June 5, 1914] 



SCIENCE 



841 



by the United States under the Hay-Pauncefote 

 Treaty involved certain sacrifices on the part of 

 Great Britain, for which she exacted the observance 

 of the principle of equality of treatment. It would 

 be a reflection on our country 's reputation for fair 

 dealing if, after securing the abrogation of the 

 Clayton-Bulwer Treaty, we were to repudiate the 

 concesions, the making of which rendered possible 

 the ratification of the Hay-Pauncefote Treaty. 



Fortunately for the good name of the United 

 States, the President has courageously taken a posi- 

 tion, which has not only aroused the admiration of 

 the civilized world, but has placed our country 

 under a debt of obligation. In his address of 

 March 5, 1914, to the congress of the United 

 States, he sounded a note which served to impress 

 upon the nation the eaeredness of treaty obliga- 

 tions. 



The magnitude of the President 's service goes 

 far beyond the vindication of the Hay-Pauncefote 

 Treaty. These words and the determination which 

 lies back of them place the international relations 

 of the United States on a distinctly higher plane, 

 and, if properly supported by the united opinion 

 of the country, will do much toward regaining for 

 the United States the enviable position which we 

 once occupied. All secondary and party interests 

 must be made to bow before that higher standard 

 of international dealing which the President so 

 vigorously champions. 



Passamaquoddy Morphology : J. Dynelet Pkince. 

 The present article on the morphology of the 

 Passamaquoddy language of Maine is the first re- 

 sult of the rehabilitation of my exhaustive treatise 

 on the Maine Passamaquoddies which was 

 destroyed by fire, together with all notes, in 

 1911. The Passamaquoddies of Maine, as well 

 as their close congeners, the Milicetes of New 

 Brunswick, are second to the Miemacs in numerical 

 importance among the eastern Algonquin tribes. 

 The Micmaes of Nova Scotia, the Passamaquoddy- 

 Milicetes of Maine and New Brunswick, and the 

 Penobscot-Abenakis of Maine and Quebec consti- 

 tute the family of the Wabanaki "people of the 

 dawn-land ' ' whose extraordinary folklore and in- 

 teresting linguistic structure have been strangely 

 neglected. In the paper especial attention was 

 paid to the verbal formation of the Passama- 

 quoddy with a comparison between its forms and 

 those of the Abenaki of Canada, and in his oral 

 presentation of this subject Professor Prince gave 

 a few brief specimens of eastern Algonquin folk- 

 lore poems in order to illustrate the character of 

 these Indians. 



A Sumerian Nature Hymn from Nippur, of the 

 Time of the Dynasty of Agade, 2800-2600 B.C. : 

 George A. Barton. 

 This cylinder was found at Nippur by Dr. 



Haynes and, after its arrival in Philadelphia, re- 



mained until recently unpacked in the basement 

 of the University Museum. The cylinder was orig- 

 inally sis and one half inches long and approxi- 

 mately four and one half inches in diameter. It 

 ^vas inscribed with nineteen columns of writing, 

 each slightly less than three fourths of an inch 

 wide. One side of the cylinder, to the width of 

 eight columns of writing, is broken away, but 

 seven fragments of this portion have been found 

 in the packing-boxes. From these fragments it 

 has been possible to recover a portion of each of 

 the columns of writing. On account of the crum- 

 bling of the clay, parts of some of the columns 

 on the main portion of the cylinder are illegible. 

 The script of the inscription is that of the dynasty 

 of Agade, 2800-2600 B.C. The language is pure 

 Sumerian. From the frequent references to a 

 ' ' foundation ' ' in the text, it is probable that this 

 was a foundation cylinder. Similarly the frequent 

 references to sickness make it probable that a 

 plague had recently visited Nippur. Parts of the 

 text remind one of the incantations of later times; 

 in parts there are beautiful descriptions of na- 

 ture. 



The name of the rebuilder of the temple and 

 the author of the inscription have been broken 

 away. The following are samples of its text: 



The lord of darkness guards man; 



The lord of light guards man ; 



The lord of life guards man; 



The lord of the sanctuary guards man; 



The grain for thy animals he increases; 



God favors man. 



The following extract shows that the Nippur- 

 ians were not strangers to the charms of the flow- 

 ing bowl: 



The eye of wine presents 36,000 openings, 

 The bright eye is very brilliant. 

 Like the goddess, the great mother. 

 O our lady, mighty one, brilliant goddess. 

 Unspeakable is the splendor of thy vegetation! 

 The sickness is referred to in the following: 



The fiery tablet of Enlil 



To Nippur 



Against the sickness he has brought; 



With Ishtar of Erech for the protection of thy 



land from death 

 Against the sickness he has brought it; 

 With Ea thy chief. 

 Against the sickness he has brought 

 The fiery tablet of Enlil. 

 And again: 



Enlil declares: 



' ' Gone is the sickness from the face of the 



land. ' ' 

 As a protector he removed it — 

 Enlil 's are they — 

 As a protector he removed it. 



