1885. ] Recent Literature. 869 
into Aucaners, Bekoes, Moesingas, Saramacanan and Bonis. 
Their peculiar beliefs and customs, upon which the Prince’s vol- 
ume expatiates at length, are clearly of African origin and ex- 
tremely curious, Besides the ¢akitaki or Negro-English jargon 
of Suriname (from “‘¢a/kie-talkie”), each local sept uses special 
terms of African origin, and the majority also converse in the 
native African tongue. The sedentary Negroes subdivide into. 
plantation Negroes and city Negroes, these latter forming forty- 
seven percent of the whole colonial population. Specimens of 
the takitaki jargon are appended. 
A sequel to this instructive volume is announced by the 
author himself, and we wish it may be presented to the studious 
public at an early day.—A. Pinart 
e facts are correctly stated, and so are the inferences. We 
think, however, known facts do not support the enormous antiq- 
uity ascribed to man, viz., “ over two and a half million years.” 
We think these figures are beyond those of the “ best authori- 
ties.” It is better in books intended for popular use to give 
under rather than over statements. Also the ape-like characters 
of the Neanderthal skull are perhaps over stated. As we under- 
stand it, Wyman found quite as brutish a skull in the Indian 
mounds of Florida. The evidence has yet to be afforded that the 
earliest known race of man in Europe was any lower than the 
lowest existing savages. Such evidence, may however, be forth- 
coming any day. 
RECENT Books AND PAMPHLETS. 
Baird, S. F—Report of Professor S. F. Baird, secretary of the Smithsonian Institu- 
tion. 1883. From the author. 
Abbe, C—An account of the progress in meteorology in the year 1883. Ext. Smith. 
P., 1883. From the author, : 
Dana, E. S.—An account of the progress in mineralogy in the year 1883. Ext. 
idem. From the author. 
Farlow, W. G.—An account of the progress in botany in the year 1883. Ext. id. 
Se E nhor, 
1 The Development Theory. A brief*statement for general readers. By JOSEPH 
Y. BERGEN, Jr.. and Fanny D. Bercen. Boston, Lee & Shepard, 1884. 12mo, 
Pp. 240. i 
