348 



SCIENCE. 



[Vol. I., No. 12. 



fourth and the seventh are excluded, to which the 

 name pentatonic has been given. The ancient Peru- 

 vians had music very difficult to learn, virhich ex- 

 pressed, with great compass and pathos, the agreeable 

 and disagreeable emotions of their daily lives. Mr. 

 Barber repeats an account, given by Don Fred. Blurae, 

 of the wails of a Peruvian woman on hearing the 

 news of the death of a brother. " The announce- 

 ment came, it seems, unexpectedly, and the explosion 

 was tlaat of a volcano of grief, — terrible jets from 

 time to time; then a quiet interval; and tlien, again, 

 a great outburst; and so on. . . . Thus I came to 

 understand how their 'operas' originated, and how 

 natural a mode of expression they are." — {Amer. 

 nat., March.) j. w. P. [751 



Aztec music. — While arranging the Poinsett and 

 Keating collections of antiquities in tlie museum of 

 the academy, Mr. H. S. Cresson noticed some Aztec 

 flageolets and whistles, or pitclvpipes of terra-cotta, 

 an investigation of which liad yielded some facts 

 which might be of importance to the ethnologist. 

 Most authoi'ities upon tlie subject have arrived at 

 the conclusion that the musical knowledge of bar- 

 barian tribes is confined to the limits of the so-called 

 pentatonic scale, in which the fourth and seventli 

 tones of the scale, as known to us, are wanting. 

 Upon trying the four-holed Aztec flageolets in ques- 

 tion, he had found, that, by closing the bell with the 

 little finger, they could be lowered a full tone, and, 

 from the tonic note thus obtained, tlie octave could 

 be produced, including the fourth and seventh notes 

 as known to us. Five of the flageolets in question 

 were exhibited, — two in tlie key of C natural, one in 

 tlie key of B natural, and tlie other two in F sliarp 

 and B flat respectively. The last-named instrument 

 was chosen to produce the fourth and seventh tones, 

 upon which an expert performer on the Boelim flute 

 ran the diatonic and chromatic scales with but little 

 difficulty. Tlie pitch-pipes, or whistles, were next ex- 

 hibited; and the same performer demonstrated that 

 a full octave could be produced thereon, togetlier 



with the ninth,, eleventh, and twelfth notes, the tentli 

 being missing. The wliistle producing this tenth note 

 must have existed, as it is preposterous to suppose 

 that a people capable of manufacturing the instru- 

 ments in our possession (several of which are dupli- 

 cated in the collection), which may be played in trio or 

 quartette, were not more tlioroughly acquainted with 

 the principles of music than to content tliemselves 

 witli the narrow limits of the pentatonic scale. This 

 is proven by their ability to manufacture instruments 

 capable of producing, not only tlie fourtli and seventh 

 tones of the diatonic scale, but also the entire chro- 

 matic scale. — (Acad. nat. sc. Philad.; meeting April 

 3.) [752 



BAELY INSTITUTIOlirS. 



New-England towns. — The student of early in- 

 stitutions in America will be interested in the recent 

 ' History of Great Barriugton ' (Berks County, Mass.), 

 by Charles J. Taylor. The upper township was distrib- 

 uted in forty proprietary riglits. .James Bowdoin had 

 seven and a half; otlier persons liad six, five, four, 

 two and a half, or one apiece. These riglits were 

 fixed by the settling committee at four hundred acres 

 eacli. Allotments were made accordingly. We 

 are struck by the resemblance between tliese pro- 

 prietary rights with equivalents, and the mansi, cum 

 ■campis, pratis, pascuis silvis, in tlie German colonies 

 of the early and middle ages. The free colonies, 

 like most of our New-England towns, were associa- 

 tions of proprietors, with defined rights in the land ; 

 in recognition of which, eacli man received certain 

 home-lots and arable lots, together with meadow, pas- 

 ture, and forest lands; the latter being, very often, 

 lield in common. Mr. Taylor confines himself strictly 

 to the history Of his own town ; but this history em- 

 braces many interesting facts, and is suggestive in 

 many ways. The words of Burke, ' People will not 

 look forward to posterity who never look backward 

 to tlieir ancestors,' are printed upon tlie titlepage. — 

 D. w. E. [753 



INTELLIGENCE FROM AMERICAN SCIENTIFIC STATIONS. 



PUBLIC AND PRIVATE INSTITUTIONS. 

 Peabody rnusenm of American archaeology, Cambridge, Mass. 



Altar-moundu in Anderson tmonship, Ohio. — Sev- 

 eral of the mounds explored the past summer by 

 Dr. Metz and tlie curator contained ' altars,' or 

 basins, of burnt clay, on two of which there were 

 literally thousands of objects of interest. Two of 

 these altars, each about four feet square, were cut 

 out, and brought to the museum. Among the objects 

 from the altars are numerous ornaments and carv- 

 ings unlike any thing heretofore found. 



One altar contained about two bushels of orna- 

 ments made of stone, copper, mica, shells, the canine 

 teeth of bears and other animals, and thousands of 

 pearls. Nearly all of these objects are perforated in 

 various ways for suspension. Several of the copper 

 ornaments are covered with native silver, wliicli had 

 been hammered out into thin slieets, and folded over 

 the copper. Among these are several of the spool- 

 shaped objects (which I now regard as ear-orna- 

 ments), a bracelet, and a bead. One small copper 

 pendant seems to have been covered witli a thin sheet 

 of gold. This is the first time that native gold has 

 been found in the mounds, and the small amount 

 found here shows tliat its use was exceptional. The 



ornaments cut out of mica are very interesting, and 

 embrace many forms. Among them are a grotesque 

 human profile, and the heads of animals, whose fea- 

 tures are emphasized by a red color. Many of the cop- 

 per ornaments are large and of peculiar shape. There 

 are about tliirty of the singular spool-shaped earrings 

 made of copper. Three large sheets of mica were also 

 found ; and several finely cliipped points of obsidian, 

 chalcedony, and chert, were in the mass of materials. 

 Several pendants, cut from a micaceous schist, are 

 of a unique style of work. Three masses of native 

 copper were found on the altar. 



But by far the most important things found on this 

 altar were the several masses of meteoric iron and 

 tlie ornaments made from tliis metal. One of these 

 is half of a spool-shaped object, or ear-ornament, like 

 those made of copper, witli whicli it was associated. 

 Another of these ear-ornaments is covered with a thin 

 plating of the iron, in the same manner as others 

 were covered with silver. There is also a folded and 

 corrugated band of iron of the same shape, and nearly 

 the same size, as the band of copper found in a mound 

 in Tennessee, and figured in the last report of the 

 museum (fig. 16). Three of the masses of iron have 

 been more or less hammered into bars, as if for the 

 purpose of making some ornament or implement, and 



