192 



KNOWLEDGE ♦ 



[April 1, 1886. 



small bodies, and using flippers as propellers), than to regard 

 them as belonging to a race such as tlie zeuglodons, which 

 do not seem to correspond anytliing like so nearly \\ith the 

 sea-serpent in appearance as the enaliosaurians must have 

 done. 



It is a pity that the average penny-a-liner never hears 

 of the sea-serpent without attempting to bo funny at the 

 expense of the traveller who tells the story. For while it 

 is certain, on the one hand, that we can never tell what the 

 sea-serpent really is without obtaining all available informa- 

 tion, it is certain, on the other hand, that few of those who 

 may liave information to give will tell their experience when 

 they know that they will be exposed to ridicnle. The mere 

 fact that those who laugh at them are altogether con- 

 temptilile makes the mischief greater, as the following story 

 by " The Vagabond," a well-known Australian writer (I 

 had the pleasure of meeting him in 1880), serves to show : — 

 " Some years ago, Captain Austin Cooper and the officers 

 and crew of the Carlisle Castle, on a voyage to Melbourne, 

 saw ' the varmint.' A description and sketch of it were 

 published in the Argus. This, when it arrived in London, 

 it being the ' silly season ' in journalism, was seized and 

 torn to pieces by one of the young lions (that is, lion-skin- 

 wearing asses) of the Daili/ Telegraph, in a leading article, 

 in which much fun was poked at the gallant sailor. ' I don't 

 see any more sea-serpents,' said my Irish fiiend to me. ' It 

 is too much to be told that one of Green's commanders can't 

 tell the diilerence between a piece of sea-weed and a live 

 body in the water. If twenty serpents come on the star- 

 board, all hands shall be oi'dered to look to port. No 

 London penny-a-liner shall say again that Austin Cooper 

 is a liar and a fool.' " 



Between the idiots who invent silly sea-serpent stories, 

 and the jeering boobies who conclude that all sea-serpent 

 stories must be the work either of fools or of liars, men who 

 have evidence worth listening to are silenced. It was bad 

 enough when Professor Owen calmly suggested to Captain 

 McQuhae, of the Goveinment ship JJfedalus, that he and his 

 officers had been so frightened by the appearance of a strange 

 sea creature as to misfcvke a sea-elephant, perhaps 20 feet 

 long, for an animal of entirely different aspect and about 

 60 feet long. But he was at once put right, and by silence 

 admitted that he had fallen (unwittingly) into impertinence. 

 When, however, writers who have not been half-a-dozen 

 years out of school undei'take to tell experienced seamen 

 that they are fools if they are not liars, c'est par trop fort, 

 or, in the vernacular, one feels that that is " coming it a 

 little too strong." — Newcastle Weekly Chronicle. 



^fh) asoofesi to l)r iUali (or aboiljfti)— 



A Time and Times : Ballads and Lyrics of East and 

 West, by A. Werner (T. Fisher Unwin, London, 1886), 

 because it contains some true poetry, and none of the 

 maudlin stuflT which self-styled poets are so apt to inflict 

 upon us nowadays. Miss Werner's verses are gi-aceful, 

 nervous, and full of meaning, and many of the longer poems 

 are suitable for recitation. As such may be mentioned " The 

 White Witch of Perran Poi-th," " Bannerman of the Dande- 

 nong," and the two beautiful classical ])ieces, " Leaina " and 

 " After the Battle." The contents of this little volume 

 make one wish for more from the same pen. 



Arminiiis Vamheri/ : his Life and Adventures. (T. Fisher 

 Unwin. 1886.) Tiie boy's edition of this poimlar book, 



which has already run through five other editions, was 

 published by Mr. ITnwin in time to be a welcome Christmas 

 or New Year's gift to many an English boy, and will make 

 a very acceptable school prize later on in the year. The 

 autobiographer, in an introductory chapter addressed to tlie 

 boys of England, tells how the desire to see foreign countries 

 awoke in him at the tender age of six yeai-s. His youth 

 was, however, passed amid poverty and jwivations ia 

 Hungary, and his travels did not commence until his twenty- 

 second year, so that if any of his youthful readers feel in- 

 clined to follow Vambery's example they must have patience 

 and not begin by running away to sea. Throughout Yam- 

 bery seems to liave lived entirely on his wits ; but by dint 

 of courage and what one is tempted to call " cheek " — if 

 lady readers will forgive the expression — he has managed 

 to come unscathed through some very reniarkalile adven- 

 tures, which he tells with the utmost naivete, even 

 when they are hardly creditable to himself. The book is 

 thoi'oughly interesting, beautifully illustrated, and got up 

 in Mr. Unwin's well-known style. 



Kaffir Folk-lore. By Geo. MoCali, Tiieal. Second 

 Edition. (London : Swan Sonnenschein, Le Bas, tt Lowi'ey. 

 1886.) — Mr. Theal says, and says truly, in his prefiice to 

 the curious volume of tales before us, that " it is now 

 generally recognised that in order to obtain correct in- 

 formation concerning an uncivilised race, a knowledge of 

 their folk-lore is necessar)'." In this respect Kaffir folk- 

 lore, like that of all semi-savage races, is highly instructive, 

 adding yet again to the mass of evidence as to the identity 

 of the jjurely childish type of mind and its universality 

 among uncivilised people over the entii-e surface of the 

 habitable world. Naturally, every such collection of stories 

 jjeculiar to races widely separated geographically must 

 possess a certain amount of local peculiarity and colour- 

 ing ; but, after making due allowance for this, the ultimate 

 resemblance between the piimitive stories of the most 

 diverse types of mankind cannot fail to strike the least 

 careful observer. Birds play a conspicuous part in these 

 Kaffir tales, generally in the role of friends or good fairies 

 to those in difficulty or distress. The giant or ogre of our 

 Eiu-opean nursery tales finds his analogue in Kaffirland in 

 the cannibal, whose intellectual capacity, we may incident- 

 ally note, appears to be quite on a par with that of the 

 monster who fatuously slit himself up in attempted imita- • 

 tion of his guest in our own veracious legend of " Jack the 

 Giant-killer." In "The Story of Hlakanyana," again, we 

 have a sequent iteration of his adventures by the hero, 

 resembling in form, if not in detaO, that in " The House 

 that Jack Built ; " while the hare, the jackal, and many of 

 their friends suggest the strongest reminiscences of the 

 imperishable " B'rer Babbit " and his associates in " Uncle 

 Remus." A useful introductory chapter on the Kaffir folk 

 themselves, and a full appendix of instructive notes on the 

 various tales, add considerably to the value of this curious 

 and readable volume. 



The Elements of Economics. By Henry Dunning Mac- 

 Leod, M.A. Vol. II. Part I. (London : Longmans, Green, 

 & Co., 1886.) — We make acquaintance with the work whose 

 title heads this notice through its second volume, not 

 having, so far, had the good fortune to see the first. It 

 is not, however, very difficult to deduce Mr. Macleod's 

 eclectic system of political economy from this second instal- 

 ment of his work ; and we feel quite justified in saying that 

 if (as we may assume to be certain) the previous portion of 

 the book before us is as sound in its inferences and apposite 

 in its ilhistrations as the one before us, it as a whole con- 

 stitutes a valuable and important contribution to economical 

 science. The volume opens with an amusing refutation of 



