THE SECOND INTERNATIONAL CONGRESS OF FOLK-LORISTS.

An International congress of folk-lorists and of all scientific students of popular traditions, is to be held under the patronage of the French government in the series of official congresses of the Exposition of 1900. The date of opening has been fixed at the 10th of September, 1900, immediately following the kindred congresses of prehistoric anthropology and archæology and history of religions, and preceding that of the Americanists. This arrangement will allow of members wishing to take part in these congresses, to do so without too great waste of time.

The honorary president of the Committee of Organization is M. Gaston Paris of the French academy. The acting president is M. Charles Beauquier, president of the French Folk-Lore Society, and the secretary-general is M. Paul Sobillot, the well known writer on folk-lore and editor of the Revue des Traditions Populaires.

It is desired that the preparation of the work of the congress should be begun as soon as possible, as it consists largely in the gathering of documents. For this purpose a general program of questions to be submitted to the congress has been outlined. Since the first congress in 1889, masses of new material have been collected, especially in Central Africa and in various other savage or uncivilized countries. Much still remains to be done, and certain points of scientific folk-lore have scarcely been touched. Still, it is already time to try to gather together and compare these materials of various origin, and to draw from them general conclusions. The idea of the Organizing Com

mittee is that the congress should devote itself rather to synthetic and comparative work, than to analytic and documentary investigation. It is to such general studies, or to those which have an international character, that the full sessions will be given. The special meetings will be divided between two sections:

I. ORAL LITERATURE AND POPULAR ART.

(a) Origin, evolution, and transmission of tales and legends. Exposition and discussion of the various systems which are now advocated.

(b) Origin, evolution, and transmission of popular songs, both from the point of view of poetry and that of music. Reciprocal influence of learned poetry and music, and popular poetry and music.

The popular theatre; its relations, ancient and modern, with the literary theatre.

(c) Origin an evolution of traditional iconography (pictures, sculpture, etc.); its relations with classical art; mutual borrowing.

(d) Origin and evolution of popular costume. Investigation in monuments and documents, of the parts of costumes which have been preserved more or less completely up to our own day. Origin and evolution of jewels and ornaments.

11. TRADITIONAL ETHNOGRAPHY.

(a) Survival of customs connected with birth, marriage, and death (marriage by capture, "bundling," funeral offerings, etc).

(b) Survival of animal worship in the customs of modern peoples. Survival of the worship of stones, trees, and fountains. (c) Traces of ancient local cults in the devotions to saints. Popular hagiography (rites and traditions).

(d) Popular medicine and magic (amulets, rites for preservation, laying spells, fascination, and the evil eye, etc.)

General survey of the folk-lorist movement from 1889 to 1900. French will be the official language of the congress. Communications may be made in English, German, Italian, and Latin, but they must be accompanied with a resumé in French. They should be in the hands of the secretary general before the first of July, 1900. The length of such communications is restricted to a quarter hour's reading. No tale will be read at the general sessions, but those which have universal interest may be printed in the report

Membership subscription is fixed at 12 francs. Members receive the printed reports of the sessions of the congress and any other publications which may be issued

The address of the secretary-general is M. Paul Sebillot, 80 Boulevard Sunt Marcel, Paris.

IN MEMORIAM DR. D. G. BRINTON

WITH A SKETCH OF HIS ARCHEOLOGICAL ACTIVITIES.

BY ALEXANDER F. CHAMBERLAIN.

Extended obituary notices of the late Dr. D. G. Brinton (born May 13, 1837; died July 31, 1898), whose death has been a distinct loss to all departments of anthropology, have appeared in Science (Vol. X., N. S., pp. 193 196) and the Journal of American Folk-Lore (Vol. XII., pp. 215-225). Nevertheless some notice of his archæological studies is not out of place in the pages of THE AMERICAN ANTIQUARIAN, to which he was a frequent contributor, and of which he was for some years one of the associate editors. The first book Dr. Brinton ever published, was "The Floridian Peninsula; its Literary History, Indian Tribes, and Antiquities" (Phila, 1858, pp. 202), and his last contribution to the science appeared in the first number of the New Series of the American Anthropologist (January, 1899), an article entitled "The Calchaqui: An Archæological Problem" (pp. 41 44), treating briefly of one of the most interesting subjects in American prehistory-the ancient civilization of the vales of Catamarca, in the Argentine. From 1884 to the time of his death he held the position of Professor of Ethnology and Archæology in the Academy of Natural Sciences, Philadelphia, and from 1886 onward he was Professor of American Archæology and Linguistics in the University of Pennsylvania His archæological writings are more numerous and extensive than is commonly believed. TO THE AMERICAN ANTIQUARIAN Dr. Brinton contributed, as follows:

1. The Probable Nationality of the Mound-Builders. Oct., 1881.

2. The Chief God of the Algonkins in His Character as a Cheat and Liar. May, 1885.

3. The Taensa Grammar and Dictionary. A Deception Exposed. March, 1885.

4. The Taensa Grammar and Dictionary. A Reply to M. Lucien Adam. Sept.. 1885.

5. The Phonetic Elements in the Graphic System of the Mayas. 1886

6. The Study of the Nahuatl Language. Jan, 1886.

7. On certain supposed Nanticoke Words. Shown to be of

8. On the Words "Anahuac" and "Nahuatl." Vol. XV.,

1893. pp. 377-382.

9 Characteristics of American Languages. Vol. XVI.,
1894, pp. 33-37.

10. Accadian and Turanian (Brief Note). Ibid., p. 113.
11. An Obstetrical Conjuration. Ibid., pp. 166 167.
12. Aztec Creation Legends (Note). Ibid., pp. 311-312.
13. On certain Morphological Traits of American Languages.
Ibid., pp. 336 340.

14. Notes on European Archæology. Vol. XVIII, 1896, pp. 37-38; 106 107; 169 177.

17. The Battle and Ruins of Cintla. Ibid., pp. 259-268.
18. Native American Stringed Musical Instruments. Vol.
XIX., 1897, pp. 19 20.

19. Recent European Archæology. Vol. XX., 1898, pp.

349-352.

Some of the above papers were elaborated to form part of "Essays of an Americanist," published in 1890.

Among his other publications (exclusive of books) of a more or less distinctly archæological and antiquarian nature are the following:

1. The Shawnees and their Migrations. Histor. Mag., Jan., 1866.

2. The Mound- Builders of the Mississippi Valley. Ibid., Feb., 1866.

3. Early Spanish Mining in Northern Georgia. Ibid., May, 1866

4. Artificial Shell Deposits in the United States. Rep. Smithson. Inst., 1866.

5. A Notice of Some MS. in Central American Languages. Amer. Jour. Sci. and Arts. (New Haven.) March, 1869.

6. The Ancient Phonetic Alphabet of Yucatan. Amer. Histor. Mag., 1870.

7. Notes on the Codex Troano and Maya Chronology. Amer. Naturalist, Sept., 1881.

8. The Graphic System and Ancient Records of the Mayas. Contrib. N. Amer. Ethnol., Vol. V., 1882, pp. 17-27. 9. The Books of Chilan Balam, the Prophetic and Historic Records of the Mayas cf Yucatan, Penn. Monthly, March, 1882.

10. Recent European Contributions to the Study of American Archæology Proc. Numism. and Antiq. Soc. Phila., March, 1883.

11. American Archæology. Amer. Suppl. Encyclop. Brit., 1883.

12. The Archæology of Northern Africa. Science (New York), Nov., 1884.