November 5, 1914] 



NATURE 



261 



ical distribution of British folk-customs. In this 

 paper she deals with the customs known as souling, 

 elementing, and catterning, practised in parts of the 

 western midlands in November. They exhibit an 

 example of successive layers of imported custom super- 

 imposed on a foundation of indigenous custom. First 

 come the ancient, almost prehistoric, autumnal cele- 

 brations of the Old and New Year, probably always 

 combined with a Feast of the Dead. Then Chris- 

 tianity transforms the pagan feast into the festival 

 of Hallowmass. Next we meet with that combination 

 of newly introduced subsidiar}- cults with newly 

 organised and specialised crafts, which marks the 

 progress of civilisation in the Middle Ages. Thus St. 

 Clement and St. Catherine come into local promin- 

 ence. Finally comes the period of decay, when the 

 theological changes of the sixteenth centun,- shatter 

 the religious side of the kindly old customs, while 

 simultaneously the centralising despotism of succeed- 

 ing centuries and a civilisation growing more and 

 more complicated deprive these rites, once so impor- 

 tant, of any real significance, and they dwindle away 

 or are kept up only by the most conservative part of 

 the population, the children, wherever their elders 

 allow them to benefit by them. 



In Ancient Egypt (part iv.) Prof. Flinders Petrie 

 concludes his instructive review of the analogies be- 

 tween the culture and beliefs of ancient Egypt and 

 those of certain African tribes. Such analogies are 

 indicated by royal functions, beliefs, and material pro- 

 ducts. Among the royal functions attention is directed 

 to the widely spread African customs in connection 

 with the priesthood of the chief, his removal before 

 he attains old age, and the concealment of the fact 

 of his death ; in sister marriage ; in the importance 

 assigned to the royal placenta, the leopard skin, and 

 the ox tail ; and In the use of the saw-fish as an 

 emblem. Among beliefs we find similar analogies in 

 the conception of the mundane spirit world ; animism ; 

 the ancestral spirit ; the roads for the dead ; the ideas 

 about twins, animal or human ; the ram-headed god ; 

 the bull god ; totemism and animal clans ; the sanctity 

 of the S3-camore and the fig-tree ; the sacrifice of red 

 cattle ; and divination by objects thrown. Egyptian 

 culture, again, is connected with that of other parts 

 of the continent by Its pottery, mud toys, wooden 

 head-rests, the wooden hoe, double process spinning, 

 the use of the flat ground-loom, mosquito-nets, har- 

 poons, drag and hand nets, basket traps, ring snares, 

 and the ornamentation of the head by means of a 

 cone. Individually these analogies may be of slight 

 importance, but their cumulative effect is considerable. 

 These various transfers of culture seem to have taken 

 place in at least three periods : under the twenty-fifth 

 dynasty at Xapata, in the sixth centurj- B.C., and after 

 the introduction of Christianity. 



Part 3 of vol. vii. of the Journal of the College of 

 Agriculture, Tohoku Imperial University, is devoted 

 to a synopsis of the Japanese chrjsopid Xeuroptera, 

 with descriptions of several new species, by Mr. H. 

 Okamoto. In connection with this may be mentioned 

 a catalogue of books on entomology, chiefly from the 

 NO. 2349, VOL. 94] 



library of the late Mr. Herbert Druce, issued by Mr. 

 F. Edwards, High Street, Marylebone, W. 



Lifelike photographs of grey-lag geese and of a 

 specimen of the greater courlan (Aramus giganteus) 

 recently received at the London Zoological Gardens 

 form some of the most striking features in the October 

 issue of Wild Life. The reader should, however, not 

 have been left in the dark as to the native home of 

 the courlan, and the attention of the editor may be 

 directed to the need of greater care in proof-reading, 

 as exemplified by the repetition on p. 32 of the state- 

 ment that the sand-lizard is a slow mover, and of the 

 substitution of " specimens " for " species " in the 

 middle of p. 34. 



Investigations carried on by Mr W. E. Collinge 

 with the view of ascertaining the nature and quantity 

 of the food of nestling sparrows have shown that in 

 fruit-growing districts one hundred of these birds will 

 consume nearly 2000 insects, and in suburban neigh- 

 bourhoods about one-third of that amount. That 

 sparrows are far too numerous is fully admitted; but 

 it Is suggested that If their numbers were considerably 

 reduced they might be Included in the list of bene- 

 factors. This and other information on the subject 

 will be found in the October issue of vol. xxi. of the 

 Journal of the Board of Agriculture. 



Ax excellent piece of systematic work is formed by 

 Mr. A. H. Howell's revision of the so-called American 

 harvest-mice, constituting the genus Relthrodontomys, 

 published bv the Smithsonian Institution as No. 36 of 

 the North American Fauna. These mice, of which 

 no fewer than fifty-five distinguishable forms are 

 recognised, are chiefly a North American type, 

 although the group also ranges through Central 

 America to the northern States of South America. In 

 the main essentially field-mice, they are in most dis- 

 tricts only moderately numerous, although In a few 

 they make their appearance in large numbers. As a 

 rule, they do little harm, feeding for the most part on 

 plants of no value to man. 



In Symons's Meteorological Magazine for July last 

 Mr. L. C. W. Bonacina asked readers who had been 

 In India whether lightning casualties, notwithstanding 

 the severity of tropical storms, are not much rarer there 

 than with us. He pointed out that manv persons 

 agree that thunderstorms in England are much more 

 dangerous than in India. In the issue for October a 

 correspondent ("G. G.") states that in the course of 

 his travels in various parts of India, during a period 

 of several years, he had only known or heard of one 

 case of death by lightning, although a few high 

 buildings, notably near Delhi, and tall trees in moun- 

 tain districts, had been struck. He therefore answers 

 Mr. Bonacina 's question In the affirmative, the reason 

 given being that thunderstorms occur higher up in the 

 air. He states that he has never seen lightning in 

 India so near the earth as he has in England. 



During this summer experiments have been made 

 with Langley's original "aerodrome" of 1903, and 

 have proved that this scientifically designed pioneer 

 machine is capable of flight with precisely its 



