434 



NATURE 



[September 3, 1891 



It is easy to say that Mr. Man may be prejudiced in favour of 

 these little savages, whose language he has been at so much pains 

 to learn. Fori unately, however, all his statements have lately 

 been confirmed by another authority, Colonel Cadell — the Chief 

 Commissioner of these islands. He is a Victoria Cross man, 

 and not likely to be given to over-much sentimentality. Well, 

 this is what he says of these fierce mastifTs, with feet a cubit in 

 length : — 



" They are merry little people," he says. "One could not 

 imagine how taking they were. Everyone who had to do with 

 them fell in love with them [these fierce mastiffs]. Contact 

 with civilization had not improved the morality of the natives, 

 but in their natural stale they were truthful and honest, generous 

 and self denying. He had watched them sitting over their fires 

 cooking their evening meal, and it was quite pleasant to notice 

 the absence of greed and the politeness with which they picked 

 •off the tit-bits and thrust them into each other's mouths. The 

 forest and sea abundantly supplied their wants, and it was there- 

 fore not surprising that the attempts to induce them to take to 

 caltivation had been quite unsuccessful, highly though they 

 appreciated the rice and Indian corn which were occasionally 

 supplied to them. All was grist that came to their mill in the 

 shape of food. The forest supplied them with edible roots and 

 fruits. Bats, rats, flying foxes, iguanas, sea-snakes, mollusks, 

 wild pig, fish, turtle, and last, though not least, the larvje of 

 beetles, formed welcome additions to their larder. He remem- 

 bered one morning landing by chance at an encampment of 

 theirs, under the shade of a gigantic forest tree. On one fire 

 was the shell of a turtle, acting as its own pot, in which was 

 simmering the green fat delicious to more educated palates ; on 

 another its flesh was being broiled, together with some splendid 

 fish; on a third a wild pig was being roasted, its drippings 

 falling on wild yams, and a jar of honey stood close by, all 

 delicacies fit for an alderman's table." 



These are things which we might suppose anybody who has 

 eyes to see, and who is not wilfully blind, might have observed. 

 But when we come to traditions, laws, and particularly to re- 

 ligion, no one ought to be listened to as an authority who cannot 

 converse with the natives. For a long time the Mincopies have 

 been represented as without any religion, without even an idea 

 of the Godhead. This opinion received the support of Sir 

 John Lubbock, and has been often repeated without ever having 

 been re-examined. As soon, however, as these Mincopies 

 began to be studied more carefully — more particularly as snon 

 as some persons resident among them had acquired a knowledge 

 of their language, and thereby a means of real communication— 

 their religion came out as clear as daylight. According to Mr. 

 E. H. Man, they have a name for God — Pnhiga. And how 

 can a race be said to be without a knowledge of God if they 

 have a name for God? F/ilu^a has a very mythological cha- 

 racter. He has a stone house in the sky ; he has a wife, whom 

 he created himself, and from whom he has a large family, all, 

 except the eldest, being girls. The mother is supposed to be 

 green (the earth ?), the daughters black ; they are the spirits, 

 called Alorozuin ; his son is called Pijchor. He alone is per- 

 mitted to live with his father, and to convey his orders to the 

 Morowin.^ But Puluga was a moral character also. His ap- 

 pearance is like fire, though nowadays he has become invisible. 

 He was never born, and is immortal. The whole world was 

 created by him, except only the powers of evil. He is omni- 

 scient, knowing even the thoughts of the heart. He is angered 

 by the commission of certain sins— some very trivial, at least fo 

 our mind— but he is pitiful to all who are in distress. He is the 

 judge from whom each soul receives its sentence after death. 



According to other authorities, some Andamanese look on 

 the sun as the fountain of all that is good, the moon as a minor 

 power ; and they believe in a number of inferior spirits, the 

 spirits of the forest, the water, and the mountain, as agents of 

 the two higher powers. They believe in an evil spirit also, 

 who seems to have been originally the spirit of the storm. Him 

 they try to pacify by songs, or to frighten away with their 



I suppose I need say no more to show how indispensable a 

 study of language is to every student of anthropology. If an- 

 thropology is to maintain its high position as a real science, its 

 alliance with linguistic studies cannot be too close. Its weakest 

 points have always been those where it trusted to the statements 

 of authorities ignorant of language and of the science of language. 

 Its greatest triumphs have been achieved by men such as Dr. 



Hahn, Bishops Callaway and Colenso, Dr. W. Gill, and last, 

 not least, Mr. Man, who have combined the minute accuracy of 

 the scholar with the comprehensive grasp of the anthropologist, 

 and were thus enabled to use the key of language to unlock the 

 perplexities of savage customs, savage laws and legends, and, 

 particularly, of savage religions and mythologies. If this alliance 

 between anthropology and philology becomes real, then, and 

 then only, may we hope to see Bunsen's prophecy fulfilled, that 

 anthropology will become the highest branch of that science for 

 which this British Association is instituted. 



Allow me in conclusion once more to quote some prophetic 

 words from the address which Bunsen delivered before our 

 Section in 1847 : — 



"If man is the apex of the creation, it seems right, on the one 

 side, that a historical inquiry into his origin and development 

 should never be allowed to sever itself from the general body of 

 natural science, and in particular from physiology. But, on the 

 other side, if man is the apex of the creation, if he is the end to 

 which all organic formations tend from the very beginning, if 

 man is at once the mystery and the key of natural science, if 

 that is the only view of natural science worthy of our age, then 

 ethnological philology (I should prefer to say anthropology), 

 once established on principles as clear as the physiological are, 

 is the highest branch of that science for the advancement of 

 which this Association is instituted. It is not an appendix to 

 physiology or to anything eke ; but its object is, on the contrary, 

 capable of becoming the end and goal of the labours and trans- 

 actions of a scientific Association." 



Much has been achieved by anthropology to justify these 

 hopes and fulfil the prophecies of my old friend Bunsen. Few 

 men live to see the fulfilment of their own prophecies, but they 

 leave disciples whose duty it is to keep their memory alire, and 

 thus to preserve that vital continuity of human knowledge which 

 alone enables us to see in the advancement of all science the 

 historical evolution of eternal truth. 



ELECTRICAL STANDARDS. 

 'X'HE Queen's Printers are now issuing the Report 

 A (dated July 23, 1891) to the President of the Board 

 of Trade, of the Committee appointed to consider the 

 question of constructing standards for the measurement 

 of electricity. The Committee included Mr. Courtenay 

 Boyle, C.B., Major P. Cardew, R.E., Mr. E. Graves, Mr. 

 W. H. Preece, F.R.S., Sir W. Thomson, F.R.S., Lord 

 Rayhigh, F.R S., Prof. G. Carey Foster, F.R.S., Mr. R. 

 T. Glazebrook, F.R.S., Dr. John Hopkinson, F.R.S., 

 Prof. VV. E. Ayrton, F.R.S. 



In response to an invitation, the following gentle- 

 men attended and gave evidence:— On behalf of the 

 Association of Chambers of Commerce, Mr. Thomas 

 Parker and Mr. Hugh Erat Harrison ; on behalf of the 

 London Council, Prof. Silvanus Thompson ; on behalf 

 of the London Chamber of Commerce, Mr. R. E. 

 Crompton. The Committee were indebted to Dr. J. A. 

 Fleming and Dr. A. Muirhead for valuable mformation 

 and assistance ; and they state that they had the advant- 

 age of the experience and advice of Mr. H. J. Chaney, 

 the Superintendent of Weights and Measures. The 

 Secretary to the Committee was Sir T. W. P. Blomefield, 

 Bart. 

 The following are the resolutions of the Committee : — 



Resolutions. 

 (i) That it is desirable that new denominations of standards 

 for the measurement of electricity should be made and approved 

 by Her Majesty in Council as Board of Trade standards. 



(2) That the magnitudes of these standards should be deter- 

 mined on the electro-magnetic system of measurement with 

 reference to the centimetre as unit of length, the gramme as 

 unit of mass, and the second as unit of time, and that by the 

 terms centimetre and gramme are meant the standards of those 

 denominations deposited with the Board of Trade. 



(3) That the standard of electrical resistance should be de- 

 nominated the ohm, and should have the value i,oco,ooo,ooo in 

 terms of the centimetre and second. 



(4) That the resistance offered to an unvarying electric current 



NO. I 140, VOL. 44] 



