Dr. De Jonghe's pamphlet of 74 pages considers the secret societies of the Lower Congo chiefly from the religious standpoint. He criticises the ideas of Schurtz and Frobenius as to the origin of secret societies and their close relations with puberty rites and the religious education given in the fetish schools, but his main object is to summarise the information available as regards the two principal societies of Lower Congo, the nkimba and the ndembo. The former appears to be a puberty institution, and is confined to males, although a feeble imitation of it exists in some places for the other sex. The ndembo admits both sexes and all ages, but the information available about it is very scanty. Rev. J. H. Weeks informed me that in the Wathen district the ndembo appeared to be very degenerate, there being no trace of any training given by it, and neophytes remaining in the ndembo bush as long as food was provided by their relatives. entrants are supposed to die, and the food is explained as necessary to strengthen the nganga and his assistants to turn over the bodies and so prevent their decay. Dr. De Jonghe arranges his evidence under various heads, such as area and names of societies, age of initiation, selection of novices, length of tests, etc., and concludes that one object of the nkimba may be sexual separation at puberty (a view adopted by Dr. Webster as regards the puberty institution), while its main end is civil and religious training. The ndembo he regards as a magical society. His pamphlet ends with a small but valuable bibliography of 58 books and articles, with annotations as to the nature and source of each author's information. A. R. WRIGHT.

LEGEND IN JAPanese Art. A description of historical episodes, legendary characters, folk-lore myths, religious symbolism illustrated in the arts of old Japan. By HENRI L. JOLY. Illustrated. John Lane, 1908.

So numerous have been the books on things Japanese during the last few years that it seems difficult to justify a fresh one. But

of initiation ceremonies, and in the form of footnotes supplies a bibliography.

It would be impossible within the limits of a review to deal with the many interesting and disputable points raised by Dr. Webster's argument. It will be seen that they range from native conceptions of "high gods" to Spartan military training, and full use is made of the investigations of Messrs. Spencer, Gillen, and Howitt in Australia, of Dr. Haddon in Torres Straits, and of many others. The vital chapters, on the development of secret societies from puberty institutions, and of both from the totemic clan, are hardly convincing, but the re-examination of the evidence presented would require considerable space, and it has seemed more profitable to supply a rough sketch of the ground covered, and to leave folklorists to buy the book and give it the very careful study it deserves.

Such a study would have been made easier and the value of the book greatly enhanced by a full index, but Dr. Webster, or his publisher, has provided only an "Index to Native Terms." This index, instead of enabling the information collected to be referred to by tribes and localities, merely covers native names of ceremonies and grades, and such terms as kraal, kava, nullah-nullah, wurley, etc., which are often so familiar as to be used in the text without any explanation. Moreover, the proof-reading of the index seems to have been done much less carefully than that of the text and footnotes, for, whereas we have noticed in the body of the book very few and unimportant errors-e.g. "red flute" for "reed flute" on p. 38, Wendi for Mendi on p. 120 (note), Yassi twice for Yasi (a different society) on p. 173, and Medewiwin for Midewiwin on p. 179-a cursory examination has shown numerous irritating little errors in the index of about 4 pages-e.g. Mide 178 for 179, n1 for n2 under Powamu, n2 for n3 under Wowochim and Wowochimtu, Telpuchali for Telpuchcali, Asa 29 for 291⁄23 and 53 for 52, Pabufunan for Pabafunan, Wysoccan 33" for 33" and 57-besides a number of omissions, such as Yasi 173n2, the Whares mentioned in 12m3, Saniakiakwe 43, Semese 86, Tianguez 16, Tindalo 63 and 63×1, Ari 89, Baito 14, Clo'ct'n 70, Unyaro 88, etc., etc. It is to be hoped that the demand for a second edition

Dr. De Jonghe's pamphlet of 74 pages considers the secret societies of the Lower Congo chiefly from the religious standpoint. He criticises the ideas of Schurtz and Frobenius as to the origin of secret societies and their close relations with puberty rites and the religious education given in the fetish schools, but his main object is to summarise the information available as regards the two principal societies of Lower Congo, the nkimba and the ndembo. The former appears to be a puberty institution, and is confined to males, although a feeble imitation of it exists in some places for the other sex. The ndembo admits both sexes and all ages, but the information available about it is very scanty. Rev. J. H. Weeks informed me that in the Wathen district the ndembo appeared to be very degenerate, there being no trace of any training given by it, and neophytes remaining in the ndembo bush as long as food was provided by their relatives. The entrants are supposed to die, and the food is explained as necessary to strengthen the nganga and his assistants to turn over the bodies and so prevent their decay. Dr. De Jonghe arranges his evidence under various heads, such as area and names of societies, age of initiation, selection of novices, length of tests, etc., and concludes that one object of the nkimba may be sexual separation at puberty (a view adopted by Dr. Webster as regards the puberty institution), while its main end is civil and religious training. The ndembo he regards as a magical society. His pamphlet ends with a small but valuable bibliography of 58 books and articles, with annotations as to the nature and source of each author's information. A. R. WRIGHT.

LEGEND IN JAPANESE Art. A description of historical episodes, legendary characters, folk-lore myths, religious symbolism illustrated in the arts of old Japan. By HENRI L. JOLY. Illustrated. John Lane, 1908.

So numerous have been the books on things Japanese during the last few years that it seems difficult to justify a fresh one. But

offer of help as a guide will be hailed with enthusiasm by the student. Every collector of folklore objects, and every folklorist anxious to know the legends or symbolism embodied in the beautiful or grotesque Japanese netsuké, sword furniture, inro, prints, etc., which he meets, will often have had great difficulty in satisfying the curiosity aroused. Even Japanese acquaintances cannot explain the meaning of all the objects shown to them, and there is no "Smith's dictionary" of Japanese biography and mythology. If one can learn the name of a character or incident depicted, it may still require considerable labour to obtain further particulars, and objects evidently of high interest to the student of custom and religion have to be put in the cabinet unexplained. Anderson's valuable Descriptive Catalogue of a collection of Japanese and Chinese paintings in the British Museum was published in 1886, and Brockhaus's magnificent Netsuke is limited to those objects and is out of print.

M. Joly has amassed from Japanese books and friends, and from other collectors, etc., a great quantity of notes and illustrations relating to the legendary subjects of Japanese art, and gives the result, as a dictionary arranged alphabetically under names chiefly of historical persons and mythical beings, in this bulky quarto volume of 453 pages, with upwards of 700 beautifully clear illustrations and 16 colour reproductions. He has added a Japanese index under radicals, and a bibliography which is specially valuable for containing a large number of illustrated Japanese works with their native titles, translations of the same, and some annotations. The European portion of the bibliography is very far from complete, but does not profess to be more than a useful list for general reference. A number of the articles in the body of the work are very useful, e.g. on masks, giving an account of 138 forms, with 118 illustrations, a list of Japanese names, and a bibliography; on the sennins (but for some reason not obvious under the Indian term rishis instead of sennins); and a table showing the relations of the Japanese zodiacal signs and years and horary characters. The last might with advantage be explained in detail. Some other articles, which are perhaps less concerned with art, are very incomplete, such as those on

bibliography either Culin's Korean Games with notes on the corresponding games of China and Japan, or Falkener's Games Ancient and Oriental and How to Play them (in which there are accounts of Japanese chess games and Go). There are a few comparative notes on the folktales cited, several being taken from Dr. Lang's Custom and Myth, and these might well be omitted, or, if retained, should be made a real contribution to comparative storyology. Other comparative notes are not very valuable. For example, Mitsume, the three-eyed goblin, is compared with a description of the three-eyed, but otherwise quite different, Tibetan deity Palden Lhamo, cited from Perceval Landon's Lhasa (which is referred to as Percival Landon's Lhassa). M. Joly appears to rely greatly upon the works of Lafcadio Hearn, who is now, however, regarded as a somewhat doubtful authority. The opening chapter on "Emblems and attributes" contains a good deal of miscellaneous folklore under such headings as mirror (predicts future at 2 a.m.), nails (finger) (white spots for gifts), seals (must be affixed an odd number of times or the document is unlucky), star (shooting) (soul of person just dead), and string (hair string breaking foretells a death). The note on sneezing is "Sneezing, has ominous meanings: if once, the affected person is praised somewhere; if twice, reviled; if three times, it is a sure proof that he has 'Kaze wo Totta' (caught the wind), i.e., a 'cold.'" The three-times omen has a flavour about it rather of individual than of folk humour, and according to another authority the ordinary Japanese belief is that three sneezes indicate that someone is in love with the sneezer.

Having noted so many causes for gratitude, and added a word of praise for the wide range and beautiful reproduction of the illustrations, it is very regrettable to be obliged to accept M. Joly's invitation in his introduction to correct his pages, and to complain of the defects of haste and carelessness which render the book so much less of a treasure than it might have been. To begin with, a petty annoyance is that the author has been badly served by his proof-reader. The edible seaweed kobu used in the New Year festival is referred to on p. xxiv. under a heading Alguae, as the ficus (not fucus) vesiculosus, and alguae for algæ