connection between each kind of sound and a color. We should not suggest the problem if we thought it impossible to solve it by some direct method, and we have a firm hope that well-conducted personal investigations will at length discover the origin of the association. It may be that some importance may be attached to the picture reading books in which the letters are colored for the pleasure of children. Possibly, too, the consonance of certain words designating colored objects has been detached, by a kind of abstraction, from the word itself, and has carried the reflection of its color to other words in which it is found, although their meaning is entirely different. This second opinion is supported by an observation cited by Mr. Galton, of a lady who gave e the color of red, and believed it was because there is an e in the English word red.
We may summarize the knowledge we have concerning the mechanism of colored audition as follows: It is certain that the impressions of color suggested by certain acoustic sensations are mental images; it is probable that those persons who experience these impressions belong to a visual type; and it is possible that the bond between the impressions is the result of associated perceptions.—Translated for The Popular Science Monthly from the Revue des Deux Mondes.
| SOME CHARACTERISTICS OF NORTHWESTERN INDIANS. |
THE Kootenay Indians, who number between five hundred and a thousand persons, inhabit a strip of country between the Rocky and the Selkirk Mountains, partly in the United States and partly in British Columbia. As a rule, their moral character and behavior are good, and they are honest, kind, and hospitable; but a few incidents cited by Dr. A. F. Chamberlain, in his report concerning them to the British Association, indicate that they are sometimes moody and easily offended, especially when their demands are refused. They have also a keen sense of the ludicrous, and laugh at the misfortunes that befall their fellows. A favorite Sunday amusement among the Lower Kootenays is horse-running. "All the horses are assembled in a large, open space near the camp, and the Indians form a large circle round them, and, provided with long whips, they drive the horses to and fro for an hour or so, laughing and yelling to their hearts' content. Even the little boys take part in this sport. They also take great delight in breaking stubborn horses, and the whole camp looks on until the young man has succeeded in controlling his animal, guying him unmercifully if he makes mistakes." Although no
