most humane of the indigenous races of the New World. Let us hope that the author may yet give us the "detailed history" which he once had in mind to write.

WM. CURTIS FARABEE.

Notes Ethnographiques sur les peuples communément appelés Bakuba ainsi que sur les peuplades apparentées.—Les Bushongo. By E. TORDAY and J. A. Joyce. (Annales du Musée du Congo Belge Publiées par le Ministère des Colonies. Ethnographie, Anthropologie.-Série 11: Documents Ethnographiques, concernant les populations du Congo Belge, vol. II, part 1.) Brussels, February, 1911. 142 X 1034, pp. 1–291, plates I-XXIX, text figs., 1-403, map. It is a matter of congratulation that we are beginning to obtain a better insight into the inner life of the tribes of Africa through thorough studies of various tribes. For a number of years this tendency has benefited particularly our knowledge of the material culture of the continent, but through recent works, such as Spieth's work on the Ewe, and Pechuël-Loesche's on the Loango, we begin to see the wealth of the mental life of the negro. The present work, conducted under the advice of Mr Joyce by the experienced explorer M. Torday with the assistance of Messrs M. W. Hilton-Simpson and Norman H. Hardy, is a contribution of first rank to our knowledge of African ethnology. Like all the publications of the Musée du Congo Belge, it is sumptuously printed and illustrated. Although the numerous half tones interspersed in the text perhaps do not quite reach the highest technical standard, they give an excellent idea of many sides of the life of the people. What they lack in detail is made up by the line engravings and the excellent plates that accompany the memoir.

It is difficult to say what part of the description of the authors is most interesting and important. The work opens with the legendary history of the people, the beginning of which is purely mythological, while later on historical elements seem to predominate. The comparative study of the history as recorded among various branches of the people leads the authors to the conclusion that the Bushongo migrated from the Shari into their present habitat between the Kasai and Sankuru. This conclusion is corroborated by a vocabulary of the Lumbila, a language which still exists in meagre rests and which, it is claimed, was spoken by the people until the middle of the eighteenth century (pp. 255 et seq.). According to Sir Harry Johnston this vocabulary shows certain affinities with a language spoken on the Shari (p. 43). Important is also the former occurrence of the throwing knife among these people (p. 36). While the combined arguments based on traditional history and on other

ethnographical data are very strong, we should hesitate to place quite as much reliance upon oral tradition as evidence of the earliest history of the people, as the authors do; and the assumption of a Berber origin of the reigning dynasty, based on the claim that their ancestor was of white color, does not seem well established on account of the frequent occurrence in all parts of the world of the idea of deities or ancestors of white color. Neither is the corroborative evidence of allied tribes quite to be relied upon, since reconstructed history is at least as likely to be accepted by neighboring tribes, as it is that an accurate history of very long periods should be correctly retained. The sources of inaccuracy must be still greater than those which are found in the recorded histories of the Sudan, which, for many years, had been kept as written records. For these reasons I should hesitate to accept the oldest chronological data and the whole sequence of 121 rulers as absolute historical truth, -as little as the endless genealogies of the Polynesians; and the history of the people before 1600 must certainly be considered as semi-mythological.

The political organization of the tribe presents phenomena of the greatest interest. The fundamental characteristics of African organization reappear here: the king and his numerous dignitaries, the female dignitaries, and the temporary transfer of power to a correlated administrative branch after the decease of the king (p. 63). Together with the descriptions of Pechuël-Loesche, Lias de Carvalho, and the oversystematized accounts by Dennett, they illustrate a most peculiar and complicated system of government, which is represented as far south as Natal, and as far north as the Niger region.

The description of initiation ceremonies is interesting, particularly the list of ethical precepts imparted in connection with it, the selection of which is determined by each ruling king. The police society with its friction drum is analogous to other African societies of this type. A recent origin is claimed for it (p. 87). The initiation ceremonies seem to lack in significance, a condition that has been often observed, but which must always be accepted with caution, because other facts may be kept secret by the informants.

Manifestations of social life, such as games, music, poetry are treated very briefly and are the least important sections of the work.

Marriage regulations, rules of descent, and taboos offer much that is of interest. Descent is in the maternal line, but group-taboos are primarily transmitted in the paternal line. These belong on the whole to villages. Tabooed animals may be killed, but not eaten. Although

this type of taboo is given a mythological origin, new taboos of the same type arise from time to time. It is claimed that in former times people who had the same taboo were exogamous. I should hardly accept the author's theory in so far as they see in these phenomena, “a degenerate totemism." A certain social community exists also among children born in the same month.

The observations on magic and divination contain much that corroborates the more recent descriptions of African fetishes.

The notes on agriculture, hunting, and fishing may be only mentioned here. The traditional history of the tribes in regard to the introduction of Indian corn and maniok is evidently based on facts. Among the devices for fishing a basket trap with release and floats, under which the fish assemble are perhaps worthy of special note. The description of the houses and villages is rather brief, but that of personal dress and adornment, cicatrization, and treatment of teeth is full and accompanied by many instructive illustrations. The various industries are adequately described, but the most important portion of this part of the book is the chapter on art with its wealth of illustration and of information regarding native names of designs. After a discussion of realistic motives, the authors describe the textile designs and their curious names. The observation that the designs are always named according to certain component elements, and the differences in naming that occur in the woman's art of weaving, and in the man's art of carving (p. 216 et seq., 227), although the men apply textile motives, are of great theoretical importance. number of traditions and brief notes on the language are also given. In a final chapter are contained ethnographical notes on the Basongo Meno, a group of related tribes.

A

If in view of the excellence of this work a wish might be expressed, it would be that at least legends, poetry, proverbs, and related subjects. had been given in the authentic form of original records, the importance of which does not seem to be recognized yet by all ethnologists.

FRANZ BOAS.

The Niger and the West Sudan: the West African's Note-Book. By A. J. N. TREMEARNE. London: Hodder and Stoughton (Arthur H. Wheeler and Co.), 1910. 8°, pp. 151.

Tremearne's book is intended as an assistance, a vade mecum, for the man going to British West African Colonies. It gives history, conditions, hints, advice upon a hundred points where detailed information is necessary. It is called a "notebook" because it is largely compiled from many

sources, in the very words of the original, and makes no pretence of being a literary production. One third of the book, that is fifty pages, is devoted to native peoples, who are considered under chapter headingsthe Filani and others, the Hausas and others, the Yorubas and others. While these chapters have appeared as independent articles elsewhere they are here usefully presented together. Tremearne prefers the spelling Filani to the more common Fulah. In the ethnographic part of his work, as elsewhere, the matter is chiefly quotation. In each case, however, the author adds some personal comment in which he tries to make some deductions from the mass of conflicting statements. Chiefly interested in sources, he sees in the Filani a people where Berber and Negro have mixed; in the Hausas, a Semitic population from the region of Ethiopia or west from there, which has Hamitic and Negro infusion and which has moved westward; in the Yoruba, a population more distinctly Negro, but showing influences from north and east. It is not easy to grasp his views exactly.

FREDERICK STARR.

Nigerian Studies; or the Religious and Political System of the Yoruba. By R. E. DENNETT. London: Macmillan and Co., 1910. 8°, pp. xvii, 235.

This is Mr Dennett's fourth book on African peoples. Heretofore he has dealt with the Fjort, near the mouth of the Congo; this time he studies Nigerian populations. Everyone must appreciate the good-will and the industry of the author but his style is always confused to the degree that most students can gain only confused hints from reading him. This time he is dealing with populations which have already been described by others and his lines of treatment are more clear and decisive, and he makes many quotations which enable him to be better followed than usual. His proof too has been read by Mr Joyce, which has perhaps given the work more consistency and form than it would otherwise have. Even with these advantages, the confusion persists nor does Dennett's explanatory chapter completely explain it. Everyone realizes the difficulty of securing complete, consistent, and satisfactory information from natives-especially regarding social, governmental, and religious matters; and the vice of rounding out what one secures, by such filling as fancy, theory, or literary ideal demands, can not be too severely deprecated; but there is a middle course and fortunately our best field workers succeed in finding it. The man whose mind is clear and systematic can present things, even fragmentary and indefinite things, in comprehensible form.

In his introduction Mr Dennett emphasizes, what must strike everyone who reads his text and notes with care, the considerable number of native Africans who are now writing in regard to their own old life, customs, languages, and ideas. As this local literature is quite unknown to students generally, his remark is here quoted "Bishop Johnson gave us a little work on Yoruba paganism. . . . Bishop Phillips wrote a little book called Ifa. The Rev. Lijadu has given us Ifa and Orunanila. Mr Sobo wrote Arofa odes or poems. Dr Johnson has lectures on Yoruba history and Mr John O. George has written a short account of Yoruba history. Dr Henry Carr, . . . native of Egboland is an author of many interesting papers and keys to mathematical works. Mr Adesola is . . . writing . . . of Yoruba Death and Burial secret societies . . in the Nigrian Chronicle. Mr Johnson is the editor of this paper . Mr Williams and Mr Jackson are editors of The Lagos Standard and The Lagos Record." Mr Dennett's book contains much of interest. Sacred stones are common in Nigeria and he calls attention to several. Some of them have distinctly phallic associations; others, while probably phallic, are believed to be transformed human beings, and, curiously, some of these are referred to persons who have undergone transformation within the memory of persons still living. Thus, Moruni and her son Alashe were turned into stones to which respect is paid, yet the houses in which they lived are still pointed out and Alashe's stone seat is now in the British Museum. Some interesting facts regarding the "bull-roarer" and its phallic associations are given; two quite different forms occur both male, one older and one younger. Oro, who is represented by the bull-roarer, not only gives children but arrests disease and prevents death; while clearly phallic, the bull-roarer is not used in the male mysteries, as in Benin and Geduma, nor in initiation ceremonies. Dennett's information regarding times and days is interesting, as are his facts regarding divination by palm-nuts. He gives an extended discussion of the Orishas or divine beings, taking them in detail, one after another. Of course he comes to "categories" before he ends and finds six fundamentals, from which he develops an entire system of cosmogony, philosophy, sociology, and government. In the final working out of the system he finds identity between the Nigerians and the Fjort. Considering the complexity of the system this identity is a little distressing even when confined to Africa: here, however, as in his Behind the Black Man's Mind, Mr Dennett finds the system the same as that of Great Britain and identifies each item in the British social and governmental structure even to the Archbishop of Canterbury and the House of