September 3, 1886.] 



SCIENCE. 



203 



Dickens (' Oliver Twist') and Thackeray (' Vanity 

 Fair') were remarkably similar, thus suggesting 

 that the subject-matter might cause the peculiaritj^ 

 of the curve, while those from John Stuart Mill 

 (' Political economy ' and ' Essay on liberty ') 

 differed from them in having moi'e long words 

 and fewer short ones, though words of two letters 

 (prepositions mainly) were most abundant in Mill. 

 The average length of the novelist's words was 

 4.38, and that of the philosopher 4.8, 



In the discussion following this paper it was 

 suggested that perhaps the characteristics of the 

 language might be thus represented, and that, be- 

 fore describing certain characteristics as peculiari- 

 ties of authorship, one must show that they are 

 not due to the language, to the subject-matter, to 

 the form or the fashion. Mr. Mendenhall's 

 method is highly suggestive, and some interesting 

 applications of it may be expected. 



Mr. F. W. Putnam presented an interesting 

 communication exhibiting photographs of speci- 

 mens which show the method of making bone 

 fish-hooks. These specimens and the hooks came 

 from mounds in the Little Miami valley. They 

 show that the process consisted in first boring a 

 hole in the bone at the point which was to form 

 the bottom of the bend of the hook. A cut was 

 then made to either side from this hole, forming 

 the inner surface of the hook, which was com- 

 pleted by rubbing down the piece into shape. 

 Pieces of bone at each stage of the process have 

 been found. 



Rev. J. Owen Dorsey gave an account of a se- 

 cret organization among the Osage Indians, the 

 knowledge of which was obtained by gaining the 

 confidence of some of the members. Similar so- 

 cieties can also be traced among the E^ansas and 

 Poncas. There are also close analogies with the 

 Omaha, dancing societies, in which secret obser- 

 vances are closely interwoven. There are seven 

 degrees in this secret society. The first is called 

 Ni-k'u-wac-u, ' Songs of the giving of life.' The 

 others are as follows : ' Songs of the bird, or dove,' 

 ' Songs of the rushes,' ' Songs of the sacred bag,' 

 ' Songs of the pack-strap ' (the name of the sixth 

 is forgotten), and, lastly, ' Songs of the return from 

 war.' The initiation of a woman consists in her 

 reception by the head of the gens, who makes her 

 take four sips of water, emblematic of the river 

 flowing by the tree of life. Cedar twigs, symbol- 

 izing the tree of life, are then rubbed between his 

 hands, after which he strokes the woman from 

 head to foot twelve times, — that is thi-ice in the 

 direction of each of the four winds, — pronouncing 

 the sacred name of a higher power each time that 

 he rubs her with the cedar. The candidate is also 

 tattooed with the round spots on the forehead 



among the Osages ; but one such spot is given 

 among the Omahas and Poncas. The initiation 

 fee is a dozen horses, two copper kettles, several 

 hogs, and a bountiful supply of beef for a feast, of 

 which all the members partake. Each gens of the 

 tribe has a mythical tradition of its origin, which 

 is chanted by the old man who acts as priest. It 

 takes four days and nights to chant the entire tra- 

 dition of any one gens. Parts of these traditions 

 Mr. Dorsey was able to record. One translates 

 thus: "The first of the race was saying 'Ho, 

 younger brother ! the children have no bodies. We 

 shall seek bodies for our children. Ho, younger 

 brother ! you shall attend to it.' They stood for 

 the first time on the first upper world. There they 

 were not human beings. One was saying ' Ho, 

 younger brother ! the children have no bodies. We 

 must seek bodies for om* children.' " Mr. Dorsey 

 showed the chart on which the various designs 

 which are intei'preted symbolically were repre- 

 sented. The peculiarity of the symbolism there 

 represented, and yet its general resemblance to 

 similar European customs, is a strong evidence of 

 the fact that the human mind everywhere works 

 in the same direction. Other traditions and cus- 

 toms were given by the author, which brought out 

 the high moral and political instincts of the Osage 

 Indians. 



Professor Edward S. Morse made additional 

 contributions to his study of ancient arrow- 

 releases. After describing the evolution of the 

 release by the way of five stages, the last two of 

 which represented the strongest phases, and are 

 still in use, especial stress was laid on the fact that 

 amidst all the change of religious rites, social cus- 

 toms, political organization, and so on, the appar- 

 ently trivial act of slijjping the arrow from the 

 bow has remained unchanged. The i^ersistency 

 of this custom is in contrast to almost all other 

 similar habits. Methods of release practised to- 

 day may be traced back as far as three thousand 

 years. 



Mr. J. W. Sanborn related his observations upon 

 the Iroquois league. The league was founded 

 mainly on the law governing intermarriage. A 

 warrior in one clan could marry only with certain 

 other clans. The chief always ruled over his 

 mother's clan, and did not succeed his father. The 

 speaker affirmed that the league was in existence 

 long before the days of Columbus, and was enthu- 

 siastic in his opinion of its efficiency. 



Mr. H. C. Stone described the ' Eyah Shah, the 

 sacrificial stone of the Dakotas.' The Dakotas 

 worship the bowlders scattered among the hills, 

 and expect to be aided by them in times of dis- 

 tress. But the peculiarity of the ' Eyah Shah ' was 

 that it was a place of worship from year to year. 



