digression or the display of fancy and emotion. Their tales are told in the fewest possible words; and the general knowledge possessed by the audience of the course and meaning of the tale facilitates frequent ellipses. The effect is sometimes to render it unintelligible without some expansion. The translations are, however, made as literal as such difficulties permit, and expansions are kept within the fewest words capable of rendering the sense. The contents of the tales are in general similar to those of the tribes in a similar stage of culture. The personage usually called Culture Hero or Transformer is, of course, a prominent hero. Neither of these titles is very happy as applied to one who is by turns buffoon, fool, knave, and a wise, beneficent, and even altruistic hero, now held up to ridicule and contempt for his greed and stupidity, now triumphant over all the machinations of his enemies. Among the Foxes he is a Transformer only on a very limited scale, and can hardly be reckoned a Culture Hero at all. But he is, in spite of all his faults and shortcomings, the national hero, regarded with religious reverence. In the stories here brought together he is always in human form, and not, as among some other tribes, a Coyote. His death is not told, but a story is given of how six men went to seek him in a far distant place to which he had departed, and how those who succeeded in reaching him obtained supernatural gifts. In the stories of the Foxes, as in other American collections, we come upon parallels to European tales which are the despair of those who seek to account for resemblances by borrowing. It would be difficult to account for the migration of the story of the pigmies warred on by cranes from Greece to the region of the Great Lakes of North America, or of the incident from Scandinavia of the astonishing appetite of Thor disguised as bride. The Russian heroine, Marya Morevna, whom the hero is required to subdue before he can marry her, is duplicated by the Foxes; and the marriages are followed by the Magical Flight from the heroine's brothers. Other incidents well known in tales from the eastern hemisphere are that of the innocent Persecuted Sack to be put to death, the Singing Bone, the Bride won in a contest of skill. They are all, however, so thoroughly American in detail and atmosphere that borrowing cannot seriously be thought of. Incidentally they tell The Foxes now reckon The tales are in fact genuinely native. us much of the native life and ideas. kinship exclusively through the father; yet we find numerous allusions inconsistent with fatherright. It would take too much space to discuss these, and I must content myself with saying that both on sociological and psychological grounds the volume is well worth studying. Students who do so will look forward with interest to the completion of the work in the succeeding volume. E. SIDNEY HARTLAND. THE MEITHEIS. By T. C. HODSON. With an Introduction by Ir cannot be asserted that the study of the ethnography and folk-lore of the primitive tribes of Assam has been neglected in the past. It has received a good deal of attention from time to time from Government officials and missionaries, and Sir Charles Lyall has had no difficulty in showing that Col. Waddell's assertion in his article on the "Tribes of the Brahmaputra Valley," published by the Asiatic Society of Bengal in 1900, to the effect that "no steps are being taken to record the rare vestiges of prehistoric society which still survive," and that "this unique mass of material. . . is being allowed to disappear unrecorded," is unfounded, and that Col. Waddell has himself neglected some of the most obvious sources of information, such as Col. M'Culloch's valuable "Account of the Valley of Munnipore." Still there was ample room for the excellent series of monographs on these tribes Bengal and Assam, and the excellent and attractive form in which they are issued is a pleasant contrast to the usual dreary and repellent blue-book in which many invaluable researches have been entombed by Indian Governments, both Imperial and Provincial. The Government of Eastern Bengal and Assam, then under Sir Bampfylde Fuller, deserves the greatest credit for this new departure, which it initiated in 1904, and it may be hoped and expected that other administrations will be roused by the example to do something similar for other parts of our Eastern Empire. Major Gurdon's monograph on the Khasis appeared last year, and now we have the two works on the Meitheis and the Mikirs, both edited by Sir Charles Lyall. The Meitheis are the dominant race of Manipur, best known to the general world by the events attending the outbreak of 1891, and by their devotion to the game of polo. They are now an orthodox Hindu people, but Hinduism was introduced only two hundred years ago, and they still retain many of the beliefs and customs of their un-Hinduized neighbours, the Nagas of the neighbouring hills. A remarkable fact is the wearing of Nāga costume by the Raja once only, on accession to the throne. Many interesting details are given by Mr. Hodson in his chapter on religion. There are certain survivals of ancestor worship and tabus which are by no means in accordance with those of the Hindu system. Thus a reed is tabu in one clan, a buffalo in another, a fish in a third. The folk-lore section of this book is of great value. "Numit Kappa" (the man who shot the sun) is a native myth bearing on the origin of the race, now translated for the first time. The History of Moirang (one of the principal villages) embodies much legendary matter, and the romantic tale of Kamba and Thoibi forms part of it. This excellent folk-tale is given in full, and is accompanied by illustrations in colour from drawings by a native artist, Bhudro Singh, who is reported to have executed them while undergoing a term of imprisonment in jail. There is a full section regarding the Meithei language, which belongs to the Kuki-Chin group of the Tibeto-Burman family. The legend of Numit Kappa, both in archaic and modern The companion volume on the Mikirs will be found by most readers the more interesting of the two, as the Mikirs are a more primitive and interesting race than the Meitheis, and the collaboration of Sir Charles Lyall and the late Edward Stack has resulted in the production of a thoroughly admirable work both in style and contents. Mr. Stack died in 1887, leaving behind him the materials he had collected, and these have now been taken in hand by Sir Charles Lyall, who has himself made many additions and expanded them into this volume. The sections on Domestic Life, Laws and Customs (except the Appendix), and Religion, are entirely taken from Mr. Stack's papers, while the Folk-tales collected by him have been translated by Sir Charles Lyall, who is himself responsible for the sections on Language and Ethnology. The Mikirs call themselves Ārlèng or 'Men,' like many other races. Mikir is their name among the Assamese. They are a peaceful, primitive race, occupying an isolated block of hill and forest country south of the Brahmaputra. The interesting account of their beliefs and customs here given should be studied by all anthropologists. Among other primitive customs may be noted the survival till lately of the institution of a bachelors' hall (p. 11), and even of ante-nuptial promiscuity (p. 19). The Folk lore section is one of the best parts of the book. The "Story of a Frog" is an amusing version of the well-known sequence-stories, so common both in Asia and Europe. The "Story of an Orphan and his Uncles" relates how a clever and friendless orphan cheated his six wicked but stupid uncles, and should be read by all lovers of good folk-tales. Harata-Kunwar is a long and elaborate story of the swan-maiden type, in which the hero obtains his wife by taking her garments while she was bathing with her sisters, all of them being winged creatures, daughters of the King of the Great Palace. He loses her in the usual manner, but his recovery of her and his final victory and happiness give a completeness to the tale not found in most versions. Sir Charles Lyall alludes to a similar story current among the Angami Nagas, a race still less influenced by Hinduism than the Mikirs. There is also a creation-myth con Sir Charles Lyall is doubtful as to whether it may not have been to some extent influenced by questions asked of the narrator, as the concluding episode resembles the Biblical account of the Tower of Babel. But the influence, if any, seems to be confined to the last paragraph, and I do not think there is any reason for rejecting the legend as a whole. The linguistic section, by Sir C. Lyall, is based upon that which he has already contributed to vol. iii. of the Linguistic Survey of India, and will in its present form be available to students in a much more convenient form. The Mikir language belongs to the Naga-Bodo sub-group of the Tibeto-Burman family. The folk-tales above alluded to are given in full in the original with an interlinear translation. In the chapter on "Affinities" Sir C. Lyall discusses the position of the Mikir race, and points out that in spite of borrowings from Hindu sources their original characteristics have not been obscured, and that their social fabric is based on exogamous groups, with patriarchal principles of marriage and inheritance, unlike that of their neighbours the Khasis; while they differ from the Kūkis in building their houses on posts instead of on the ground. He considers that they should be classed among the tribes which form a link between the Nāgas and the Kūki-Chins. Both volumes are well illustrated, the coloured plates being especially valuable as showing the costumes in their proper tints. The illustrations add considerably to the value of the series. M. LONGWORTH DAMES. REPORTS OF THE CAMBRIDGE EXPEDITION TO TORRES STRAITS: Vol. VI. SOCIOLOGY, MAGIC, AND Religion of the Eastern ISLANDERS. Cambridge University Press, 1908, 4to. Pp. xx, 316, with 30 plates, 70 blocks in the text, and 3 maps. Price 21s. net. THIS is the companion volume to the one reviewed in FolkLore, xv. 352, which dealt with the Western Islanders. The |