850 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. III. No. 75. 



a state of comparative peace must have pre- 

 vailed to permit this uninterrupted growth. 



The numerous illustrations in the text and 

 the admirable album of fifty-full page plates 

 present in the most satisfactory manner the re- 

 sults of these important and suggestive excava- 

 tions. D. G. Beinton. 



Current Superstitions Collected From the Oral 

 Tradition of English-Speaking Folk. Edited 

 by Fanny D. Bergen, with Notes and an 

 Introduction by William Wells Newell. 

 Pp. 161. Price, $3.50. Boston, Houghton, 

 Mifflin & Co. 



The strange persistency of ancient supersti- 

 tions in conditions of modern civilization is well 

 illustrated in this volume. Its peculiar value 

 consists in its presentation of beliefs and prac- 

 tices widely prevalent in our own day and 

 country, most of them having been obtained by 

 private correspondence with persons in various 

 parts of the United States. 



They are arranged under nineteen headings, 

 such as love, marriage, dreams, luck, money, 

 weather, warts, moon, sun, death omens, aud 

 ' projects.' The last mentioned is the term ap- 

 plied among girls in the United States to the 

 ceremonies of divination by which they learn 

 about the man they are to marry. The editor, 

 Mr. Newell, says he cannot offer any explana- 

 tion of this signification attached to the word. 

 Is it not a direct descendant of the Latin pro- 

 jicere sortes, divination by casting on the ground 

 the divining sticks? This seems borne out by 

 the fact that the most widely extended of these 

 ' projects ' is to throw a whole apple paring on 

 the floor, where it forms your true love's initial 

 letter. 



The introduction and notes, prepared by Mr. 

 Newell with his customary thoroughness and 

 precision, add much to the value of Mrs. 

 Bergen's collection by bringing out the analogies 

 of the customs mentioned with the folk-lore and 

 mythologies of other times and nations. 



Among other noteworthy facts thus elicited 

 is the vitality and number of formulas and be- 

 liefs still current in reference to the moon. So 

 extended are these that Mr. Newell says they 

 must be regarded as ' Nothing else than a con- 

 tinued worship of the orb, still connected with 



material blessings expected from its bounty.' 

 The sun is decidedly less important in popular 

 belief. 



Folk medicine is represented by the wearing 

 of amulets and charms, the magical cure of 

 warts, hiccough, toothache, nose bleed and 

 other common ailments. Attention is called by 

 the editor to the fact that in some of these the 

 ancient ' doctrine of signatures ' still survives'. 



Of the incidents of life, the two around which 

 is associated the largest body of living super- 

 stition are marriage and death. Mr. Newell 

 explains the latter by the suggestion that " The 

 disinclination to exercise independent thought 

 on a subject so serious leaves the field open for 

 the continuance of ancestral notions," which 

 seems an appropriate solution. He adds some 

 pointed observations on the value of folk-lore to 

 history, comparative mythology and archte- 

 ology. 



The volume is a member of the series issued 

 under the auspicies of the American Folk-lore 

 Society. It is to be regretted that it is not fur- 

 nished with an index, an omission scarcely ex- 

 cusable in a work of the kind. 



D. G. Brinton. 



SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. 



ACADEMY OF NATURAL SCIENCES OP PHILA- 

 DELPHIA, MAY 19, 1896. 



The collections made by Dr. A. Donaldson 

 Smith in Western Somali Land and the Galla 

 Country, northeastern Africa, in 1894, were 

 presented to the Academy, their value and ex- 

 tent being commented on by Mr. Arthur Erwin 

 Brown on behalf of the curators. 



Dr. Donaldson Smith spoke of the physical 

 features of the regions from which the speci- 

 mens had been collected and gave brieflj"^ some 

 facts regarding the habits of the animals ob- 

 served by him. Somali Land is very arid and 

 barren, yet a greater variety of specimens and 

 more new forms had been secured there and 

 from the 200 miles beyond than from all the 

 rest of the 4,000 miles traversed by him. In 

 illustration it was stated that twenty-three new 

 species of birds had been obtained from the dis- 

 trict specially referred to, while but one had 

 been secured elsewhere. Scattered over the 



