Mabch 26, 1909] 



SCIENCE 



513 



as to its position in the undisturbed gravel, but 

 everything about it is consistent with its glacial 

 age and it is different in almost every respect 

 from the great number of implements found on 

 the surface in that locality. Its character is con- 

 firmed by the fact that in a farmer's collection 

 near by another implement almost precisely like 

 it was found and reported to have been from this 

 same gravel deposit a short distance away. 



" Characteristic Traits of the Yana Language 

 of California." The Yana language of northern 

 California represents a distinct liguistic stock and 

 was spoken in three dialects (north, central and 

 south), of which one (south) is now extinct. 

 Phonetically it is characterized by the presence of 

 intermediate, aspirated surd and " fortis " stops, 

 by a weakly trilled r, by voiceless 1, m, n and r, 

 and by doubled (long) 1, m and n. Phonetic 

 processes of morphological significance are vocalic 

 changes in the verb stem in the formation, e. g., 

 of causatives and passives, and the change of 1 

 to n in nouns to form the diminutive. 



There are two main forms of speech in Yana, 

 one used by men speaking to men, the other in 

 all other cases; the second form is differentiated 

 from the first partly by phonetic, partly by formal 

 modifications. Morphologically Yana is charac- 

 terized by having practically only two parts of 

 speech — noun and verb (adjectives, numerals, in- 

 terrogative pronouns and adverbs, and conjunctive 

 elements are all morphologically verbs ) . The pro- 

 nominal elements (possessive and subject) are, in 

 the main, identical in both noun and verb, a 

 grammatical differentiation of these parts of 

 speech being brought about largely by syntactic 

 means. The structure of the verb is rather com- 

 plicated. Besides pronominal suffixes and tense 

 and mode suffixes, all of which are more strictly 

 formal in character, we have stems of first position, 

 which may, in many cases, be directly employed 

 with the requisite formal suffixes, stems of second 

 or other position, which can not be used without 

 a preceding stem of first position, and an immense 

 number of derivational suflixes (local, temporal, 

 relational, quasi-modal, etc. ) . The total number 

 of non-formal elements that follow stems of first 

 position is easily over three hundred. Prefixes do 

 not occur in Yana. 



Mrs. Zelia Nuttall spoke of "A Curious Sur- 

 vival in Mexico of the Use of Murex purpura for 

 Dyeing Purposes," producing by way of demon- 

 stration two woven fabrics colored purple. The 

 industry is known to exist in Nicoya, Costa Rica. 

 Hartman found it also on the Peninsula of Guana- 

 costa (Costa Rica). 



Drs. Charles Peabody and George Grant Mac- 

 Curdy made a " Presentation of Eoliths from 

 Boneelles," near Li6ge, Belgium, they having vis- 

 ited that station together last summer. Boneelles 

 lies in the Ardennes at a height of 265 meters 

 above the sea. Here M. de Munok discovered 

 eoliths in a flinty layer surmounted by a thick 

 deposit of upper Oligocene sands. The age of the 

 latter is determined by numerous fossil shells, in- 

 cluding Gytherea beyrichi, Pectunculus ohovatus 

 and Cardium. According to Rutot the deposit in 

 which the eoliths occur is of middle Oligocene age. 

 The Boneelles eoliths are therefore older than 

 those of Cantal. 



Another paper dealing with European arche- 

 ology, " Some Recent Paleolithic Discoveries," was 

 presented by Dr. George Grant MacCurdy. This 

 paper appeared in the October-December issue of 

 the American Anthropologist. 



The papers by Dr. C. Hart Merriam : " Mythol- 

 ogy of the Mewan Tribes," " Additional Notes on 

 the Yumme or Mourning Ceremony," " The Crea- 

 tion Myth of the Pii-we-nan " and " Battle of the 

 First People with Dakko, the Sun God — a Hamfo 

 Myth," will appear in the Journal of American 

 Folk-Lore. 



Mr. Stansbury Hagar discussed " Izamal and 

 its Celestial Plan." At Izamal in the north- 

 central part of Yucatan are found a group of 

 ruins which mark the site of an ancient theogonic 

 center of the Mayas. Landa, writing in the latter 

 half of the sixteenth century, gives the earliest 

 reference to them. He mentions eleven or twelve 

 edifices and describes one. Lizana, writing sixty 

 years later, found only five edifices, but he gives 

 u3 a detailed description of their comparative 

 location and of the traditions associated with 

 them which reveals the basic plan of Izamal. 

 This plan is confirmed by details supplied by the 

 modern travelers, Stephens, Norman, Charnay, 

 Le Plongeon and Holmes. 



Lizana says that the buildings were temples; 

 they stood upon the summit of pyramidal mounds 

 typical of Mexico and Central America, as well 

 as Yucatan. Towards the north was the highest 

 temple, called Kinich Kakmo, Sun-Eye and Ara 

 or Parrot of Fire, because the sun was supposed 

 to descend upon it at noon and to consume the 

 offerings upon its altar, as the fiery plumed ara 

 descends from the sky. These symbols were asso- 

 ciated with the time of the June solstice. 



The Mayan ritual refers to the descent of an 

 " angel " upon the altar at this time and to the 

 new fire festival. A similar Mexican tradition 

 mentions the descent of a bird in a luminous 



