ii8 



SCIENCE. 



[Vol. XII. No. 292 



women of certain tribes, all of which belong to the Nu-Aruak stock. 

 Tattooing is also limited to the ceramic tribes. The most perfect 

 objects of their industry are the masks used in dancing. The 

 Tupi tribes make them of painted fabrics ; the others, of wood, 

 with large noses and small openings for the eyes, ornamented with 

 a symmetrical design of the face. 



In general, only the men take part in the dances, ornamented 

 with feathers, and with the body enveloped in cloaks of palm-fibre. 

 The step is marked by the shaking of a rattle, and the dance is 

 accompanied by songs containing ancient words, some of which 

 are evidently unintelligible to the Indians themselves. The only 

 other musical instrument is the flute of one or three tubes, and of 

 all sizes, from very small ones up to those in which the larger tube is 

 as high as a man. In the dances great use is made of bows and 

 arrows, and, in the Tupi tribes, of a peculiar form of arrow, shot, 

 not from a bow, but from a throwing-stick held in the hand. The 

 dances are held within or in front of the feast-house, called the 

 ' flute-house.' It is believed that any woman who should venture 

 to enter this house would die. In other respects, however, the 

 position of the woman is not so inferior as is generally supposed. 

 Although her position may be that of a servant, she knows, like 

 her civilized sisters, how to obtain a fair share in the government. 

 They are devoted mothers, though the children are held to have 

 more intimate relations with the father, from whom they are sup- 

 posed to derive body and soul, than with the mother. Parentage, 

 however, is traced through the mother. On the occasion of a birth, 

 the father remains forseveral days in his hammock on a diet of water 

 and porridge. Marriage is monogamous, and is effected by the 

 bridegroom taking his chosen bride to his lodge and hanging his 

 hammock over hers. 



The dead are buried m front of the feast-house, with the head to 

 the east, holes or canals being made to facilitate the entrance of ants 

 and other insects. The belief in a continuation of life after death is 

 general. In dreams the soul is believed to leave the body and wander 

 in the places dreamed of ; and it is recommended not to awaken a 

 sleeper suddenly, for fear the time may not be given for the return 

 of the soul. They have many legends of their ancestors, which 

 pass from generation to generation, and appear to contain many 

 antiquated words. The idea of a personal God is unknown. The 

 pages pretend to control the storms, and all cases of illness or 

 death are attributed to them. They are also the physicians, the 

 treatment consisting principally in blowing tobacco-smoke on the 

 patient. The blowing of smoke in the ears of guests is also a sign 

 of friendship, and the latter are invited to moisten the ears of their 

 hearers with spittle in order to be more clearly understood. The 

 pagis appear to enjoy as much respect as the chiefs. The authority 

 of the latter, unless it be in war, is not great. Dissatisfaction with 

 the government is expressed by a migration in a body from the 

 village, leaving the government to itself. 



The number of Indians on the Batovy and Kuliseu is estimated 

 at more than three thousand. Before returning, the explorers dis- 

 tributed among them their stores, including over fourteen hundred 

 knives, so that the future traveller in this region will no longer find 

 the stone age. Orville A. Derby. 



Rio de Janeiro, July 26. 



Proceedings of the Society for Psychical Research. 



In a notice of the Proceedings of the English Society for 

 Psychical Research which appeared in Science for July 20, a sentence 

 occurs which may, I think, mislead your readers on a rather im- 

 portant point. The writer refers to the statement in the Proceed- 

 ings, that certain girls, from whom experimental evidence of 

 telepathy had been gained, were afterwards detected in the use of 

 a code of signals ; and he goes on to say, " If scientific observers 

 can thus be deceived by young girls, . . . ought not this to impress 

 upon every investigator the profound importance of acquainting 

 himself with the possibilities of deception ? " Your readers will 

 probably infer from this that the experiments in which signalling 

 was detected were carried on under conditions which the investi- 

 gators in question had erroneously regarded as excluding the possi- 

 bility of deception. This inference, however, would be altogether 

 mistaken : the view which the investigators took of these experi- 



ments was that expressed in- ' Phantasms of the living ' (chap. ii> 

 p. 22), as regards earlier experiments of the same kind. 



" Still such simple objects would not demand an elaborate code 

 for their description ; nor were any effective means taken to block 

 the percipient's channels of sense. . . . We could not, therefore, re- 

 gard the testimony of the investigators present as adding much 

 weight to the experiments in which any members of the family 

 were among the group of agents, unless the percipient was com- 

 pletelj^ isolated from that group." 



As is explained in the passage of the Proceedings to which your 

 reviewer refers, the experiments in which signalling was detected 

 were merely interludes among other experiments conducted under 

 more stringent conditions, which were complete failures. 



Frederic W. H. Myers. 



Cambridge. Eng., Aug. 24. 



Effigy Mounds in Northern Illinois. 



That imitative or ' effigy ' mounds are to be found in northern 

 and north-western Illinois has been asserted from time to time in 

 works treating of the remains of the mound-builders ; but no one 

 seems hitherto to have gone to any great trouble to prove the fact, 

 much less to accurately survey, map, and publish specimens of them 

 — at least, not so far as I have been able to find out. 



Mr. Lapham, in his well-known work ' Antiquities of Wisconsin ' 

 (1S55), mentions mounds of the ' turtle ' form on Rock River as far 

 south as Rockford, and others on Apple River in Illinois, a few 

 miles south of the State line of Wisconsin. 



In the fifth volume of the ' Geological Survey of Illinois,' A. H. 

 Worthen, director (1S73), especial mention is made of ancient 

 mounds at Rockford and in its vicinity, particularly the one known 

 as the ' Turtle Mound.' He says it resembles an alligator with its 

 head cut off more than it does a turtle. 



The above is all the information I have been able to find in print 

 on the subject, though possibly there may have been minor articles 

 in newspapers or other periodicals, now as completely lost as the 

 proverbial needle in the haystack. 



In a tour I made this spring in the region treated of, I looked for 

 mounds of this class, and found them scattered at intervals along 

 the Rock River valley, and also at points to the westward. I sur- 

 veyed some of the best preserved of them, and here give succinct 

 descriptions of four, which all differ from each other in shape, with 

 necessary illustrative diagrams exactly drawn to scale from my 

 field-notes. 



The so-called ' Rockford Turtle ' (i) in Winnebago County is situ- 

 ated between Main Street and Rock River, four blocks north of State 

 Street, in the city of Rockford. It is 184! feet long from the tip of 

 its tail to the centre of the farther end, where a head should be, ac- 

 cording to our ideas. It is thr^e feet high at the junction of the 

 hind-legs with the body, at the junction of the fore-legs and body 

 the average height is 4 feet, but from the bottom of a slight swale 

 that passes the head the height is 5* feet. In connection with this 

 effigy there is a bird (with one wing demolished), seven round 

 mounds, and two embankments. These mounds are located on 

 the most beautiful spot in the city, and, with one exception, have 

 been well preserved by the owners of the land. 



The bird-effigy (2) is on the east side of Rock River, some 

 five miles below Rockford, on the N.W. \ of Sec. 14, T. 43, R. i, 

 E., in Winnebago County also. Its length from top of head to end 

 of tail is 45i feet ; and from tip to tip of wings, following the cen- 

 tres, it is 68 feet. The height at the junction of the wings and 

 body is 2 feet. While this is unquestionably intended to represent 

 a bird, vet it is impossible to give it a closer classification. With it 

 there are three embankments and two round mounds. The group 

 is situated on a high bank some 45 feet above the river, and com- 

 mands a fine view. 



The animal (3) is on the N.W. i of Sec. 22, T. 26, R. 2, E., some 

 two miles below the village of Hanover, in Jo Daviess County, and 

 on the east side of Apple River. Its greatest length in an air line 

 is 216 feet, and the average height of the body 5* feet. The body 

 and head are on nearly level ground, while the legs run down the 

 slope. The fore-leg rests on the end of an embankment which is 

 170 feet long and i foot high. From the general appearance at the 



