P. 24. AURIFEROUS GRAVELS OF CALIFORNIA. The principal reference is J.
D. Whitney, _The Auriferous Gravels of the Sierra Nevada of California_,
pp. 258-288 (Cambridge, Mass., 1879). Professor Whitney believes that the
evidence is sufficient to attribute the mortars, pestles, beads, etc.,
found in the auriferous gravels to late pliocene man. But Dr. Joseph
Leidy describes equine skulls, molars, incisors, etc., found in these
gravels, thirty-five to forty feet below the surface, “not differing in
any respect from those of the modern horse,” and “unchanged in texture”
(see _ibid._, p. 257). Dr. Leidy informs me personally that for such
reasons he gravely doubts the antiquity of the formation, and distrusts
the great age of the human relics it contains.
P. 27. PALÆOLITHIC IMPLEMENTS. Reports of the discovery of very large
numbers of supposed palæolithic implements in various parts of the
United States have been collected and published by Mr. Thomas Wilson
in the _Report of the U. S. National Museum_, 1887-88, pp. 677-702.
These implements, however, are called palæolithic from their form and
workmanship only, and not from the stratigraphic relations in which they
were found. As palæolithic forms often survived in the riper culture of
the neolithic age, the only positive proof of their older origin must be
that they are found in undisturbed relation to older strata.
P. 33. REMAINS OF MAN IN THE EQUUS BEDS. What American geologists call
the Equus Beds are those which yield in abundance the bones of various
species of fossil horse, as _E. major_, _occidentalis_, _excelsus_,
_barcenæi_, _fraternus_, _crenidens_, etc., most of which have been
determined by Dr. Joseph Leidy and Prof. E. D. Cope. The principal
localities of these beds are: 1. The Oregon Desert; 2. The country of
the Nueces, in southwestern Texas; and 3. The valley of Mexico. The
horizon to which these beds should be referred was considered by Prof.
King to be the Upper Pliocene; but by Prof. G. K. Gilbert, Dr. Joseph
Leidy, and I think, by Prof. Cope, it is rather held to be pleistocene
or early quaternary, probably as old as the great glacial phenomena of
the Continent. According to Cope and Gilbert, rude stone implements have
undoubtedly been found _in place_ in the Equus beds of Nevada, California
and Southwestern Texas. See the _American Naturalist_, 1889, p. 165;
_Proc. Acad. Nat. Sciences_, Phila., 1883, p. 134, sq.
Pp. 106, 108. KWAKIUTL AND NOOTKA STOCKS. After the pages referred
to had been printed, I received, through the kindness of Mr. Horatio
Hale, advance sheets of the Sixth Annual Report of the Committee of the
British Association on the tribes of the Northwest Coast, prepared by
Dr. Franz Boas, with an introduction by Mr. Hale, and including eighteen
vocabularies. Dr. Boas’ researches furnish clear evidence of a connection
between the Kwakiutl and the Nootka tongues, and there is little doubt
that they are distantly related. An instructive article on the physical
characteristics of the Indians of the North Pacific coast is contributed
by Dr. Boas to the _American Anthropologist_ for January, 1891. His
conclusion is: “Each tribe appears composed of many types, but in each we
find a marked prevalence of a certain type.”
P. 123. SUPPOSED CONNECTION OF SONORAN LANGUAGES WITH THE MAYA STOCK.
In his _Etudes Aztèques_, published in the _Museon_, 1890, p. 506, M.
W. Baligny endeavors to show a connection between the vocabularies of
Sonoran languages and the Maya dialects. His strong points are some of
the numerals and the personal pronouns of the first and second person. I
have elsewhere given good reasons for not depending on these pronominal
analogies in American languages (see _Essays of an Americanist_, p. 396).
And as to the numerals, “dont la ressemblance est évidente” (according
to him), when the Sonoran tongues disagree with the Nahuatl, they have
almost always clearly borrowed from the Yuma stem, as in “two,” _guoca_,
_kuak_ (see _Vocabs._, _anté_, pp. 335, 336).
P. 163. LANGUAGE OF THE RAMAS. Since my negative observations about the
Ramas were in type, I have received a short vocabulary of their language
from the Rev. W. Siebärger, Moravian missionary on the Musquito coast.
The orthography is German.
_Rama._
Man, nikikna,
Woman, kuma,
Sun, nunik,
Moon, tukan,
Fire, abung,
Water, sii,
Head, kiing,
Eye, up,
Ear, kuka,
Mouth, kaka,
Nose, taik.
Tongue, kup.
Tooth, siik.
Hand, kuik.
Foot, kaat.
House, knu.
1, saiming.
2, puk sak.
3, pang sak.
4, kun kun beiso.
5, kwik astar.
My informant writes me that the Ramas are about 250 in number, and are
all Christians and able to speak and write English, except a few very old
persons. Their language will probably be extinct in a few years. They
are confined to their island in Blewfield Lagoon. It is particularly
interesting, therefore, to fix their affinities before the opportunity
passes. From the above vocabulary I think there is little doubt but that
they are a branch of the Changuina or Dorasque stock, described pp. 174,
175. The following words attest this, the Changuina forms being from A.
L. Pinart’s _Vocabulario Castellano-Dorasque, Dialectos Chumulu, Gualaca
y Changuina_ (Paris, 1890):
_Rama._ _Changuina._
Sun, nunik, kĕlik u.
Fire, abung, kebug-al (fire-brand).
Water, sii, si.
Head, kiing, kin-unuma.
Ear, kuka, kuga.
Mouth, kaka, kaga.
Nose, taik, θakai.
Tongue, kup, kuba.
Tooth, siik, su.
Hand, kuik, kula.
House, knu, ku.
The numerals for “two” and “three,” _puk sak_, _pang sak_, are doubtless
the Cuna _pocua_, _pagua_. The Ramas, therefore, belong to the Isthmian
tribes, and formed the vanguard of the South American immigration into
North America. What time they moved northward and possessed themselves of
their small island is unknown, but it was probably after the conquest.
Mr. Siebärger writes me: “They were always kept under, even ill-treated,
by the Musquito Indians, and are still very submissive and teachable.”
The following errata should be noted:
P. 69, line 3; for _Nehaunies_ read _Nahaunies_.
Pp. 89, 95, 98 and 101, the numbers of the sections should read 7, 8, 9,
10, instead of 5, 6, 7, 8.
P. 169, line 17, for _maternal_ read _paternal_.
P. 197, for _Morropas_ read _Malabas_.
P. 251, line 11, for _Wapiana_ read _Woyawoi_.
Transcriber’s Note: the listed errata have been corrected.