Apeil 4, 1902.J 



SCIENCE. 



545 



Hougli in the absence of Lieut. G. T. Emmons, 

 U. S. N. 



These blankets or fringed mantles of cere- 

 monial character are invariably decorated with 

 a symbolic design of the bear in yellow, blue, 

 black and white. The loom consists of two 

 uprights set in blocks, supporting a beam from 

 which hang the unstretched warp threads of 

 mountain sheep's wool twisted with bark 

 fiber. The woof of dyed wool is twined by 

 hand with the warp, the woman following a 

 design drawn upon a board. 



Dr. J. Walter Fewkes presented a communi- 

 cation entitled 'Sky God Personations in 

 Hopi Worship.' Dr. Fewkes said that Hopi 

 impersonations are made by means of masks, 

 a dance with masks or by symbols as idols, 

 pictures or images. The sky god is prom- 

 inent in two great festivals, the dramatization 

 of the return of the clan ancients or catchinas 

 and their departure. In the former, he is a 

 sun-sky-god personation called Ahuli, the 're- 

 turning one,' and in the latter Eototo, a god 

 of growth, leads the ancients back. In the 

 winter solstice ceremony the sky god is in 

 form of a bird. The sky god is male and the 

 earth god is female. 



In discussing the paper Professor McGee 

 said that man is constrained by custom more 

 in uncivilized life. They personify certain 

 potencies in common customs; later, these be- 

 come ceremonies. 



Dr. Fewkes' paper led the way to the discus- 

 sion of the next topic, 'Animism, Toteniism 

 and Totemic Impersonations,' by Miss Alice 

 C. Fletcher, Dr. A. E. Jenlis, J. N. B. Hewitt, 

 Francis LaFlesche and others. Miss Fletcher 

 said that among the Sioux there is nothing 

 answering to the sky god. The prominence 

 of the sky god as a general term is rather 

 fiTndamental. The Indian mind is like our 

 own as to the beliefs ; we are not yet free as to 

 our minds. The conception of a god by the 

 Indian would not be that of a single god, but 

 dual, the union and manifestation of male and 

 female principles. 



Mr. Francis LaFlesche gave a legend of the 

 Omaha and Osage, bearing on the origin of 

 totems. When they were as one tribe they 

 were very poor. They said 'No one can help 



us but the magic power of Wakanda.' The 

 children put clay on their faces and prayed 

 to Wakanda. Then they got power to make 

 bows and arrows and they blessed the bows 

 and arrows, and in order to preserve the art 

 they set apart a clan. They made houses, 

 etc., and divided the families into clans. The 

 buffalo, ellv and turtle, for instance, are not 

 worshipped as totem animals, but are a means 

 through which Wakanda is worshipped. Mr. 

 LaFlesche describes the way men get Wa- 

 kanda. A hole in shape of a house is made 

 in the ground beneath the grass roots, and the 

 man stands before it and cries to Wakanda; 

 he makes no definite petition, but cries for 

 strength. Perhaps a wolf appears ; it is a 

 vision; he preserves that vision by killing a 

 wolf, and takes the skin, or an ear, or tail, and 

 this becomes his totem from Wakanda. 



Mr. Hewitt spoke of the Iroquois god that 

 holds up the sky. The legend relates that he 

 was born from the armpit of his mother; he 

 said he came from the sky. His brother is 

 called ' Flint.' In the beginning animals were 

 asked to support human beings, hence came 

 totems. Personal totems originate in a 

 dream at the age of puberty. 



Miss Fletcher said in explanation that 

 Wakanda is not seen, or felt, or heard and is 

 only manifest through lesser powers. 



Walter Hough. 



the geological society of washington. 



At the meeting of the Society on March 12 

 the first paper, by Mr. George I. Adams, was 

 entitled 'Lithologic Phases of the Pennsylva- 

 nian and Permian of Kansas, Indian Terri- 

 tory and Oklahoma.' As stated by Mr. 

 Adams, the succession of formations in Kan- 

 sas, Indian Territory and Oklahoma, the lower 

 of which are of Coal Measure or Pennsylva- 

 nian, and the upper of Permian age, forms an 

 unbroken series. Within the area of their 

 occurrence they exhibit several lithologic 

 phases. The section in Kansas may be 

 briefly described as : (1) Basal shales and 

 sandstones with coal beds, (2) limestones 

 interstratified with shales and some coal beds, 

 (3) limestones interstratified with shales 

 which carry no coal, and (4) shales which are 



