18 SCIENCE. 
CURRENT NOTES ON ANTHROPOLOGY.—XXXVII. 
(Edited by D. G. Brinton, M. D., LL.D., D.Sc.) 
ArT IN ANTHROPOLOGY. 
Tue student of anthropology must be delighted to see 
how it is enriching learning in all directions by supply- 
ing the material from which can be derived the laws for 
the’ development and acquisition of knowledge—that 
which the Germans call Hrkenninisslehre. 
In few directions has there been greater need of this 
than in the domain of art. We have had abundance of 
histories of art, and some efforts toward systems of the 
philosophy of art; but a science of art, something which 
would show us the laws which prevail in, and govern, the 
apparently so irresponsible and capricious development 
of art,—this has been wanting. 
An admirable effort to supply this deficiency has re- 
cently been published in Leipzig under the title, “The 
Beginnings of Art” (Die Anfiinge der Kunst), by Dr. Ernst 
Grosse. It is a manageable volume of 300 pages, in an 
attractive style, enriched by a sufficient number of illus- 
trations. Theauthor understands art in its broad sense, 
including music, poetry, painting, sculpture, ornamental 
design, dancing and cosmetics. In all these directions he 
examines the conditions and influence of primitive art, 
and its social and individual significance The conclu- 
sion which he reaches is one most significant and preg- 
nant with suggestion, to wit, that certain definite and ab- 
solute relations exist between given forms of general cul- 
ture and the growth of the arts which accompany them; 
though the hidden psychical forces which underlie the 
laws of these relations may and generally do remain ob- 
scure or unseen, the fact of the relation cannot be 
denied. 
The volume is worth a careful study. 
THE ANCIENT KINGDOM OF THE HIMYARITES. 
In the early Greek and Roman geographers southern 
Arabia is referred to as “Arabia Felix” and described as 
“a fortunate land, odorous with spices, and abounding in 
gold and ivory and all manner of precious stones.” 
When its majestic Queen visited King Solomon “no such 
spices as the Queen of Sheba brought had been known in 
Jerusalem.” 
How does it happen that that land is now, 
thousand years has been, a barren waste? That its 
ancient palaces are choked with sand? Its gardens and 
spice groves given way to the arid desert? Some fatal 
change in climatic conditions, a destructive increase in 
exsiccation, may be the cause. Only in the last few years, 
owing to the researches of Glaser, and later of J. T. Bent, 
are we in some measure able to restore the faint outlines 
of that wondrous kingdom, which for nearly a thousand 
years was the medium through which the gold of south 
Africa, the frankincense of Abyssinia, the diamonds and 
spices of India, passed to the wealthy nobles of Egypt, 
the dealers of Tyre and Sidon, and the peoples of the 
Mediterranean. 
The great Zimbabwe ruins in Mashona land, the vener- 
able temples near Aksum in Abyssinia show by their 
plans, and the latter by inscriptions as early as 800 B. C., 
that they were colonies of the Himyarites. 
What a mighty influence this trade exerted on the eth- 
nography of east Africa and India and all the intermedi- 
ate regions, we can readily imagine. It is enough to explain 
the strange discovery of M. Dieulafoy, at Susiana, that that 
ancient realm had a large population of African negroes. 
We need no other theory for their presence than this 
trade of the early Arab merchants, who brought then, as 
they do to-day, their dhows loaded with human freight 
from the teeming shores of the dark continent, to dispose 
of them among the whites of the Asiatic main. 
HUMAN RELICS IN THE SAN ISIDRO GRAVELS. 
In the Museum of the University of Pennsylvania is a 
and for a 
chipped stone implement which about a year ago was 
[Vol. XXIII. No. 571 
found in place, and extracted with the most scientific pre- 
cautions, by Mr. H. C. Mercer, one of the curators of the 
Museum, from the gravel bed of the River Manzanares, at 
San Isidro, near Madrid, Spain. It is peculiarly valuable 
because these gravels are held to belong to the Palxo- 
lithic or oldest stone age. It was exhibited and described 
by Mr. Mercer before the American Association for the 
Advancement of Science at Madison, last August, and it 
is a well-marked type of a most ancient implement. 
The same locality has been made the subject of an ex- 
cellent paper by the Baron de Baye, in a late number of 
the Bulletins of the Anthropological Society of Paris. He 
refers quite fully to the literature of the subject, and im- 
parts a considerable amount of new information from M. 
Siret, the Belgian engineer, well known for his admirable 
researches into the archeology of Spain. The objects be- 
long to the “Chelleen” and “Mousterien” types of the 
French archeologists, which would put them back to the 
very beginning of human industry. 
Unfortunately, the bones which have been taken from 
these gravels have not received careful examination, so 
from them we cannot define the age of the horizon. It is 
quite certain that these beds were not deposited by the 
Manzanares, but by a much larger stream running in a 
different direction. The physical geography of the dis- 
trict has undergone profound alterations since they were 
stratified. The station is one of the first in importance 
and merits a thorough investigation. 
THE Mocovi LANGUAGE. 
Srupents of American languages, especially of those of 
South America, will weleome with much satisfaction the 
appearance of the collection on the Mocovi, edited for the 
Museo de la Plata, by 8. A. Lafone-Quevedo. 
It is largely based on the MSS. of Father Tavolini, an 
Ttalian missionary, but is by no means confined to these. 
The editor begins with a learned essay on. the compara- 
tive linguistics of the Chaco languages, and in his notes 
brings forward much other information from the writings, 
in part manuscript, of Barcena, Dobrizhoffer, Pelleschi, and 
others. From these varied sourcesthe diligent student 
will find in the volume, which altogether makes up more 
than five hundred large quarto pages, abundant material 
from which to acquaint himself satisfactorily with this lit- 
tle-known tongue. 
In this connection, it is pleasaut to note that the atten- 
tion to American languages is slowly on the increase. 
Among the “Conferences” published in 1893 by the Athe- 
neum of Madrid, was one of 112 pages on American lin- 
guistics by Don Francisco de Fernandez y Gonzalez, 
which is marked by a creditable acquaintance with the 
literature of the subject; and in the Anales de la Uni- 
versidad, of Santiago, Chili, there is a well-prepared arti- 
cle on “La Linguistica Americana, su Historia y su Hstado 
Actual,” by Diego Barros Arana and Rodolfo Lenz. Sev- 
eral works have also been announced in Germany and 
France, which show that the scholars in those countries 
are awakening to the large scientific interest which these 
languages have. 
SECRET LANGUAGE OF CHILDREN. 
BY OSCAR CHRISMAN, CLARK UNIVERSITY, WORCESTER, MASS. 
Two parties having seen the article in Science of Dec. 
1 have sent me the secret languages of their childhood. 
William M. Gregg, M. D., No. 143 West Twenty-first 
street, New York, sends the following: , 
“Olafoscarlafar Crilafistelafamalafan: 
“Halafavilafing olafobserlafirved alafan artafartilafe- 
calafal ilafin Silafialafance olafon ‘Selafecalafrete Lana- 
fangalafage olafove Chilafreldelafrend,’ ilafi ilafinclola- 
fose thilafis notafote tulafu alafask ilafit oolafue hala- 
fave elafeverlafer selafene elefennelafeny lilafike ilafit.” 
