SCIENCE. 



[Vol. XX. No. 491 



SCIENCE: 



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THE DE LAINCEL FUND FOR THE STUDY OF THE 

 MAYA LANGUAGE AND ITS GRAPHIC SYSTEM. 



BY WM. M. AUGNET. 



The de Laincel Fund, so-named, after a relative, by a gen- 

 tleman of Philadelphia, now residing iu Mexico, who con- 

 tributes handsomely to its support, has for its object a 

 thorough study of the graphic system of the ancient Mayas, 

 by collecting vocabulanes of that language and its dialects, 

 and obtaining reliable artistic reproductions, by means of 

 photographs, of the ancient cities and mural inscriptions of 

 Central America, also photographing and copying ancient 

 manuscripts or other material which will be of service to 

 students in this special field of research. 



The work will be carried on under the direction of an ad- 

 visory committee, to be chosen from among ethnologists who 

 are authorities upon, and students of, the Maya language, 

 its paleography and art. 



The exploration of the fund will be carried on under the 

 direction of Dr. Hilborne T. Cresson of Philadelphia, well 

 known as an ethnologist in America and Europe. The re- 

 sult of his researches have at limes been published by the 

 Peabody Museum, where for the past five years he has been 

 a special assistant, working under the direction of Professor 

 F. W. Putnam of Harvard University. Dr. Cresson's artis- 

 tic training at the Ecole des Beaux Arts, in the ateliers of 

 the sculptor Alexander Dumont, and the painter J. Leon 

 Gerome (his works having been exposed in the Salon of 

 1877), joined to that of an accomplished French and Spanish 

 scholar, especially capacitates him for this line of research. 

 He has also for some years past been studying the Maya lan- 

 guage under the direction of so distinguished an authority 

 as Professor Daniel G. Brinton, and a good basis has thus 

 been obtained for future research. 



The de Laincel Fund will act in conjunction with some 

 of our leading American institutions, yet to be determined 

 upon, or independently, as its patron may deem best. The 

 work will be carried on during the healthy season in the 

 south, adopting the plan already pursued by other exploring 



parties — that of carrying out its investigations during those 

 months which are best suited to the sanitary condition of its 

 workers. 



Secretary's otdoe, 519 Spruce Street, Philadelphia, June 37. 



CURRENT NOTES ON ANTHROPOLOGY. 



[Edited by D. 6. Brinton, M.D., LL.D.'i 



•IX. 



The Peruvian Languages 



Now that the great work of Dr. E. W. Middendorf on the 

 Peruvian languages has been brought to a conclusion by the 

 publication of the sixth and last volume, that on the Muchik 

 (or Chimu or Yunca) tongue, the high value of this contri- 

 bution to American ethnology should be urged on the scien- 

 tific world. 



Dr. Middendorf is a medical man who practised his pro- 

 fession many years ago in various parts of Peru, making a 

 study of the native dialects his favorite recreation. He thus 

 became practically familiar with them as living tongues, 

 and backed up that knowledge by an acquaintance with 

 such literature as they possessed. The results of this long 

 devotion are now before us in six large octavo volumes, 

 published by Brockhaus, Leipzig, and counting up in all t» 

 nearly 2,400 pages of handsomely printed material. The 

 languages considered are the Kechua, the Aymara, and the 

 Chimu, with an appendix on the Chibcha. There is an 

 ample supply of grammatical analyses, texts, phrases, and, 

 of the Kechua, a copius Kechua-German-Spanish dictionary. 

 That the Aymara and Chimu vocabularies are not arranged 

 alphabetically must be regarded as a blemish. One of the 

 volumes contains the original text and a German translation 

 of the drama of OUanta, believed by many to be a genuine 

 specimen of a native, pre-Columbian, dramatic production. 

 There are also many songs and specimens of prose writings- 

 in the same tongue. Taking Middendorf's practical observa- 

 tions along with Tsch udi's ' 'Organismus der Kech ua Sprache, "■ 

 the student will find himself well equipped to master this 

 interesting idiom. 



The Orientation of Primitive Structures. 



The study of the relative directions which the walls and 

 angles of ancient structures bear to the cardinal points has 

 scarcely yet received the attention from archaeologists which 

 it merits. 



Several varieties of this "orientation," as it is termed, are 

 to be found, each with its own meaning. The ancient 

 Egyptian mastabas and pyramids have their sides facing the 

 cardinal points. This arose from the desire of having the 

 door in the centre of the eastern side to face the rising sun, 

 and the western door, sta, to face the setting sun, as it was 

 through the latter that the god Anubis conducted the soul 

 to the other world. On the other hand, the Babylonians 

 and Assyrians directed the angles, and not the sides, of their 

 temples to the cardinal points, for what occult reason is not 

 clear. Again, Mr. J. Walter Fewkes has found that the 

 kib vas, or sacred chambers, of the Tusayan Indians at the 

 Moqui Pueblo are oriented nortli-east and south-west. This 

 he at Brst thought was owing to the character of the bluff, 

 but there are reasons to believe it of a ceremonial origin. 



Some curious observations in this connection are reported 

 by Mr. Robert M. Swan, about the Zimbabwe ruins, in the 

 last number of the Journal of the Royal Geographical So- 

 ciety. He found a series of ornaments on the walls of the 

 great temple so disposed that one group would receive di- 

 rectly the sun's rays at his rising and another at his setting 

 at tlie period of the winter solstice, when these points in that 



