134 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. II. No. 31. 



dustries aud trades of productive, technical 

 and constructive industry. 



It is stated that Dr. Francis Walker has 

 accepted a call tot he department of polit- 

 ical and social science in Colorado College. 



The ITniversitj' of Pennsylvania extends 

 the right of naming one of the houses in 

 the new dormitorj^ to all contributors of 

 $10,000 or more to the building fund. The 

 following are the names of the contributors 

 up to the present date: Charles C. Harri- 

 son, Alfi-ed C. Harrison, Thomas F. Dolau, 

 Robert E. Foerderer, William M. Singerly, 

 Hugh Craig, Jr., Alice D. Craig, Hatfield, 

 Burnham, Williams & Co., the Misses 

 Blanchard, Thomas McKean, E. H. Fitler, 

 J. E. Bayard, Richard F. Loper and Wil- 

 liam W. Frazier. 



COBRESPONDENCE. 

 ABORIGINAL SANDALS. 



Dear Science: In attempting to com- 

 prehend the practical part of drawings, 

 etchings, carvings and sculptures in' the 

 mountain region of America from Mexico 

 southward, I have often tried to get some 

 information of the footwear. Anj^ one who 

 will look through the drawings of ' Kings- 

 borough ' will notice that the sandals on the 

 feet of the different figures have soles and 

 heelstraps looking almost like the quarters 

 of a modern shoe or the heel of a Peruvian 

 soldier's sandal, and that in some way a 

 lacing passes around in front of the ankle 

 on top of the foot. There is no intimation 

 of a string or strap passing up between the 

 toes as' in the modern rawhide sandal, 

 which may be seen by the thousands on the 

 feet of peons in Latin America all the way 

 from Arizona and New Mexico to the limits 

 of Pei'u. 



Wiener, in his work entitled ' Perou et 

 Bolivie,' figures a great mauj^ styles of these 

 modern sandals which are, in form, allied 

 to the thousand-and-one varieties in use 

 anywhere about the Mediterranean, and 



awakens a suspicion that the sandal with 

 a single string passing between the great 

 toe and the second toe is of Eurafrican 

 origin. 



In plate (3) of ' Stone Sculptures of Co- 

 pan aud Quirigua, with drawings by H. 

 Meye and text \)j Julius Schmidt, published 

 in New York in 1883 by Dodd & Mead,' 

 there will be seen on the foot of the Mono- 

 lith a sandal in which a string passes be- 

 tween the first and the second toe and the 

 third and the fourth toe, forming a loop 

 which is attached by means of a knot to an 

 ornamental bandage encu'cling the ankle, 

 and it is to this sculpture that I ^^dsh to 

 draw special attention. 



Those of my readers who were so fortu- 

 nate as to visit the Cliff-dweller collections 

 at the Columbian Exposition maj^ recall the 

 stj'les of sandals there exhibited ; if not, 

 they will please turn to ' Nordenskjold's ' 

 illustrated work on the Clifl'-dwellers' col- 

 lections, made by him, and examine plate 

 (46). There two styles of sandals are fig- 

 ured, not very distinctlj^ but the character- 

 istics can be made out. 



I am indebted, however, to Mr. Stewart 

 Culin, of Philadelphia, for the privilege of 

 examining carefullj' four examples of Cliff- 

 dwellers' sandals in possession of the Mu- 

 seum of the University of Pennsjdvania. 

 In three of these there is either a loop or a 

 provision for a loop, which passes between 

 the first and the second toe and the third 

 and the fourth, enclosing the second and 

 third toe. In the fourth sandal a series of 

 loops around the margin of the sole serve 

 to receive the lacing which passes backward 

 and forward, across the foot diagonally 

 through one and then another, using up 

 the whole series. These four sandals will 

 now be more carefuUj' described. In one 

 of them the binding string or lacing com- 

 mences at the instep and passes in a 

 bend around the toeloop, and by another 

 bend around the right side of the heel- 



