foreign Reviews-is more noticeably excellent in the new number than in its predecessors. THE German literature of Positivism is growing. Since 1880 much has been done to render the philosophy of Comte more accessible to the German public, and it has been the subject of an entire course of lectures in at least one university. The article by Dr. Eugen Oswald in a recent number of Auf der Höhe (April), on "Positivism in England," deserves notice not only as a valuable addition to this literature, but as probably the most comprehensive and scholarly account yet offered of a movement which, at the lowest estimate, will rank among the memorable eccentricities of the century. Dr. Oswald himself is clearly not one of the brotherhood; but he writes without animus, and his impartiality is the more remarkable in a member of the nation for which Comte reserved his harshest criticism, and to the extraordinary achievements of which he continued to the end almost ludicrously blind. IN the Revista Contemporanea for May Señor Jordana y Morera begins a work on the "Natural Curiosities and Social Character of the United States." It is pleasantly written, and the judgment is highly favourable to the Americans. Philadelphia, both socially and as a city, is preferred to New York. Rodriguez Villa continues his history of the campaign in Flanders of 1647. Alvarez Sereix translates M. de Lapparent's lecture on the crust of the earth delivered before the Geographical Society of Paris; and D. Luis Barthe criticises favourably Quinet's posthumous work on the genius of the Greeks. But perhaps the most striking things in these numbers are two little poems by M. Gutierrez-" On a Fan" and "Solitude; the last, on the Gypsies as a people alone among the nations. The current novel, just begun, is a translation of Whyte Melville's Satanella." 66 SELECTED FOREIGN BOOKS. GENERAL LITERATURE. BONNAFFÉ, E. Dictionnaire des Amateurs français au XVIIe Siècle. Paris: Quantin. 20 fr. DIEULAFOY, M. L'Art antique de la Perse. 1re Partie. 1 Livr. Les Monuments de la Vallée du PolvarDUPLESSIS, G. Les Emblèmes d'Alciat: les Livres à Roud. Paris: Des Fossez. 35 fr. Gravure au XVIe Siècle. Paris: Rouam. 5 fr. GORGES, J. M. La Dette publique: Histoire de la 1 fr. PHYSICAL SCIENCE AND PHILOSOPHY. by a leaf, as in Latin inscriptions, but other- LATZEL, R. Die Myriopoden der oesterreichisch-being UNDER-STANMORE. Oxford: June 8, 1884. A very interesting discovery was made between four and five years ago at Brough-underStanmore, in the county of Westmoreland. Brough was the Verterae of the Romans, a station garrisoned by the "Numerus Directorum,' on the road from York to Carlisle. In 1879 the present vicar, the Rev. W. Lyde, when engaged in restoring the church of St. Michael, found that the old porch had been partly built with the help of sepulchral and other stones. Among these was one with a Latin inscription recording the name of Septimius Severus; another was the stone which is the subject of my present communication. The stone is about two feet in length and one in width, and is engraved upon one side. At the top it is ornamented with two squares, divided by cross-lines into eight triangles, and on either side is the so-called palm-branch found on both pagan and Christian monuments of the classical age. Between the palm-branches runs an inscription in twelve lines, which has evidently been cut subsequently to them. A photograph and casts of the inscription were sent to Prof. George Stephens, the eminent Runic scholar. With his mind full of Northern antiquities, he pronounced it to consist of "twelve stave-runes," and to commemorate the burial of a noble lady named Cimokom. The TRENDELENBURG, A. Die Laokoongruppe u. der Gi- Professor gave a copy of the inscription in his Rapports à la Question d'Orient. Athens: Wilberg. PRINS, Ad. La Démocratie et le Régime parlementaire. Paris: Guillaumin. 4 fr. TISSOT, V. La Police secrète prussienne. Dentu. 3 fr. 50 c. Paris : gantenfries d. Pergamenischen Altars. Berlin: Gaertner. 1 M. 20 Pf. THEOLOGY. BECK, J. T. Erklärung d. Briefes Pauli an die Römer. 10 L. BONGHI, R. Storia di Roma. Vol. I. Milan: Treves. BLOCH, G. Les Origines du Sénat romain: Recherches sur la Formation et la Dissolution du Sénat patricien. Paris: Thorin. 9 fr. FAVARO, A. Alcuni Scritti inediti di Galileo Galilei. tratti dai Manoscritti della Biblioteca nazionale di Firenze. Florence: Le Monnier. 10 fr. GUEDEMANN, M. Geschichte d. Erziehungswesens u. der Cultur der Juden in Italien während d. Mittelalters. Wien: Hölder. 7 M. 20 Pf. HAUSSOULLIER, B. La Vie municipale en Attique: Graubündens. 2. Hft. Chur: Hitz. 1 M. 20 Pf. RAFFAY, R. Die Memoiren der Kaiserin Agrippina. Wien: Hölder. 2 M. 40 Pf. Studies on Northern Mythology published last A zinc cast of the inscription has now been "On the 16th day of the month Idon was prematurely buried with lamentations Hermê(s), the descendant of Kommagên, Filibiôtos, a wayfarer. Farewell, thou boy, from off the way, although along mortal life thou crawlest. Through the exceeding swiftness of thy target, when thou wentest against Kimôê—ngê . . . the boy Hermes ...” Idôn must be the name of a month, since "on the 16th of the ides" would make no sense. It is curious that Ida is said to have been the first Anglian king of Northumbria. The contracted form at the end of the second line seems intended for φθανείς instead of φθανών. Tuμßwoke is an extraordinary word, but the sense is clear. Ομογή evidently stands for οἰμωγή. Νέπος is the Latin nepos, which is used in Keltic inscriptions with the meaning of "descendant." Prof. Rhys tells me that " wayfarer" is also an epithet which occurs in Keltic lapidary texts. The final consonant of Biov is omitted in 1. 7. The noun wxʊтáτηs has been formed from the superlative, and parma was the Latin word specially applicable to the Keltic target. Où seems used with a temporal signification. 'Epun is a Greecised form of the Keltic Erema (gen. Eremon from Erem, the equivalent of the Latin Agricola), which is still further Greecised in 1. 11 by the addition of the Greek nominative suffix. It reminds us of the Latinisation of Welsh names at a later period. Kommageni or Kommagêne (the final letter may be either or) is compared by Prof. Rhys with the Keltic Komogann, which he has found in an Ogmic inscription; and he suggests that Filibiôtos is Macbeth, fili- representing Mac, and beth being assimilated to the Greek BITOS. Kimôê... ngê also seems to be a Keltic name; but the obliteration of the three medial characters makes it impossible to identify it. The historical bearings of the inscription are of great interest. The names mentioned in it are Keltic, and yet the corrupt Greek in which it is written must have been a spoken dialect. This is shown by the phonetic spelling, the bad grammar, the new grammatical forms, and, above all, the Kelto-Latin embodied in it; while it is obvious that a mortuary inscription of this sort was intended to be read and understood. Here, therefore, we have Kelts occupying what had once been a Roman military station, and speaking a corrupt Greek; and this, too, probably at the close of the fifth century, at all events subsequently to the departure of the Romans from Britain, but before the Anglian conquest of Westmoreland or the Christianisation of the district. I would suggest that a Roman official of Greck nationality had intermarried with a native family at Verterae, and that the latter, after the severance of Britain from the Empire, succeeded to the duties and privileges of their Roman kinsman, and continued the use of the Greek lanThat Greek officials served in Britain_in_the guage, at any rate for a generation or two. closing period of the Roman Empire is clear from the existence of names like Gerontios or Geraint. In any case, the Brough stone throws a curious and unexpected ray of light upon that dark epoch when the hapless Britons were contending for life and home against their barbarian invaders. A. H. SAYCE. TENNYSON'S INSPIRATION FROM THE PYRENEES. Combe Vicarage, near Woodstock: June 10, 1834. The Poet Laureate's letter to Mr. E. S. Dawson, of Montreal, just published in the second edition of Mr. Dawson's Study of "The Princess, and reprinted from the Critic in the ACADEMY of May 24, reminds me of the following passages in some letters which Clough wrote from the Pyrenees while the Poet Laureate also was in that region, and which (under the erroneous heading "London") are in Clough's Poems and Prose Remains (1869), vol. i., pp. 261-69: "Luz, St. Sauveur, September 1 [1861]. Tennyson was here, with Arthur Hallam, thirtyone years ago, and really finds great pleasure in the place; they stayed here and at Cauterets. Enone, he said, was written on the inspiration of the Pyrenees, which stood for Ida.” JOHN WYCLYF. London: June 10, 1881. Will you grant me a corner to express my thankfulness to Mr. Matthew for his valuable letter? Seldom have I seen so much matter crowded into so small a space; and no one, I feel sure, knows better than Mr. Matthew himself that, if he had chosen to write a pamphlet, he might have made it ten times as long. Not many days ago I was in the ReadingRoom at the British Museum. You scarcely enter that room before your eyes light upon Take down a the History of Richmondshire. volume, as I did, and you soon meet with "The Parish of Wyclyffe.' There you find whole pages about the owners or lords of the manor and mansion-house; and Wyclyffe and Roger, and William and John, fall you upon Ralph and the same repeated over and over again. You are not many minutes in making sure that the name of the family was "Wyclyffe," or, written shortly, "Wyclyf." In that manor-house, some 545 years ago, you would have found a youth, a younger member of the family, a nephew or cousin, who was preparing to find his way to Oxford. By the help of the parish-priest, or of the librarian of some neighbouring monastery, this youth had found access to some books of value Cauterets, September 7. I have been out-Bede, Augustine, Jerome, and, above all, the for a walk with A. T. to a sort of island between Scriptures in Latin. With these, by constant two waterfalls, with pines on it, of which he study, he had made himself acquainted; and retained a recollection from his visit of thirty-one he was beginning to hope that soon he years ago, and which, moreover, furnished a simile might present himself in Oxford, and to The Princess. He is very fond of this place"Examine me, and you shall find that I have evidently, and it is more in the mountains than read, and have learnt, a few things." But that any other, and so far superior." youth, when asked his name, would have replied, Wyclyf" or " Wyclyffe." If the doorkeeper in Oxford had written it down "Wiclif,' the lad would have exclaimed, "No; I never saw it in that shape before!" The simile referred to is, no doubt, that in the following lines: "not less one glance he caught Thro' open doors of Ida station'd there Unshaken, clinging to her purpose, firm Tho' compass'd by two armies and the noise Of arms; and standing like a stately pine Set in a cataract on an island- crag, When storm is on the heights, and right and left Suck'd from the dark heart of the long hills roll The torrents, dash'd to the vale." J. HOSKYNS-ABRAHALL. "To the Rev. William C. Winslow. "My dear Sir,-I have read with great interest the accounts of the projected exploration of Zoan. "I believe in the spade. It has furnished the cheap defence, if not of nations, yet of beleaguered armies. It has fed the tribes of mankind. It has furnished them water, coal, iron, and gold. And now it is giving them truth-historic truth-the mines of which have never been opened till our time. "It seems to me that the whole Christian and the whole Hebrew world should be as much interested in the excavation of Zoan as the classic world is in that of Troy or Mycenae or Assos. "My guinea-hen does not lay as many golden eggs as do the more prolific fowls of some of my neighbours, but one of them is at your service to hatch a spade for Zoan. "Very truly yours, "OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES. "296 Beacon Street, Boston: "May 11, 1884." Once more:-Closing up the pages of the History of Richmondshire, I found, a little farther on, the Chronicles of Knyghton. I remembered that Knyghton knew Wyclyf well, and honoured his learning and his talents, though he disliked his opinions. I opened his book, and soon came to the Reformer's name. In a few pages it occurred twenty or thirty times. But I never found it written otherwise than "Wyclyf," Wyclyf," Wyclyf." And he (Knyghton) knew the Reformer well, and for many years. He objected, exceedingly, to his translation of the Bible, the work of his latest years; but he honoured the man. I have no doubt that a few ignoramuses there were, in those days, who, hearing the name uttered, wrote it down Wiclif.' But why upon earth should we prefer their ignorance to the usage of such men as Knyghton, or of the whole population of Wyclyffe, _the_birthplace of the Reformer? R. B. S. THE HUNTING OF THE WREN. Oxford: June 4, 1884. tion of this curious custom. I would suggest Prof. Newton asks for a reasonable explanathat it is a primitive example of those innumerable rites in which the decay of winter and the corresponding revival of the powers of vegetation are represented in a manner partly symbolic and partly sacrificial. A very large collection of such customs will be found in Dr. W. Mannhardt's Baumkultus der Germanen und ihrer Nachbarstümme. The custom in question seems to me to be one in which the winter is represented by the death of the wren, death" of the the correlative idea of the return of spring being lost in this case, or only traceable in the foliage and decorations which encircle the bird as it is being carried round. My reasons are as resemblance to many which are beyond all doubt representative of the awakening of the powers of vegetation. For the death of the wren, its transport in a decorated cage or basket, its subsequent burial, and the asking of alms by the "wren-boys " Dr. Mannhardt's book supplies abundant parallels, some of them familiar to many of us. It is true that in none of his examples is a bird the central figure in the rite; but there is quite sufficient variety in customs of this kind to lead us to expect more, especially in out-of-the-way places. 2. These customs, when occurring in the winter (see Mannhardt, p. 249), are always found taking place after the winter solstice, when lengthening days give notice of the coming rule. I give a parallel from De Gubernatis spring. The hunting of the wren follows this Zoological Mythology (vol. ii., p. 259): "It is believed in Germany that the magpie (a bird of darkness and winter) must be killed during the twelve days between Christmas and Epiphany, when the days begin to lengthen." 3. The wren is a likely bird to be taken as a He seems to be called symbol of winter. "Winterkönig," "Schneekönig," and "Roi de froideur; " and the very curious Breton story in Rolland's Faune populaire, ii. 298 (to which book I was directed by Prof. Newton's last letter in the ACADEMY) is a remarkable instance of the connexion of the bird with winter in the popular mind. His lively presence and his load song make him a prominent object in the leafless hedge. If there are signs that the wren was not only representative of winter, but also a symbol of fertility (e.g., the doggerel quoted in Prof. Ridgeway's letter of May 10; I think I have found one or two other traces in Rolland), this may have arisen from the known fertility of the bird; but it is quite as likely, I think, to have had its origin in the close connexion of the ideas of winter and spring, death and life, and their constant confusion in custom and ritual. The sacrifice of that which represents winter becomes an earnest of a spring to come. Whether or not my account is the right one, I believe I am indicating the only path that can lead to a "reasonable" explanation of curious survivals of this kind. A custom which prevails in places widely apart, and runs so closely parallel in many of its details with other widespread customs, must have a meaning at bottom which is simple yet not local. W. WARDE FOWLER, Some THE ANCIENT CAPITAL OF PARTHIA. Shanghai: April 1884. Various conjectures have been made-but without much success-as to the Persian name of the city called by the Greek geographers Hekatompylos, The-Hundred-Gates. light may be apparently thrown on the subject from the Chinese. Ma Twanlin relates how the last of the Sassanidae resided, previous to his Chinese Tsat ling. The former character, tat fall, at a city called Tsih ling, in Southern or shat, seems to be the transliteration of the Persian çata, a hundred; " and, if so, as initial r is absent in Chinese, it is usually represented by 1, so that Tsat ling may be taken as having the force of Cataring. Now, the Aban Yasht, para. 101, speaking of Ardvî-çura, says (Spiegel-Bleek, p. 41):— "Who has a thousand basins, a thousand chan- The word in the original used for a hundred 腐 either of which, with a slight modification THOS. W. KINGSMILL. states (vol. ii., p. 412, English translation) that the Roman playwrights did not at this early period even attempt to elevate their audience to that high level of feeling which was habitually reached at Athens; and he quotes in proof of this a passage of Polybius (ap. Athen. 615), in which it is asserted that at the triumphal games held in the circus at Rome by L. Anicius in 167 B.C., at which the most famous flute-players from Greece had been invited to attend, the audience, dissatisfied with the music, were restored to good humour by Anicius' ordering the musicians to box with each other, instead of playing. The affair is told with much detail by Polybius, generally reputed the most truthful of historians. There is no hint of personal feeling in any part of an obviously 8 p.m. Victoria Institute: Anniversary Meeting. exact and rather difficult narrative; but L. TUESDAY, June 17, 7.45 p.m. Statistical: "Some Sta-Müller-after premising generally that Polytistics of Egypt," by Mr. J. Rabino. APPOINTMENTS FOR NEXT WEEK. MONDAY, June 16, 4 p.m. Asiatic: "Three Embassies from Indo-China to the Middle Kingdom about B.C. 1100, and the Way Thither." by Prof. de La Couperie; "The Tibetan MSS of Csoma de Körös given by Dr. S. C. Malan to the Hungarian Academy of Sciences," by Dr. Duka. 730 p.m. Education: "Is Knowledge Power?" by Mr. H. Courthope Bowen. 8.30 p.m. Zoological: "The Employment of the Remora by Native Fishermen on the East Coast of Africa," by Mr. F. Holmwood; "Further Notes on Whitehead's Nuthatch," by Mr. R. Bowdler Sharpe; stantin Jelski," by Mr. Oldfield Thomas; "Some New Asiatic Butterflies of the Genus Teracolus," by THURSDAY, June 19. 5 p.m. Zoological: Davis Lecture, *Instinet," by Mr. G. J. Romanes. 8 p.m. "The Muridae collected in Central Peru by M. Con Col. C. Swinhoe. Linnean: "Flora of Madagascar," by Mr. J. G. Baker; "Species Coelacanthus from the * Development of the Lady Fern," by Mr. Druery; Yorkshire Cannel Coal." by Mr. J. W. Davis; "Marine Fauna of Naples," by Mr. Bourne. Chemical Bodies in relation to their Composition 8 pm. Chemical: The Magnetic Rotation of High Temperatures on Petroleum Hydrocarbons," and Constitution," by Dr. Perkin; "The Effect of by Dr. Armstrong and Dr. Miller; "Nitrification,' III., by Mr. R. Warrington. 8p.m. Historical: The Origin of the New England Company, London," by Mr. J. Heywood. FRIDAY, June 20, 8 p.m. Philological: "Modern-Irish Sounds," by Mr. James Lecky. SCIENCE. Quintus Ennius. Eine Einleitung in das bius, as a Greek, was not likely to judge fairly Not less paradoxical is the assertion (p. 53) that Plautus is less dangerous to youth than Terence. "The sound moral judgment" of Whether L. Müller will convince his readers the former, if it exists at all, is apt to conceal of the various positions which he successively itself strangely. Think of the Asinaria, the upholds is very doubtful. In his anxiety to Truculentus, the Mostellaria, all of them prove that Ennius was not, as is generally presenting vivid and witty scenes of more or believed, a very rough genius, in whom the less licentious passion. On the other hand, roughness far surpassed the genius-that he the ordinary tameness of Terence's scenes possessed "brilliant beauties" of diction and prevents their taking hold of the memory, metre which ought to give him a high place and makes them comparatively innocuous. among the poet-creators of the world-he Again, how can it be said, in the paucity of advances some theses to which much objec-extracts of any considerable length, that Ennius tion will be taken. Thus he tries to show has more Schwung und Feuer than Accius? that the Roman public of 200-150 B.C. (the Such a conclusion, without complete scenes to period of Plautus' best comedies, as well as judge by, is surely quite unwarrantable. of the poetic activity of Ennius, Caecilius, and The accidents which occasion the preservation Terence) was a public of advanced refinement of the short fragments that have come down and cultivation. Mommsen's view-familiar, to us have often very little to do with their it may be hoped, to every student of Roman goodness as poetry. But, even if they were history-that Rome could not compare with all quoted for their fineness, we should not Athens in this respect, is examined and be justified in any such sweeping conclusion criticised with some minuteness. Mommsen as this. And who could venture, on the strength of fragments alone, to deny the a communi more uerborum"? It is hardly too much to say of this latest utterance of our author that in it, more than in any of his works, he seems to be guided by a perverse spirit. The numerous "offenbars" which are to be found in it throughout are, I firmly believe, very generally questionable, often wrong. This does not prevent the book from being interesting, and, in parts, especially when he is not defying Mommsen or Vahlen, instructive and edifying. R. ELLIS. MATHEMATICAL BOOKS. American Journal of Mathematics. Nos. 2, 3. (Baltimore.) In No. 2, G. P. Equations of Young concludes his paper on of Solvable Equations of the Fifth Degree." Higher Degrees," which we have already noticed, and applies his method to the "Resolution "On Certain Possible Abbreviations in the Computation of the Long-Period Inequalities of tially considered by Prof. Sylvester in the The First Book of Euclid made easy for Beginners. By William Howard. (Smith, Elder, & Co.) "Now, according to what we proved in prop. xli., the parallelogram formed by the thick part of the blue line, the dotted yellow line, the dot-and-dash blue line, and the part of the thin dot-and-dash black line between the dot-and-dash blue line and the dotted yellow line, is double the triangle formed by the thick red line," &c. The forty-seventh proposition is thus elucidated in about one hundred lines. But let us hear the other side. A gentleman, "whose son was at one of our great public schools," tested the acquaintance of the said hopeful with the first two books, which was supposed to have learned, and found him to be sadly wanting-" he did not really understand the first proposition." The father then wrote out the first five propositions as in this book, employing coloured lines but no letters, and his labours were crowned with success-"his son not only easily mastered them, but had little subsequent difficulty with his Euclid." Acting on an old Horatian direction, the gentleman here candidly imparts his experience, and we hope our comathematical masters and co-members of the he examples, as well as a great number of harder Enunciations of Propositions in Geometrical Middle High German hegecisse, hegre, herse, in Modern German hexe. Weigand in his Dictionary thinks that hágazussa may be derived from Old-High-German hac (gen. hages), a hedge, bush, and that it therefore meant originally a forest-woman, one haunting the forest, Etymologically, this explanation is not quite adequate, as it does not account for the latter part of the word -zussa, -disse, -tesse. The German word does not explain itself as clearly as the Icelandic tun-rida, a hedge-rider, a witch. However, I think it is extremely probable that the old Teutonic word, represented by the Anglo-Saxon hægtesse, did mean a dweller in the forest; and analogies in other languages appear to lead to the conclusion that the forestdweller implied by the word was, in the first place, an owl, and, secondly, some supernatural being in woman shape. The owl, the bird of night, dwelling in the gloomy and lonesome woodland, striking horror into the souls of men with her melancholy screech or hoot, became an embodi ment of the vague terrors of the darkness; and then to the superstitious fancy this symbol took human shape, and appeared in the form of a spiteful, mischievous, supernatural being-s An Explanatory Arithmetic. By G. Eastcott Association for the Improvement of Geometrical An Elementary Treatise on Conic Sections. At CORRESPONDENCE. THE WORD "HAG." Wadham College, Oxford: May 27, 1884. The word hag, an ugly old woman, in Cooper's Thesaurus, 1573 (s.v. strix), hegge, Middle-English hagge, is generally taken to be a shortened form for Anglo-Saxon hægtesse, a word frequently occurring in the glosses (see Wright's Vocabularies, 1884), and often in the plural rendering the Latin furiae. Cognates of this old word are to be found on the Continent-e.g., Middle-Dutch haghedisse, hagetisse, as well as Old-High-German húgazussa, which becomes in The Greek word orpíy, in Latin strix, meant a screech-owl which sucked the blood of young children. The Latin word was also used in the sense of a woman bringing harm to children; is striga, a witch, whence the usual Romance so Festus. Another form of the word in Latin word for a witch: see Diez (s.v. strega), and Tozer, Highlands of Turkey, ii. 172. With striz and its derivatives we may compare Spanish bruxa, (1) an owl, (2) a witch, whence brueria, witchcraft; bruxeur, to practise witchcraft. There was probably the same association of ideas among Semitic people. In Isa. xxxiv. 14 we find the word lilith, "nocturna," appearing among the names of wild creatures of the desert, and rendered in A.V. (probably correctly) by “screech-owl” (see Smith's Bibl. Dict., s.v. owl"). This word becomes in Rabbinical stories the name of Adam's first wife, the queen of the demons, a murderer of young children (see Cheyne, Prophecies of Isaiah, i. 188). Then, returning to Teutonic ground, we find that Old-High-German holzmuoja is glossed "lamia and ulula" (see Grimm, Teatonic Mythology, p. 433, English translation; Graff, i. 652, ii. 604); and Grimm tells us (p. 1040) that Middle-Dutch haghedisse is glossed "strix," owl, besides being the equivalent of Old-High-German húgazussa, hag. A. L. MAYHEW. THE AKKADIAN HERESY. London: June 8, 1884. In the last number of the Zeitschrift für Keilschriftforschung M. Stanislas Guyard, the convert to the Halevist heresy of Akkadian cryptography, formulates a series of questions as a defiance to orthodox Assyriologists. It is surprising that the theory has survived the failure of M. Halévy to prove anything in the large volume he has devoted to the subject, and it is to be regretted that a scholar such as M. Stanislas Guyard should use the same weapons as his master. He attributes to many characters values which are doubtful and rejected by most Assyriologists; he compares Akkadian to Assyrian words without taking into account the translations given in the texts; he gives to the words their most unusual meaning; and, what is worse, he often bases his arguments on broken, defective, or incorrect texts. A few cases will suffice to prove these statements. In para. 1, he attributes to the two horizontal wedges the value ta (instead of tab). In para. 2, he assimilates ir-sim to ir-nam, but does not notice that the former is translated in Assy rian by armannu and the latter by irise. In para. 7, he reads tzub (with a sadi) instead of shab or sub (with a shin or samech). In para. 14, he gives salisa as an Assyrian root, though it is nowhere found in the texts. In para. 16, he gives a gloss as shimet instead of simet, and bases his argument on this gloss, though, as the Assyrian translation of this syllabary is broken off, we have no means of ascertaining the real meaning of this isolated word. In paras. 17 and 18 he alters the text to suit his convenience, though the text in both cases is correct. On the other hand, he bases an argument (para. 20g) on a mistake in the lithographed plate, which gives In para. 20d, he treats as aphone the sign which he does not want to read. In the same way (in paras. 11 and 19) he bases his arguments on the misreadings and theories of a single Assyriologist. It is evident that with such a system anything might be argued; but it is sufficient to state the process in order to reduce these attacks to what they are worth. G. BERTIN. tir for su. MR. WILLIAM PHILLIPS, of Canonbury, Shrewsbury, has in preparation a Manual of the British Discomycetes, which will contain descriptions of all the species of this family of fungi that have been found in Britain, together with illustrations. It will be published by subscription, at a price not exceeding ten shillings. MR. JOHN HENRY GURNEY has completed his List of the Diurnal Birds of Prey. The author gives, under each species, in tabular form, references to his own published notes in natural history journals, and to books or papers by other writers, also a record of specimens preserved in the Norfolk and Norwich Museum -a collection including nearly three thousand specimens of diurnal and more than one thousand nocturnal birds of prey. The book is published by Mr. Van Voorst. A DESCRIPTION of the grotto of the Roc du Buffens, near Caunes (Dept. Aude) appears in the last number of M. Cartailhac's Matériaux pour l'Histoire de l'Homme. This description is contributed by M. G. Sicard, who has been engaged for some time in exploring the cavern. His researches have brought to light a large number of objects in stone, bone, horn, bronze, iron, and pottery, many of which are figured. A small gold ornament was also discovered. The cave appears to have been inhabited during the Neolithic age, and again towards the close of the Bronze period. Associated with some of the bronze objects were several human skeletons. PHILOLOGY NOTES. THE General Board of Studies at Cambridge has appointed Dr. Peile reader, and Mr. E. S. Roberts university lecturer, in comparative philology, Dr. Schiller-Szinessy reader in Talmudic, Mr. Reid lecturer in Roman history, and Mr. Neil lecturer in Sanskrit. THE Council at Cambridge has recommended a grant of £200 from the Worts Travelling Scholars' Fund to Mr. C. Bendall, to assist him corded for Britain, occur on a few of these examples. In mentioning a cross which is found on some pieces of red ware after the letters FEC, Prof. Church suggested that it might stand for IT as in the mark VIRTVS FEC+.- -Miss Ffarington exhibited a number of Roman coins lately found in Lancashire, and some very remarkable Chinese figures used for wall decoration.—Mr. Baylis also exhibited an early edition of Aesop's Fables in Latin and Greek, and a Descrittione di tutta Italia (1588). PROF. J. H. GALLÉE, of Utrecht, has reprinted from the Tijdschrift voor Nederl. Taalen PHILOLOGICAL SOCIETY.-(Friday, June 6.) Letterkunde his edition of a recently disPROF. W. W. SKEAT, President, in the Chair.covered "Low-Saxon" version of the legend Mr. Granville Browne was elected a member.— of Griseldis, and his reprint of the HistoriePrince L.-L. Bonaparte read two papers-(1) on Lied of Grisella, which was published at Am"Modern-Basque and Old-Basque Tenses," explainsterdam in 1771. The "Low-Saxon" version ing the peculiar characters of the Old Basque as bears evidence of being based on Petrarch's shown in the translation of the New Testament, account, probably as it appeared in the Basel which is practically the oldest printed Basque; and The Neo-Latin Names for Artichoke," edition (1496) of his Opera Omnia; and Prof. (2) on Gallée is disposed to assign 1500 as the approxi- which was an expansion of a letter that appeared mate date of its composition. The forms of in the ACADEMY of March 15, and gave rise to a the proper names are Grisildis, Jannicol, long explanation from Dr. Murray of the results off Ian Nycol nae onsen duytschen" (a curious choke for the purposes of the society's new Dicof his investigation into the history of the artinationalising of Petrarch's Janicula), and Gal- tionary, of which he is editor. terus. Prof. Gallée's Introduction contains many details attesting the popularity of the legend in Holland. Germanische Philologie, Jahresbericht. Of this useful publication the first part (128 pages) of the fifth volume is out, and the second and larger part is promised for next month. It is the work of several hands; this shows itself in the different mode of quoting: one writer quotes the Neue Jahrb. f. Phil. u. Päd. by volume and part, another writer by year and page; sometimes the number of a programme is given; sometimes not. We have missed a few good reviews of books; e.g., a very searching one of E. Nicholson in the Saturday Review (No. 185). There is a misprint on p. 65, 1. 2-" Hense" instead of " House." FINE ART. MR. WHISTLER'S ARRANGEMENT in FLESH COLOUR and GRAY at Messrs. DOWDESWELLS', 133, NEW BOND STREET, two doors from the Grosvenor Gallery. Admission, One Shilling. GREAT SALE of PICTURES, at reduced prices (Engravings, Chromos, and Oleographs), handsomely framed. Everyone about to purchase pictures should pay a visit. Very suitable for wedding and Christmas presents.GEO. REES, 115, Strand, near Waterloo-bridge, ART BOOKS. A Dictionary of Artists who have exhibited Works in the Principal London Exhibitions of Oil Paintings from 1760 to 1880. By Algernon Graves. (Bell.) Mr. Graves, whose Catalogue of the Works of Sir Edwin Landseer is a sufficient guarantee of his faithfulness and THOSE who have taken in Sanders' Ergänzungs- industry, may be congratulated at having comWörterbuch will be glad to hear that the next pleted a very laborious and useful and, we double number will be the last. In the pro- hope, not a thankless task. It has been somespectus issued with the first part the publisher thing more than a compilation from cataspoke of about twenty-four parts, at 1s. 3d. each; the number will, however, reach forty-given about each artist is confined to a few logues. Although the personal information surely a big price for a "supplement" to a dictionary. WE have received from Messrs. Trübner Prof. Laman's Sanskrit Reader, chiefly intended for students of Sanskrit in American universities. It contains extracts from the best-known Sanskrit texts, with a carefully prepared glossary. Unfortunately, the notes, which will no doubt form the most valuable part of the book, are not included in the volume now published; and we must wait for their appearance before expressing an opinion of the merits of the new Reader as compared with other Chrestomathies. facts, it has taken a great deal of trouble to establish even these. Mr. Graves states in his Preface that the lack of information about Christian names and the maiden names of married ladies has been a source of great difficulty to him, and we hope that all who are able to supply such defects of this kind as still exist in his book will do so as soon as possible. The scheme of the Dictionary is very simple. One line only is afforded to each artist; and each page is a table divided into columns showing the name, the town of residence, the years between which the artist exhibited, his specialty, and the number of works exhibited at each society, with a total. The information may seem meagre, but a more extended scheme was plainly impossible. The work contains 265 pages of this "pemmican" of facts, and deals with something not far short of sixteen thousand artists. As might be expected, the number of works exhibited is no test of the present esteem of the artists, though, as a rule, it may be taken in proof of popularity in their lifetime. Of those who exhibited over four MEETINGS OF SOCIETIES. ARCHAEOLOGICAL INSTITUTE.-(Thursday, June 5.) THE PRESIDENT in the Chair.-Mr. J. G. Waller made some interesting observations explanatory of the costume and other features on a number of rubbings of brasses, ranging from 1325 to 1483, presented to the Institute by Mr. Huyshe.-Mr. Micklethwaite described some fine wall-paintings discovered in Penvin church, near Pershore, of which hundred pictures there is none of the first rank. tracings were exhibited made by Canon Wicken-James Ward, with exactly four hundred, seems den so long ago as 1855. The pictures are of to draw a distinct line. The Singletons and various dates, and include a Virgin and Child, Drummonds, the Beecheys and the Abraham St. Roche, the Trinity with adoring angels, and a Coopers, may reach above this level, but Turner good early composition containing the Annuncia- and Reynolds and Landseer are content with tion, the Visitation of Elisabeth, the Adoration of lower figures. We are glad to see that Mr. the Magi, the Crucifixion, Resurrection, and Ascen- Graves contemplates a second edition (the first sion.-Prof. A. H. Church drew attention to some is, we believe, already nearly exhausted) which Cirencester. More than two hundred pieces of specimens of Roman pottery recently found at will include the Grosvenor and, much more imlustrous red ware with potters' marks have been secured. Some names, apparently not yet re portant than this, the Water-Colour Societies. The Engraved Works of Sir Joshua Reynolds. |