294 



NATURE 



[May 5, 1910 



the mysteries of the spirit world, described by a series of 

 metaphors and personifications. Much of it is of very 

 ancient date, and is hardly intelligible even to the best 

 native scholars at the present day. In studying the trans- 

 lations and analysis of Dr. Emerson, we cannot avoid 

 the suspicion that much is vague and uncertain, and that 

 the interpretations may sometimes ascribe to these appar- 

 ently meaningless songs a significance which reflects 

 modern romantic conceptions alien to the spirit of the 

 early singers. Throughout the whole drama the themes 

 are essentially religious. The chief deity invoked is Laka, 

 the impersonation of the powers of vegetation, who is 

 addressed in special hymns and worshipped at an altar 

 adorned with leaves and flowers of those plants which are 

 believed to be specially acceptable to the goddess, because 

 they are the forms in which she prefers to manifest her- 

 self. With her are invoked the spirits of the wood, which 

 resemble the fairies of Europe, Pele, the goddess of the 

 volcano, and her sister, Kapo, who, like the Mother 

 goddesses in other parts of the world, assumes a dual 

 form — benevolent as a sylvan deity, chthonic or lewd, the 

 latter phase being only occasional. 



As Mr. A. Lang has pointed out, the mysteries of Greece 



Woman playing on the Nose-flute (Ohe-hano-ihu). 



can best be interpreted on the analogy of rites among 

 savage or semi-savage races. The Hula accordingly pre- 

 sents notable resemblances to the Greek Eleusinia and 

 similar celebrations. The performers are carefully 

 selected ; they must observe stringent purity tabus, sexual 

 license being prohibited ; they are kept in a special 

 enclosure, which they must never leave except with 

 muffled heads, and they must engage in no conversation 

 beyond its limits ; above all things, they must avoid con- 

 tact with a corpse. As the Greek hierophant proclaimed, 

 " Ye mystae, to the sea ! " in Hawaii the performers rush 

 into the ocean, going and returning in a state of nudity ; 

 there is a pass-word of admission, a prayer at the 

 beginning and end of each performance, and a special 

 supplication for the removal of tabu ; a ritual dress, 

 modelled on the primitive fig-leaf. Finally, the central act 

 of the rite is a form of sacrament. A cooked pig is 

 brought into the assembly, and the hierophant, acting as 

 carver, " selects the typical parts — snout, ear-tips, tail, 

 feet, portions of the vital organs, especially the brain 

 {lolo). This last it is which gives its name to the cere- 

 mony. He sets an equal portion before each novitiate. 

 Each one must eat all that is laid before him. It is a 



NO. 2 114, VOL. 83] 



mystical rite, a sacrament ; as he eats he consciously par- 

 takes of the virtue of the goddess that is transmitted to 

 himself." 



The Hula assumes various forms. A special type is 

 assigned to each instrument — the drum, the gourd rattle, 

 the bamboo rattle, a kind of xylophone, pebble castanets, 

 a hollow bamboo beaten on the ground, a Jew's harp, and 

 that remarkable instrument the nose-flute. Others include 

 the use of marionettes, or mimetic delineations of animals, 

 as the shark and dog dances. 



On the whole, this elaborate study of a primitive folk- 

 drama is interesting from many points of view — as a 

 description of savage music recorded in the recognise*; 

 notation ; as throwing fresh light on the problem of tht 

 mysteries ; as a new conception of folk-poetry, with it5 

 sensuous, enigmatic lyrics. Lastly, it throws novel lighl 

 on the interpretation of the popular mythology and tradi- 

 tions. If we cannot always accept Dr. Emerson's inter- 

 pretations of the materials which he has collected, we car 

 admire the industry and insight which appear throughout 

 this volume. 



PIGMENTATION AND CANCER. 

 "p\OES the absence of skin pigment predispose white mer 

 -^ to cancer? This question has been answered in th( 

 affirmative in a paper ' which has attracted some attention 

 The author, Dr. Watkins-Pitchford, adduces instances o 

 the inverse ratio obtaining between the degree of pigmenta 

 tion of the skin and of the body cavity, and explains tha: 

 the external and internal pigmentations protect the tissues 

 from excessive " irradiation " by actinic rays, of whicf 

 the influence is assumed to be highly inimical to the life o 

 the individual. More weight would have attached to hi; 

 observations, in whatever bearing they have upon cancer 

 had the thickness of the body wall been considered in rela 

 tion to the degree of internal pigmentation and the sligh 

 penetrating powers of many of the rays loosely callec 

 actinic. 



" White man is of all animals the most liable to cancer ' 

 forms the postulate from which the author elaborates hif 

 views. This is an old dogma which is by no mean; 

 universally accepted as true, and for certain individua 

 organs is now proven to be false. For example, cancer o 

 the mamma is probably as frequent in Indian hospitals a: 

 it is in London, and it is as common in the mouse as it i- 

 in the human female. It certainly occurs in the nativi 

 .African negress more frequently than was formerly sup 

 posed. However, the author brings this first postulate int( 

 line with his second, " the absence of effective pigmenta 

 tion, or other form of external protection, in white mai 

 is the primary cause of his liability to cancer " ; the sam> 

 holds for domesticated animals. The liability to cance 

 should therefore be found increasing in proportion as pig 

 mentation is decreasing, and the true albino of any species 

 man included, should display the greatest liability of all 

 \ table is given to illustrate the scale of liability of black 

 brown, red, yellow, and white races of man by estirna 

 tions of " probable " cancer death-rates for Zulus, Tamils 

 Red Indians, Chinese, Italians, English, Dutch, am 

 Swedes. The figures can be definitely stated to be_ worth 

 less for purposes of comparison. Those for the Chinese ii 

 the United States are meant to show the intermediat 

 incidence of cancer in the yellow race ; but why not hav' 

 chosen the Japanese, who have relatively excellent nationa 

 statistics showing more than 2.i^,ooo deaths annually, an. 

 who admit that this number is far short of the total, whicl 

 would represent a death-rate probably not less than ii 

 England? The Italian figures presumably represen 

 " brown " man, but the Italian national statistics ar 

 among the worst in Europe, and cannot be compared witl 

 English statistics. The table merely gives a list of in 

 creasingly worthless figures and correspondingly untrust 

 worthy records of the occurrence of cancer. The argumen 

 would, however, break down for another reason — by it 

 failure to explain the frequency of cancer in the_ negroes o 

 America as contrasted with its real or apparent infrequenc 

 in .Africa. 



1 " Light. Pienrifintatmn and New-growth, being an Essay on the Genesi 

 t>( Canc-r." By Dr. Wilfred Watkins-Pitchford. Pp. 130. Read at th 

 South African Medical Congress, Durban, August 2, 1909. 



