would intentionally produce it by arranging a tuft of hair to hang between the eyes, or attaching an ornament to hang over the forehead (vol. ii., p. 730). Another custom mentioned is a working out of the magical notion (which may be conveniently described by the German term of the Angang) according to which the first creature met with, as on rising in the morning, is supposed to have ominous influence or significance to the beholder. This is an idea familiar to students of magic, but it was stretched to an extreme in that Mexican district, where (if the story is true) men were married by Angang. In Ixcatlan, he who desired to get married presented himself before the priests, and they took him to the temple, where, in presence of the idols he worshipped, they cut off some of his hair, and, showing it to the people, shouted, "This man wishes to get married!" From thence he was obliged to descend and take the first unmarried woman he met, in the belief that she was especially destined for him by the gods (vol. ii., p. 261). each wound thirteen times round the pole, by which four men in bird-costumes flew round. It is suggested that the thirteen turns of the rope, with the four flyers, represented the four thirteen-year divisions of the Aztec cycle of years (p. 295). Very likely this was really so. Had it been in England, it would have been interpreted as symbolizing the four seasons with their thirteen weeks each, if not the four suits of a pack of cards. It appears that America, like Africa, has devised a rite of Mumbo Jumbo: Several northern California tribes have secret societies, which meet in a lodge set apart, or in a sweathouse, and engage in mummeries of various kinds, all to frighten their women. In The men pretend to converse with the devil, and make their meeting-place shake and ring again with yells and whoops. some instances, one of their number, disguised as the master-fiend himself, issues from the haunted lodge, and rushes like a madman through the village, doing his best to frighten contumacious women and children out of their senses. This, it would seem, has been going on from time immemorial, and the poor women are still gulled by it, and even frightsome lightened into more or less prolonged fits of wifely propriety and less easy virtue (vol. iii., p. 160). One may imagine comic situations arising from such a matrimonial planfooted damsel cutting in at the templesteps, while the stout heiress provided by the family is still panting round the corner. Again, the custom of killing one of twins, practised in so many parts of the world and accounted for by so many divergent explanations, was known in Mexico with an interpretation even odder than usual. "The birth of twins was believed to foretell the death of one of the parents at the hands of their child; to prevent this, one of the infants was killed" (p. 269). The so-called "Chinese" foot-balancing trick, in which a man lying on his back spins a heavy pole on the soles of his feet, throws it up, catches and twirls it, was practised with great skill in ancient Mexico; the Aztec juggler would even twirl the pole with a man sitting at each end of it (p. 295). There is a good picture of this performance in Clavigero, "Storia del Messico." As every similarity in customs between eastern Ásia and Mexico may be a proof of intercourse, it would be curious to ascertain whether our modern jugglers derived the feat from the Aztecs, or whether there is any reason to give it an Old World origin. It is worth noticing that the "Flying Game," or giant stride, as weli known to the New Zealanders as now in our Board School playgrounds, was also practised in Mexico. A tall pole was set up in the public square, on the top of which was a revolving frame with four ropes, Lastly, among these remarks on customs, it is worth while to notice reasons assigned for the practice of confession of sins, which prevailed in parts of North America. Among the Tacullis, savages of the northwest coast, who hold the common belief in disease being caused by possessing demons, the sick, in extreme cases, often resort to confession to the magician, “on the truth and accuracy of which depend the chances of a recovery" (p. 143). This suggests a reason for confession quite apart from the moral idea of unburdening the conscience. If the patient is being punished by offended demons, it follows that the medicine-man who has to deal with these demons must be informed what sins have been committed, that he may take the proper steps for propitiation in the proper quarters. With this interpretation in our minds, we may see our way into the origin and meaning of the secret confession of sins as preached among the old Mexicans and Central Americans (pp. 220, 380, 494, etc.), without looking to any wonderful exaltation of motive, or fancying that the rite must have come across from some more cultured religion with highly developed morality. Mr. Bancroft's wide and critical survey of American mythology may do real service in bringing some of its perplexed in an island of the sea, but the raven flew there and brought home a brand in his beak, and got home just in time to drop it almost burnt to embers, and its sparks fell among the sticks and stones, whereby it came to pass that men still get fire by striking stones and rubbing sticks together (p. 101). Perhaps the stories of closest resemblance to this belong to Australia. Tribes there believe that fire at first belonged to the old spirits, but the crow brought it down to earth and gave it to the blackmen; or, that the bandicoot at first had a firebrand and kept it jealously till the birds got it away from him, the pigeon making a dash for it, and the hawk knocking it across the river just when it was being thrown in, and so man got fire. (Wilson, "Prehistoric Man," vol. i., p. 139.) problems to rational solution. Hard to manage as the subject is, many points seem likely to throw light both on American "pre-history," and on the working of the human mind. Take, for instance, the following myth told among the Thlinkeets of the north-west coast. In old days they had no fresh water, but Khanukh, the progenitor of the Wolf clans, had it all. He lived in an island east of Sitka, and he kept the precious fluid in his well, having built his hut over it for better security. But Yehl, the creator and raven-god, progenitor of the raven clans, went in his boat to get water for his people. The two gods met, and at once had a dispute, but Khanukh vanquished the other by taking off his hat, which caused a dense fog to enshroud the helpless Yehl, who howled and wept till his adversary put his hat on It is a good point about such myths as again, and the fog vanished. Khanukh these that they are not suspect of modthen invited Yehl to his house, and enter-ern introduction by white men. Nothing tained him with many luxuries, among can be more delusive than the arguments which was fresh water. Yehl contrived which have not seldom treated as native by a dirty trick to send his host down the stories which have been mixed up to the sea, and then, having drunk himself full with the fresh water to the very beak, he put on his shape of a raven, and flew up the chimney to escape; but he stuck in the flue, and got well smoked by Khanukh when he came home, so that ravens, which were at first white, have been black ever since. However, the raven got away, and flying back to his own country scattered the water in drops large and small, so that there are springs and lakes there to this day (p. 102). Mr. Bancroft calls attention to the remarkable correspondence between this tale and the Scandinavian story of Suttung's mead, that mystic compound of blood and honey that gave to all who drank it the skald's gifts of wisdom and song. In vain it was that Suttung kept hidden in his cavern the jars that held the wondrous liquor, for Odin got in by guile, sucked it all up, and then in eagle's shape flew off to Asgard, and | poured it out among the Aesir. Such a coincidence may well encourage mythologists to search further for stories which may have been brought by the Norsemen to Greenland and thence spread over the continent by the Eskimo. Beside the general resemblance in this case, it is worth noticing that Odin's raven and wolf are both here, though on contrary sides, and that the cloud-hat suggests the wide hat with which the heavenly Odin himself shades his face. This same Yehl, the raven-god, is also the hero of a local version of that world-wide myth, the stealing of fire. In old days the fire was hidden with scraps of Christian ideas derived from missionaries. For instance, there has been put on record a belief among some tribes of lower California that Niparaya, the Great Spirit, would not receive the slain in battle into his paradise, but sent them down into the prison-cavern of his adversary, Wac. (See Tylor, "Primitive Culture," vol. ii., p. 87.) We now get from Mr. Bancroft proofs clearer than ever of the historical worthlessness of the religion of these people. They said that Niparaya, the creator, had three divine children, of whom one was a real man and born on earth, who lived with the ancestors of the Pericues. "The men at last killed this their great hero and teacher, and put a crown of thorns upon his head" (p. 169). Of the deluge-myths of America, again, some are genuine and instructive, and some stupid modern fictions. Mr. Bancroft's collection is extremely full (vol. v., p. 13, and elsewhere), and he weighs them with a critical appreciation. It is satisfactory to find him insisting forcibly (vol. iii., p. 68) on the spuriousness of the famous story of Coxcox, the so-called Mexican Noah, to which, unluckily, even Humboldt lent his authority. The present reviewer takes this occasion of mentioning a point which has for years seemed to him conclusive against the authenticity of this whole tale, but which neither Señor Ramirez nor Mr. Bancroft seems to have remarked. It is this. The best copy of the Aztec picture-writing on which the tale is founded is that of Gemelli Careri in his To conclude: it is needless to repay Mr. Bancroft's costs and labors with phrases of congratulation. He has done what he wanted to do. He has raised his Pacific district into higher importance in the educated world, and every one appre "Giro del Mondo." Here, together with the picture of Coxcoxtli and his wife in the boat, and the talking bird above, and the horned mountain which is the picturename of the kingdom of Culhuacan, there is also the hieroglyph of a hand grasping a bundle of reeds. This, being inter-ciates his work. By making accessible so preted, must be seen to stand for the name of King Acamapichtli (i.e., Reedhandful). But by authentic Mexican history it is known that about the end of the thirteenth century there reigned in Culhuacan a real King Coxcoxtli, whose son was King Acamapichtli. It is clearly to the modern times of these real people that we are to refer the migrations by land and water which are recorded in the picturewriting; the deluge-myth which modern commentators have found in it is a mare's nest. much valuable material, and sweeping away so much accumulated rubbish, he has made a great move toward the production of a real system of American anthropology, some outline of which he may even hope to see in his lifetime. We trust his example may lead others to do the like work in regions whose ethnological materials are unmanageable because no student can get them before him as a whole. Especially we want a Bancroft for India, and a Bancroft for Asiatic Russia. EDWARD B. TYLOR. The corals are of modern aspect, although the species are undescribed. The fact that there are extensive saline basins at a height of even seven thousand feet on the coast of Peru would seem to indicate that the submergence was at one time still greater than that suggested. Indeed, eight species of Allorchestes, a salt-water genus of amphipod crustaceans found in Lake Titicaca, would seem to indicate that this lake, twelve thousand five hundred feet above the sea, must have been at one time at the sea-level. Nature. THE PHYSIOLOGY OF HEARING. The Ber- of coral limestone twenty-nine hundred or lin Journal of Chemistry is responsible for the three thousand feet above the sea level, about following facts, which it gathers from a med-twenty miles in a straight line from the Pacific. ical journal. It states that Herr Urbantschitch calls attention to the fact that if a watch be held at a little distance from the ear, the ticking is not heard uniformly, but there is a swelling and diminishing of the sound. If held at such a distance as to be scarcely audible, the ticking will come and go, being at times perceived distinctly, but at times becoming wholly inaudible, as if the watch were being moved to and from the ear. This variation in perception is not always gradual; it is sometimes sudden. The same holds good for other weak sounds, as that of a weak water-jet, or a tuning-fork. Since breathing and pulsation have not the least influence on the phenomenon, the interruptions of the sensation must be attributed to the organ of hearing itself; our ear is unable to feel weak acoustic stimuli uniformly, but has varying times of fatigue. To decide finally where the peculiarity lay, M. Urbantschitch made both ear-passages airtight and applied a tuning-fork and watch to the head. The sounds seemed not continuous, but intermittent. The cause must therefore be in the nerves of hearing. MR. ALEXANDER AGASSIZ, in his recent trip to Peru, found occasion to conclude that the Pacific, within a comparatively recent time, extended through gaps in the Coast Range, and made an internal sea which stood at a height of not less than twenty-nine hundred feet, and probably much above this. This is proved by the fact of the occurrence WINDS OF SPITZBERGEN. - In the Austrian Journal for May 15 we have an abstract of a paper by Dr. Wijkander, published in the Ofversigten of the Swedish Academy. He points out that the most remarkable phenomena of the storms in the Arctic seas is their irregularity, vessels on different sides of a large floe having different winds, all blowing hard, while inside there is calm. The Swedes at Polhem had few storms in spring, the Germans at Pendulum Island had as many as in winter, owing to the proximity of open water. The path of the storms was generally southerly, and one remarkable feature was the warmth and dryness of the southerly winds at Polhem, partly due to the fact that the air must have passed over the high land of Spitzbergen, and warmed itself in descending to the sea-level. The same circumstances are noticed with the warm south-east winds of Greenland. Academy. PUBLISHED EVERY SATURDAY BY TERMS OF SUBSCRIPTION. 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