752 



SCIENCE. 



[Vol. II., No. 44. 



made the five great destroyers, — Yeitso, Tsinahale. 

 Delgeth, Tseta-holtsil-lahli, and Binaye. She also 

 took to rear a foundliug girl, Estsaiiatlehi. The lat- 

 ter, impregnated by the sun, brought forth twins, 

 who, by the aid of their father, slay the five great 

 destroyers of mankind. The stories of these Hercu- 

 lean labors is chanuingly told, and is full of theories 

 about the causes of familiar things, such as the birds, 

 the shunning of a mother-in-law. The mother of 

 the giants repeopled the world, built pueblos, estab- 

 lished. the gentes. The giants may still be seen in the 

 waters of the San Juan, and' the mother continues 

 to send to the Navajos the snow, the spring thaw, the 

 soft rain, the corn, and the green grass. — {Amer. an- 

 ti?., V. 207-22-t.) J. w..p. " " [468 



EABLY INSTITUTIONS. 



A history of guilds. — A Mr. Waterford, barrister- 

 at-law, is writing a history of English guilds. He has 

 already described the aims and purposes of the guilds. 

 He has also described their history, and the history 

 of public opinion and legislation regarding them. 

 He is now taking up their geographical distribution 

 in the different counties and towns. Extracts are 

 given from the records. The work promises to be 

 one of interest and value. The history of trade 

 unions is a subject which deserves especial attention 

 in these days. It is a very difficult subject, liowever, 

 and by no means mastered as yet. Contributions 

 towards its elucidation are therefore very welcome. 

 — (Anllq. mag.) v. w. K. , [469 



The Merovingian grants of immunity. — These 

 grants, a chief source of feudalism, are not considered 

 by M. Fustel de Coulanges to liave been confined to 

 ecclesiastics, as is usually assumed. The grants to 

 ecclesiastics were no doubt the most numerous, and 

 the documents are at any rate better preserved ; but 

 lay proprietors received precisely the same powers. 

 The essentiahfeature of the grant he regards as the 

 exclusion of the public officials from the territory of 

 the immunity, whether for judicial, fiscal, or military 

 purposes. Exemption from financial burdens was a 

 natural but not necessary nor universal consequence. 

 In thi? he agrees with Heusler, differing from him, 

 however, in holding that the grantee was absolutely re- 

 moved from all relation to the public ofiicial, the count, 

 and stood onlyimder tlieking; while Heusler consid- 

 ers that he only became an intermediary between his 

 tenants and the count. The result of tliese grants 

 was to completely break up the administrative system 

 of the Frank empire by removing great stretches of 

 territory from the authority of the public official, and 

 practically to make the proprietor an irresponsible 

 master over his free tenants as well as liis serfs. The 

 same effects followed the grants of mundiburdium, or 

 protection, by which the proprietor entered into a 

 purely personal relation to the king, ceasing to be 

 under the authority of the count. This substitution 

 of a pctsonal relation for the political one of subject 

 and ruler is also of the essence of feudalism. It is 

 not possible to decide whether the grants of immu- 

 nity or those of mundiburdium were the earlier. Im- 

 munity, however, applying primarily to tlie land, 



necessarily'included the personal relation; while 

 mundiburdium, by an equal necessity, led to immunity. 

 The article is written in the interesting style and 

 with the characteristic lucidity of the author, and 

 forms a most important contribution to the study 

 of the origin of feudalism. — {Bev. hist., July-Octo- 

 ber.) w. F. A. [470 



NOTES AND NEWS. 



A CABLK despatch was received Nov. 30, at Har- 

 vard college observatory, announcing the discovery 

 of a small planet by Palisa at Vienna. Its position 

 Nov. 28, 13 h. 20m., Greenwich time, was, rightascen- 

 sion, 3 h. 19 ni. 14 s. ; declination, north, 1.5° .52' 17" ; 

 daily motion in right ascension, — 48" ; in declination, 

 nothmg. It is of the twelfth magnitude. The planet 

 was readily identified at Harvard cojlege observa- 

 tory, and was observed by Mr. Wendell as follows: 

 Nov. 30, 9 h. 30 m., Cambridge time; right ascension, 

 3 h. 17 m. 27 s. ; declination, north, 15° 51.1'. 



— While the revenue steamer Corwin was cruising 

 on the coast of Alaska and in the north-west Arctic 

 Ocean in 1S81, Dr. Irving C. Eosse, her medical offi- 

 cer, found leisure to prepare a series of medical and 

 anthropological notes, which have just been published 

 by the Treasury department. The medical notes, 

 ■although they exhibit the mind of a keen observer, 

 are rather technical than racial : there is a short 

 chapter on medical and surgical subjects, however, 

 p. 25. The atilhor holds that the marks of dis- 

 tinction between the Eskimo and the Chukchi are 

 not very plain. At Kotzebue Sound many of the 

 natives are tall and of a commanding appearance. 

 Uniformity of features, so commonly attributed to the 

 Eskimo, has frequent exceptions ; many of the natives 

 exhibiting countenances of Chinese, Jewish, Milesian, 

 or even Mulatto cast. The experiments of strength 

 and agility in rowing, racing, throwing stones, and 

 lifting, given on p. 29, are valuable contributions to 

 anthropometry. The popular notion regarding the 

 great appetite of the Eskimo is one of the current 

 fallacies, according to Dr. Rosse. As to the commer- 

 cial connection between the two continents, natives 

 cross and recross Bering Strait to-day on the ice and in 

 primitive skin canoes, which have not been improved 

 since the days of prehistoric man. With a view to 

 finding out whether any linguistic affinity existed be- 

 tween the Jap.anese and the Eskimo, Dr. Eosse caused 

 several Japanese boys employed on the Corwin to talk 

 on numerous occasions to the natives, both on the" 

 American and Asiatic coast; but in every instance 

 they were unable to understand the Eskimo, and as- 

 sured him that tliey could not detect a single word 

 that bore any resemblance to words in their own lan- 

 guage. The language varies greatly from point to 

 point. The interpreter taken at St. Michaels could 

 with difficulty understand the natives of Point' Bar- 

 row, while at St. Lawrence Island and on the Asiatic 

 side lie could understand nothing at all. The author 

 happily likens spoken languages to those species of 

 animals which are still in a plastic condition and are 

 undergoing farther development. The Eskimo tongue 



