abounds in everything that is pleasing to sight or taste." This is quoted from Dr. Harrington also.

These bundles and fetishes and sacred amulets must always be treated with respect, never opened except for a good cause, nor must they ever be allowed to touch the ground, and one of the strictest rules provides that no woman shall ever touch them or any part of them when open, or when in a periodic condition she shall not even approach them when closed. Should this be allowed it was believed that the powers of the medicine would be spoiled and that the woman would be likely to bleed to death.

Those who are followers of the theory of Lieutenant Totten of the U. S. Army and others, that our North American Indians are remnants of the lost tribes of Israel, will find in the laws of hygiene governing Indians and in those relating to the sacredness of medicine or magic, very much to confirm such theories. "Every precaution was taken to care for the medicine, the war bundles, the war amulets and every night they were hung on a lance thrust into the ground so they might not touch the earth. When the enemy came in view, and not until then, was it opened and distributed to the warriors who, stripping themselves, put on the medicine headbands and the protective amulets and painted themselves with the magic paint. With the shrilling of the war whistles and the sound of the rattles they joined in the war dance.

It is interesting in this connection to consider how early in life the Indian comes in contact with the mysteries of Indian medicine. "When a child is four years old it is then entitled to a name; dog feasts are prepared and ceremonial war whoops and prayers are employed. Some old man is asked to pray for a blessing; he prays for the child's name and for the one who gave him his name." Now the sun must know the child's name so in the morning they pray to him to take care of the child until he is gray. A man's life, they say, goes like the sun; it rises and sets to a certain height and then begins to decay; so they tell the sun they want this child to grow and live to old age until like the sun he finally goes down. Make this child live to old age and believe in the Indian teachings. Let him then live until he is like some one with four legs, meaning, that he walks with two canes, and until his hair turns from gray to white."

In Schreivogel's splendid painting "A Sharp Encounter," the mysterious symbol of the open hand is pictured on the left forequarter of the warrior's horse in the battle charge. This symbol of the open hand seems to express profound meaning to the Indian

leaders. Mee-shee-kee-gee-shig (whose name in English is "Darklowering-day-clouds-touching-all-around") was the war chief of the Chippewas and a personal friend of the writer. One evening, sitting smoking together, as an act of personal regard and as a token of his sincere concern, he drew for the writer a picture of an open hand and impressively stated that should trouble ever attend him he was to seek out the most influential Indian chief and show him this symbol and all possible protection would be afforded to him.

In the writer's collection of Indian books, numbering quite one hundred, he has failed to find any reference to this symbol of the open hand. A recent letter from the Bureau of Ethnology states, in answer referred to Mr. James Mooney of the bureau, the following information. "There is nothing secret or sacred about the Indian hand symbol. Painted on the breast, pony or tepee of an individual, it signifies among the Plains tribes that he has met an enemy in a hand-to-hand encounter.

"In the instance noted it may be that the Indian who drew the picture could claim such honor, and hence the picture served as his card of introduction."

With all respect to Mr. Mooney's opinion Mee-shee-kee-geeshig who wore suspended from his skunkskin garters four eagle feathers, for Sioux he had killed in battle, was by no means the only warrior among the many valiant warriors of whom he was the war chief. We must look for a deeper meaning in the symbol of the open hand. As the writer had the honor of being initiated into the rights of grand medicine he witnessed much which reminded him of the Masonic ceremonies, and he fully realizes that powerful secret organizations existed among the Indian tribes and that the open hand symbol represented a very high and exclusive degree in Indian secrecy. Study the North American Indians from whatever point we may, they are a wonderful people, strong, keen and tremendously influenced by their belief in mysteries. The half of the Indian story has not been told and from before our very eyes are passing away traditions and customs more interesting than those of any other primitive people in the world.

BOOK REVIEWS AND NOTES.

THE SOCIAL LEGISLATION OF THE PRIMITIVE SEMITES. By Henry Schaeffer. Yale University Press: New Haven, 1915. Pp. 245.

This book contains a survey of social conditions of the primitive Semites as known at present to Semitic scholars. It is a careful summary of the results of a large number of investigations made by European and American scholars,

and the work has been done with care and discrimination. It points out how the original and nomadic Semites lived under matriarchal conditions and how they necessarily and naturally changed to the recognition of paternal relationship and paternal rights. The Bible reader will be greatly benefited by a perusal of this book, because the Bible stories presuppose so much knowledge of prevailing social conditions that many references, transactions or settlements of differences are only understood if we acquire an insight into the prevalent notions of rights and privileges, of the position of women, of inheritance, of slavery, the interest paid on loans, etc. For instance the Sabbatical year is explained as an influence exerted on the conditions of the agricultural state of later times with regard to the original ownership of the land of the clan. To us who live under radically different conditions it is difficult to understand how in ancient times religious ideas could have so large a part in social troubles, the indebtedness to the poor, and the changes that took place in the readjustment of laws of property and the ownership of the soil. Dr. Schaeffer presents a clear picture of these social conditions, thus giving the American public a synopsis of this large field of historical investigation which demands a fair knowledge not only of the Biblical books in their original Hebrew, but also of the Hammurabi code, Arabic institutions, and all kindred fields of investigation.

K

JOHANN GOTTFRIED HERDER AS AN EDUCATOR. By J. Mace Andress. New York: Stechert, 1916. Pp. 316.

After introductory chapters dealing with the purpose of the book and the historical setting of its subject, six chapters are devoted to biographical material, after which Herder's relation to education and its methodology is taken up. Chapters are devoted to his views with regard to the teaching of religion, history, geography, one's native language and the classics. On the last subject Mr. Andress treats at some length of Herder's view of the value of the classics in its relation to the tendency to-day to minimize their importance. Herder did not think we should strive to be able to write in Latin and Greek, but to become sufficiently familiar with those languages to learn how the ancients thought and wrote. He says: "The man who takes the ancients as models may write letters or sermons or receipts, but he will never express himself in lame, slovenly, crude German."

At Yale University a collection of rare prints has been made by William A. Speck, of Yale University Library, and the description of it has been published in The Collections of Yale University, No. 3, under the title Goethiana, by Dr. Carl F. Schreiber.

Besides some rare autographs of Goethe and title-pages of books, pictures representing Faust, the witch in the witches' kitchen in water color, and Mephistopheles, all three by A. Kretchmer, and facsimile letters of Goethe, etc., there is also a strange document which will prove of general interest to Americans. It is an American ten-dollar bill bearing a German inscription and issued by the Northampton bank of Northampton, Pennsylvania, in 1836. The town was populated by the Pennsylvania Germans and must have had a considerable portion of German inhabitants. The bill bears the portraits of Goethe, Klopstock, Haydn and Herschel.

By DR. PAUL CARUS

Second Revised and Enlarged Edition. Cloth, $1.00

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"Diderot's range is extraordinary and is worthy to be studied by all readers of literary tastes."-Book Review Digest.

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"It is this ignorance that has created a wall of antagonism between Jew and Christian. If I could break down this barrier between two great religions and help to reconcile their differences, I would consider my humble efforts a great reward for many thoughtful hours I have spent in seeking out the true history of "Three Men of Judea" who have had most to do with the founding of the Christian religion."

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Geometrical Lectures of Isaac Barrow

Translated and annotated, with proofs

Cloth, $1.25

By J. M. CHILD

Pp. 215

"Isaac Barrow was the first inventor of the Infinitesimal Calculus; Newton got the main idea of it from Barrow by personal communication; and Leibniz also was in some measure indebted to Barrow's work, obtaining confirmation of his own ideas, and suggestions for their further development, from the copy of Barrow's book he bought in 1673."

This is the conclusion that forms the premise from which Mr. Child works in the consideration of Barrow and his predecessors, and his advance over their work, which accompanies the translation. Besides the work of Barrow's predecessors, is considered the life of Barrow, his connection with Newton and their mutual influence, his works, his genius, the sources of his ideas, the original from which the translation is made, and how Barrow made his construction. It is a careful and thorough working over of the material.

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