130 NATURAL SCIENCE. Feb., 



seen in British Guiana, which are partly reprints of papers contributed 

 to this Journal among others. To the present writer, whose sym- 

 pathies are rather zoological than botanical, the volume appears to 

 be almost too much devoted to plant life ; but there is one highly 

 interesting essay upon animal life and another upon " The Man of the 

 Forest," with which we shall chiefly deal in this review ; not because 

 they are markedly better than the others, but merely on account of 

 the regrettable fact that the editor's definition of space differs from 

 that of the astronomer. 



Mr. Rodway points out that, while elsewhere there is a continual 

 shifting of balance in the organic world, the Indian of the Guiana 

 forest is " in almost perfect harmony with his surroundings." Nor 

 is he to be defined at all after the fashion of Artemus Ward. " One 

 of nature's gentlemen " is among the many complimentary descriptions 

 given of him by Mr. Rodway. The Indian father and mother 

 perform their duties by their offspring in a way which might advan- 

 tageously be copied by many examples of the so-called civilised man. 

 While the child is young, the father allows himself no free exercise of 

 his natural love for hunting and fishing ; he restricts himself to what 

 is the bare necessity, for fear of wearying the " child-spirit " which is 

 believed to be always with him. An education of the kind needed by 

 the young " savage " is most carefully given, and we learn that even 

 infants of a tender age " take life seriously " like their parents ; the 

 romping incidental to Aryan childhood is almost unknown to the 

 offspring of the dwellers in Guiana forests. Nevertheless, they have 

 their games, which from their utility should win the approbation 

 of the unintelligent middle classes of this country, who favour 

 a " commercial education." They learn to hunt and to shoot 

 and play games in which excellence in pursuing imaginary prey 

 wins the day. The blow-pipe is, of course, one of the principal 

 implements of sport ; we have been told by a friend, who knows the 

 country described by Mr. Rodway, that an experienced Indian will 

 use as many different kinds of blow-pipe as a golfer will clubs. The 

 mystery which is attached to the names of the people is remarkable ; 

 a child is given a name, but it is never called by it. It is termed 

 " boy," or " girl," or " friend," or some such general term. Its 

 immediate relatives may be presumed to know what its " Christian " 

 name is, but they cannot be induced to reveal it. The easiest way to 

 annoy this peaceful and kindly race is to be pertinacious in indiscreet 

 enquiries about the names of individuals. Mr. Rodway suspects that 

 the names are those of animals, and that the people have a super- 

 stition that to know the name is to have some malign influence over 

 its owner. There appears to be but little " poll-parroting," as Mr. 

 Riderhood would have said, among the ladies of the Guiana commu- 

 nities. Conversation among all classes has a distinctly sporting 

 flavour, and deals with the exploits of the talkers. As the women 

 have naturally but little experience in this way, and as their dress is 

 limited to an apron of beads subject to no fluctuation of fashion, con- 

 versation on their part is not discursive. The race is silent enough 

 to have won the approbation of Carlyle. The Indian makes but little 

 impression upon surrounding nature ; he leaves no monuments, and 

 when the white man comes he disappears silently. A " deserted 

 village " in Guiana is even more desolate than that pictured by 

 Goldsmith. Not even a parrot remains to hint of the language of the 

 departed tribe. 



It has often been pointed out that the forests of tropical America, 

 instead of teeming with visible life, as is the opinion of many of us at 



