Report of a Journey Around the World. 259 



fur Volkerkunde in Berlin. No other museum at present existing 

 could do the orderly ethnological work of this if its physical con- 

 dition were unfettered. 



Some of the smaller museums have Pacific region collections 

 that are quite suitable for study. Cambridge (England) has a 

 Fijian collection unrivalled in Fiji itself, and we are all waiting 

 for Baron von Hiigel to give us, as only he can, the rich stores 

 of his observations upon his collections. We cannot all make 

 the pilgrimage to the Cambridge Museum, but we all could 

 read with pleasure his printed account of the remarkable work 

 of the old Fijian cannibals. Other museums have choice collec- 

 tions of limited range but none can compare with Cambridge 

 in Vitian matters. 



The general museums can, when their collections are suffi- 

 ciently large, adopt the comparative arrangement as does the 

 Oxford Museum. 1 It is certainly vastly instructive to compare 

 almost at a glance, for example, the different methods used by 

 primitive people for making fire ; the various bows — and the 

 adaptation of the bow, originally designed for dealing destruction, 

 to the sometimes equally disagreeable action of noise-making. In 

 the National Museum at Washington this method has been worked 

 out admirably in certain lines by Mr. W. Hough, as in the various 

 appliances for artificial light, from the fagot to the gas-mantle and 

 the electric light. Prof. H. Balfour's study of the musical bow 

 has extended to all known lands and tribes, and all ethnologists 

 owe him a debt of gratitude for such an illuminating work. 

 Again, in the Kensington Museum are displayed very comprehen- 

 sive studies of animal evolution, variation, whether mimetic or 

 economic, or defensive merely. In the Colombo and Buitenzorg 

 Museums the remarkable mimicry of some of the leaf-insects was 

 shown from living specimens. It certainly is not necessary for 

 all museums to be alike except in the desire to advance. 



Of the educational work of museums I have spoken in the 

 course of this report, especially in connection with the Oxford, 

 Horniman and Raffles Museum, but the experience of the whole 

 journey convinces me that a large and scientifically arranged mu- 

 seum is not the most suitable place for the instruction of young 



'See page 34. [407] 



