364 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. IV. No. 89. 



morphology and syntax, though presenting 

 some peculiarities, are not excessively compli- 

 cated. It is incorporative in a high degree, a 

 unique trait of its infixation being the incorpo- 

 ration in the verbal stem not only of the object, 

 but of a generic particle which includes it. 

 Another oddity is the attraction of the number 

 of the object to that of the subject, as if we 

 were to say, ' I teach him,' and ' we teach hims.' 

 The grammatic analysis is ably carried out. The 

 dictionary, taken from that of Father Gilbert! 

 who wrote in the sixteenth century, occupies 

 150 pages, and the texts, mostly religious and 

 therefore of secondary value, are sufficient to 

 show how Europeans wrote the tongue. A 

 bibliography is added and a slight sketch of 

 the history of the tribe. Both the authors are 

 well known by their previous valuable contri- 

 butions to American studies. 



The work of Dr. Stoll is a continuation of his 

 fruitful contributions to the ethnography of 

 Guatemala. The K'ekchi is a dialect of the 

 Mayan stock still spoken in the department of 

 Vera Paz, Guatemala, by about 85,000 natives. 

 It stands in near relation to the Quiche-Cakchi- 

 quel group of the stock, but is sharply contrasted 

 with these idioms by the wearing away of many 

 of the forms, especially in suffix verbal deriva- 

 tives. This suggests at once that with respect 

 to them it is of modern formation. 



The author devotes about a hundred pages to 

 the grammar, which he analyses with the same 

 thoroughness which characterized his former 

 essay on the Pokomchi and the Ixil dialects. 

 The vocabulary presents over three thousand 

 words in correct phonetic form, based on a 

 variety of authorities. 



The volume closes with thirty pages devoted 

 to the Uspanteca dialect. This is spoken in and 

 near the village of San Miguel Uspantan, and 

 was formerly included in the Quiche group ; 

 but Dr. Stoll shows that it is more closely con- 

 nected with the Pokom group. 



The interest attaching to this work is enhanced 

 by the recent investigations into the archaeology 

 of the K' ekchi territory. Their ancestors prob- 

 ably erected the remarkable buildings at Copan, 

 Quirigua and Tzac Pokoma; their pottery be- 

 longed to the most perfect on the continent ; 

 and the numerous mounds and sites throughout 



their land still offer most attractive fields for 

 exploration. 



D. G. Brinton. 

 Univeesity of Pennsylvania. 



SCIENTIFIC JOURNALS. 



PSYCHE, SEPTEMBER. 



A. P. Morse continues his notes on the New 

 England Tryxalinse by a consideration of the 

 genera Chloealtis and Stenobothrus, one species 

 of each. F. L. Harvey describes and figures a 

 Thysanuran from Maine, possibly distinct from 

 VdiOkSiV^^ & Anoura gihhosa. H. G. Dyar gives the 

 life history of Ichthyura strigosa Grote. S. Hen- 

 shaw adds a new instalment of his biblographi- 

 cal notes, being a list of the entomological arti- 

 cles in Garden and Forest, 1892-1895. The Pro- 

 ceedings of the Cambridge Entomological Club 

 follow, the principal point of which is found in 

 A. G. Mayer's account of the pigment in lepidop- 

 terous scales. 



NEW BOOKS. 



The Biological Problem of To-day. Dr. Oscar 

 Hertwig. Authorized Translation by P. 

 Chalmers Mitchell. New York, The Mac- 

 millan Co. Pp. xix+148. $1.25. 



Text-book of Paleontology. Carl A. Von Zit- 

 TEL. Translated and Edited by Charles E. 

 Eastman. Vol. I., Part I. Pp. 352, 593 

 Woodcuts. New York and London, The 

 Macmillan Co. $2.75. 



A Geographical History of Mammals. R. Ly- 

 dekker. Cambridge, University Press ; New 

 York, The Macmillan Co. 1896. Pp. xii 

 + 400. $2.60. 



The Principles of the Transformer. Frederick 

 Bedell. New York and London, The Mac- 

 millan Co. 1896. Pp. iv + 416. $3.25. 



The Gas and Oil Engine. Dugald Clerk. 

 Sixth edition revised and enlarged. New 

 York, John Wiley & Sons. . Pp. xii + 538. 



Modern Optical Instruments. Henry Orford. 

 London, Whittaker & Co.; New York, The 

 Macmillan Co. 1896. Pp. vi + 100. 



A Catalogue of 16,748 . Southern Stars. Lieut. 

 J. M. GiLLiss. Washington, Government 

 Printing Office. Pp. xxxi + 420. 



