616 The American Naturalist. [August, 
has published two memoirs of great interest in the transactions 
of the American Philosophical Society, the second of which 
was issued in the present year. From this memoir and the pre- 
vious one of De Sarzec and Heuzey I compile a few facts regard- 
ing the physical characters and habits of the earliest inhabit- 
ants of Chaldea, the Sumerians or Accadians. The informa- 
tion on these points is obtained largely from statues and picture- 
carvings on tablets of a dark limestone, found by De Sarzec at 
Tel-lo, and by Haynes at Nippur. The figures of animals of 
known species are so characteristic as to prove that the artists 
possessed a true eye for form. We may infer that their delin- 
eations of man are equally accurate, and that the conspicuous 
characters which they exhibit are trustworthy delineations. 
The general resemblance between the features depicted show 
that we have to do with an interesting and peculiar race. 
In the numbers of the Naturatist for January and Febru- 
ary, 1893, Mrs. A. Bodington gave our readers a sketch of the 
Sumerian question. She followed the belief which had 
gained currency at one time, that these people were of Mongo- 
lian origin. Others have suggested that they were African. 
The drawings and statues described by Heuzey and Hilprecht 
show that these ideas were quite unfounded. I reproduce one 
of the latter from Hilprecht (Plate XVI, 1. c.), which is known 
as the stele of Ur-Inlil. Ur-Inlil was the high priest (or padesi) 
of Nippur, and he is represented as making an offering to some 
god on the upper half of the drawing. On the lower half a 
goat and a sheep are followed by two men, one of whom carries 
a vessel on his head, the other carries a stick (Plate XII). An- 
other tablet from Nippur displays the same kind of men, and 
they are also represented on eleven tablets figured by De Sar- 
zec and Heuzey from Tel-lo. 
That these represent a race advanced in civilization is clear. 
They built temples and palaces on huge plateaus constructed 
of brick. They carved statues and vessels and made pottery. 
Especially they left records of their history on numerous cy- 
linders and tablets of clay of which many have been preserved. 
They formed organized armies armed with spears, bows, and 
shields. What relation did these people bear to the people 
