202 /KANSAS CITY HE VIEW OF SCIENCE. 



are rude representations of birds. Stone graves similar to those of Tennessee, 

 and mounds also, occur in the locality examined. Stone images already made 

 familiar to us by Stephens and Squier, and rock carvings form the closing pages 

 of the chapters devoted to Ometepec. Chapter III relates to Palmar, on the 

 mainlaind, in the department of Rivas, northwest of San Jorge; Managua; San 

 Juan del Sur; and a pottery manufactory near San Jorge. Chapter IV gives a 

 description of Nicoya and an enumeration of objects in greenstone. The con- 

 cluding chapter is devoted to the historical relations of the tribes formerly inhab- 

 iting the region, beginning with the Aztec tribes of the conquest and working 

 back to the people of the shoe-shaped burial jars, "more closely connected with 

 the South Americans than with Nahuas and Mayas of Mexico and Guatemala. "^ 

 — American Naturalist. 



NORSE MYTHOLOGY. 



The traveler in Switzerland passing from one village to another finds himself 

 ever and anon at the foot of a glacier, where he beholds in the weird cathedral out- 

 lines the crystallized remains of the soft and plastic snow, — in its high mountain 

 origin so homogeneous and so circumscribed, in its terminations so widely sepa- 

 rated and so strongly individualized. The same is true of the world's mytholo- 

 gies, all having their origin in the sensitive spirit of man as it ponders over and 

 reaches after the unseen cause of all phenomena, but transformed into distinct 

 systems through the laws of nature and the influence of circumstance. The com- 

 parison of these various resultant forms constitutes one of the most valuable chap- 

 ters in anthropology. It is impossible to attempt a scientific classification, much 

 less to make reliable deductions until all the descriptions are in. We are indebt- 

 ed to S. C. Griggs & Co., of Chicago, for the third edition of a volume upon 

 Norse Mythology, by Prof. R. B. Anderson. The introductory portion of the 

 work, though written in a style of glowing enthusiasm, does not please us so 

 much as parts I, II and III, relating to the creation and preservation of the 

 world, the life and exploits of the gods, and Ragnarak, or destruction and regen- 

 eration. The three sections are dedicated to Urd (was), Verdando (is), Skuld 

 (shall be). 



The chief depositories of the Norse mythology are the Elder or Saemund 

 Edda (poetry) and the Younger or Snorre's Edda (prose). The former consists 

 of thirty-nine poems collected by Saemund the Wise (1056 — 1133), eleven of 

 which, embodying the system of mythology, are minutely analyzed in the volume. 

 The Younger Edda was written by Snorre Sturleson, the author of the Heimskringla 

 (1178 — 1 241). In addition to these it is necessary to study all the Icelandic 

 Sagas, the Anglo-Saxon Boewulf's Drapa, and the Niebelungen iLied. 



The gods and goddesses {(zsir and dsynja) dwelling in Asgard are Odin (chief 

 of the gods), Thor (god of thunder and keeper of the hammer). Balder (summer- 

 sunlight), Tyr (Zeus, the one-armed god of war), Brage (god of poetry), Heimdal 



