December 23, 1897] 



NATURE 



175 



Johnston's connection with the settlement. Chapters 

 follow on the sla\e trade and on the European settlers ; 

 future additions to the ranks of the latter are advised in 

 an appendix that civilisation has reached a stage in the 

 Shire Highlands which makes a dress suit more useful 

 than a pith helmet. A special chapter is devoted to the 

 missionaries, to whom the country owes much ; the debt 

 is fully acknowledged, but the missionaries are re- 

 proached for the cant and the inaccurate reports written 

 to " gammon " the British public. 



The last four chapters of the book deal with the 

 natural history. The botanical section includes a 

 valuable list of Nyasaland plants compiled by Mr. J. H. 

 Burkill. The first collections were made by Sir John 

 Kirk in 1861 and 1862 ; and judging from the frequent 

 repetition of the names of collectors in the catalogue, the 

 three principal subsequent contributors have been Prof 

 G. F. Scott-Elliot and Messrs. J. Buchanan and A. 

 Whyte. The general chapter on the flora calls attention 

 to the most conspicuous and interesting plants ; the 

 remark of most general interest in this section is the 

 author's repeated protest against Dr. Russel Wallace's 

 well-known view that the tropics have less gorgeous 

 displays of bloom than temperate regions, an impression. 

 Sir Harry Johnston remarks, "formed from an exclusive 

 acquaintance with the dense forests of Tropical America 

 and Malaya." 



The zoological chapter consists of lists of the animals, 

 most of which have been determined by the staff 

 of the zoological department of the Natural History 

 Museum, with general notes by Sir Harry Johnston. 

 The lists of insects are relatively the shortest, but the 

 author confesses to " a sweeping hatred of the insect 

 race" "It is surprising, to my thinking," he remarks, 

 " that our asylums are not mainly filled with entomo- 

 logists driven to dementia by the study of this horrible 

 class." He says he cannot call to mind "one insect 

 that is of any benefit to man . . . with the doubtful ex- 

 ception of the bees and the Cochineal Aphis," ignoring, 

 therefore, the scavenging function of the flies, the 

 chemical and medicinal products of the galls, the silk- 

 worm, and other such invaluable servants of man. The 

 author appears most interested in the mammals, among 

 his notes on which some original suggestions are made. 

 With the author's usual courage, he runs a tilt against 

 zoological nomenclature ; he objects to Burchell's zebra 

 being regarded as the type of the species " merely 

 because it was the first one to be discovered " ; and 

 then renames the species Equus tigrinus. The varieties 

 burchelli, chapmani^ and granti he regards as only 

 varieties of Equus tigrinus ; while the name Equus 

 craivshayi, that of the Nyasaland zebra, is ignored al- 

 together. Sir Harry Johnston's views on phylogeny are 

 as much his own as his methods of nomenclature. He 

 publishes (p. 310J a diagram showing "the origin and 

 relationships of modern groups of Horned Ruminants." 

 According to this novel diagratn the giraffe, which is 

 usually regarded as a descendant of Stvatherium, is 

 represented as one of the offspring of the Chevrotains. 

 The prongbuck, definitely included by the author among 

 the antlered ruminants, is shown as a branch of the 

 giraffe stem. All the antelopes, sheep, and goats and 

 the musk-ox are derived from the Capricorns, a group 

 which is again a direct descendant from the Tragulidae 

 or Chevrotains. Early in the work the author tells us 

 that our views on the relations of African mammals may 

 be at any time "upset by unlooked-for discoveries," 

 and too late in the day illustrates this view by referring 

 to Nesopithecus {sic), a discovery which he describes as 

 of "the most extraordinary importance and interest," 

 apparently unacquainted with the recent literature of the 

 subject. 



The last section of the monograph describes the 

 people, and here the author speaks as an expert as well 



NO i4t9. VOL 57] 



as an enthusiast. The section includes a most valuable 

 series of vocabularies, and detailed descriptions of the 

 people and their habits. Some of the descriptions, 

 indeed, are probably too detailed ; much is recorded, 

 though half veiled in dog Latin, which might have 

 been more appropriately relegated to the pages of a 

 strictly anthropological journal, instead of being pub- 

 lished in a work the rest of which is suitable for general 

 circulation. 



The author's eulogy of his colleagues, notably the 

 present Commissioner Mr. Alfred Sharpe, and his tribute 

 to the chivalrous courtesy with which the Portugese 

 always behaved in their relations with him, are instances 

 of the author's tact and fairness, and they illustrate the 

 spirit in which the work is written. The book is in 

 every way worthy of Sir Harry Johnston's industry and 

 scientific attainments, and will remain the most en- 

 during memorial of his seven years' work in the develop- 

 ment of the most promising of our tropical African 

 possessions. Moreover, the illustrations, two of which 



Fig. 2. — A Male Reedbuck's Head. 



are here reproduced by the courtesy of the publishers, 

 are probably the best ever issued in an English book 

 on Africa. 



CHRISTMAS MUMMERS. 



PROBABLY not a few readers of N.A.TURE have, 

 while staying over Christmas at a country house, 

 been asked into the hall during the evening of Christmas 

 Eve to witness a strange and fantastic rural performance 

 called the mummers' play, and probably, too, they ha\e 

 promptly dismissed the whole thing as an idle and un- 

 meaning piece of country folly. They would have 

 noted, perhaps, the rude dialogue, the characters of St. 

 George, the Prince of Paradine, and the King of Egypt ; 

 and they would have concluded that the performance 

 was a faint echo of some miracle play of the Middle 

 Ages, when the Church adopted this means of teaching 

 the people. 



Alike in the dismissal and in the uncareful noting of 

 the characters, these observers of the country folk would 

 have been wrong. The Christmas mumming play is 

 worth attention, and more than mere casual attention. 



