204 



SCIENCH. 



[Vol. Vlll., No. 187 



The name means 'red stone.' The stone is a speci- 

 men of hornblende, but not red in color. It is dec- 

 orated by means of a painted design. 



Dr. John C. Branner presented some notes on a 

 Brazilian language. The language, which is un- 

 like any other Brazilian tongue, is spoken by a 

 small and rapidly disappearing tribe in the prov- 

 ince of Pernambuco. Some of its peculiarities 

 are the use of a dual number ; the grammatical 

 distinction between objects belonging to the 

 speaker and those belonging to others ; the posi- 

 tion of the accusative case at the opening of the 

 sentence ; the absence of labial sounds (due per- 

 haps to the use of lip ornaments); and the presence 

 of several sounds not found in the Portuguese lan- 

 guage. 



Mr. George F. Kunz read a paper on four gold 

 and five silver ornaments from mounds in Florida. 

 One of the gold ornaments weighed 75^ penny- 

 weights, another 60, and two 19i and 10 penny- 

 weights each respectively. For North American 

 gold-finds they are remarkable. They were sug- 

 gested to be of Georgia gold origin. An eight-inch 

 ornamented circular shield of gold, a very elabo- 

 rately ornamented wire gold nose ring and other 

 gold objects from the United States of Columbia, 

 were also described. 



At the last meeting of the section the members 

 were agreeably surprised by the startling paper of 

 Mi's. Nuttall Pinart, containing some analyses of 

 Mexican inscriptions. The great novelty of her 

 interpretation consists in interpreting the Mexican 

 symbols as phonetics and not as ideograms, thus 

 completely revolutionizing the current conceptions 

 on this subject. Her method has been applied to 

 the deciphering of certain calendar and sacrificial 

 stones of Mexico, and was suggested by the pres- 

 ence on these of certain phonetic symbols occurring 

 in picture-writings. This so-called calendar stone 

 Mrs. Pinart believes to be the market stone of the 

 City of Mexico. It regulated the times of holding 

 the market days ; and perhaps the division of the 

 Mexican year rested upon these times. It also 

 gives evidence to the existence of a communistic 

 government. The means by which these striking 

 results have been obtained can be illustrated by 

 the following case. From the words tetl (' stone ') 

 and isctli (' face ' or ' surface ') and pan (' upon ') 

 we obtain, by combination according to the rules 

 of the Nahuatl grammar, the word teiscpan, 

 meaning ' publicly,' the name of which, teisepanca, 

 means 'something evident and manifest to all.' 

 Dr. Brinton, who read Mrs. Pinart's communica- 

 tion, reinarked upon it. that it was of epoch-mak- 

 ing importance, and that if, as is probable, her 

 method should be justified, we will have a new key 

 for unlocking the mysteries of Mexico. It may 



be well to add that this rebus-writing was an arti- 

 ficial system used by the priests, and that the so- 

 lution of the problem consists in showing that this 

 secret writing, read as a combination of phonetics, 

 becomes intelligible as a piece of Nahuatl language ; 

 just as though a secret language were made by 

 using words the several parts of which formed 

 other words, e.g., 'carpet' would be the picture 

 of a car and of a pet. 



The section was much interested in Professor 

 Putnam's general sketch of the recent progress 

 and significance of mound excavations. The usual 

 view that regards all mounds as nearly identical 

 in character and origin was discountenanced, and, 

 in opposition, it was held that only a careful and 

 detailed examination of a large number of mounds 

 would supply the requisite data for a consistent 

 picture of the mound-builders and their works. 

 Nor are we justified in regarding the single char- 

 acteristic of mound-building as a sufiicient basis 

 for considering the builders as belonging to the 

 same race. The character of the mounds, their 

 contents, their apparent purposes, all force upon us 

 the conclusion that we are dealing with different 

 anthi-opological races and with peoples of different 

 times. One can even find mounds which seem to 

 have been used for a second time while the first 

 mound had been forgotten or at any rate ignored. 

 So, too, with the question of age. Some mounds 

 are evidently of recent origin, while others form a 

 group which may be called ancient. Professor 

 Putnam illustrated his remarks by off-hand 

 sketches of the plans of various mounds which 

 have been excavated under his direction and that 

 of Dr. Metz, in the Lower Miami valley. 



On the whole, the organization of the section of 

 anthropology leaves much to be desired. Its pop- 

 ularity is at once a good and an evil ; its good 

 consists in attracting general attention to the 

 variety and importance of the problems connected 

 with man ; its evil, in that this variety and inter- 

 est are apt to give admittance to papers of too 

 vague and pointless a character, which have no 

 place in the sciences and neither bring nor suggest 

 any thing new. It is the section that more than 

 any other needs to be conducted on a strictly sci- 

 entific plane, because its subject-matter is more 

 open to a non-scientific treatment. There is no 

 reason why this section should not be made to 

 represent the high-water mark of American 

 scholarship in the many interesting sciences that 

 centre about anthropology. 



The American association unanimously passed 

 a resolution expressing its gratification at hearing 

 of Dr. Gould's proposed revival of The astronomical 

 journal, and its good vs'ishes for its success. 



