METHOD OF MENTAL ANTHROPOLOGY 589 



The articles for the most part are characterised by close observa- 

 tion and a scientific spirit ; the theological prepossessions of the 

 writers are not allowed to blur and distort their descriptions of 

 native beliefs and customs. It is much to be desired that the 

 various missionary societies of England would combine to 

 produce a journal of the same scope and the same scientific 

 character. Perhaps, in view of our sectarian differences, 

 that is too much to hope for. But in any case it is highly 

 satisfactory to know that our Protestant missionary societies 

 are awakening more and more to the importance of anthro- 

 pology in the training of missionaries and are taking active steps 

 to remedy what till lately was a most serious defect in their 

 mental equipment. 



Next, perhaps, to missionaries the class of men who can do 

 most for the scientific study of native races are the Government 

 officials who reside among them. However, this class of men 

 labours under certain disadvantages from which missionaries 

 are usually exempt. It is not so easy for them, without a cer- 

 tain loss of dignity and authority, to enter into familiar converse 

 with the natives ; and being often transferred from district 

 to district, they do not always gain an intimate acquaintance 

 with the language, and are consequently obliged to trust to 

 native interpretation, an uncertain and often tainted fount of 

 knowledge. 



Next to the information obtained by men long resident 

 among savages may be ranked the information acquired by 

 travellers and explorers, especially by the members of scientific 

 expeditions sent out on purpose to investigate the habits and 

 customs of certain tribes. The observations of an untrained 

 traveller passing rapidly through a country are usually meagre, 

 superficial, and untrustworthy ; in the enormous literature of 

 travel the percentage of scientific value is exceedingly small. 

 It is otherwise with the information collected by trained 

 anthropologists. Though the time they spend on an expedition 

 is sometimes comparatively short — too short to allow them to 

 obtain a mastery of the language — yet by the application of 

 scientific methods of inquiry they are often able to elicit 

 important information and to make mbst valuable contributions 

 to knowledge : witness the expeditions of Spencer and Gillen 

 to Central Australia, the Cambridge expedition to Torres 

 Strait, and the recent Mackie expedition to Central Africa. 



When a large body of accurate information, based on personal 

 observation and inquiry, has thus been collected, the task re- 

 mains of examining and comparing the accounts obtained 

 from different parts of the field, in order to see whether they 

 throw light on each other, and whether any general conclusions 

 can be deduced from them. Such comparisons should never 



