290 



SCIENCE. 



[Vol. I., No. 10. 



ANTHROPOLOGY. 



India. — In a course of lectures delivered before 

 the University of Cambridge, entitled 'India: what 

 can it teach us?' published by Longmans, London, 

 Max Miiller points out some of the manifold lessons 

 which India can teach all students of history, whether 

 religious, political, or social. 



The first is of a general and introductory character. 

 The second is meant to remove some of the preju- 

 dices which Europeans often entertain against ori- 

 entals, and, in particular, to show how groundless is 

 the charge of untruthfulness brought against the na- 

 tives of India. The third dwells on the study of 

 Sanscrit, with regard both to its practical utility and 

 its historical interest. A new chronological division 

 of Sanscrit literature is put forward. 



The author claims a high value for the ancient 

 literature, both Vedic and Buddhistic, showing that 

 some of the greatest problems of all times receive an 

 unexpected light from a study of ancient Sanscrit 

 literature. The two phases of human life and human 

 thought presented to us by the Aryans of India on 

 one side, and by the Aryans of Greece, Italy, and Ger- 

 many, on the other, are contrasted. 



The fourth lecture deals with a number of objec- 

 tions which have been raised against the claims of 

 the Veda as the most ancient historical monument 

 of the whole Aryan world. 



In the fifth lecture some of the principal lessons 

 which the Veda can teach are explained. The ori- 

 ginal character of the Vedic gods is discussed. They 

 are divided into three classes, — gods of the earth, 

 air, and sky. 



The sixth lecture deals with the god of fire and of 

 the air. Next follows a description of the gods of the 

 highest heaven. The origin of solar myths is shown 

 to be inevitable. 



After an explanation of the manner in which the 

 ancient literature of India was preserved by oral tra- 

 dition, the last lecture is devoted to an analysis of 

 the ancient Vedic religion into its three compound 

 elements, — a belief in the Devas, or the gods of na- 

 ture ; a belief in the Pitris, or the ancestors ; and a 

 belief In the Eita, or the law, order, and reason which 

 underlie both the natural and the moral world. 



The text of the seven lectures is followed by Notes 

 and illustrations : 1. The treasures found at Mykenae, 

 and their similarity to treasures found on the Oxus; 

 2. Names of the cat and the cat's eye; 3. Village es- 

 tates; 4. Venial untruths, according to Indian views; 

 5. The Yueh-chi; 6. Some letters on Buddhism; 7. 

 Kenaissance of Sanscrit literature; 8. Texts illustra- 

 tive of the deluge in India; 9. Parganya in German; 

 10. The Pitris, or fathers ; 11. Sraddhas, or ancestral 

 worship. 



In the note on the renaissance of Sanscrit litera- 

 tiue, evidence has been collected in support of the 

 author's theory that the whole of it, with the excep- 

 tion of the Vedic and Buddhistic, is later than the 

 fourth century of our era. Kalidasa's plays are 

 relegated to the sixth century, and the Laws of Manu 

 are assigned to a date not earlier, and possibly 

 much later, than the fourth century after Christ. 

 — H. w. H. [631 



Iroquois. — Under title of 'Legends, traditions, 

 and laws of the Iroquois,' Eliah Johnson, a Tuscarora 

 chief, engages in the very laudable attempt "to ani- 

 mate a kinder feeling between the white people and 

 the Indians, established by a truer knowledge of our 

 civil and domestic life, and of our capabilities for 

 future elevation." It needs but a cursory examina- 

 tion to show that tlie manner in which the desired 

 end is to be attained was by no means clear to the 



writer's mind ; and it is not probable that the book 

 will have the success which the evident sincerity and 

 earnestness that pervade it would seem to deserve. 

 Some of the historical facts presented are interesting, 

 and certain of the traditions are of value to the stu- 

 dent of ethnology. Under the heading 'Creation' 

 is an interesting Tuscarora tradition, treating of the 

 beginning of the world, and the formation of the cel- 

 ebrated league. 



Who were the Squawkihaws, Kah-Kwahs, and the 

 Eries, has always been an enigma; and in answering 

 that the three were formerly known as Squawkihaws, 

 a remote branch of the Senecas, and speaking the 

 same language, the author has done a service to all 

 students who interest themselves in tribal nomencla- 

 ture and relationships. 



The tradition relating to the expulsion of the Squaw- 

 kihaws, or, as they have been usually called, the Eries, 

 is peculiarly interesting and important, inasmuch as 

 it is stated with all desirable precision, that, after a 

 hot pursuit by the Senecas, a considerable portion of 

 the tribe succeeded in making their escape, and, as 

 was supposed, disappeared in the Far West under a 

 changed name, leaving a large number of prisoners 

 to be adopted into the conquering tribe. 



The Jesuit relations contain the generally accepted 

 idea that the Eries were utterly exterminated, — one 

 of the many instances where extermination, so called, 

 really means a comparatively small number killed, 

 and a large remnant incorporated into other tribes. 

 The tribal name, indeed, is lost; but the individual 

 members of the tribe live on under new tribal ties. 

 — H. w. H. [632 



The distribution of the Negritos. — M. A. de 

 Quatrefages sends us, in pamphlet form, his paper, 

 which appeared in vol. i. of the Sevue d'ethnogra- 

 X>hie (111-161), upon the geographic distribution of 

 the Negritos, and upon their identification with the 

 Asiatic pygmies of Ctesias and Pliny. The author, 

 like Crawford, Pickering, and many others, distin- 

 guishes two dark-skinned races in the Australasian 

 and Malaysian area, — the Papuans and the Negritos. 

 The former are large, muscular, and have their crania 

 dolichocephalic and hypsistenocephalic ; the latter are 

 short, plump, and brachycephalic or sub-brachyce- 

 phalic (0.80 and upwards). A few words are devoted 

 by M. de Quatrefages to the former; the bulk of the 

 essay, to the latter. When the Spaniards began to 

 colonize the Philippines, they met in the interior of 

 Luzon, beside the Tagals, of Malay origin, black peo- 

 ple, with woolly hair, short in stature, and living in 

 the mountains, to whom they gave the name Negritos 

 del monte. The local name was Aigtas (Aetas), 

 ' black.' Under diverse names they are found, either 

 pure or mixed, in the midst of other peoples, from 

 the south-east extremity of New Guinea to the An- 

 daman Archipelago, and from the Sunda Island to 

 Japan. M. de Quatrefages is acknowledged to be 

 the most indefatigable anthropologist in France, and 

 in this monograph, as well as in others relating to the 

 same subject, has thrown much light upon the Negrito 

 race. We must demur, however, to the a priori meth- 

 ods employed in the last part of the essay, wherein 

 he adopts the jiygmies of the classical writers. — 

 J. w. p. [633 



Voyages of Moncatoh-Ape. — M. . Le Page du 

 Pratz, in his Histoire de la Louisiane, tells of a voy- 

 age made by Moncatch-ApS, a Yazoo Indian, up the 

 Mississippi and the Missouri Rivers, across the Kocky 

 Mountains, and down the Columbia to the Pacific 

 Ocean. He there ascertained the trend of the coast 

 north-westward, and the existence of the peninsula 

 of Alaska. From his narrative we also learn of white 



