SCIENCE 



[Vol. XXII. No. 548 



Tbis apparently furnishes, at least, a straw pointing in the 

 direction I have been moving in my study of the Maya hiero- 

 glypjis Cyrus Thomas. 



Washington, D.C., July 15. 



Historical Statements in Century Dictionary Contradicted by 

 Other Authorities. 



Napier's rods (or bones), a contrivance commonly attributed to 

 John Napier (1550-1617), but in fact described in the Arithmetic 

 of Oronce Finee {I5di).— Century Dictionary under rod. 



Die erste Beschreibung gab Nefer in seiner Eabdologia (Edin- 

 burg, 1617). — Vorlesungen iiber Geschichte der Mathematik, von 

 Moritz Cantor, zweiter Band, Seite 660. 



The earliest known writers on the subject (magic squares) were 

 Arabians, among whom these squares were used as amulets. — 

 Century Dictionary, under magic. 



The earliest known writer on the subject was Emanuel Mosco- 

 pulus, a Greek, who lived in the fourth or fifth century, and 

 whose manuscript is preserved in the National Library at Paris. 

 —Encyclopedia Britannica, under magic squares. 



These seem to me to be contradictions. I should be glad to see 

 the truth in regard to these historical facts plainly set forth by a 

 reader of Science. Geo. A. Miller. 



Eureka College, Eureka, III., July 24. 



The Cambojan Khmers. 



Owing to some irregularity in the postal delivery I have only 

 just received Science for June 9, else I should have sooner asked 

 leave to put in a claim of priority in connection with Dr. Mau- 

 rel's new views regarding the " Aryan " origin of the Khmers, re- 

 ferred to by Dr. Brinton in that issue. Personally I avoid the 

 expression "Aryan or Indo-European stock " as confusing and 

 applicable far more to linguistic than to ethnical groups. But if 

 "Caucasian," used in Blumenbach's sense, be substituted for 



"Aryan" Dr. Brinton will find, by consulting the Transactions 

 of the British Association for 1879, that fourteen years ago I con- 

 clusively showed that the Khmers should be grouped not with 

 the surrounding Mongolic, but with the Caucasic division of 

 mankind. In the "Monograph on the Relations of the Indo-Chi- 

 nese and Inter-Oceanic Races and Languages," read before the 

 association, and again before the Anthropological Institute and 

 printed in the journal of that society for February, 1880, and is- 

 sued separately by Triibner at same date, I argued generally that 

 " both of the great Asiatic types conventionally known as Cau- 

 casian and Mongolian, have from prehistoric times occupied the 

 Indo-Chinese peninsula," and particularly that here the Caucasic 

 stock is represented by the widespread Khmer group, that is to 

 say, the Cambojans proper, the Kuys or Khmerdom ("original 

 Khmers"), as the Cambojans call them, the Stiengs, Charays, 

 Chams and many others, some still in the tribal state, some long 

 civilized or semi-civilized. It is the civilized that mainly engage 

 Dr. Maurel's attention, and that he rightly regards as Aryans 

 (read Caucasians), but wrongly supposes to have migrated in 

 comparatively recent times from India to Indo-China. " bringing 

 with them the Aryan culture of that country as proved by the 

 stately ruins of Ang-Kok (read Ongkor-Vaht)." There was no 

 such migration " probably about the third or fourth century of 

 the Christian era," for the Khmers are not recent arrivals, but 

 the true aborigines, as shown by the presence of the Khmer- 

 dom and the kindred wild tribes, and also by their untoned poly- 

 syllabic speech, radically distinct both from the Indo-Chinese 

 toned monosyllabic group and fi-om the Indie (Sanscritic) branch 

 of the Aryan, but closely allied to the untoned polysyllabic Ma- 

 layo-PoIynesian linguistic family. 



This point, which I think I have established to the satisfaction 

 of most ethnologists and philologists (Professor Sayce amongst 

 others), is of far-reaching consequence. It affords the solution of 

 the extremely difficult problem connected with the presence of 

 Logan's " Indonesians," my Caucasians, side by side or intermin- 



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FOSSIL RESINS. 



This book is the result of an attempt to 

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