February 15, 1889.] 



SCIENCE. 



121 



Th« strict seclusion of the women is relaxed on one day in June, 

 when women may go anywhere with uncovered faces. 'I'he homes 

 of the foreign residents in Seoul are visited then by thousands of 

 curious women. 



If a man walUs over all the foot-bridges of the city on the middle 

 day of January, he is supposed to secure good health for the year. 



The city gates are closed and locked from dark until dawn, and 

 it is death to the guardsman who opens ihem to admit any one. 

 Generationsof belated and wall-scaling Koreans have worn a stair- 

 case of crevices in the wall by which they mount to the gate tower ; 

 or the guardsmen will haul them up by a rope, there being a regu- 

 lar tariff of charges for the use of ropes, and the mandarins getting 

 their regular percentage of the fees. 



The manufactures of to-day are very crude and wholly inartistic. 

 Pedlers of tin bring pieces of iron damascened with silver, that at 

 once prove the Persian influence of the old arts by the decorative 

 forms. Korean ambassadors are supposed to have met the Per- 

 sians at the Peking Court in the time of Ginghisand Khublai Khan. 



ETHNOLOGY. 

 Mound-Builders and Indians. 



In a recent number of the Ohio Archtxological and Historical 

 Quarterly, Mr. Gerard Fowke attempts to disprove " popular errors 

 in regard to mound-builders." The author shares the view of Pro- 

 fessor Cyrus Thomas, that the mound-builders were Indians, and 

 that no great antiquity must be claimed for their works. The 

 principal points adduced by the supporters of the theory of the ex- 

 istence of an ancient high state of culture and of a dense popula- 

 tion are taken up one by one and discussed. Thus he reduces the 

 opinion regarding the high character of the works of the mound- 

 builders to its proper level. One of the important points to be de- 

 cided, in an estimate of this ancient race, is the question regarding 

 the density of population. The same reasons which were claimed 

 for an ancient dense habitation of Arctic America have been con- 

 sidered as proof in the case of the mound-builders. It is said that 

 numerous ruins on a limited area indicate a great number of in- 

 habitants ; but, as no proof can be given that they have been in- 

 habited simultaneously, it is quite possible, that, nothwithstanding 

 their great number, the population was very sparse. It seems to 

 us that the author's doubts as to a considerable antiquity of some 

 of these ancient monuments are not well founded ; but his criticism 

 of the exaggerated views regarding the works and civilization of 

 this ancient race is timely, and will help to the formation of ajuster 

 appreciation of the real significance of these works. 



The Jade Question. — F. W. Clarke and G. P. Merrill have 

 ,made an examination of a series of jade implements from the col- 

 lections of the United States National Museum. The results of 

 this investigation, which were published in the " Proceedings of the 

 United States National Museum," are in favor of the theory that 

 the occurrence of implements made of similar varieties of jadeites 

 and nephrites in widely separated countries must not be considered 

 proof of a common source of the material. The authors, whose 

 arguments are based on very exhaustive microscopical and chemi- 

 cal investigations, believe that it is hardly practicable to distinguish, 

 by means of thin sections and the microscope, between nephrites 

 from various sources. "The presence or absence of enclosures of 

 diopside, magnetite, or ferruginous oxides ; the condition of these 

 oxides, whether as ferric or ferrous ; the varying tufted, bent, con- 

 fused fibrous and even granular condition of the constituent parts, 

 — are all, together with the color-variations and other structural 

 peculiarities, matters of too slight import to be of weight from a 

 petrographic standpoint. If, as seems possible, the majority of the 

 nephrites are of secondary origin, why may we not expect to find 

 all, or at least a great variety, of the structures described in the 

 same or closely adjacent rock-masses ? Chemical analyses on 

 samples from near-lying, or even the same, localities are found 

 often to vary as greatly as those from localities widely separated. 

 Why may we not expect the same structural variations, when once 

 they are carefully looked for? To our own minds, sufficient as- 

 surances that the widely scattered jadeite and nephrite objects 

 were derived from many independent sources, and possess no value 

 whatever in the work of tracing the migration and inter-communi- 



cation of races, lie in the fact that these substances are compara- 

 tively common constituents of metamorphic rocks, and hence liable 

 to be found anywhere where these rocks occur. Their presence is 

 as meaningless as would be the finding of a piece of graphite. The 

 natives required a hard, tough substance capable of receiving and 

 retaining a sharp edge and polish, and took it wherever it was to 

 be found " 



Signalling among Primiiive Peoples. —As is well known, 

 the Indians of our continent use rising smoke to give signals to 

 distant friends. A small fire is siarted, and, as soon as it burns 

 fairly well, grass and leaves are heaped on top of it. Thus a large 

 column of steam and smoke rises. By covering the fire with a 

 blanket, the rising of the smoke is interrupted at regular intervals, 

 and the successive clouds are used for conveying messages. Re- 

 cently R. Andree has compiled notes on the use of signals by 

 primitive people, and finds that they are well-nigh in universal use. 

 Recently attention has been called to the elaborate system of drum 

 signals used by the Kamerun negroes, by means of which long 

 messages are sent from village to village. While it was supposed 

 that this remarkable system of communication was confined to a 

 limited region, explorations in the Kongo basin have shown that it 

 prevails throughout Central Africa. The Bakuba use large wooden 

 drums, on which different tones are produced by two drum-sticks. 

 Sometimes the natives " converse" in this way for hours; and from 

 the energy displayed by the drummers, and the rapidity of the suc- 

 cessive blows, it seemed that the conversation was very animated. 

 The Galla south of Abyssinia have drums stationed at certain points 

 of the roads leading to neighboring states. Special watchmen are 

 appointed who have to beat the drum on the approach of enemies. 

 Cecchi, who observetl this custom, designates it as a " system of 

 telegraphs." The same use of drums is found in New Guinea. 

 From the rhythm and rapidity of the blows, the natives know at 

 once whether an attack, a death, or a festival is announced. The 

 same tribes use columns of smoke or (at night) fires to convey 

 messages to distant friends. The latter are also used in Australia. 

 Columns of smoke of different forms are used for signals by the 

 inhabitants of Cape York and the neighboring island. In Victoria 

 hollow trees are filled with fresh leaves, which are lighted. The 

 signals thus made are understood by their friends. In eastern 

 Australiathemovementsof a traveller were made known by columns 

 of smoke, and so was the discovery of a whale in Portland Bay. 

 These notes, which might be increased considerably, show the 

 general existence of methods of communication over long distances, 

 — the art of telegraphing in its first stages of development. 



NOTES AND NEWS. 

 Recently much light has been thrown upon the phenomena of 

 glaciation in Greenland. Dr. F. Hansen's daring trip across the 

 inland ice will clear up important questions regarding the meteoro- 

 logical conditions of the interior and the maximum height of land. 

 In the past year Mr. Ch. Rabot has examined the ice phenomena 

 of the west coast, and arrived at the conclusion that the glaciers of 

 Lapland must be considered inland ice in miniature. He is of the 

 opinion that the latter must be considered vestiges of the glacial 

 period in Scandinavia, which have remained to the present day in 

 consequence of particular circumstances. He also observed that the 

 great glacier of Jacobstown has advanced almost two miles since 

 the year 1878. 



— Mrs. Amelie Rives-Chanler has offered a prize of $100 for 

 the best American essay on child-labor. The money has been 

 placed in the hands of Professor Richard T. Ely of Baltimore, 

 secretary of the American Economic Association. The essay must 

 not exceed 55,000 words, and must be in Professor Ely's hands not 

 later than Dec. 2, 1889. 



— The Royal Society of Palermo has decorated Professor P. T. 

 Austen of Rutgers College with a gold order, in recognition of his 

 scientific work. 



— The following meetings will be held in Paris in August. 1889 : 

 viz.. Congress of Geography and Ethnology, from Aug. 5 to Aug. 

 12; Association Frangaise, Aug. 8 to Aug. 15; Congres d'An- 

 thropologie, Aug, 19 to Aug. 26. 



