May 20, 1897 J 



NATURE 



53 



LETTERS TO THE EDITOR. 



\The Editor does not hold himself responsible for opinions ex- 

 pressed by his correspondents. Neither can he undertake 

 to return, or to correspond with the writers of, rejected 

 manuscripts intended for this or any other part of NATURE. 

 No notice is taken of anonymous communications. '\ 



Immunity from Mosquito Bites. 



With the mosquito as he is, and as he has been for forty-six 

 years, in the territory on both sides of the Mississippi River 

 from Memphis, Tenn., to New Orleans, and along the Gulf of 

 Mexico for five hundred miles, in the cypress swamps, pal- 

 metto and cane-brakes, on the lower river lands, winter and 

 summer, following my business of telegraphy, I am intimately 

 acquainted ; and from this long and varied experience can say 

 definitely for myself that I have no immunity from their attacks. 

 Every bite yesterday, or forty-six years ago, produced a wound, 

 generally a white, callous swelling from one quarter to three- 

 quarters of an inch in diameter, and as high as a quarter of an 

 inch, which remains forty-five to sixty minutes, with more or 

 less pain in all, and fever in many cases. And this whether it 

 was the bite of the fierce gallinipper of the swamps, which 

 stings through a flannel shirt, or the little zebra-legged thing — 

 the shyest, slyest, meanest and most venomous of them all — 

 which invades the heart of the city, away from the foliage, the 

 common haunts of the other varieties. 



While I have to be vigilant in warding them off, my children 

 -itting around are comparatively undisturbed, and other people 

 -uffer nothing from them ; so it seems the mosquito has the 

 power of selection. 



But if I have experienced no immunity from mosquito poison, 

 I have enjoyed it other ways, which it may be interesting to 

 state. When I qualified as an operator in Mississippi, I was 

 given a station to which was attached fifty miles of wire, which 

 I was to keep in order, repair breaks, remove leaks, and replace 

 insulators. The line was mostly on trees, few poles being used, 

 and the foliage, including vines, had to be kept down. The 

 latter were especially dangerous and of rapid growth, and 

 among them was the Rhus toxicodendron, but I knew nothing 

 of its qualities ; and when I came across it, which I did at the 

 very outset, I cut it at the roots, and taking hold of it with 

 naked hands, pulled it of!' the trees and poles without ever 

 experiencing the least effects from it. Others are poisoned by 

 its touch, and are laid up for weeks and months, their sufferings 

 being produced by periodical eruptions appearing annually on the 

 hands, face or neck for many years. David Flanery. 



Memphis, Tenn., U.S.A., April 28. 



Identical Customs of Dyaks and of Races around Assam. 



The deplorably backward state of anthropology in England 

 and India is effectually exposed by the recent publication of Mr. 

 Ling Roth's " Natives of Sarawak and British North Borneo." 

 Beautifully illustrated, exhaustive in treatment, too expen- 

 sive to be procurable among working students, and exasperat- 

 ingly unweildy, it is a monument of shame to us, as a race ; the 

 more so when we see that only 700 copies are to be issued, " no 

 cheaper edition" guaranteed! and the beautiful plates to be 

 destroyed I 



As a record of our apathy and ignorance it could hardly be 

 surpassed. Here is a really wonderful work, lavishly got up, two 

 huge volumes full of the most valuable matter, quoted from the 

 best authorities, unlimited speculation as to where these races 

 came from, and as to how some of their singular customs arose, 

 such as " head-hunting," &c., and, as far as I can see, not the 

 faintest suspicion that these customs came, with the race itself, 

 from Assam. 



The late Captain Otto E. Ehlers, with whom I spent ten days 

 here in the early part of 1895, was so impressed with the fact, at 

 last, that these Al)or-Noga .=avages around Assam are the race 

 stock whence the Batta-Dyak developed, that he determined to 

 first examine and collect among our groups, and later on visit 

 Borneo. With this object in view we visited together some of 

 the eastern Nogas. He then went among the little-known 

 " Apa Tanangs," and later on the " Nogas " along the south 

 border, " A-nga-mi " and others, making huge collections. 

 Unfortunately he contracted fever, and was ordered off' for a 

 long sea voyage, intending to visit Papua so as to collate the 

 races there, closely allied to our Kol ; and had intended taking 



NO. 1438, VOL. 56] 



Borneo on the return voyage. His untimely death in Papua 

 put an end to it all, and what has become of his notes and 

 collections I do not know. This, however, I can vouch for, i.e, 

 that he was thoroughly convinced that in and round Assam we 

 have a huge mine of anthropological lore, of which our men of 

 science have not the faintest suspicion, and to which fact I have 

 now for some years in vain endeavoured to draw attention. 



In reading Mr. Ling Roth's work, it becomes at last almost 

 wearisome to note the identity of the Bornean customs with those 

 of our semi-savage races, down even to trivial details, the only 

 marked differences being those due to developments through 

 contact with more advanced races later on, such as the early and 

 pre-Musalman, and Brahmanical influences, viA Java. One of 

 the greatest stumbling-blocks in collating our races with those 

 of the Archipelago is the persistence with which languages are 

 looked upon as the main tests of racial affinity. Occasionally 

 language is invaluable, but at other times, as in this case, it 

 stands a bad second, or even third, both custom and physique 

 being more reliable. We often have curious proofs of this even 

 here, on a small area. For instance, I am now endeavouring to 

 get a collection of the peculiar armless fringed jackets worn by 

 the men among E. Nogas, Mishmi, Miri, Apatanang, Mikir, 

 Kasia, Garo, Kuki, <S:c. I have seen these being woven by 

 Noga women, the 



loom simply two A ^J 



sticksin the ground, 

 with a cross-piece 

 (Fig. I, a), to which 

 the narrow web is 



attached ; another . . - " 



stick, B, at about p,^. j 



six feet distant from 



A, and over which the threads pass, is held tightly by a strap 



and strings which pass round the weaver's back, as she sits on 



the ground. 



The small piece of cloth when finished, with patterns often 

 woven in of coloured cotton or goat's hair, is some 4 feet long 

 by 8 inches or 10 mches wide. The ends of threads form a 

 fringe, thus (Fig. 2) : — 



Now, two of these pieces are sewn together, so as to leave a 

 hole in the centre (Fig. 3) ; 





and then, after turning over, are sewn down the sides, so as to 

 leave arm-holes (Fig. 4). 



The whole thing is too methodical, and 

 identical, to be an accidental resemblance — 

 all are practically alike in details of con- 

 struction ; yet we not only find this jacket 

 among all these tribes, but among the Dyaks, 

 a proof (among many others) that, as a racial 

 relic, it is older than the languages of these 

 races around Assam. 



But the lists of identical customs, seen 

 between these races here, and those in 

 Borneo, from " head-hunting," and its 

 causes, building on piles, tatooing, &c., 

 down to such trivial details as the value 

 attached to the hornbill's feathers, curious 

 fences, is interminable, quite impossible 

 to put in a letter. 

 What I desire to point out is the need for systematic research 

 among these races around Assam and in the ultra- Indian penin- 

 sula ; they are practically unknown to anthropologists, and unless 

 soon taken in hand, a vast amount of most valuable history will 



Fig. 



