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ARCHEOLOGICAL NOTES.

EDUCATION AMONG THE PHILIPPINES. The report of the Commissioner of Education for 1897 and 1898 has some very interesting facts in reference to the Philippines. It appears that this people had been subject to feudal chiefs and submitted very easily to the Spaniards. They were not in the Stone Age, but had iron-pointed spears and arrows, and had smelted cop per. They had alphabets of their own. They are distinguished by a higher capacity for education than the so-called civilized Indians of Central America and Peru. The number who attend the schools and the university is very large; two-thirds of the Tagalos can read, and about half can write. Art, and especially music, is their passion. They know very little of Spanish, but read in their language whatever comes in their way. The total number of graduates of the university is 11,000. The Philippine Islanders could read and write their own language when the Spaniards arrived. There are five alphabets in use in the archipelago. All travelers state that there are schools in every village, which are under the control of the priests. Good observers have noticed the aptitude of the natives for instruction. The children begin very early to make their letters in the sand or on the leaves. They copy maps with great exactness. Instruction is far from being backward when compared with the lower classes in Europe. There are several public printing offices in Manila. The literary work proper consists mostly of poems and tragedies in Tagalo language. There are, also, short poems and songs of which both words and music are national, and the Indians can write the music with wonderful ability. They are all musicians, and some of them can play five or six instruments. As to their religion— they were originally very superstitious. They worshipped the sun, moon, lightning and thunder, birds, and even rocks, but they had no priesthood. Ancestor worship was, and still is, practiced. The surprising facility with which Christianity spread over the islands, even in the beginning of the conquest, leads one to suspect that it only served as a cloak for the ancient religious customs, and, indeed, partly amalgated with them. Trustworthy monks still complain that the same men go to church one day to pray to their Christian God, and.the next offer sacrifices to their heathen idols or "Amitos" for a good harvest. In some places there has been a backsliding into the old heathen times.

MOUND PIPES. Mr. J. D. McGuire in his article on pipes and smoking customs of the American aborigines, published in the Smithsonian Report, treats of the Mound pipes, mean

ing by that term, "the peculiar pipes which are found in the mounds of Ohio, and which consist of a curved, flat base, with a bowl in the center of the base, and are smoked without any separate stem. He distinguishes between the Mound pipes and the Monitor pipes, though it seems to be a distinction without a difference, for the only difference is that the bowl is in the shape of a cylinder; while the other pipes are carved with animals, birds, and human heads. He claims that these pipes are comparatively modern, and were the result of contact with the French, though they belonged to the Algonquin Indians. This is a mere theory, and one that will be disputed by many. In the first place there are, according to Mr. Boyle, the archæologist of Toronto, no Monitor pipes in Canada, where the French came in contact with the Algonquins at the earliest date; second, the places where the Mound pipes are the most numerous are near Chillicothe, Ohio, and Davenport, Iowa, though a few have been found in Illinois and Wisconsin; but none to speak of in the regions where the French had their first settlement-Kaskaskia. He claims that the pipes are too good in shape and too well wrought in detail for the Indians to have made It is an old claim, which has often been disputed. Gen. G. P. Thurston has shown that the pipes of Tennessee are as well wrought as those of Ohio; so that, if one class was too good for the Indians, the other class was. Idols are somewhat common in Ohio and Illinois, as well as in the southern states. Mr. McGuire argues that the French did not favor making idols, so virtually contradicts himself. Mr. Henshaw discussed the subject of Mound pipes, several years ago, and took the ground that no animals or birds found outside of the Ohio valley are represented, but he failed to convince anyone of this, who has made a study of the pipes. The problem of the age of the Mound-Builders of Ohio is involved in this study of pipes, and one will need to reason closely, if his conclusions are to be accepted, for there are many factors to be considered.

MEXICAN ANTIQUITIES. The Museum of Natural History in New York has just thrown open a fine collection of casts of Mexican and Maya sculptures, and of copies of manuscript in the Mexican and Maya hieroglyphic writing, so that now, perhaps, for the first time, the student is enabled to compare a large number of inscriptions, and in this way, probably to discover the key by means of which they can be interpreted.

THE CANYON OF THE RIO GRANDE. Prof. Robert T. Hill, of the United States Geological Survey, and four companions have made a trip through the cañon of the Rio Grande, the second successful one ever attempted. He says: "At some places the perpendicular walls rise to a height of several hundred feet. There are positive indications that they had at one time been occupied by Cliff-Dwellers. Veins of gold and silver were found cropping out in various places."

LITERARY NOTES.

THE TALE OF THE TWO BROTHERS. The distribution of the tales which were so familiar to us in childhood seems to have been a common inheritence with the children of all lands, at least lands where the Indo-European races dwell. It appears that the tale of the Two Brothers, in "A Thousand and One Nights," has its counterpart in Egypt Russia, and Lapland; among the Norsemen, among the Tartars, and among the Samoyedes. The story of a spirit which was hid in the seven boxes, the boxes in seven chests, and the chests put in the sea; the soul being destroyed when the chests and boxes were all opened. The variations of this story are numerous, but the same conception of a charmed life, or an enclosed spirit, is common all over the world. The North American Indians have a similar story, though the nests and boxes and chests and boxes are not mentioned. One story, called "The Singing Bulbul," common in Central America: Two golden lilies were given-if they were fresh, the absent ones were well; if they should fade, they were ill. A variation of the story is that the rose would fade if the person should die. Prof. Renouf thinks that there was a transmission of these stories from continent to continent, though he says, no doubt every race has its own stories. It is impossible without the aid of a more critical apparatus to assign each story to its own origin and date, as the local coloring is absolutely delusive.

MEMORY AMONG THE ABORIGINES. Prof. Max Müller takes up anew the question whether what we call literature could have existed in any land before the invention of the alphabet. He takes the affirmative side, and points to the custom among North American Indians of oral transmission of the tribal records, the historians aiding their memory by a numeral system formed of wampum beads. The late Rev. W. W. Gill found a considerable mnemonic literature in the islands of the South Pacific. Still more extraordinary is the preservation of Finland's epic poem, the Kalevala," by oral memory alone. This system of oral tradition was brought to a still higher degree of perfection in Mesopotamia, China, Egypt, and India, and led on, in the last-named country, to a complete written literature.

THE CONGRESS OF ORIENTALISTS AT ROME. The Congress met at Rome, Oct. 3, 1899. Some very interesting papers were read. The following notes are taken from the "Proceedings of the Society of Archæology" for November :

Mrs. Emmeline Plunket, a member of this Society, read a paper on "Vedic Astronomy" to the Indian section. Her contention is that the Accadian Calendar, which depends on the Zodiaca' constellations, was constructed not less than 6,000 years B. C.- a view which was first put forward by her in the Proceedings of the Society-and that the knowledge of it had very early penetrated to India, where it inspired the imagery of some of the Vedic myths. The proofs offered for this are very difficult to summarize without the diagrams. Dr. Burgess, who spoke on this paper, admitted that the lunar stations, which are mentioned in the Rig Véda were derived by the Hindus from Arabia, and ultimately from Babylonia; while Dr. Formichi gave some proofs that Hindu astronomy in the 6-5 centuries B. C. had reached a high degree of development.

Prof. Haupt, of Baltimore, read a paper before the Society on the "Seraphim and Cherubim." The Seraphim, he thinks, should be considered as serpent-formed beings typifying the lightning, and correspond to the erect serpents found in the decorations of both Egyptian and Babylonian temples. The Cherubim originally represented the winds, and the winds. fertilize the female flower of the palm trees, by bringing to them the pollen of the males; he finds it natural that the Assyrian cherubs should so frequently be represented as engaged in the fructification of palm flowers.

M. Guimet gave an account of certain figures belonging to the Alexandrian Isis. Most scholars are agreed that the Alexandrian religion was founded on Orphic or Eleusinian mysteries which embodied the doctrine of resurrection.

Prof. Monet read a paper advocating the theory that the Israelites had their first homes in Arabia, and not in "Ur of the Chaldees." He argues thus from the inscriptions, which show that the Aramaic and the Arabic languages were essentially the same.

Dr. Gaster read a paper on "Magic Alphabets," and Dr. Senes one on the "Assyrian Sphinx," reasoning that it was an emblem of the Trinity.

BOOK REVIEWS.

MAN: PAST AND PRESENT. By A. H. Keane, F. R. G. S. Cambridge: The University Press, 1899.

The author of this book takes the position that the world was peopled by Prehistoric man, a generalized proto-human form prior to all later racial differences. That the four primary divisions are Ethiopic, Mongolic, Americar, and Caucasic; but that each had their Pleocene ancestor from which each sprung independently, by continuous adaptation to their several environments He holds that the remains found by Dr. Dubois in the Pleicene beds of East Java, point out the original home of mankind; and represent the long sought for "first man." He held that before the close of Paleolithic times all the great divisions of mankind had already been specialized in their several geographic areas; that the primary varieties had been fully constituted in the intermediate period between the old and new Stone Ages.. When the Neolithic man reached Western Europe, he found his Paleolithic predecessor already settled there. This occurred during the Geologic Age. As to the obscure interval between the Stone Age and the strictly historic epoch, we are indebted to the services of the European archæologists. That Copper, Bronze, and Iron Ages were successively introduced; that copper was worked by the Egyptians, perhaps 5000 to 3000 B. C., and in Chaldea about 4,000 years; that it is the characteristic metal of a distinct culture in Hungary, and also in the Mississippi valley.

The transition from copper to bronze in Europe, took place from two to three thousand years B. C. The author holds that the Iron Age was in Africa contemporaneous with that of other metals in Europe and Asia. The Prehistoric Age comprises the vague period prior to all written records; dim memories of which linger in the myths and traditions. "Winter Counts of the American Indians" were the first step toward pictographic records. The Akkadian, Cuneiform, and Egyptian hieroglyghics are the later stages.

The term "Race" means a group of human beings whose type has become mingled by assimilation. He treats of the African negroes and the Oceanic negroes as different divisions of the same race. The Negritoes, as well as the Papuans, belong to the Oceanic branch. The Mongols are divided into Southern, Oceanic, and Northern. The primeval home of the first was the Thibetan Plateau; of the second, or Oceanic, was Hindoo Chiaa, and of the Northern was the Central Asiatic Steppe, near the Altai Mountains.

The American Aborigines constitute the third race, divided, according to geography, into inhabitants of North America, Central America, and

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