OCTOBEE 16, 1908] 



SCIENCE 



523 



of " Gros Ventre Myths and Tales," and his 

 " Ethnology of the Gros Ventre." In the 

 latter paper the author gives an historical ac- 

 count of the tribe, followed by brief notes on 

 the material culture and an extended treat- 

 ment of decorative art and ceremonial life. 

 While their ceremonial organization is in 

 many respects similar to that of the Arapaho, 

 the Gros Ventre seem to be unique among 

 Plains tribes in having the same ceremony 

 performed by several distinct companies of 

 men of approximately the same age, each of 

 these societies bearing a nickname inde- 

 pendent of the character of its dance. Per- 

 haps the chief interest of the paper centers in 

 its comparative analysis of the decorative 

 styles of Northern Plains tribes. In their em- 

 broidery designs, the Blackfoot prove to be the 

 most clearly differentiated tribe — distinct 

 alike from the Sioux-Assiniboine and the 

 Arapaho-TJte-Shoshone groups; while neither 

 Gros Ventre nor Cheyenne seem to have de- 

 veloped an individual style. In parfleche 

 painting, the author distinguishes three types 

 of decoration, basing his classification on the 

 relative prevalence of square and triangular 

 units. The employment of coordinate square 

 and triangular elements is noted as a 

 diagnostic peculiarity of Shoshone parfleches, 

 the subordination of triangular to square 

 forms occurs rarely, though, in all these tribes, 

 while in all but the Shoshone an exclusively 

 triangular style predominates. 



" The Hard Palate in Normal and Peeble- 

 Minded Individuals" (Part V., pp. 283-350, 

 pis. XIV.-XXIL, 8 figs.) sums up the results 

 of a comparative anthropometric study by 

 Drs. Walter Channing and Clark Wissler, 

 based on large series of easts of the palates of 

 mentally normal and abnormal individuals. 

 The most important result is that the gen- 

 eral type of palate, as determined by average 

 measurements, is the same for feeble-minded 

 and normal individuals; while the palates of 

 feeble-minded individuals are somewhat more 

 variable. The significance of this difference 

 is, however, negatived by absence of clear dif- 

 ferences in the correlation of dimensions for 

 the two groups. 



Volume I. closes with Mr. M. R. Harring- 



ton's " Iroquois Silverwork " (pp. 351-370, pis. 

 XXin.-XXTX., 2 figs.). Silver ornaments 

 of Iroquois make date back as far as the end 

 of the seventeenth century, apparently super- 

 seding those of copper and brass. The author 

 describes silver ornaments still found, silver- 

 smith's tools, and the process of manufactur- 

 ing several classes of objects. While ad- 

 mitting European influence, he is disposed to 

 regard many of the ornamental patterns as of 

 native origin. 



Volume II. opens with Dr. Clark Wissler 

 and Mr. D. C. Duvall's "Mythology of the 

 Blackfoot Indians " (pp. 1-162). The tales 

 are grouped under five headings: tales of the 

 Old Man ; star myths ; ritualistic origins ; cul- 

 tural and other origins; and miscellaneous 

 tales. In his introduction, the senior author 

 shows by comparison with Central Algonkin 

 mythology that, irrespective of the present 

 conception of Old Man as a trickster pure 

 and simple, the cycle probably represents the 

 basic beliefs of the Blackfoot. The ritualistic 

 myths exhibit a somewhat puzzling variability 

 as compared with the rigid infiexibility of the 

 correlated ceremonial practises. While in a 

 majority of these stories the relation of myth 

 and ritual is fundamental, there are others in 

 which the origin of a ceremony is only 

 episodically interwoven with the body of the 

 tale. Dr. Wissler notes that, in the latter 

 case, the plot is, as a rule, common to several 

 other Plains tribes; while ritualistic tales 

 proper are almost all confined to the Black- 

 foot. The primarily ritualistic myths are ap- 

 parently older; and it seems as though in 

 accordance with a wide-spread psychological 

 tendency, rituals of relatively recent intro- 

 duction from without had become secondarily 

 associated with tales, usually also of foreign 

 origin, which thus came ostensibly to account 

 for the origin of the ceremonies. Erom a 

 comparative point of view, the author calls 

 attention to special points of contact with 

 the western Oree and the Crow, as well as 

 to the occurrence of significant resemblances 

 to tales of the Arapaho and Gros Ventre. 



During the year 1907 the final papers in 

 three volumes of the Bulletin and one volume 

 of the Memoirs were issued. Professor Franz 



