full data for 

 four plates. A list is given of 1062 faculse 

 for which the angle of daily rotation was 

 determined. In the zone of solar latitude 

 0° to 10° the angle was found to be 14° .6, 

 and in the zone 30° to 40°, 13°. 6, with pro- 

 bable errors less than 0°.l. 



The conclusion is reached that the faculae 

 move at distinctly different angular rates in 

 different solar latitudes, but under a more 

 complicated law than in case of spots. The 



