1 8S 2.] Anthropology. 5 1 7 



plates, the author has called attention to additional information, 

 or a modification of his views in a preface of six pages. 



Every young archaeologist should possess and study this work, 

 and older investigators will receive no 'harm from reviewing with 

 Doctor Rau the grounds of their faith. 



The Books of Chilan Balam.— A pamphlet bearing the fore- 

 going title is issued by Edward Stern & Co., of Philadelphia. It 

 is the substance of an address by Dr. Daniel G. Brinton to the 

 Numismatic and Antiquarian Society of Philadelphia, in January 

 last, which appeared also in the Penn Monthly for March. The 

 Mayas of Yucatan possessed a literature written in " letlers and 

 characters," preserved in volumes neatly bound, the paper manu- 

 factured from the bark of a tree and sized with a durable white 



The old sacred rituals preserved in these volumes were ruth- 

 lessly destroyed, but some of the intelligent natives, instructed in 

 Spanish, wrote out in a new alphabet, partly in that language and 

 partly in their own, what they remembered of the contents of 

 their ancient records. 



In whatever village or by whatever hand written out, each of 

 these books was and is called " The Book of Chilan Balam." In 

 the pamphlet before us, Dr. Brinton gives a digest of this won- 

 derful work, together with photolithography of the signs of the 

 months compared with those of Bishop Landa. 



The Relation of History to Anthropology. — In no way is 

 the influence of anthropologic methods better exhibited than in 

 the changes which have taken place among historians as to their 

 manner of treating their subject. The best illustration of this we 

 nave seen is the History of Ancient Egypt, by Canon George 

 Rawhnson, published in two beautifully illustrated volumes by S. 

 1 Cass mo, of Boston. The Egyptians themselves, undesigned- 

 ly, realized that in the coming centuries there would arrive a time 

 when men would tire of reading about long lists of kings and of 

 r oyal personages, and would ask how did such a people dress, 

 eat, build, work, fight, amuse themselves ? How did they organ- 

 ize their society? How did they treat each other, their women, 

 children, friends, or rulers? What were their methods, customs, 

 and ceremonies ? What did they know, and how did they use 

 meir knowledge? They perpetuated the knowledge of all these 

 m ? g r m hier °glyphics on papyrus and cut in stone. Their cli- 

 mate favored the permanence of their record. Canon Rawlinson 

 history before. His works on the great monarchies 



the east supersede the older histories. For a long time the 

 work before us will be the student's guide book to the geography, 

 t , lrnate , races, language, industries, art, science, and religion of 



e land bordering the river which. " is-uiing from the equatorial 



S'ons, has strength to penetrate the ' frightful desert of interm- 



