REVIEWS 345 



are represented at South Kensington. An ardent love of science, it is to be 

 feared, has never yet imbued the august councils of the Indian Government y 

 indeed, its bitterest opponents — and, as we all know, it has recently come in for 

 a good deal of criticism — have always abstained from charging it with an undue 

 expenditure of funds on purely scientific objects. Let us hope that some en- 

 lightened Proconsul may, before it is too late, establish a complete and represen- 

 tative ethnographic museum, if not in London, then at least in Calcutta. China^ 

 it may be remarked, in spite of some excellent pioneer work, still remains a verit- 

 able Golconda of unworked material ready to the hand of the anthropological 

 explorer. 



As a general rule the authors have exercised a wise restraint in dealing with 

 hypotheses which do not yet command a general acceptance. More cautiork 

 might, however, have been exercised in the enunciation of the theories concerning 

 the peopling of Africa and the origin of the Polynesian race. Experience in 

 Europe bids us beware of sweeping if ingenious assumptions of origins put forth 

 before the completion of the necessary spade-work in the way of anthropometrical 

 statistics ; in Africa and Oceania most of the latter is still to seek. In anthro- 

 pology — as witness a recent discussion before the Society of Arts on the races of 

 Burma — it seems especially difficult for the investigator to say, " I do not know." 



The word "sacrificed" is wrongly used in the Introduction with reference ta 

 the killing of slaves for the purpose of serving the dead in a future life. Human 

 sacrifices connote the gratification or else the interference in mundane affairs 

 of a supernatural being, which is not here the case. Again, in view of Professor 

 Frazer's remarks in his recent work on Totemism, it may be well, in a future 

 edition, to modify the statement connecting exogamy with totemism and to sub- 

 stitute some such expression as "guardian spirit" for "individual totem " when 

 discussing these beliefs of the North American Indians. " Mongoloid " would 

 seem preferable for ethnographic purposes to " Mongolian." In spite of the 

 distinctic^n made in the text the latter is certain to be confused popularly with 

 the Mongol people proper. The reference on page ii8 to a "Caucasic" race 

 is somewhat bewildering. 



In a work such as this, covering in a short space so wide a field, some omissions 

 are inevitable. Amongst matters inadvertently overlooked may be mentioned 

 such items as the former prevalence of human sacrifices in Fiji and the existence 

 amongst a minority of the Berbers of not only white skin but fair hair ; Lord Curzon's 

 military expedition into Thibet should have been included in the list of foreign 

 visitors to that country ; and more frequent references should have been made to 

 exogamous customs. 



The use of marginal paragraph headings would have much facilitated refer- 

 ence by busy students. Such sign-posts are particularly necessary in a work like 

 the present, intended primarily for use whilst inspecting the exhibits in a museum. 

 And it would have been no small boon — not only to the general public, but also 

 to the student of arfthropology — if a bibliography of at least the more important 

 works had been inserted at the end of the different chapters. It is but natural 

 that a visitor interested in an object or in the description of it in this Handbook 

 should desire to refer to works where it and the notes and customs connected 

 with it are described or elucidated at length. 



The work is furnished with two complete indexes, the one general and the 

 other tribal and geographical, whilst the illustrations, which form a prominent 

 feature, are both well selected and instructive. 



B. H. 



