194 
dangerous impurity. Mr. Snelus seems to 
have been the first to work out this problem, 
and it was then perfected by the other inventors 
mentioned. ‘The success of the process is to 
a considerable extent dependent upon the me- 
chanical details of the plant and of its oper- 
ation, — details perfected, in part, by the late 
Mr. A. L. Holley, one of whose latest inven- 
tions was a form of rapidly removable convert- 
er especially adapted to this modification of 
the older process. This new method has not 
been introduced as rapidly outside of Great 
Britain as in that country, where the scarcity 
of pure ores renders it of very great importance. 
In the United States the abundance of ores 
comparatively free from phosphorus renders 
the steel-maker to a great extent independent 
of the ‘basic process.’ All of the larger 
makers now have their own mines of good 
‘ Bessemer ores,’ and do not feel much interest 
in this latest of the great inventions of the 
opening age of steel. 
The ‘creators of the age of steel’ have ren- 
dered inestimable service to mankind, and all 
mankind will be interested in reading the story 
told by Mr. Jeans. R. H. THurston. 
THE GUATEMALTEC LANGUAGES. 
Von OTtTo 
1884. 9+ 
Zur ethnographie der republik Guatemala. 
Stotu. Ziirich, Orell Fiissli & Co., 
180 pp. map, BP: 
A grammar of the Cakchiquel language of Guatemala. 
Translated by D. G. Brinton. Philadelphia, 
McCalla and Stavely, 1884. 72 p., map. 8°. 
To suppose that dialects of the Maya family 
are the only languages spoken by the Indians 
of this extensive Central-American republic 
would be at variance with existing facts, al- 
though they cover, indeed, the largest part of its 
area. The present tribes speaking allophylic 
languages (that is, languages belonging to other 
families) are the Pipil Indians, speaking an 
Aztec tongue, and now found in two districts 
only (near Escuintla, Salama, etc.) ; the Pupu- 
luca Indians, on the border of San Salvador, 
belonging to the Mije stock ; and the Caribs, at 
the mouth of Rio Dulce and in the adjacent 
territory of Honduras, who still speak the lan- 
guage of the Lesser Antilles. Otto Stoll, who, 
during a five-years’ stay in the mountainous 
parts of Guatemala, has made extensive lin- 
guistic and ethnographic studies of the abori- 
gines, has established the above classification, 
and also mentions the former (if not present) 
existence of two other dialects which may pos- 
sibly form linguistic families for themselves, 
SCIENCE. 
Sey ne ee ee 
— the Sinca on the southern coast, and the 
Alaguilac on Middle Motagua River, both 
from the historian Juarros.* The first three 
of the above languages are illustrated by vo- 
cabularies and linguistic comparisons with cog- 
nate dialects. 
Of sixteen Maya dialects, the learned inves- 
tigator offers a useful and complete vocabulary 
extending over three hundred terms. Subjoined 
to these are short texts, conversations in In- 
dian, historic and ethnographic notices from 
the conquest down to our times, and an elabo- 
rate bibliography. To judge from their lexical 
and grammatic character, the dialects have 
evolved, according to Stoll (pp. 173-175), iu 
the following historic order from the parent 
language : — 
1. Huastec forms the most archaic group, 
now separated from all the others by its north- 
ern location. 
2. Maya, with its subdialects of Peten and 
Lacandon. 
The following groups (8-6) have detached 
themselves from the Maya of Yucatan, and 
their forms are of a much less archaic type : — 
3. Tzental group, embracing Chontal of 
Tabasco, Tzental proper, Tzotzil, Chanabal, 
Chol,—all in southern Mexico; Mopan in 
northern Guatemala. 
4, Poconchi group, embracing Qu’ekchi, 
Poconchi, Pocomam, Chorti, in central and 
eastern Guatemala. 
5. Quiché group, comprehending Qu’iché, 
Uspantec (dialect discovered by Stoll) , Cakchi- 
quel (the dialect studied more especially by the 
author) , T'z’utujil, — all in south-western Gua- 
temala. 
6. Mam group, comprehending Ixil, Mam, 
Aguacatec, in the western sections of the 
republic. 
The third group constitutes a much younger 
branch of the Maya of Yucatan than the fourth, 
fifth, and sixth groups. 
The Cakchiquel language is a Maya dialect, 
spoken on the Upper and Middle Motagua 
River, and around Guatemala, the capital of the 
republic of the same name. It was therefore 
called also ‘lengua metropolitana’ and ‘lengua 
guatemalteca.’? By request of the American 
philosophical society of Philadelphia, Dr. Brin- 
ton has just translated and published in its pro- 
ceedings, and also in a handy, separate edition 
quoted above, a Spanish grammar of that lan- 
guage, dated 1692, and composed by an un- 
known author. 
the language, which is extremely harsh of pro- 
1 Sinca is declared to be a Mixtec language by Alphonse L. 
Pinart. 
[Vou. IIL, No. 9B. Fee 
To render the exposition of — 
: 
