196 General Notes. [ March, 
divers flowers, fruits, and Sr SE emblems are attached in 
addition to the ordinary no 
“ Besides the modes of write just méntioned the sculptures ex- 
hibit another method of representing emotions and aspirations 
not expressible in words. It consisted in wavy ridges or lines 
originating either from the mouth or from the girdle of the sup- 
pliant, and uniting at the upper extremity, or separated like the 
conventional sign for flames. 1e artists of Palenque have ex- 
pressed a somewhat similar conception by a figure blowing a 
horn, from the end of which proceed similar wavy lines to de- 
signate either the music or the escaping breath. (Stephens, Incidents 
of Travels, c. ii, 354.) Besides these methods of expressing 
thought there are, as before mentioned, hieroglyphics, chiefly 
a circular ridge inclosing the head of an animal or a pointed 
trefoil. 
“In regard to the piai for numerals, it i$ evident that the radix 
of their system, whatever may have been its s value, was repre- 
sented by a circle, the same sign indicating zero in our system. 
A single horizontal line may be taken for a unit, two lines inter- 
secting asin a Roman X, some other value, and lines shorter 
than the unit may be taken for fractional parts. This system of 
recording numbers throws some light on the question whether 
the ancient inhabitants of Middle America had any intercourse 
with the civilized nations of Europe. Evidently, if by accident 
or design, Egyptians, Phcenicians, Jews, or any other race ha 
imported their civilization into Amer rica, some traces of it would 
be exhibited here.’ 
ANTHROPOLOGICAL News.—-The following brief notices may be 
of interest to some: In the Mittheilungen der Anthropologischen 
Gesellschaft in Wien, Dr. M. Much has a paper (pp. 203- -273) 
upon agriculture among the ancient Germans, in which he takes 
the ground that the ancestors of the present Germans were always 
a settled people in Germany. The paper evinces a great deal of 
schaft, zu Kiel, 12-14. Aug. 1878, in rata. asap No. 
10. The Races of European Turkey: Their History, Condition 
and Prospects, by Edson I. Clark, Dodd & Mead. 
Esquisse d'une Grammaire Raisonnée de la Langue Aleoute. 
V. Henry. Revue Linguistique, Oct—Dec., 1878. Aborigines of 
the Housatonic Valley, E. W. B. Canning, Magazine of American 
— Dec., 1878. Oregon: The origin and meaning of the 
e, id., Jan., 1879. The Wanga Plant and Voudooism, Phila- 
dep Medical ow hi ua 5 39. 
be 
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