August i6, 191 7] 



NATURE 



491 



given of the Macusi and Wapisiana tribes, representa- 

 tives of the Carib and Arawak linguistic families. 

 The Macusis practise the custom of the couvade, the 

 father, after a child is born, taking to his bed tor a 

 month, and eating none but the most delicate foods, 

 •the mother meanwh'le taking care of him and of the 

 baby. The Wapisiana also practise the couvade, but 

 the period of careful eating for the father extends 

 among them to a year after he leaves his bed. Their 

 marriage system is interesting, because they are re- 

 quired to marry blood relations. A man must marry 

 his cousin from another village and take her home to 

 his own village. He may, and often does, marry two 

 sisters, and he can take a wife outside his family only 

 in case there are no cousins available. They will not 

 eat garpe shot by a gun or arrow, and their diet is 

 confined to fish and fiuit. The rubber traffic and the 

 cruelty of foreigners have been fatal to the natives of 

 this region. There are but two sur\'ivors, two sisters, 

 of the once-important Zapara tribe. It is well that a 

 scientific examination of them has been made before 

 they become extinct. 



Mr. H. U. H.all publishes in the yiuaeum Journal 

 of the University of Pennsylvania (vol. viii., No. i, 

 March, 1917) a well-illustrated paper on a collection of 

 gods of the Yoruba tribe of the hinterland of Lagos, 

 West Southern Nigeria. Before a burial a masked 

 •dancer wearing the shroud of the dead man dances 

 before his relations, condoles with them, and discusses 

 matters in which fhey and the dead man were in- 

 terested. Offerings made to -his mask are supposed 

 to be passed on to the deceased in deathland. To 

 prove that the dead man has gone to heaven, a person 

 representing him is hidden in a room close by, and 

 answers questions regarding the fate of the deceased. 

 This person, known as Egun, seems to have been 

 originally regarded merely as an incarnation of the 

 dead man, but he has now developed into a kind of 

 bOb>'i whose function it is to carry away persons who 

 have become a nuisance to their' neighbours — scolds, 

 tusybodies, scandalmongers. In his public character 

 his ver\- touch is fatal, and to threaten an Egun with 

 peisonal violence, or for a woman to speak disrespect- 

 fully of him, is an offence punishable with death. 



I.\ the August number of the Fortnightly Revieiv 

 Sir Thomas Holdich discusses the suggestion of a 

 federation of the southern Slavs into one great Jugo- 

 slav nationality. The federation would include 

 Slovenes, Croats', and Serbians, and extend from the 

 Save basin to the southern borders of Serbia, covering 

 an area of at least 75,000 square miles, and containing 

 a population of more than twelve millions. It would 

 include Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, 

 southern Styria, southern Carinthia, possibly part of 

 Carniola, and Slavonia and Syrmig. One of the great 

 difficulties would be the question of Dalmatia and 

 Istria. Despite the nationality of their inhabitants, 

 these two Adriatic lands are geographicallv more re- 

 lated to Italy than to the Balkan lands. Dalmatia is 

 separated from Bosnia by the natural barrier of the 

 Dmaric Alps; and would scarcelv serve as the chief sea 

 outlet for the Jugo-Slav State. That outlet. Sir 

 Ihomas Holdich thinks, should be at Salonika. It is 

 i interesting to note that the author suggests the river 

 ' Y^ve from near its source to the Danube as part 

 \ ot the northern boundarv, but he proposes that a new 

 , capital should be chosen for Serbia at Nish, less 

 1 exposed to aggression than Belgrade. 



I The first part of a '-Bibliography of Fishes," the 



1 work of Dr. Bashford Dean and Dr. C. R. Eastman, 



I nas just been published bv the American Museum of 



\^V"'lix"i^*°''>'- ^^ consists of the first instalment 



to K) of a list of titles of papers, arranged under 



NO. 2494, VOL. 99] 



authors' names, and is a large octavo volume of 718 

 pages. When completed it will include some 40,000 

 titles. The authors regard the time as opportune for 

 the preparation of a compendious list of papers dealing 

 with fishes, since the group is fairly well known, and 

 there is now increasing difficulty in dealing with the 

 literature in the absence of any special bibliography. 

 Further parts will complete the list of titles by the 

 inclusion of anonymous publications and pre-Linnaean 

 works. Then will follow a summary of general biblio- 

 graphies in which papers dealing with fishes are listed; 

 an account of works describing voyages and expedi- 

 tions in which fishes are observed and described; and 

 a list of periodicals relating to fish culture. A subject- 

 index is in course of preparation, and in this part 

 reference will be made to the index of authors' titles. 

 These titles will not be repeated, the papers being 

 identified by the author's name, the year of publica- 

 tion, and a number indicating order of publication 

 should more than one paper have been published by 

 the author during the same year. Fossil as well as 

 recent forms are included. In general the bibliographv 

 deals with the morphology, development, physiology, 

 patholog}-, distribution, and habits of fishes, but works 

 on angling are not as yet considered. 



The fourth part of the Annals of the Durban 

 Museum (vol. i., pp. 291-431) is a list of the sea- 

 fishes recorded from Natal, and is the work of Dr. 

 J. D. F. Gilchrist and Mr. W. W. Thompson. It is 

 purely a systematic list, containing no reference to the 

 local occurrence, or habits, or uses of the species re- 

 corded, and its size is due to the inclusion, under each 

 specific name, of the authors who have already de- 

 scribed the species and of the publications in which 

 these descriptions have appeared. 



Mr. Henry J. Howard records the first-known 

 British gathering of the Mycetozoon, Physarum car- 

 neiim (Journ. Roy. Microscop. Soc, 1917, part iii., 

 June, p. 265). It was first found on dead wood on 

 Cheyenne Mountain, Colorado Springs, bv Dr. Sturgis 

 in 1908. Previous to Mr. Howard's gathering, only 

 one other European specimen was known, from the 

 grounds of Collegia de Campolide, Lisbon. 



Mr. H. M. Steven, Carnegie research scholar in 

 the University of Edinburgh, has published, in the 

 Transactions of the Royal Scottish Arboricultural 

 Society (vol. xxxi., July, 1917, *pp. 131-55), an impor- 

 tant paper on the relation of the Chermes group of 

 insects to British forestry. These insects, which were 

 not clearly described until recently, are remarkable for 

 their obscure and complicated Hfe-history. They 

 attack conifers, and do much damage to ordinary 

 plantations of various pines and of common larch, 

 spruce, and silver fir. Mr. Steven gives an elaborate 

 account, with seven figures, of the species known to 

 exist in Britain, which are now assigned to four 

 genera, Chermes (in a restricted sense), Cnaphalodes, 

 Pineus, and Dreyfusia, each with two species. He 

 admits that once a plantation is formed there is no 

 practical method of dealing with these pests ; but, as 

 healthy, vigorous trees are scarcely attacked, much 

 may be done in the way of prevention by choice of 

 species clearly suitable to the conditions of the area. 

 Certain exotic species, which are at present relatively 

 immune, may be often chosen, and amongst these are 

 valuable trees, like Japanese larch, Sitka spruce, and 

 Corsican pine. Steven's distinct contribution to pre- 

 ventive measures is based on obser\-ations that 

 Chermes insects were often widespread in tree 

 nurseries, and did most serious damage imme- 

 diately after a plantation had been formed. Fumi- 

 gation with hydrocyanic acid gas generated from 

 potassium cyanide effectually kills insects on nursery 



