Verde, the green tableland, in the southwestern corner of Colorado. It is their wish to include in the park that portion of the mesa and adjoining cañons which contains the most ruins.

It should be understood that Mesa Verde, the probable location of the future park, is a strikingly singular divide between the Mancos and the Montezuma valleys. Throughout its extent it is gashed and seamed by innumerable deep cañons and ravines. The uplands are crowded with forests of pinon trees in such close array that one finds it difficult to pick a passage through them. Ruins of the houses of the mesadwellers are thick upon the plateau.

The cañons which split the divide into tongues and islands of precipitious rock, are lined with the houses of the CliffDwellers. The sides of the cañons are sheer walls of yellow sandstone, ranging in height from 500 to 1,000 feet. As a rule, the dwellings stand fifty or a hundred feet below the rim of the heights, in a sheltered recess overhung by beetling masses of rock. In a great many instances it is impossible to climb to the houses from the bottom of the cañon. Most of them have to be entered from the top of the cliffs. There are no definite roads or trails leading to them, and the difficulties to be overcome and the dangers to be dared in visiting the cliff-houses are many. The difficulties and dangers only show how necessary it is to build roads and trails and a rest house, so that people with great enthusiasm but little strength may visit the ruins.

The Cliff-Palace and the Spruce Tree House are two of the cliff-houses included in the tract set aside for the park. The Cliff Palace is 450 feet long, eighty feet high, eighty feet broad, and contains 127 rooms on the ground floor, and accommodations for probably 1,000 people. The Spruce Tree House is only a short distance from the Cliff Palace, and is one of the most finished specimens of prehistoric architecture yet found. A visit to one or both of these ruins would repay one for almost any amount of fatigue, and the Colorado Cliff-Dwellers' Association intends to be the path-finder for the delicate enthusiast as well as for the brawny relic hunter.

WHY AMERIND?

A recommendation, apparently serious, has recently been made to replace the name American Indian by the especiallycoined word Amerind. This word has been made by the novel method of uniting the first part of the two words American and Indian. A single word for characterizing our American aborigines is certainly desirable. American is indefinite, being commonly applied to the white inhabitants of the United States, as well as to the "red man." Indian is bad, perpetuating an error. American Indian is, perhaps, clumsy and awkward. But by what right do we suggest a term like Amerind? Is the

intention to give the term scientific authority? Do we hope to first have it adopted by scientific men, and then extended to popular use? If so, let us follow ordinary rules. Two demands. are rightly made of words seriously proposed for scientific purposes: the first is that they shall not be coined from the vernacular of the proposers; the second is that, taken from Latin or Greek sources, they shall be constructed by sensible methods, grammatically correct, and that the compound shall be descriptive. These rules are simple and reasonable, and have been recognized in all sciences.

If anthropology is to rank as a science, it should conform to scientific usage. Amerind does not follow these rules. We should justly object to Russian or Japanese students, who should construct at pleasure scientific terms from words of their vernacular and urge their authoritative use; in science we have no right to follow, any more than Russians or Japanese, a practice which would lead to confusion and inconvenience. As to its mode of formation-where else in science is there an example of the deliberate making of a term by chopping off unmeaning initial parts of two words and then uniting them? What does amer mean? What is the significance of ind? And what can Amerind mean, if neither amer nor ind mean anything?

There has been some discussion over the derivation of the word America; if it comes from a certain navigator's name, it certainly has no value in the suggested compound. If ind has any meaning-if, for example, it means the inhabitants of India-the error of using it in composition is as great as that of using it alone. But, one of the chief reasons assigned for coining the new word was the error in the word Indian. We dislike to differ with our fellow-workers, we dislike to appear refractory to a well-meant suggestion, but the word Amerind appears to us bad. Until a term is derived, which conforms to good scientific usage, we-personally-shall struggle on with the inconvenient (?) expression American Indian. Life is short, but even in America we may find time and strength enough to speak what words may be necessary to adequately and unmistakeably express our thoughts. F. S.

LATE DISCOVERIES IN THE EAST.

A NEW ALPHABET DISCOVERED.

The discovery of Mycena an antiquities and the ruins of an ancient city, or capital, in Crete by Mr. Arthur J. Evans has been announced. The following description is taken from the New York Independent:

"A palace of Mycenæan kings of perhaps 1300 or 1400 B. C. was found. Nothing of that age previously found in Mycena excels the fresco painting and stone carving. The royal bathroom, with its central throne, is preserved like a piece of Pompeii, and shows a luxury unknown to Mycena itself. But the most important discovery is that of a number of clay tablets with the ancient Mycenaean writing. The inscriptions are in a character which is neither Babylonian nor Egyptian nor Hittite nor Cypriote nor Phenician, and they prove that a literary culture of indigenous production existed in Crete at that early period. The characters read from left to right, and not boustrophedon like the Hittite, and they are less pictorial a d more hieratic than the latter It is too soon to express any detailed views as to the affinities of this Mycenaean script, but it suggests comparisons with forms of the Cypriote syllabary, as well as with the Lycian and Carian characters. Mr. Evans suspects that many of them refer to palace accounts. The fact that they are clay tablets itself proves a relation to Babylonian culture."

Dr. Ward of The Independent says that it displays a system of syllabic writing quite unlike any previously known. Among the flads was a written tablet in old Cretan character, if we should not rather call it Mycenæan. We presume that it was known throughout all the regions occupied by the earliest Greek culture, five hundred years before the Phenician alphabet was adopted, and by its simplicity drove out the earlier Mycenaean, Hittite or Lycian scripts.

THE DELUGE TABLETS.

The museum at Constantinople contains various tablets which give the Babylonian account of the Deluge, some of which date back to the reign of Amnis-Zaduga King of Babylonian, 2140 B. C, or about the time of Isaac and Jacob, seven centuries before Moses. The discovery by George Smith of the tablets of the Deluge in the library at Nineveh, written in AssurBanipals' reign, 600 B. C., was startling, but did not carry the date back. These tablets, however, show that the story of the Deluge was familiar to the common people of Babylonia and, perhaps, of all the East, from Assyria to Persia, long before the days of Moses

The most remarkable feature of it, is that there is no record of the Deluge in Egypt, except that which is given in the writings of Moses. The Deluge story in Babylonia was compiled in twelve books one for each month, showing how thoroughly the tradition was incorporated into the religious systems of the Babylonians.

EGYPT BEFORE MENES.

Maspero, in his "Dawn of Civilization," declares that Menes was a mythical king, but the discoveres by De Morgan and Amelineau of the bones and seal of Menes, proves the correctness of history. More than this, recent discoveries have shown that before Menes there was a people living in the Stone Age; they were a white, blue-eyed Libyan race, and had already remarkable skill in making tools, dishes and ornaments out of

flint, obsidian, and other stones; but they had no metal tools and did not understand how to erect buildings of brick. There came down the Nile, a race of conquerors, who had probably crossed over from Arabia, but whose origin was in Babylonia.

AN ANCIENT GREEK FOUNTAIN FOUND.

A cable dispatch from Athens tells the New York Independent that Professor Rufus B. Richardson, Director of the American School at Athens, in his excavations at Corinth, has so far laid open the Propylæa as to restore the topography of that city, besides finding so much valuable sculpture that the Greek Goverment has provided a special museum for preserving the monuments that have been recovered. The latest unique discovery was in the Agora, where, at the depth of twenty-five feet, an ancient Greek fountain was found, with the bronze lion-headed spouts still in their original position.

THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA.

Through the liberality of Mrs. Hearst the University of California has supported two exploration parties to Egypt, and has prepared a museum, which will contain such relics as are secured in that region, as well as those of the prehistoric relics of America. Messrs. Grenfeld and Hunt have transferred their allegiance to this Institution. They have secured from a cemetery of Coptos many papyri, mummies, and curious frescoes, most of them of Ptolemaic date.

DISCOVERY OF A CITY GATE AT KARNAK.

The fall of nine columns last year, against the pylon at Karnak, dangerously unsettled the huge mass of masonry, and now threatens to overthrow all of the columns of Hypostile Hall. M. Maspero has taken every precaution to avert the catastrophy; the expectation is that the wall of the pylon will be rebuilt, tier by tier, though there is some danger that the Nile flood will undermine the whole.

Egyptologists are rejoicing. The season has been a memorable one for them. In addition to the discovery of the mummy of King Menepthah, the Pharaoh of Exodus, "another valuable discovery," to quote Professor Sayce, has been made by M. Legrani while excavating at Karnak. While setting up the fallen columns of the temple M. Legrani came upon a city gate, the first that has been found in Egypt. The gateway is of very great height, is made of large blocks of squared limestone, and is double, having one gate within another. Two chariots could easily have passed through it abreast. It was erected by Amenhotep II. of the eighteenth dynasty.

A SCHOOL FOR ORIENTAL RESEARCH.

A school for Oriental research has been established in Palestine. This is an importani movement, for it will result in correcting many of the errors which have crept into so many books on Palestine and the Holy Land.

BOOK REVIEWS.

RIJKS ETHNOGRAPHISCH MUSEUM TE LEIDEN: VERSLAG VAN DEN DIRECTEUR OVER HET TIJDVAK VAN 1 OCT. 1898 TOT 30 SEPT., 1899. 8°. pp. 34; 4 plates.

For little Holland to maintain and develope one of the best ethnographic museums of Europe is no light undertaking. Yet she does so, and does so nobly, at Leiden, in the Royal Ethnographic Museum, the last annual report of which is at hand. During the year two permanent assistants have been added to the Museum staff--one in the newly-established department of Physical Anthropology, the other in the section of East Indian Ethnography. Eor a part of the year a special assistant, Shinkichi Hara was at work upon the Japanese collections.

The Museum is still pleading for a new building, a plea amply justified by the scholarly and important nature of the work it is conducting. A considerable portion of the report is devoted to the list of accessions. Among these is a magnificent collection of somatological material from the Philippines, including nearly four hundred skulls-the gathering of Dr. Schadenberg. This rich material is being studied by Dr. Koeze, and will be published by the Museum in the first volume of its Transactions, soon to appear. From August 9th to September 30th the Museum arranged a special exhibit of its Japanese collection, which was visted by almost three thousand persons. This collection contains the extensive and historically interesting gathering of Van Siebold, together with many later additions. The Guide to this exhibit, prepared by the director of the Museum, Dr. J. E. D. Schmeltz, is a handsome piece of work, which not only well served its purpose as a guide, but also is important to students of Japanese ethnography. Not only has Leiden this magnificent ethnographic series in its Museum; in the University is, perhaps, the most valuable library of Japanese books in Europe. The Museum is a much-used centre for study and work. During the year eminent specialists from Bohemia, Germany, Switzerland, and the United States have made use of its opportunities. Classes of students have found its colonial collections useful. On May 24th, at the meeting of the Society for the Advancement of Scientific Study of the Colonies, Dr. Neuwenhuis exhibited and explained his Bornean collection, which is at present deposited with the Museum. During the present year two important works are to be printed by the Museum one a monograph upon Javan, the other an album of African, ethnography. The Museum is certainly making great progress under Dr. Schmeltz's direction. F. S.

LOS TATUAGES: ESTUDIO PSICOLOGICO Y MEDICO-LEGAL EN DELINCUENTES Y MILITARES. By Dr. Francisco Martinez Baca. Mexico: 1899. 8°. pp. vii. 292; 7 tables; 18 plates, with 99 figures.

We have already, elsewhere (Am. Jour. Soc., vol. iii., pp. 13-17), described the laboratory of criminal anthropology in the State Penitentiary at Puebla, Mexico, and the work there done by Drs. Baca and Vergara. We now have before us the published results of a study made there upon tattooing, as practiced among Mexican criminals and soldiers. Lombroso and Marro in Italy and Lacassagne in France have studied tattooing among criminals in Europe. With other writers they have reached some results of interest. They find the practice of tattooing much more common among criminals than among "normal" men. They made an especial study of the designs in themselves and in their relation to the character, occupation, and life of