760 
mulating on the subject, should be considered a science 
by itself. Attempts to explain certain topographic ap- 
pellations are found in some of the earliest writings 
of antiquity. Linguists and historians of prominence 
have always paid peculiar attention to this field of 
research, for no object has been named by early man 
without causes. Professor Egli of Zurich, who pre- 
viously composed a voluminous book in furtherance 
of these studies (Nomina geographica, Leipzig, 1880), ° 
has just presented us with a bibliographic history of 
local onomatology.!. Egli mentions over four hun- 
dred authors who have written, either exclusively or 
incidentally, on this instructive branch of knowledge, 
and subdivides their writings into four periods. The 
first of these extends from the earliest centuries 
down to 1815; the second, from 1815 to 1840; the 
third, from 1840 to 1860; and the last one, from 1860 
to 1870. In the researches made upon American 
Indian locality-names, no author is more prominent 
than J. H. Trumbull. In another article, Egli has 
discussed the co-operation of Swiss scientific men in 
furthering local onomatology (1884). 
An inquiry into the historic tribe of the Susque- 
hannocks and the origin of the name Susquehanna 
has been published by Abraham L. Guss in the His- 
torical register of Harrisburg, Penn. (and also issued 
separately), under the title ‘Early Indian history 
on the Susquehanna.’ The Virginia map of Capt. 
John Smith of 1606 is added to the treatise, and is 
of the highest importance for the early topography of 
these countries. The author, after a careful exami- 
nation of the passages which refer to the early settle- 
ments on Susquehanna River, takes the ground, that 
the tribe in question was of the Iroquois stock, but 
that the name of the river is Algonkin, and has to be 
rendered by ‘ brook-stream,’ or ‘ spring-water stream.’ 
A publication of no little interest, since it refers 
to an almost unknown language, is that of the Chipe- 
wayan-Tinné legend of the serpent-woman, by Emile 
F. S. Petitot. It is given in the original Chipewayan, 
with a French translation, by the Paris periodical 
Melusine (vol. ii. no. i., 1884, col. 19-21). The same 
interesting number also contains all the names of the 
rainbow of which the author could obtain any knowl- 
edge, together with explanations and myths referring 
to this phenomenon of nature. 
Mr. John Menaul, teacher at the Laguna Pueblo 
of New Mexico, which speaks a Kéra dialect, is busy 
printing a Laguna-English catechism on his mission- 
ary press. Mrs. A. E. W. Robertson has just pub- 
lished her translation of the two epistles of St. Paul 
to the Corinthians into Creek, or Maskoki, through 
the American Bible society of New York (1883). 
Prior to this, she had translated almost the whole 
New Testament, with the help of instructed natives. 
Ten articles previously made public by the Ameri- 
canist, Count Hyacinth de Charencey, have been 
gathered by him ina reprint entitled ‘Mélanges de 
philologie et de paléographie américaines’ (Paris, 
Leroux, 1883. 195 p. 8°). They all refer to Mexican 
1 J.J. Egli. Ein beitrag zur geschichte der geographischen 
namenlehre. Wien, H6lzel, 1883. 106 p. 8°. (Zeitschrift /. 
wissensch. geographie, vol. iv.) 
SCIENCE. 
[Vou. I Nowe 
and Central-American languages, or to the deci- 
pherment of the calculiform Maya characters, the 
signification of which is still a riddle. The more 
noteworthy of the purely linguistic articles are those 
on the Sonorian group (called by him, curiously 
enough, the Chichimec family); on the Chiapanec, 
Tzotzil, Tzendal, and Cakgi; on the phonetic laws 
observed in the Maya family, which is called by him 
Mam-Huaxtec family in this article, but afterwards 
Maya-Quiché. Count de Charencey is one of the most 
active living investigators of the Indian languages, 
and deserves great credit for the ingenious manner 
by which he is prompting his countrymen to pursue 
these studies. But the whole attention of Europe 
being now directed towards the new discoveries in 
Africa and in parts of Asia, it seems that the time 
-has not come yet for a general revival of American- 
istic studies in Europe. 
The study of jargons, or mixed languages, is a spe- 
cialty to which Professor Hugo Schuchardt, the Ro- 
manist, has been devoting himself for many years. 
His results are published from time to time in the 
Proceedings of the philosophic-historic section of 
the Vienna academy of sciences. Three of the latest 
are on the Malayo-Spanish jargon of the Philippine 
Islands, on the English of Melanesia, and on the 
Indo-Portuguese of Mangalore. Schuchardt’s series 
is published under the heading ‘ Kreolische studien,’ 
and contains a large number of native songs, and 
other instructive specimens of the jargons spoken of. 
Translations are not always added to these pieces, 
because the majority of linguists can do without 
them. 
A handy manual of Chinese grammar has recently 
been published in German by Georg von der Gabe- 
lentz, professor of oriental languages at Leipzig uni- 
versity.! It forms an extract, in succinct form, from 
the grammar published by the same sinologist two 
years before. The book isa safe guide through the 
intricacies of that monosyllabic language, in the ac- 
quisition of which, contrary to other languages, the 
judgment of the learner is put to greater activity 
than the memory. Twenty pages suffice to impart 
the elements of Chinese writing; and a short apercu 
of the literary history of the country is added to the 
volume. To the Chinese words and quotations is 
added throughout a transcription into Roman char- 
acters. 
A short scientific sketch of the Khasia language, 
spoken in the drainage-basin of the Brahmaputra 
River, eastern India, is given by A. de la Calle in the 
Revue de linguistique of Paris (1884, pp. 24-40). This 
article mainly consists of classified extracts from Abel 
Hovelacque’s study of the same language, published 
three years since in the same periodical. Both show 
that Khasia holds a middle position between the iso- 
lating and the agglutinative languages, and that the 
majority of its terms are restricted to one syllable 
only. 
The same number of this review concludes a bibli- 
ography of Basque folk-lore by Julien Vinson, its 
1 Anfangsgriinde der chinesischen grammatik mit Ubungs- 
stiicken. Leipzig, Weigel, 1883. 8+150p. 8°. 
