March 27, 1885.] 



SCIENCE, 



253 



finest specimens of such shrubs to be seen 

 an}' where in the world. 



Scattered through the half garden, half park, 

 are artificial ponds, called ' lotus-ponds,' set in 

 a curbing of granite, with islands bordered in 

 like fashion. In the same manner the brooks 

 are confined and fringed, and are spanned by 

 stone bridges at intervals ; and yet so well done 

 is the work that it seems in keeping with its 

 surroundings. At all points where a particu- 

 larly pretty bit of landscape presents itself, is 

 found a summer-house ; for a Korean does not 

 combine the idea of exercise with the enjoy- 

 ment of nature, and prefers to drink in the 

 scenery where at the same time he can sip his 

 tea. 



Throw over the greater part of the scene 

 the artistic touch of neglect and incipient ruin, 

 and you have some idea of the grounds of the 

 New Palace of Soul. Percival Lowell. 



THE YUCHI TRIBE OF INDIANS, AND 

 ITS LANGUAGE. 



The ancient domain of the Yuchi or Uchee 

 tribe on both sides of Middle Savannah River 

 probably does not shelter any full-blooded Yu- 

 chi man or woman at the present time ; but 

 in the remote corner of the Indian Territory, 

 where the tribe is settled now, it tenaciously 

 clings to its ancient customs and habits, its 

 beliefs, dances, and busk festivals. Very few 

 of this aboriginal colon}' on the southern banks 

 of the Arkansas River can converse intelligibly 

 in English : the}' do not even mix a great deal 

 with the Creeks, by whom they are surrounded 

 on all sides, but live quietly and happily on 

 their farms. Their myths consider the sun as 

 a female, and the Yuchi as her children. When 

 the last Yuchi dies, the whole world will be- 

 come extinct also. The moon is regarded as 

 of the male sex, and as the suitor of the sun. 



Although the Yuchi tongue differs in its 

 radicals from all American languages hereto- 

 fore explored, it exhibits some general resem- 

 blance in structure to Creek and the other 

 dialects of the Maskoki family. It is possessed 

 of the same alphabetic sounds as this, but 

 shows slight differences in their utterance, and 

 is as prone to nasalize its vowels as Cha'hta 

 and the Sioux dialect of Dakota. Syllables 

 and words close with vowels almost through- 

 out; and the structure of the syllable is, quite 

 as invariably as in Ojibwe, one or two conso- 

 nants followed by a vowel, diphthongs being 

 rare and always adulterine. The mute con- 

 sonants do not show the tendency of Creek to 



be uttered at the alveolar or front part of the 

 palate. A large number of terms are oxyton- 

 ized, that is, emphasized on their last syllable ; 

 but the Hottentot clucks, which have been at- 

 tributed to the Yuchi language, do not exist 

 in it. None of the nouns inflect for case. The 

 adjective does not inflect for number ; but 

 the substantive nouns assume the ending ha, 

 which I suppose to be abbreviated from wahdle 

 (' many '), a term which also appears as hdle. 

 The decimal system forms the base of the nu- 

 meral series, and not the quinary, which is 

 the most frequent one in America and in other 

 parts of the world. The existence of a dual 

 generally shows that a language has remained 

 in a highly archaic state ; but in Yuchi no 

 trace could be discovered of it, neither in the 

 noun or pronoun, nor in the verb, although 

 the Maskoki dialects possess it in the latter. 

 The verb has a personal and temporal inflec- 

 tion, but is not by any means so rich in tense 

 forms as Creek, Cha'hta, or Hitchiti. But like 

 these, it reduplicates the second syllable of the 

 verbal base to form iterative, frequentative, 

 and distributive forms of conjugation. In the 

 third person of the pronoun, distinction is 

 made not only between male and female, but 

 also between races: since 'they,' when re- 

 ferring to whites or negroes of both sexes, 

 is expressed by lewenu; when referring to 

 Indians, by leheriu. ' She,' when pointing to 

 an Indian woman not related to the one speak- 

 ing, is rendered by leno; when related to him, 

 by lesseno. All these gender distinctions are 

 also expressed in the intransitive verb. 



The gentes of the Yuchi people are identical 

 with those of the Creeks and Seminoles, and, 

 like the Naktche gentes, are evidently borrowed 

 from them. The descent is therefore also in 

 the maternal line. Albert S. Gtatschet. 



RECENT INVESTIGATIONS UPON 

 CHOLERA. 



The cessation of the cholera epidemic in Europe, 

 since the advent of cold weather, has prevented the 

 occurrence of much of interest in this direction 

 since our last notice of the subject in Science. The 

 English cholera commission, a note of whose labors 

 was made some weeks ago (vol. v. p. 41), has re- 

 turned, and has made a full report of its labors, 

 which seem to contradict Koch's assertions in every 

 vital point. We had hoped to receive the printed 

 report before this, but have failed to do so as yet. 



The most interesting work upon the comma bacil- 

 lus of cholera, recently published, is that of Johne 

 (Zeitschr. f. thiermed., xi. 87), in which he gives the 

 methods of culture, staining, and preparation of the 



