Page:Science vol. 5.djvu/277

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Makcb 27. 1

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��fiD«et spccimeoB or such shrubs lo be seen anywhere in the world.

Scattered through the half garden, half park, are arlific-ial pomis, called ' lotus -poods,' set in a curliing of granite, with islands bordered in like fitshion. In the same manner the brooks arc confiucd and Triitged, and are spanned by stone bridges alintervals; and vet so well done IM the work that it seems in keeping with its ■urroundiiigs. At all imiuts where a particu- larly pretty bit of landscape presents itself, is found a su miner- house ; for a Korean does not combihe the idea of exercise with the enjoy- ment of nature, and prefers to drink in the scenery where at the same time he can sip his lea.

Throw over the greater part of the scene the artistic touch of neglect and incipient ruin, ."ind yoa have some idea of the grounds of the ^cw Pslnce of Soul. PeitcrvAL I^owell.

��IK ancient domain of the Yuchi or t'chee on both sides of Middle Savannah Kivcr ibly does not shelter any full-blooded Yu- mon or woman at the present time ; but _ the remote comer of the Indian Territory, 'Vbere the tribe is settled now, it t^naciousl}' clings to its ancient castoms and habits, its beliefs, dances, and busk festivals. Very few of this aboriginal colony on the southern banks of the Arkansas River can converse intelligibly in English ; they do not even mix a great deal with the Creeks, bj- whom thej' are surrounded on all sides, but live quictlj* and happily on their fui'ms. Their mvths consider the sun as a remnle, and the Vuchi iia her children . When the last Yucbi dies, the whole world will be- come extinct also. The luoon is regarded as of the male sex, and as the suitor of the sun. Although the Yuchi tongue dilt'ers in its radicals from all American languages hereto- fore explored, it exhibits some general resem- blance in slruolure to Creek and the other dialects of the Maskoki family. It is possessed of the same alpUalietic sounds as this, but shows slight dill'erencCB in their utterance, and is as prone to nasalize its vowels as Cha'hta and the Sioux dialect of Dakota. Syllables and words close with vowels almost through- out; and the structure of the syllable is, (juite as invariably as in Ojibwe. one or two conao- nants followed by a vowel, diphthongs being rare and always adulterine. The mute con- ,nts do not show the tendencv of Creek to

���be uttered at the alveolar or front part of the palate. A large number of terms are osyton- ized, that is. emphasized on their last syllable ; but the Hottentot chicks, which have been at- tributed to the Yuchi language, do not exist in it. None of the nouns inflect for case. The adjective does not inflect for number: but the substantive nouns assume the ending ha, which 1 sup|)ose to be abbreviated from wahdle (• many'), a term which also ap|>ears ns hdU, The decimal system forms the base of the nu- meral series, and not the quinary*, which is the most frequent one in America and iii other parts of the world- The existence of a dual generally shows that a language has remainetl in a highly archaic stat« ; but in Yuchi no trace could be discovered of it, neither in the noun or pronoun, nor in the verb, although the Maskoki dialects possess it in the latter. The verb has a personal and tem|>oral inflec- tion, but is not by any means so rich in tense forms as Creek. Cha'hta, or Hitchiti. But like these, it reduplicates the second syllable of the verbal base to form iterative, frequentative, and distributive forms of conjugation. In the third |>erson of the pronoun, distinction is mn<le uol only between male and female, but also between races: since 'they,' when re- ferring to whites or negroes of both sexes, ie expressed by lew^nu ; when relenlng to Indians, by lehhni. ' She,' when pointing to an Indian woman not related to the one speak- ing, is rendered by I^no; when related to him, by lessf.no. All these gender distinctions are also expressed in the intransitive verb.

The gentes of the Yuchi people are identical with those of the Creeks and Seminoles, and, like the Naktche gentcs, are evidently borrowed from them. The descent is therefore also in the maternal Hne. Albert S. GATitCHEi.

��The cessation of llit> cholera epiilemic in Europe, ■Ince the advent ut cold weather, has prevented the occurrence of much of inurest in this dirfctlon since our last notice of llie subject in Science. The English cholera commlaslon, » note of whose labors was made lams weeks ago (vo). v. p. 41), has re- turned, and has marie a full report of iW labors, which seem to contradict Koch's assertions In every vital point. We had hoped lo receive the printed report before this, but have failed to do so as jret.

The most interesting work upon the comma bacil- lus of cholera, recently published, is that of JoUue (Zeiiscfcr. /. mermed., xi. «), in which he gives the methods of culture, staiiiliig. and preiiannloii of the

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