July 31, 1896.] 



SCIENCE. 



135 



to observe accurately and never to put their 

 conclusions in their note books, until they 

 can base such conclusions on what they have 

 seen. I have known of teachers who re- 

 quire their students to balance large num- 

 bers of equations, outside of the laboratory 

 and according to set rules, and thus en- 

 tirely subvert the purpose of chemical no- 

 tation, which is, at its best, but a short 

 means of expressing observed chemical 

 facts, and as such should only be used in 

 the laboratory as a means of describing what 

 the student has actually seen. The former 

 course leads the beginner to the conclusion 

 that chemical reactions must actually take 

 place exactly as the equation demands ; the 

 latter teaches him to observe accurately and 

 to express his observations in the terms of 

 the science. Finally, I* regard such work 

 as this fitted only for advanced students ; 

 the chemical equation has but a small place 

 in the beginning study of chemistry. 



Paul C. Freer. 



CURRENT NOTES ON ANTHROPOLOGY. 

 MYTHS OP THE NORTHWEST COAST. 



For some years Dr. Franz Boas has been 

 collecting and publishing the myths and 

 stories of the tribes of the northwest coast. 

 In the last number of the Zeitschrifi fur 

 Eihnologie for 1895 he sums up his theories 

 of their development and extension. His 

 conclusions are that the tribes there located 

 not only borrowed from all parts of America, 

 but drew largely for their material from the 

 Old World also. 



This conclusion from such an eminent au- 

 thority will give considerable satisfaction 

 to those who are on the hunt for traces of 

 Asiatic culture in America. Dr. Boas 

 reaches it by counting the number of ' ele- 

 ments ' or incidents in a story, and then as- 

 certaining how many of them reappear in a 

 similar story told at a more or less distant 

 point. If the coincidences are many, he 

 considers it proof of borrowing. 



There are various objections to this rough 

 and ready method, notably one, to wit : 

 that all ' elements ' are not equally valu- 

 able for comparison, to which obvious fact 

 he does not appear to attach much weight. 



It is curious to note in the same number 

 of the Zeitschrifi that Frobenius, in dis- 

 cussing the prevalence of vase worship, 

 quite positively condemns the hypothesis 

 which is at the base of Dr. Boas' argu- 

 ments. Evidently the subject is still an 

 open question. 



THE STORY OF 'NUMBER NIP.' 



The story of ' Number Nip,' the tricky 

 wood and mountain sprite, is not unknown 

 to English folklore, but is not prominent in 

 it, and was introduced at a rather recent 

 date from Germany. There, under the 

 name Eiibezahl, he figures, especially in 

 the Riesengebirge, as a prominent person- 

 age in the tales and superstitions of the 

 population. He has been made the subject 

 of a singularly learned monograph lately by 

 Dr. A. Lincke, of Dresden, who, in an oc- 

 tavo of fifty pages, brings together pretty 

 much everything, at least references to it, 

 that has been written about him. 



The general conclusion appears to be 

 that Riibezahl is no more at home in the 

 Giant Mountains than he is in England ; 

 that perhaps he is of Slavonic origin, and 

 that his name is a Slavonic word rendered 

 into a German equivalent by that process 

 of popular language which some linguists 

 call ' otosis ; ' and that in this change of 

 place and name, like many a human ana- 

 logue, he left his good character behind 

 him. Originally he was probably a divinity 

 of the fields and crops, or vegetation and 

 growth. Or he is a rain and thunder god 

 of the old Germans, to which Dr. Lincke 

 inclines ; in either case, once a highly re- 

 spectable god, and no mere Kobold. The 

 title of Dr. Lincke's paper is ' Die Neuesten 

 Eiibezahlforschungen. Ein Blick in die 



