November 25, 1920] 



NATURE 



411 



without attrition in the highest circles, need 

 undergo such a tax on the memory as the stranger 

 who would desire neither to offend nor to shock 

 a Mu-ila man or woman. The langxiage is full of 

 pitfalls, because it is as rich in double meanings 

 as any Kuropean tongue. V'ou may be grossly 



ing l»-iU (iT»b Iroin me hairdrmcr. Kma " 11m ll«->pcakmg Heopln o« Norlhcin 

 RhodtiU." 



iiidi . . .illuding to common objects of the 



hciusc or garden implements. 



The Ha-ila are so sensual that tlic relations 

 helwecn the sexes are nearly promiscuous. Yet 

 liere again everything must be governed by 

 custom. One man may be fined lightly for a gross 



act of immorality, while another will be mulcted 

 severely for merely alluding to an indecent pro- 

 position. Many of the dances and a number of the 

 songs — especially those sung at funeral ceremonies 

 —are termed by the authors "phallic," and here 

 very sensibly they quote the actual words and 

 deeds, lest imagination should ex- 

 aggerate. The authors conclude 

 that this condition of immorality," 

 especially among quite young 

 people— children not fully mature 

 — is leading to a seriously dimin- 

 ishing birth-rate. 



In some writings on Africa mis- 

 sionary work is still sneered at ; but 

 one result — especially in South and 

 East Africa — has been to raise the 

 birth-rate amongst the negroes by 

 discouraging polygamy, and, above 

 all, by strenuously urging the 

 abolition of the depraving initiation 

 ceremonies and all immodest be- 

 haviour amongst young girls and 

 boys. The worst feature in 

 Ila-land is the abuse of quite 

 young girl-children by adult 

 men. 



But the study of these primitive 

 people as a whole leaves one with 

 a very pleasant mental impression, 

 alike of them and of their two in- 

 terpreters, Mr. Smith and Capt. 

 Dale. The absolute truth is told 

 about them, but it is told so 

 tersely, with so much humour, 

 sympathy, and insight, that the 

 discriminating reader, the ethno- 

 logist above all, rises from the 

 reading of "The Ila-speaking 

 Peoples" with a sense of gratitude 

 to the authors and with a wonder- 

 fully vivid impression of negro 

 life in South Central Africa— a life 

 in that particular region very 

 little influenced as yet by the 

 One hopes sincerely that the 

 may turn the corner under wise 



white man 

 lla people 



administration and missionary teaching, and be 

 come in time a flourishing race, playing a con- 

 siderable part in the development of Northern 

 Zambezia. 



111. 



Industrial Research Associations. 



liii; Hkhisii Cotton Inulstrv Ki:si;,vrcii .\ssociation. 

 By Dr. A. W, Crossi.ev, C.M.G., F.R.S. 



""PUIS association w.is incorporated in June, 

 •*■ 1919, but much valuable work had been ilonc 

 previously by a Provisional Committee appointed 

 by the FX-partment of .Scientific and Indus- 

 trial Research towards the end of 1916. The 

 C'ommittce was prcsidetl over by Mr. J. W. 

 McConncl, to whose efforts it !•- t:>rir,.lv .?ii,. that 



NO. 2665, VOL. 106] 



more than 90 per cent, of all the spinners, 

 (loublers, manufacturers, bleachers, dyers, calico 

 printers, and finishers engaged in the cotton in- 

 dustry have given their support to the association, 

 which now numbers i^fii memliers, including 

 representatives of the laccmnking and hosiery 

 li.uio. T)t first <lviirm;in of the association was 



