SEMITIC LANGUAGES AND LITERATURES MORRIS JASTROW, JR. With the termination of the war communication with Germany has been reopened, and German publishers and booksellers are sending broadcast bibliographies of important books that were issued between 1914 and 1919. The opportunity afforded by a catalogue issued by Harrassowitz of Leipzic to see what has been published in Germany during these years in the Oriental field justifies devoting the space here afforded to a brief survey of the recent activity of German and Austrian scholarship in Semitics. The record is a surprising one in respect to both quantity and quality. The war apparently did not hinder pupils and colleagues of eminent scholars from bringing out the inevitable Festschrift on the occasion of a scholar's sixtieth or seventieth birthday. Publications of this character containing larger or smaller collections of papers covering the semitic field have been issued in honor of Eduard Sachau, director of the Oriental Seminary in Berlin; Julius Wellhausen, the great Biblical critic (who died in April, 1917); Count Wolf von Baudissin; Ernst Kuhn, the eminent Indologist and comparative philologist of Munich; Fritz Hommel, also of Munich University; Friederich Karl Andreas; and Ernst Windisch. The list published by Harrassowitz covers almost 500 items of which about two-thirds represent contributions to Semitic philology and archæology and publications of texts; the remaining one-third deals with Egyptology and Indology. Despite the war even new scientific societies have been organized and serials such as Der Islamische Orient inaugurated. Periodicals and publications of the various learned academies have proceeded without serious interruption. Perhaps of most general interest is the activity that has been carried on during the war in Hittite researches. Before relations with the Central Powers were broken off, some preliminary reports had reached this country of a successful attempt on the part of an Austrian scholar, Friedrich Hrozny, to solve the mystery of the Hittite script. It now appears that Hrozny has published in three parts a series of Hittite studies, including a detailed analysis of his method of decipherment, together with specimen texts. That the attempt has been regarded as successful may be concluded from various monographs on the subject published by such scholars as Weidner of the University of Berlin and Holma of the University of Helsingfors. In addition, a large number of cuneiform texts from the Hittite center Boghazköi have been published by the German Orient Society. Although presumably many problems still remain to be solved before the decipherment can be said to be complete, it seems definite that the Hittite language has been shown to be Aryan in character, in itself a most important and somewhat astonishing result. Another feature of the German publications in the Oriental field during the period of the war is the large number of monographs and larger works dealing with the historical and archæological problems in the realm of what until recently was the Turkish Empire. By the side of publication of Turkish documents, grammars, and philological publications, there are numerous large works dealing with art and monuments in the Turkish Empire, studies of geographical problems in Turkish lands, as well as many studies in the field of Arabic philology, all more or less connected with the relations between Turks and the various peoples of the Orient. No doubt this predominance of Turkish studies, leading to increased activity in the Arabic, Syriac, and Aramaic fields, reflects the high hopes entertained by Germany during the war of succeeding in her ambition to control the East. It will be interesting to see what influence the dashing of these hopes by Germany's defeat in the war will have on the direction to be taken by Oriental science in Germany during the next few years. INDO-EUROPEAN PHILOLOGY (Exclusive of the Germanic languages) ROLAND G. KENT The output of American scholars in Indo-European philology has been Bloomfield's "Fable of the Crow and the Palm Tree" (Am. Jour. Philol., xl, 1) is a further article in his proposed encyclopædia of Hindu fiction, on the motif of a chance occurrence misunderstood as a cause; the crow alights on the tree just before it falls, and the bird's trifling weight appears to be the cause of the tree's fall (cf. previous studies by Bloomfield, Jour. Am. Orient. Soc., xxxvi, 54; Proc. Am. Philos. Soc., lii, 616, and lvi, 1; and by E. W. Burlingame, Jour. Royal As. Soc., July, 1917, 429). In much the same field is W. N. Brown's "Pancatantra in Modern Indian Folklore" (Jour. Am. Orient. Soc., xxxix, 1), a comparison of the stories found in that work with the forms in which they appear in the recorded current collections. much diminished of late by the Great the first time published to the OcciWar, since many devoted themselves dental world. to the service of their country rather than to research; notably A. V. W. Jackson of Columbia spent several months in Mesopotamia and Persia with the Red Cross, where his acquaintance with the country, the languages, and the people, gained in three previous journeys, rendered him invaluable. Yet perhaps Oriental studies may prove to be a gainer rather than a loser from the war, since Americans have come to feel greater interest in foreign affairs, especially in those of Asia. In recognition of this changed attitude the American Oriental Society, at its meeting in Philadelphia in April, passed resolutions calling for a School of Modern Oriental Languages to be established in this country under Government auspices, at Washington or elsewhere, for the training of young men who may be going to the Orient in consular service or for purposes of commerce (Jour. Am. Orient. Soc., xxxix, 144, 151, 185). The same Society also appointed a committee to prepare a statement setting forth the scope, character, aims, and purposes of Oriental studies, to be presented with the backing of the Society to the higher institutions of learning at which such studies are not represented, in the hope that the desirability of their inclusion in the college curriculum may become evident (ibid., 153). Two volumes by Maurice Bloomfield, on Rig-Veda Repetitions (xx and xxiv in the "Harvard Oriental Series," edited by C. R. Lanman) appeared early in 1919, illustrating the present delays in publication, since they bear the date 1916 on the title page. These list the repeated verses and distichs and stanzas of the RigVeda systematically, with critical commentary, facilitating comparative studies in this field. The same scholar's Life and Stories of the Jaina Savior Parçvanatha (John Hopkins Univ. Press) contains the story of the life of the earlier of the two Jaina Saviors who are historical; he is said to have been born in 817 B. C. It in cludes, in the usual Hindu form of stories, the fundamental doctrines of the Jaina religion, which are here for Franklin Edgerton has a further study in the Rig-Veda (Am. Jour. Philol., xl, 175; cf. xxxv, 435, and Jour. Am. Orient. Soc., xxxv, 240) on "The Metaphor of the Car in the Rigveda Ritual," in which he shows that the whole ritual performance is spoken of as a car, after the likeness of the car of the god Indra; on this basis he gives a new translation of the difficult Rigvedic hymns, x. 5153, with brief explanatory comments. In general phonetics, A. J. Carnoy, who has now returned to the University of Louvain after a brief stay at the University of California and a longer sojourn at the University of Pennsylvania, has an illuminating article on "The Real Nature of Dissimilation" (Trans. Am. Philoi. Assoc. xlix, 101), wherein he advances the theory that dissimilation of sounds takes place by the failure to perform one movement of the articulation which the sound has in common with a preceding or following sound, thereby transforming the sound or making it so nearly identical with another sound familiar to the language, that the hearer repeats the word with the changed sound. In Lithuanian, H. H. Bender makes some valuable observations in his review of Lalis's Lithuanian-English and English-Lithuanian Dictionary (published at Chicago), and of Juskevic's Lithuanian-Russian Dic tionary (incomplete) (Am. Jour. Philol., xl, 321). and E. B. Lease writes on "The Use and Range of the Future Participle" In the phonology of Latin, F. A. (Am. Jour. Philol., xl, 262), showing Wood advances new views on the de- a very varied and extensive employvelopment of Indo-European w after ment. Finally, Tenney Frank haз tdpbms in his "Greek and Latin notable observations on two Latin inEtymologies" (Class. Philol., xiv, scriptions of primary linguistic im245), and E. W. Fay does the same portance: he argues that the Columna on "The Phonetics of MR in Latin" | Rostrata of C. Duellius underwent a (Class. Quart., xiii, 37). In seman- restoration about 150 B. C., before its tics, I. D. Hyskell, on "Some Rare final restoration under the early Meanings of Excludo" (Class. Philol., Empire (Class. Philol., xiv, 74); and xiii, 401), traces the development of he identifies the material of the the meaning "to fashion by hollowing Forum Stele as coming from north of out, carving," argues that it is not Cremera, and hence set up either due to confusion with excudo, excutio, when the Etruscans were masters of and excido, and restricts the range of Rome or when Rome possessed that meaning of excudo. In syntax, R. C. part of Etruria. As the latter Flickinger presents a further chapter period is obviously too late, this Stele on "The Accusative of Exclamation" must, he says, date from the time of (Trans. Am. Philol. Assoc., xlix, 27; the Etruscan dynasty in Rome, which cf. Am. Jour. Philol., xxix, 303, and traditionally ended in 509 B. C. xxxiv, 276), in which he treats this (ibid., 87). (See also Latin Literaconstruction from Lucretius to Ovid; ture, supra.) XXX. EDUCATION AND EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS RECONSTRUCTION IN EDUCATION The year was characterized by a renewal of international relations in education that will undoubtedly have important constructive effects later. The visit to America of British, French, Indian, and Chinese educational missions of much more than usual importance: reëstablishment of the Rhodes Scholarships and creation of foundations like the John Harvard Fellowship; professorial exchanges with South America; not to mention the internationally significant experiment of the A. E. F. University at Beaune, France, with the arrangements for study by American students in the universities of Great Britain, France, and Italy-all these testify to a redeveloping international interest in education, the most important results of which will no doubt appear hereafter. General Survey.-Recovery from of aliens, and health and physical abnormal war conditions, which in the education case of education began almost immediately after the signing of the armis tice, proceeded rapidly during 1919, until at the close of the year there were few external signs to indicate that a year before the colleges and universities were armed camps and schools of every grade were concentrating on war service. This quick recovery in the field of education was largely due, of course, to the relative shortness of American participation in the war, our remoteness from the conflict, and other general factors In part, however, it was due to the action of the War Department in settling with incredible promptness and reasonableness the financial relations undertaken on account of the Students Army Training Corps (see infra). Although this action affected directly only the higher institutions of the country, its favorable influence reached down to all types of schools. As the year closes the most serious domestic problem affecting education appears to be the economic one. Salaries paid to teachers, whether in public schools or higher institutions, have never been adequate, and the rapid increase in living costs has produced a situation in which a hundred colleges are appealing for as many millions in endowment funds, mainly to raise instructors' salaries. Cities are conducting campaigns for higher pay for teachers. There is an actual shortage of some 40,000 teachers in rural schools, and another 60,000 positions are filled with teachers wholly unequipped for the work; and the educational profession is stirred as never before over the question of organization of teachers. So far as the fundamental problems of reconstruction are concerned, it must be admitted that the educational programme has made only slightly better progress than the whole lagging programme of social reconstruction. Little has yet been done nationally to put into effect the lessons learned or emphasized during the war. Many of the states, however, were able to enact a considerable amount of educational legislation, which, though it represents no remarkable advance of the whole line, does have the effect of bringing some of the states regarded as backward in education nearer to the general level of progress. This legislation was particularly note- "R. O. T. C." Succeeds "S. A. T. C." worthy in the fields of continuation -The most immediate and most obschools, elimination of illiteracy in vious sign of the transition from war rural communities, Americanization to peace appears in the higher insti tutions of the country. As recorded be a soldier on active duty. When the American military programme changed, however, and the call for more men came, the status of the member of the S. A. T. C. altered immediately; he was now a soldier on active duty, housed, clothed, and subsisted by the Government and constantly under military control. The unfortunate dualism of authority that resulted from this arrangement makes it difficult to judge the success or failure of the plan as an educational measure and its significance for the future. Now that the S. A. T. C. has passed into history, however, there is a tendency in educational quarters to judge the experiment in a more detached way and an inclination to regard certain educational concepts in the plan for the Corps as worthy of attention. Especially noteworthy in this respect was the course on the issues of the war which was prescribed in every curriculum. This course combined history, economics, government, literature, and philosophy. It paid no attention to the artificial divisions that have separated these subjects in the past, but aimed rather to bring about a fusion of the essential elements of these and other subjects and to furnish the student soldier with "facts, criteria, and inspirations which would enable him to understand his world and to relate his conduct to the major issues of his life." In many institu tions the principles on which this course was based have so far commended themselves to college officers that they are serving as models for organizing the fundamental elements of Under the R. O. T. C. plan as now in operation the Government furnishes one complete uniform for each student each year, rifles, bayonets, belts, canteens, pack, etc., and ammunition for target practice. The school is required to furnish at least 100 physically fit students to take the course, to provide a bond covering the value of the Government property entrusted to it, and to insure this property against fire. The Army officer detailed to the institution ranks as professor, with the title of professor of military science and tactics; the school provides him with an office and furniture, and the military instruction covers five hours a week for each student enrolled. After the student has completed the basic course of two years, if he continues the work and attends the summer camp, he is paid commuta-peace-time humanistic training. Still tion of rations, about $12 a month, in cash. After completing the advanced course, the student, if he attends the prescribed camp in summer and is recommended by his professors, is eligible for a commission as second lieutenant in the Officers' Reserve Corps, U. S. Army. The Congressional appropriation for the fiscal year 1919-20 is $4,000,000. another important part of the work of the S. A. T. C. plan which might have had important effects if tried over a sufficiently long period was the system of recruitment that was deyised, but not put into actual operation, to replace the formal college admission requirements of normal times. This recruitment system combined three elements: (1) a personal interview with each candidate to determine the character of his schooling and experience and his general qualifications for college work; (2) the Army intelligence test; (3) in the case of candidates for courses that by Discussion over the values, temporary and permanent, of the Students Army Training Corps continues. It will be recalled that when the S. A. T. C. was originally recruited, it was not intended that the student should |