September 20, 1884.1 



SCIENCE, 



319 



eastern continent, and not improbably man will be 

 found to be contemporaneous with it. 



Major Powell gave an account of the peculiar mar- 

 riage laws of the American aborigines, prefaced by 

 some general considerations on the motives which 

 had led to the establishment of these laws. These he 

 traced mainly to the desire of preserving peace, which 

 was a marked characteristic of the domestic legisla- 

 tion of the Indians. This was illustrated in their 

 burial customs, in disposing of the effects of the 

 deceased, and in other usages. As one of the main 

 causes of dispute among barbarous tribes is for the 

 possession of women, it was natural that their laws 

 should be specially strict on this point. The manner 

 in which marriages are regulated for this object, and 

 especially the influence of the clan system, were clear- 

 ly pointed out. As the paper is understood to be a 

 summary of the contents of a large work, which will 

 shortly be published in full, further details need not 

 be added here. The clear and judicious views pro- 

 pounded were highly commended by Dr. Tylor. 



An entertaining paper, on the customs and lan- 

 guages of the Iroquois, was read by Mrs. E. A. Smith. 

 The peculiarly descriptive force of the names given 

 by the Iroquois to the animals and other common ob- 

 jects surrounding them was shown by many curious 

 examples. The word for rattlesnake means ' he 

 squirms;' for rabbit, 'two little ears together;' for 

 goose, 'it breaks its voice.' Tears are 'eye-juice;' 

 sugar is 'tree-juice.' This is a mode of word-forma- 

 tion common in other Indian languages. Mrs. Smith 

 affirmed that the missionaries and all other authori- 

 ties who have heretofore written on the Iroquois 

 languages were mistaken in their views as to the gen- 

 ders and pronouns of these languages, — a hazardous 

 assertion. The conclusions of educated French and 

 English missionaries, who have spent many years 

 among the Indians, and speak their language fluently, 

 can be properly controverted only by one who has 

 given the same amount of time and attention to the 

 study. 



An elaborate and extremely interesting paper by 

 Mr. F. H. Gushing, on the development of industrial 

 and ornamental art among the Zufiis of New Mexico, 

 illustrated by many pictorial designs, attracted much 

 attention. It is impossible in the limited space at 

 command to give even a summary of the contents of 

 this valuable communication. An outline of the rea- 

 soning is all that can be attempted. Mr. Cushing 

 finds reason to believe that the civilization of the 

 Zufiis is purely indigenous. When they first entered 

 on their existence in the little oases of the desert 

 which they made their home, they were in a very low 

 stage of barbarism; out of which they gradually 

 raised themselves by a slow but steady course of self- 

 development. The stages of this progress were set 

 forth with much ingenuity and clearness. Their res- 

 idences rose gradually, from the brush-covered wig- 

 wam to the small building of lava-stone, either isolated 

 near a spring, or fastened for security to the shelf of 

 a cliff; and thence to the huge, many-storied stone 

 barrack, which is both cliff and dwelling in one. In 

 like manner their earliest vessels of gourds, when in- 



cased in wicker-work for the convenience of trans- 

 portation, gave the first idea of a basket or wicker 

 tray. The basket was lined with clay to retain the 

 food which was boiled in it; and from this custom, 

 the knowledge of pottery took its rise. The first 

 ornamentation of their pottery was derived from the 

 imitation of wicker-work. Afterwards other ele- 

 ments of a pictorial nature came in. The gradual 

 progress of these improvements was traced by Mr. 

 Cushing with a care and minuteness which leave no 

 doubt of the correctness of his theory. We thus 

 learn the interesting truth, that civilization and art, 

 of no mean type, may spring up among a rude people, 

 without external impulse, in a few centuries ; for 

 Zufii culture and art are evidently not many centu- 

 ries old. The notions which some anthropologists 

 have entertained, that many thousands of years are 

 needed before a savage people can emerge into civili- 

 zation, — which the Zufiis are just touching, — are 

 dispelled by Mr. Cushing' s discoveries. In tracing 

 the course of this progress, good use is made of lin- 

 guistics, by resorting to the original meaning of the 

 names given by the natives to the various objects 

 under consideration. The name of the object is 

 found, in many cases, to give the clew to its origin. 



A remarkable paper on the races of the Jews 

 was received from Dr. A. Neubauer, now residing in 

 England, who was described by the president as one 

 of the most distinguished rabbinical scholars of Eu- 

 rope. Dr. Neubauer' s essay aimed to controvert the 

 common idea that the Jews differ from most other 

 nations or races in the special characteristic of their 

 purity from foreign intermixture. So far is this from 

 being the case, that, as was shown by much evi- 

 dence drawn from the Scriptures and other histor- 

 ical sources, the Jews have always been inclined to 

 foreign marriages. Moreover, the number of prose- 

 lytes to Judaism from the surrounding races has been 

 very great. Few races, in fact, have undergone more 

 intermixture with other stocks. The physical and 

 moral differences between the communities of Jews 

 in various parts of the world are very great indeed ; 

 and these are accounted for partly by their inter- 

 marriage with other races, and partly by the influences 

 of their environment. To come to a thoroughly sci- 

 entific conclusion as to the Jewish physique, about 

 which many erroneous ideas are entertained, careful 

 admeasurements are necessary. Dr. Neubauer sug- 

 gested that when such admeasurements are made, 

 the right point to begin at would be Jerusalem. The 

 paper made a strong impression, and the president 

 expressed his full concurrence in Dr. Neubauer* s 

 views. 



An account of the habits and customs of the Innu- 

 its or Eskimos of the western shore of North America 

 and of Point Barrow, the extreme north-west portion 

 of the continent, was read by Lieut. P. H. Pay, and 

 contained many facts and conclusions of much inter- 

 est. He gave his reasons for believing that the Es- 

 kimos had occupied the far north of America from 

 a remote period. Among other facts, he mentioned 

 that snow-goggles, such as are used at present, had 

 been dug up twenty-eight feet below the surface of 



