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 8 under Wowochim and Wowochimtu, Telpuchali for Telpuchcali, Asa 29 for 2973 and 53 for 52, Pabufunan for Pabafunan, Wysoccan 33′′1 for 33′′ and 57-besides a number of omissions, such as Yasi 17372, the Whares mentioned in 1273, Saniakiakwe 43, Semese 86, Tianguez 16, Tindalo 63 and 6371, 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