May 26, 1893.] 



SCIENCE. 



287 



was from west to east; that they were emigrants from European 

 lands; and, in fact, were none other than a part of oui- old 

 friends, the Pelasgi of Greece; and these in turn were of the 

 same stock as the Tyrseni and Etrusci of Italy. Sufficient pan 

 be said for the theory to make it worth further and serious inves- 

 tigation. 



An older theory, to wit, that the trueHittite is an Indo-Euroi>ean 

 language most akin to the modern Armenian and probably it.s 

 ancestor, has been revived with considerable force by Proffssor 

 Peter Jensen of the University of Marburg. His article is in tlie 

 Sunday-School Times, March 25 and April 1. His criticism on 

 Peiser's theory, that it is allied to the Turkish, is severe and 

 merited. With reference to the puzzling and complex questions 

 suggested by the inscriptions and ethnic types presented by the 

 ancient oionuments of Cilicia, he proposes the theory that the 

 rulers of this district were at one time Semites or strongly semit- 

 ized, while the mass of the population was of Indo-European 

 blood. His opinion of his predecessors' studies is briefly summed 

 up in these words, with reference to those of Sayce, Conder, 

 Peiser, Ball, and Wright: "All are without foundation, and 

 their results are destitute of value "' ! 



A Linguistic Map of Guatemala. 



Dr. Karl Sapper of Coban, Guatemala, has published in the 

 first; number of Petermann's Mittlieihingen for the current year 

 a map showing the present distribution of the native languages 

 in Guatemala, accompanying it with a carefully prepared article 

 on the dialects and culture conditions of the descendants 

 of the aborigenes of that country. Much of it is from bis 

 own studies, much of it from the excellent works of Dr. 

 StoU. He does not seem to be aware of the publication by me 

 of the material collected by Dr. Berendt on the Xinca, the Pipil 

 of Acasaguastlan, and other dialects. He falls into the rather 

 serious error, which I pointed out in a paper published by the 

 Congress of Americanists (session of 1890), of locating a lan- 

 guage of the Mixe group in Guatemala, though he adds that no 

 signs of it now exist. It never was there. He fails to solve the 

 only real obscurity which remains in the linguistics of Guate- 

 mala, that is, the identification of the Popoluca located by the 

 historian Juarros at Conguaco, in the partido of Guazacapan, 

 which was not Xinca. 



The language of Yupiltepeche considers a dialect of the Zinca, 

 and brings into closer relationship the Chorti and the Choi, 

 His expressions about the dialect of the Cajaboneros are not 

 clear; in one sentence he speaks of their tongue as containing 

 elements fundamentally diverse, " urspriinglich fremd," to the 

 Kekchi; and in another refers to this element as perhaps Choi, 

 which is merely another Maya dialect. 



While Dr. Sapper' work is open to these slight criticisms, it is 

 in the main worthy of the highest praise. 



The Earliest Extension of the Iron Age. 



In these notes {Science, March 10) I referred to some recent 

 studies on the early Iron Age in central Europe. The question 

 still remains. When and how did the art of working iron reach 

 those localities ? T%vo valuable papers of late publication have 

 interesting suggestions touching this point. One is on " Le 

 Premier Age du Fer au Caucase,'' by M. Ernest Chantre, who for 

 twenty years has travelled, studied and excavated in the Cau- 

 casus; the other by M Louis Siret, scarcely less distinguished 

 for his archEeological camijaigns in Spain. Some remarkable 

 coincidences are pointed out by both. 



M. Chantre finds that the most ancient sepulchres in Lower 

 Chaldea which contain iron are shown by their funerary contents 

 to be contemporaneous with the third and fourth dynasties of 

 Egypt, at which period occur the first signs of this industry on 

 the Nile. At the lowest, this would place them 2500 years, B.C. 

 The knowledge of the metal reached the southern and central 

 vales of the Caucasus about 1500 B.C., through the extension of 

 a "Semito-Kushite " people, who were the ancestors of the mod- 

 ern Ossetes. They were distinctly non-Aryans, and the art of 

 working iron was not introduced by them into Europe. Later 

 on, about the seventh century, B.C., their culture was deeply 



modified by irruptions of Mongolic hordes from the East. (All 

 this in spite of the fact thai, the modern Ossetes speak an Aryan 

 tongue !) 



The proof of this early Semitic influence is found in the iden- 

 tity of art-motives, decorations and methods, and especially in 

 the numerous traces of the worship of the goddess Ishtar, the 

 Astarte of the Phcenicians. In the Caucasus, as elsewhere, her 

 favorite symbol, the dove, is constantly met with in ancient 

 tombs; as is also that of the hand, employed in her rites as the 

 symbol of adoration and peace. 



It is true, as M. Chantre remarks, that in every station of the 

 earliest iron age in Europe, from Greece to Scandinavia, we find 

 figurines of birds, evidently sacred, and all to be traced to the 

 dove of Astarte. They are proofs of w.hat impressed M. Siret so 

 much in his study of the earliest civilization of the Iberian Pen- 

 insula, — " the worship of a female deity represented under vari- 

 ous symbols." He also, in his enticle in L' Anthropologie, 1892, 

 No. 4, is forced by the results of his own excavations to assign 

 this civilization to the daring early navigators of Semitic blood, 

 to the Phoenicians, sailing from the far east of the Mediter- 

 ranean, rounding the rocky shores of Spain in search of tin from 

 the Cassiterrides, or amber from the far-off shores of the Baltic. 

 The first signs of iron there follow without a break on a highly 

 developed bronze period ; and its earliest discovered use was as 

 rivets to fasten together plates of bronze. This indicates peace- 

 able introduction and artistic growth, not the result of violence 

 and conquest. The merchant, not the warrior, was the civil- 

 izer. 



LETTERS TO THE EDITOR. 



#♦» Correspondents are requested to he as brief as possible. The loriter's name 

 is in all cases required as proof of good faith. 



On request in advance, one hundred copies of the number containing hie 

 communication will be furnished free to any correspondent. 



The editor will be glad to publish any queries consonant with the character 

 of the journal. 



Sham Biology. 



The article "On the Emergence of a Sham Biology in Afnsrica" 

 undoubtedly brought much joy to many botanists. Some of us 

 know from experience that many American botanists are never 

 so much tickled as when some one has gotten them to believe a 

 zoologist is hopping about a botanist and is worrying over the 

 adhesive soil the botanist is trying to shake from his own trousers 

 and boots onto those of the zoologist. 



Feeling himself above any and'all of the charges made in the 

 interesting tirade, the present writer hss concluded he ought to 

 at least make an attempt to show how strong a position his col- 

 league had taken. No chuckling botanist can have any rational 

 ground for gleefully pointing to me as a zoologist badly hurt. 

 Notwithstanding this, I am fully aware of the fact that nothing 

 others may do or say is too minute to impel some people to strike 

 their breasts, pour out eloquent prayers of thanks, and then go 

 their way rejoicing over the capital they imagine can be made 

 out of the sins of others. I also must say I am not at all sure of 

 what my fellow-zoologists will think of me for daring to answer 

 for others. The unqualified and sweeping statements in several 

 places technically include me, and this fact I offer as an excuse 

 for attempting to indicate to botanists that the " sham biology " 

 article is not so impregnable a piece of scientific work as I know 

 many think it is. 



It may be well to forestall possible taunting thrusts by stating 

 that I have never desired to give a course in "general biology;" 

 that I never attempted to plan, nor even thought of iManning, 

 a course in general biology to be given under my supervision, 

 though the opportunity to do so was before me when I came to 

 the University of Minnesota as an instructor. I have always in- 

 sisted, and now insist, upon the independence, the autonomy of 

 the two sub-departments of biology. My whole record stands as 

 a proof of this, and therefore it cannot be said with justice that 

 I belong to a class often called "sore-heads." 



Let us at the outset agree to take the figures of speech for what 

 they evidently were intended to illustrate, and not try to divert 

 the real issues by seizing an opportunity to nag our immaculate 

 brethren iil botany. 



