January 8, 1892.] 



SCIENCE. 



19 



Their use was found impracticable on account of the cost. Many 

 farmers believe that salt either kills wireworms or drives theui 

 deeper into the soil beyond the roots of crops, and a series of care- 

 fully planned experiments were made to test this theory. The 

 results showed that in order to destroy wireworms salt must be 

 used at the rate of about eight tons to the acre, or over one per 

 cent of the soil to a depth of four inches must be salt. Half a 

 ton of salt to the acre was found sufficient to prevent one-half the 

 wheat from germinating, and four tons per acre, applied in July, 

 killed all the grass in a few days. In soil salted at the i-ale of 

 1,000 pounds per acre the worms were found, after some months, 

 as numerous and as near the surface as in unsalted soil. Kainit, 

 a German potash salt now used extensively as a feltilizer, hai 

 been supposed to be useful in exterminating wireworms, and the 

 syndicate which is pushing the ."^ale of Kainit in this country 

 make great claims ou this score ; but in the Cornell experiments 

 four to nine tons of Kainit per acre produced but little if any 

 effect upon the wireworms in the soil. Other potash salts gave no 

 better results. Lime, applied at the rate of 200 bushels per acre, 

 had no effect upon the wireworms. Chloride of lime, used at the 

 rate of nearly six tons per acre (costing about one hundred dol- 

 lar's per ton), was found to be quite effective. Gas lime, applied 

 fresh and at the rate of twenty to forty tons per acre, proved par- 

 tially effective. Trapping by baits produced the only results that 

 gave any encouragement, but these baits caught, not the wire-- 

 worms, but its parent, the click-beetle. The most satisfactory 

 trap was a wad of fresh clover, dipped in Paris green water and 

 placed under a board. These experiments were made in cages in 

 such manner that the conditions could be absolutely controlled 

 and the results accurately deteruiined. Their negative results 

 may be of great value to farmers by preventing the waste of time 

 and money in trying useless methods of prevention. The only 

 hope of a practicable remedy the investigators hold out to the 

 faimei's is that by fall plowmg the worms may be disturbed at a 

 critical period of their existence, when disturbance means dpath. 

 They recommend plowing as soon as possible after wheat harvest. 

 pulverizing immediately and thoroughly with the harrow, and 

 seeding with wheat or rye in September, followed by not more 

 than one or two crops of grass or clover, this to be plowed under 

 in the summer as before. It will take several years of this method 

 of short rotations to exterminate the worms, as they live for three 

 years in the worm stage, and can only be injured by plowing at 

 a certain period, but farmers who practise this method have little 

 or no trouble from wireworms. 



— At the recent annual meeting of the American Folk-Lore So- 

 ciety, in Washington, D. C, Rev. J. Owen Dorsey read a paper, 

 entitled, 'Nanibozhu in Siouan Mythology." At the previous 

 annual meeting of the Society (in New York), a paper was read 

 by Professor A. F. Chamberlain of Clark University, on "Nani- 

 bozhu among the Otchipwe, Mississagas, and other. Algonkian 

 Tribes." (Journal American Folk-Lore, for July-September, 1891, 

 pp. 193-213). Mr. Dorsey's paper was designed to show the 

 points of agreement and difference (so far as Nanibozhu is con- 

 cerned) in the mythologies of the two linguistic stocks of fami- 

 lies, the Algonkian and the Siouan. In the preparation of Mr. 

 Dorsey's paper, the author consulted the myths of the Omahas, 

 Ponkas, Kansas or Kaws, Osages, lowas and Otos, all of which 

 were collected by himself for the Bureau of Ethnology, and the 

 Dakota myths of the late missionary, S. R. Riggs, and those in 

 the Bushotter collection, these last consisting of two hundred and 

 fifty-seven texts written by an Indian in the Teton dialect of the 

 Dakota language. In Algonkian mythology, Nanibozhu, Mana- 

 bush, or the Great Hare (sometimes called the Manito of winter), 

 is a single character, easily identifiable. But in Siouan mythology 

 we find several characters, each one of whom resembles the Algon- 

 kian Nanibozhu in one or more respects. The principal characters 

 thus known to the Omahas and Ponkas are the following : 1. The 

 Rabbit, the great friend of the Indian race (answering to the 

 Badger in Dakota mythology). 3. I shtini ke, the enemy of the 

 Rabbit, the great Deceiver, a malevolent being. His Dakota 

 counterpart, I-klo or I kto-mi in Teton, and Un kto mi in Santee 

 Dakota, is often a clown, a "jolly good fellow" deceived by the 

 Ranbit, malevolent on some occasions. The Omahas call I-shti- 



ni-ke the "Black Man," and they and the Ponkas now apply his 

 name to any species of ape or monkey. The Dakotas give the 

 name of Ikto or UnUtomi to the spider. 3. Ha-ghi-ge, a very 

 cunning person, who wounds two water gods in order to avenge 

 the death of his little brother, meets I-shti-ni-ke, when the latter 

 is disguised as He-ga, the Buzzard, learns his secret power, and 

 then kills him; kills the water gods whom he had wounded; is 

 chased by the other deities, but escapes by becoming a large rock; 

 restores his brother to life for a season; and has other adventures. 

 The other characters who resemble Nanibozhu are as follows: In 

 Dakota myths, the Badger figures instead of the Rabbit, and the 

 Blood-Clots Boy takes the place of the Rabbit's son, the orphan 

 and Wears-a-pluraein-his hair. In the myths of the Omahas it is 

 the orphan who kills I shti-ni-ke, but the Ponkas refer that act to 

 the Rabbit's son. Wears a plume inhis-hair was the conqueror 

 of the "Bad Men," magicians, three of whom he killed; besought 

 the survivor, but did not recognize him in his disguise as a beau- 

 tiful woman. The woman induced the hero to rest his head in 

 her lap, and while he slept she changed him into a mangy dog, 

 and took the hero's shape. In the course of time, the hero was 

 restored to his own shape. He changed the bad man into a dog, 

 and then killed him. The Omaha and Ponka myths referred to in 

 this paper are given in full in their respective originals (with free 

 and interlinear translations) in " Contributions to N. A. Ethnology," 

 Vol. 6, which has just been published. The paper on Nanibozhu 

 will probably appear in a future number of the Journal of Ameri- 

 can Folk-Lore. 



— In a recent number of The Illustrated American is an illus- 

 trated article on the Museum of Natural History at South Ken- 

 sington, which was first thrown open to the public on Easter 

 Monday, 1881. Some years ago the British Museum had become 

 so overstocked in certain departments that it was deemed neces- 

 sary to erect another structure, to contain all objects connected 

 with natural history, and Parliament voted three hundred and 

 ninety five thousand pounds (nearly two million dollars) for the 

 purpose. Alfred Waterhouse was the architect chosen to carry 

 out the work. The architecture may be termed Decorated Nor- 

 man, and in some respects it is unique. The whole edifice is 

 cased with terra cotta, and the doorways and windows are orna- 

 mented with columns designed from objects of natural history — 

 two features that have provoked much criticism. It has been 

 charged, says The Illustrated American, that the tint of the terra 

 cotta is not suitable for making the various articles in the museum 

 stand out in relief; that it was a mistake to bring in close proxim- 

 ity the real objects of natural history and the conventional repre- 

 sentation of them adopted by architects; and that the crowding 

 together on the same column or moulding representations on one 

 scale, of microscopic and gigantic organisms, inhabitants of sea 

 and land, was unwarrantable in a building designed for educa- 

 tional purposes. Complaint has also been made that the great 

 hall is semi-ecclesiastical in style. The south front of the building 

 is six hundred and seventy-five feet long. There are three 

 stories, in addition to the basement. The central hall is one hun- 

 dred and fifty feet long, ninety- five feet wide and sixty feet high- 

 Along its two sides are twelve arched recesses. The floor is in. 

 laid with mosaics of Itahan marble. At the north end of the hall 

 is a wide handsome staircase, which branches off, right and left, 

 to the open corridors or side aisles on either hand upon the first 

 floor. Where the stairs branch a superb marble statue of Darwin 

 has been placed. The lofty ceiling is admirably decorated, and 

 is very effective. Along its central line there is a double row of 

 panels, in groups of six, following the curve of the vault. On 

 these are representations, in relief, of many species of trees, 

 shrubs and flowering plants. Each tree decorating the central 

 part of the ceiling occupies six panels. The height of the build- 

 ing makes this bold treatment absolutely necessary. But over 

 the staircase and landing leading to the second floor the ceiling 

 is less distant from the eye; therefore a tree is represented in each 

 panel, and many fine details have been carefully worked out, 

 details that were purposely omitted in the central part, as they 

 would have been lost in the distance. One unpleasing effect of 

 the loftiness of the arched roof is that it dwarfs the cases placed 

 around the room. 



