Apbil 1-2, 1895.] 



SCIENCE. 



405 



by a patient analysis of the structure 

 (morphology) of the languages of savage 

 tribes. These reveal to us human speech 

 on its lowest terms and it will be found 

 sometliing quite different from what we ex- 

 pected. Xoire's examples, on the conti'ary, 

 are taken from the highly developed Aryan 

 languages, and from their vocabulary, not 

 ft'om their morphology. Nearly all writers 

 follow the same false trail, and consequently 

 reach no results worth naming. 



KECENT STUDIES IX CRANTOLOGY. 



The pathological effects of cretinism on 

 the form of the skull have received inade- 

 quate attention. For this reason, a brief 

 paper by Dr. Harrison Allen in the Neiv 

 York Medical Jourmd, for Februarj' 2, 1895, 

 on the influence exerted bj' this condition on 

 the shape of the nasal chambers and other 

 cranial elements, is a welcome contribu- 

 tion. 



The distinguished Eoman craniologist. 

 Professor Giuseppe Sergi, has added an- 

 other to his many interesting studies of 

 Mediterranean craniologj' bj' a paper of 

 sixty pages in the Bulletin of the Medical 

 Academy of Rome, 1894-1895, entitled 

 ' Studi di Antropologia Laziale,' in which 

 he discusses a number of skulls derived 

 from cemeteries of ancient Latium. His 

 conclusions are as w'e might expect, that the 

 populus romanus of the Empire was decidedly 

 mixed in blood and cranial types. 



The island of Engano adjoins Sumatra, 

 and little has been known about the phj'si- 

 cal type of its inhabitants, who, moreover, 

 are rapidly dying out. For that reason, 

 additional value is attached to a .study of 

 the skulls and bones brought from there 

 by Dr. Modigliaui. prepared by Dr. I. 

 Danielli, and published in the ' Archivio 

 per r Antropologiae 1' Etnologia,' Vol. 

 X XIII. They appear to have belonged to a 

 Malaysian people, with a dash of Negrito 

 blood. A mixed population, at any rate, 



occupied the island, for the precise gene- 

 alogy of w hich we must await further re- 

 searches. 



AFRICAX FOLK-LORE AXD ETHNOGRAPHY. 



Important additions to the ethnography 

 and folk-lore of the Bantu tribes have been 

 recently made by Mr. Heli Chatelaiu, late 

 U. S. commercial agent at Loanda, "West 

 Aft-ica. First to be noticed is a volume of 

 315 pages, published by the American Folk- 

 Lore Society, entitled ' Folk-Tales of An- 

 gola.' These are fifty tales, faithfully re- 

 corded from the lips of the native sjieakers, 

 with the original Kimbundu text, a literal 

 English translation and an instructive 

 introduction and notes. It is an excel- 

 lent and original study of these prominent 

 tribes from the point of view of the folk- 

 lorist. 



An article broader in scope, by Mr. 

 Chatelain, entitled ' African Races ' is 

 published in the Journal of American Folk- 

 Lore for December last. In it the author 

 undertakes to present the result of his ob- 

 servations and theorizing on African eth- 

 nogi-aphy in general. The main point 

 which he endeavors to prove is that there 

 is no true racial or linguistic difference be- 

 tween the Bantu and the Sudanese negroes. 

 The reasons for this, advanced in the note to 

 page 207, are far from satisfactory. Mr. 

 Chatelain, though a most competent lin- 

 guist, clearly does not appreciate the value 

 of linguistics in ethnographj- ; and it is 

 slightly preposterous to forbid any ethnolo- 

 gist to have an opinion about the affinities 

 of a tribe unless he has lived with it. At 

 that rate, that class of scientists would find 

 their field limited indeed. There are many 

 reasons, not discussed b}' Mr. Chatelain, for 

 holding the Sudanese of pure type to be as 

 different from the Bantus as, say, the Sibiric 

 tribes of Asia are different from the Sinitic 

 peoples ; and that is all that has been 

 maintained. 



