June 24, 192?] 



NA TURE 



827 



Since the foundation of the Institution in 1902 

 there has been distributed, chiefly by gifts to 

 libraries and to authors, but to a noteworthy extent 

 also by sales, a total of no less than 226,039 volumes 

 of pubUcations of the Institution. During the past 



year the publication of 23 volumes has been authorised 

 by the Executive Committee at an aggregate estimated 

 cost of 12,000/., and 18 volumes, with an aggregate 

 of 4068 octavo and 1398 quarto pages have been issued. 

 Twenty additional volumes are now in press. 



Melanesia!! Witchcraft. 



AT a meeting of the Royal Anthropological 

 -'^ Institute on Tuesday, May 23, Dr. B. Malin- 

 owski read a paper on Melanesian witchcraft. The 

 natives of the Coral Archipelagoes surrounding New 

 Guinea, where Dr. Malinowski carried out his 

 researches, have no idea of natural death or disease. 

 If undisturbed by sorcery, a man would, they believe, 

 live in perpetual good health to an old age, in fact 

 there is no reason why he should ever die. 



When a sorcerer wishes to destroy a man, either as 

 an act of personal hate or professionally for a pay- 

 ment, he first administers a small dose of black magic 

 and produces a slight disorder. A spell in which the 

 victim's name is mentioned is chanted over his house 

 or garden, or into some leaves which are buried near 

 his doorstep. The man sickens and is made more 

 susceptible to further evil magic, which is now made 

 stronger by the application of a more dangerous spell, 

 and the pernicious substance must be administered 

 by mouth or else burnt in the victim's hut. At this 

 stage the patient takes all sorts of precautions ; his 

 house is guarded by relatives, his food is under control 

 and, last though not least, he engages the services of 

 another professional man — a sorcerer is always also 

 a healer — who tries to undo by magical means all 

 the evil done by his colleague. The sorcerer is most 

 dreaded at night when he prowls round the victim's 

 house, surrounded by night birds, his assistants, and 

 tries to enter the hut and to burn the deadly substance. 

 If he succeeds, the patient may die, provided the 

 good magic has not proved more effective than the 

 evil. If he fails, the sorcerer may have recourse to the 

 final rite of pointing the bone. A regular witch's 

 cauldron is prepared and boiled somewhere in the 

 jungle, and into its seething contents the sorcerer 

 chants a most deadly spell, uttering the victim's 

 name. Then he dips into the mess a pointed bone, 

 a stingaree spine, or a short wooden dagger. After- 

 wards he steals to the village and tries to get sight of 

 the victim without being seen himself. Pointing the 

 dagger towards the man he jerks and twists it in the 

 air, muttering the final incantation. The man to 

 whom this is done will invariably die, unless a more 

 effective magic has been used for his protection. 



The sorcerer firmly believes in the powers of his 

 black art. When he undertakes professionally to 

 conduct a case, whether of killing or curing, he will 

 carry out the various rites scrupulously, often risking 

 his life in the attempt to kill by magic, for, if caught 

 in flagrante delicto, he would be mercilessly speared. 



it has to be realised that sorcery is almost invariably 

 used to avenge some real injury or to punish some 

 one who has broken the tribal law. The victim feels 

 the weight of public opinion against him and this 

 enhances greatly his natural fear of magic. It is 

 important also to realise that black magic is generally 

 used in carrying out the decrees of tribal law and usage, 

 and that it is mainly at the disposal of the chief, the 

 man of rank, and the man of wealth. It thus supplies 

 savage society with the wholesome, though un- 

 doubtedly unpleasant element of fear, without which 

 no social stability or order can exist in a primitive 

 Community. It is always a conservative force, 

 which ranges itself on the side of existing order, 

 authority, law, and custom. It is most unfortunate, 

 therefore, that whenever European civilisation comes 

 in contact with savages, the first thing done is to 

 destroy, or at least undermine, the power of the black 

 magician. It is one of the many cases where a 

 mistaken zeal for giving savages that for which they 

 are not yet ripe results in the disruption of their own 

 social order and in paralysing their own powers, 

 without the substitution of any effective means of 

 control. 



The late Dr. Rivers, in opening the discussion which 

 followed the reading of the paper, referred to the value 

 of Dr. Malinowski's investigations in indicating in 

 particular the place taken by sorcery in the social com- 

 plex as a whole. When examined in this relation, the 

 resemblance which the sorcery of the Trobriands offers 

 to the sorcery of other peoples as, for example, in the 

 Western Solomon Islands, is merely superficial. Sir 

 James Frazer pointed out the parallelism in the 

 development of the arts and of witchcraft in the 

 Trobriands, and indicated further that the theory 

 which underlies this system of sorcery is mechanical 

 in that the spirit acts upon, but did not enter into, 

 the body. 



New Buildings of University College, Nottingham. 



T^HE foundation stone of the new buildings of 

 -^ University College, Nottingham, was laid on 

 Wednesday, June 14, by Lord Haldane, in the 

 presence of a large company from all parts of the 

 East Midlands. The site is situated at the highest 

 point of the Highfields estate, being about 2 J miles 

 distant from the centre of the city. The present 

 proposals include the central building, which provides 

 accommodation for the faculties of arts and economics 

 and also for the administrative offices. The library' 

 adjoins. There is also provided a block for the 

 departments of chemistry and physics with room for 

 extensions. The departments of biology and geology 

 will be temporarily accommodated in the central 

 building. The departments of engineering, mining, 

 technology, and the evening work of the College will 

 continue to be carried on in the present buildings in 

 Shakespeare Street. 



NO. 2747, VOL. 109] 



The new buildings at Highfields have been designed 

 on the unit system in such a way that future develop- 

 ment of the University is rendered possible. Provi- 

 sion is thus made for the ultimate transference of all 

 departments to the new site. The erection of the 

 new buildings has been made possible by the great 

 generosity of Sir Jesse Boot. About two years ago 

 he gave to the College the sum of 50,000/., of which 

 20,000/. was to be devoted to the endowment of the 

 chair of chemistry and 30,000/. to the building fund. 

 He has now added a further sum of 120,000/. towards 

 the latter purpose. At the ceremony on June 14, 

 Lord Haldane announced that Sir Jesse Boot had 

 sent a further cheque for 10,000/., and that an 

 anonymous donor had forwarded a cheque for 

 100,000/. in aid of the movement. These two 

 cheques were put by Lord Haldane in the hands of 

 the chairman of the University College. With this 



