pendulate, to coin a necessary verb? "It can't help itself" would scarcely be a scientific reply. It is the attraction of the earth that tends to restore it to its normal suspended position, the line of action of the earth's gravitational force. This force is affected by the rotation of the earth and the combined effect we call gravity. The earth is not a sphere; hence points on the surface are at varying distances from the center. Again the centrifugal force due to rotation is greater in the equatorial regions than north and south thereof; in short, for every latitude there is a particular force of gravity, so that a pendulum that would swing or vibrate seconds in Ottawa would not do so here in Brooklyn. It would lose time here. You see you haven't got as much pull here (I am not speaking in a political sense) as we have in Ottawa, but you are more apt to fly off the handle, to use a cant expression, because nearer the equator. From the above statements it becomes evident that the pendulum, an invariable pendulum, gives us a means for determining the relative force of gravity on the earth, and thereby the accurate figure of the earth, its ellipticity, its flattening, as well as anomalies in the distribution of matter in the crust of the earth. This line of investigation is carried on too by the Dominion Observatory and we have about fifty stations distributed over Canada. The period of the pendulum, that is, the time of swing, which is about half a second, is determined to the one tenth-millionth of a second of time; let me repeat ten-millionths of a second of time, and this order of accuracy is shown when observations are repeated at the same place and the interagreement is limited to the units of the seventh place of decimals.

We now know the figure, i. e., ellipticity, with a high degree of accuracy so that we can readily compute what the theoretical force of gravity should be for any given latitude; hence observations there will show the divergence or anomaly for that place, which means that there is an anomalous distribution of matter in and about the crust of the earth. When we speak of crust of the earth, we mean a thickness of about seventy-five miles, which brings us to the stratum of equilibrium or compensation.

All mountains practically float in the earth, the ten or twenty thousand feet or more that they tower above sea-level are not supported by the crust it couldn't do it but they float like an iceberg does in the ocean, which displaces as much water as its own mass above and below water.

These gravity observations have disclosed some interesting facts about what is hidden underground, by the amount of gravitational force or pull that the hidden mass or masses exercise. If there are huge deposits of iron ore, for instance, gravity would be increased, while large deposits of oil or gas or salt would have the opposite

VOL. XV.-15.

effect. The pendulum thus becomes a scientific divining rod. We may well say-a peculiar concatenation-from the stars we bring to earth accurate time, and that time we use to express gravity, and from the latter divine oil. Perhaps it is fairer to state that the positive statement of the pendulum is when there is an excess of gravity, oil can not be present, for that always involves a defect of gravity.

But there is a more delicate and more sensitive instrument for measuring differential gravity, and that is the torsion balance, by means of which actual areas can be mapped out underground occupied by oil or gas or salt, which has recently been achieved in Europe, especially in Hungary. I am glad to state that such an apparatus is now being built for the Dominion Observatory, and it will be, I believe, the first in America for that purpose.

I shall refer to one other geophysical investigation in which we were engaged. Sir George Darwin many years ago concluded that the earth was subject to daily physical tides, beside those of the ocean, i. e., that the earth was squeezed, was deformed by the action of the moon, which is the main factor in our ordinary tides.

Darwin tried to measure the minute quantity, but failed on account of disturbing factors on the surface of the earth. Hecker of Potsdam succeeded by having his instrument in a deep shaft beyond the effects of the daily heating of the earth, in obtaining a value, but there was the anomaly, found too by the Russian Orloff, that apparently the earth was more readily squeezed in a north and south direction than in an east and west direction. The question was referred to Professor Love, probably the foremost exponent in questions of elasticity, but no satisfactory solution was obtained. It was believed that possibly the situation of the observing stations with reference to the ocean might play a part by the gravitational effect of the tide or heaped-up waters upon the horizontal pendulum which was the instrument used, and also by this same mass of water bending the ocean floor and producing slight tilting of the instrument. To settle this the International Seismological Society decided to establish several stations widely differing in their positions with reference to oceans. Canada was assigned a station. The war intervened, and we never met again. However, the problem was attacked by Michelson of the University of Chicago and brilliantly carried out on the grounds of the Yerkes Observatory and in quite a different manner, by observing in 500-ft. 6-in. pipes partly filled with water the change of level. For measuring the minute quantities an interferometer was used, that is, the wave lengths of light were the measuring

THE TAR-BABY STORY AT HOME

By Dr. W. NORMAN BROWN

THE JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY

A

I

BOUT thirty years ago the late Dr. Joseph Jacobs pointed out that the "Wonderful Tar-baby Story" of Uncle Remus has a parallel in a tale of the Buddhist Jātaka-book, where the most salient feature of the Negro story, the "Stick-fast motif, occurs.' Since then students of folk-tales have discussed that story with an almost undue respect for his enticing theory that it originated in India, passed to Africa in very early, perhaps prehistoric, times, spread over that great continent, and at last came to our shores deep-rooted in the souls of our Negro slaves.

What is more, since Dr. Jacobs first expressed his opinion, additional evidence has become available seeming to support at least the first part of his thesis, namely, that India is the ultimate home of the story, although other parts of his proposition have been variously modified. For example, it has been suggested that the story did not reach Africa until comparatively recent times, say the sixteenth century, when it was taken there by Portuguese sailors. Latest, a well-known American folklorist has found the Tar-baby story in the Cape Verde Islands attached to the "Master Thief" cycle of tales a cycle first presented to the Occident by Herodotus in his account of the robbery of King Rhampsinitus' treasury. On the basis of this discovery, she has suggested a theory that the Tar-baby was originally a part of the Master Thief tale, that they both came from India to Western Asia and Africa, and proceeded thence to Africa. There the Tar-baby feature was clipped or detached from the larger story and has since maintained an independent existence. The idea is ingenious, but it is too much based on unprovable hypotheses to be convincing.

1 Pañcāvudha-jātaka (Jātaka 55). Dr. Jacobs' remarks may be found in the following of his books: The Earliest English Version of the Fables of Bidpai, Introduction, p. xliv; The Fables of Esop (Caxton's edition), vol. 1, pp. 113 and 136; Indian Fairy Tales, story of "The Demon with the Matted Hair.''

2 E. g., see Dähnhardt, Natursagen 4, 27ff.

3 E. C. Parsons in Folk-Lore, 30: 227. Her theory is untenable: (1) Herodotus' tale is not necessarily to be derived from an Indian source, for it

But the main question, that of Hindu origin of the Tar-baby, still remains unchallenged, and yet it is one that may well arouse scepticism.

The story has been reported in print oftener from Africa, including the Cape Verde Islands, than elsewhere-twenty-two times according to my own account, which is doubtless not quite complete-and this, too, in spite of the fact that African folk-lore has been less fully explored than that of India. Nor is there any part of Africa where it has not appeared, as far as I know, unless it be Egypt. It has been brought to light ten times among American Negroes, fourteen times among American Indians, seven times in India, and twice in the Philippines.*

Of these fifty-five versions fifty-two are "folk-tales" in the strictest sense of the word, that is, they are tales current orally among the illiterate folk, that have been secured by collectors from viva voce narration; further, they have been collected within the past sixty years. The other three versions are "literary," being found in professed works of literature, and come from India. The oldest of these three may be earlier than the dawn of the Christian era, for it is included in the Samyutta Nikaya, a division of the Southern Buddhist canon containing a number of religious discourses ascribed to the Buddha. The second is that known to Dr. Jacobs, a story of the fifth century Jātaka-book, which is a work portraying the Buddha's experiences in a number of previous existences. The third is a brief parable in a medieval Jain text, also religious, called the Parsistaparvan.

The story generally appears in a fairly well stereotyped form, showing a clever animal, in a few instances a man, engaged in thieving, that escapes all efforts to catch it until the injured party -another animal or man-fashions as a trap an image made of can be assigned an earlier date than any version of the Master Thief found in India; (2) No version of the Master Thief from India has the Tar-baby attached to it; (3) the Cape Verde Island tale is merely the usual tale contaminated by the Tar-baby idea, or at least the Stick-fast motif.

For a list of references to the Tar-baby see Parsons, l. c. But add the following: (1) for Africa: Barker and Sinclair, "West African Folk-Tales,' p. 71; Nassau, "Where Animals Talk," p. 23; Folk-Lore, 10: 282; 20: 443; 21: 215; (2) for India: (a) literary: Samyutta Nikaya, 5: 3, 7; Parisistaparvan, 2: 740; (b) oral: Indian Antiquary, 20: 29, and 29: 400; Gordon, "Indian Folk Tales" (2d ed.), p. 67. Mrs. Parsons has already noted the other versions from India, namely, that of the Jātaka-book (literary) and Bompas, "Folklore of the Santal Parganas," p. 325 (oral). For the valuable reference from the Samyutta Nikaya I am indebted to Dr. E. W. Burlingame.

The Cape Verde Island stories and the Jataka, but in the latter case the hero is not a thief (see discussion below).