November lo, 1893.] 



SCIENCE. 



257 



Dr. A. Bastian, the eminent Director of the Museum of 

 Ethnology in Berlin, who has made it the subject of a lec- 

 ture (.Der iJttrfrf/itsmw.S' als religions Philosophisrhes System; 

 Berlin, 1893). As he but recently returned from the Orient, 

 where he had unusual opportunities to study this faith 

 in situ, his opinions are as fresh as they are profound.. 



Another of his lectures, published like the former with 

 considerable additions, is upon the notions which have 

 prevailed the world over as to the place of departed souls 

 [Die Verbleibs-orle der Abgeschiedenen Seele). It illustrates 

 with curious richness of learning the endless variety of 

 the pictures the living have drawn concerning the fate of 

 the soul after its departure from the body, some of the 

 crudest being by no means confined to savage tribes. 



Both lectures witness to the astonishing erudition of 

 the author; but it is to be regretted that his style offers 

 such difficulties to the foreign reader, and that his system 

 of references is so vague. 



Central American Ethnography. 



Geographically, Central America should be held to in- 

 clude all the area between the isthmus of Tehuantepee 

 and that of Panama. Using the term in this sense, I be- 

 lieve that no new linguistic stock remains to be discov- 

 ered there; though, it is true, of some we have very little 

 material, and of a few tribes we have not positive knowl- 

 edge. The most important of these is the Guetares or 

 Huetares, who lived near Cartago in Costa Rica, and who 

 seem now to be extinct. Sefior M. de Peralta prepared 

 in connection with the Madrid exposition an excellent re- 

 sume of the ethnography of that state, and this was the 

 only problem he left unsolved (Etnografia de la Kepublica 

 de Costa Rica, Madrid,, 1893). 



Recently, Dr. C. Sapper, of Guatemala, wrote to ma 

 that he had found an unclassified tongue spoken by a few 

 old people at Tapachula, in Chiapas, close to the western 

 boundary of Guatemala. At my request he kindly sent 

 me a short vocabulary; but he himself had already by 

 that time noted its resemblance to the Zoque-Mixe fam- 

 ily, of which it unquestionably is a member, though the 

 presence of this stock in that part of the map had not 

 previously been noted. 



There is a very prevalent error that the Caribs had 

 settlements in Central America. I observe it in the notes to 

 Quaritch's edition of the voyages of Americo Vespucci, 

 and elsewhere. It is certain they had not. No Carib 

 dialect has been found anywhere above the isthmus of 

 Panama. The Caribs of Honduras and Belize have been 

 brought there since the conquest. 



Anthropology in the United States Seen with French Eyes. 



Last sirring Dr. Paul Topinard, the well-known editor 

 of L'Anthropologie, made a rapid tour over the United 

 States, and on his return promptly gave his readers his 

 scientific "impressions de voyage" under the title "L'An- 

 thropologie aux Etats Unis" 



He considers first the domain of physical anthropolo- 

 gy, to which he assigns a rather erroneous history. It is 

 totally misleading to say Aitken Meigs (whose name he 

 spells Miegg) "continued Morton"; the fact being that he 

 reversed Morton's most important deductions. It is 

 equally erroneous to date the study of the ethnography of 

 the native race of the United States from the organiza- 

 tion of the Bureau of Ethnology in 1879. Long before 

 that, the labors of Gallatin had laid a broad foundation, 

 on which many solid superstructures had been erected. 

 More amusing is the reference to the serpent-mound of 

 Ohio as "discovered by Mr. Putnam", which indicates that 

 Professor Topinard had looked more at our collections 

 than our libraries; though he does mention the work of 

 Squier and Davis, assigning its publication, however, a 

 wrong date, 1840, instead of 1818. 

 M. Topinard writes at considerable length on the palae- 



olithic question in American archaeology, and on the 

 origin of the American race. He seems inclined himself 

 to belive that the American race, like Topsy, "just growed" 

 here, and later became more or less modified by im- 

 migrations from Asia. He is, therefore, perfectly willing 

 to accept the discoveries of implements in the Trenton 

 gravels as palajolithic, and immediately post-glacial, if 

 not glacial; but considers them far ante-dated by those 

 obtained by Dr. Hilborne T. Cresson from the Coliimbian 

 gravels near Claymont; "but," he exclaims, "while the 

 glory of this proof remains with Mr. Cresson, it does not 

 diminish that of Dr. Abbott, who remains the Boucher de 

 Perthes of North America!". In the "fight", therefore, 

 over palseoliths, "rejects", and the like, our visiting scien- 

 tist sides with Messrs. Wilson, Putnam, Wright and Ab- 

 bot, and afiiliates not with the camp of the enemy. 



It is a pity that the Professor, who came over to see the 

 Chicago Exposition, dej^arted before the opening of the 

 Anthropological Department; and that he did not remain 

 to the meetings of the American Association at Madison 

 and the Congress of Anthropologists at Chicago. It is 

 likely that he would have materially modified much that 

 he has written, had such been the case. 



A Contribution to Peruvian Mythology. 



One of the most interesting fragments of the ancient 

 mythology of Peru is that preserved by a native, Joan de 

 Santa Cruz Pachacuti, with reference to the hero-god To- 

 napa. Though written early, it was first published at 

 Madrid in 1879. The author was more fluent in his na- 

 tive Kechua than in Spanish, and his construction is often 

 awkward. In some paragraphs he inserts the original 

 prayers and invocations without translations, and when 

 he does give these, his knowledge of Spanish was too lim- 

 ited to be accurate. 



In a work published some years ago ("American Hero- 

 Myths) I analyzed this myth, and reached the conclusion 

 that it belonged to the cyclus so common among native 

 American tribes which describes the advent of the fair- 

 hued light god, and the benefits which he brings to his 

 people. Last j'ear, without knowledge of my previous 

 study, Sr. S. A. Lafone-Quevedo of the Argentine Repub- 

 lic, published a very thorough examination of the story 

 in the Revista del Museo de la Plata, under the title "El 

 Culto de Tonapa"; and I am glad to say, reached substan- 

 tially the same conclusions. He also adds full and care- 

 ful translations of the Kechua prayers and chants in Pach- 

 acuti's narrative, having had the advantage of the assist- 

 ance of Sr. Mossi, cura of a parish among the Kechuas, 

 and thoroughly familiar with their tongue. 



He also is inclined to the belief that the myth of the 

 Tonapa, along with many of the rites connected with it, 

 may have been borro< ed by the Kechuas from the Ay- 

 maras; in which he coincides with what I had expressed. 

 But in his endeavors to trace a linguistic connection of 

 "Tonapa" with the Nahuatl "Tonatiuh", and of the "Con" of 

 the Kechuas, an imjaortant divinity, with the "Canob" of 

 the Mayas of Yucs tan, he is certainly led astray by mere 

 phonetic resemblances which mean absolutely nothing. 

 There is not the slightest evidence either in language, his- 

 tory or archasology, that the great Peruvian culture of 

 the south either borrowed from, or loaned to, that of Cen- 

 tral America. They appear to have been wholly indejoen- 

 dent centres of civilization. 



— Dr. J. Christian Bay has resigned his jjosition at the 

 Missouri Botanical Gardens, St. Louis, Mo., and accepted 

 the position of bacteriologist of the State Board of Health, 

 Ames, la. 



— Oscar Clute, M. S., LL.D., resigned his position of 

 president of Michigan Agricultural College and Director 

 of Agricultural Exjjeriment Station to take the same posi- 

 tion in the Florida Agricultural College Sept. 5, 1893. 



