April 29, 1922] 



NA TURE 



539 



Many of the blood-sucking flies, probably all. are cases 

 of symbiosis. The whole vast order of sucking insects 

 known as Hemiptera — the green fly, scale insect, body 

 louse — is another. The ant and the death-watch 

 beetle, the cockroach and the leaf-miner are examples 

 of other orders that show the same or similar 

 associations. 



The first section of Dr. Buchner's book deals with 

 marine plant-animals, and provides a welcome and 

 critical summary of our knowledge of the algal associa- 

 tions in Protozoa, Coelenterates and Turbellaria. 

 The second, and perhaps the most valuable, part of 

 the work gives a full, illustrated discussion of symbiosis 

 in insects, with especial reference to the transmission 

 of the bacteria or yeasts to the egg and the " infection " 

 of the embryo. This aspect of insect physiology has 

 been neglected by English entomologists, and its 

 significance is as yet scarcely grasped. Some indication 

 of the importance of insect symbiosis may be gathered 

 from the fact that Peklo has shown the symbiotic 

 organism of green-fly to be an Azotobacter modified 

 by residence in the tissues of the insect. The only 

 important omission in this part of the work is that of 

 the recent discovery of a symbiotic organism in the 

 tsetse-fly. 



Native Life in the Highlands of Assam. 



The Angami Nagas, with some Notes on Neighbouring 

 Tribes. By J. H. Hutton. Pp. xv + 480. (London: 

 Macmillan and Co., Ltd., 1921.) 405. net. 



MR. HUTTON'S excellent monograph on the 

 Angamis is a more than welcome accession 

 to the series of monographs dealing with the Naga 

 and other indigenous tribes now under the control 

 of the Government of Assam. The volume is a very 

 valuable contribution to the ethnological literature 

 of the Naga Hills, and reflects great credit both upon 

 the author, who has made full use of his opportunities, 

 and upon the Government under the auspices of which 

 it has been published. Ethnologists, local adminis- 

 trators and many others will feel grateful to the 

 authorities for their praiseworthy encouragement of 

 the scientific study of the natives for whose welfare 

 they are responsible. Such detailed study is not only 

 of value from the ethnological point of view, but has 

 also a practical bearing upon the administration of 

 native affairs. Accurate knowledge of the habits, 

 customs, beliefs and culture-environment in general 

 of primitive peoples promotes sympathetic and equit- 

 able treatment and control, and prevents those mis- 

 understandings and unintentional acts of injustice 

 which are due to ignorance of the native point of view, 

 ethics, and social organisation. 

 NO. 2739, VOL. 109] 



The present monograph, while it deals in detail 

 with the various phases and features of the life of 

 the Angamis, has the merit of being brightly written 

 and interspersed with touches of humour. It is 

 " readable " as well as instructive. 



Mr. Hutton, during several years of close contact 

 with Naga tribes, has developed a sympathetic interest 

 in them which has gone far towards winning their 

 confidence. Much of the information which he has 

 gleaned could have been acquired only by breaking 

 down those barriers of reserve and distrust which are 

 too often interposed between the representatives of 



government and the governed. The facts which he 

 records have been collected mostly at first hand, 

 being the results of his own observations. Where 

 he depends upon the data collected by his predecessors 

 in the field, he has endeavoured to check off their 

 statements and, so far as possible, to verify or correct 

 them. Many of the practices recorded by Butler, 

 Woodthorpe, Davis, Peal, and other pioneer observers 

 are no longer followed, and must be accepted at second 

 hand or studied through the imperfect memory of 

 the " oldest inhabitant." The time-honoured practice 

 of head-hunting is rapidly becoming extinct in the 

 administered area, and the passing of this prominent 

 and absorbing feature in Naga culture involves the 

 atrophy of many other cultural items and the modifica- 



