December 28, 1899] 



NATUnB 



195 



Eastern Polynesians that the two groups should be 

 regarded as two branches of an original non-Malay 

 [Indonesian] stock" (p. 326). 



According to Mr. Mathew's theory, Indonesian and 

 Malay elements are implicated in his third invasion of 

 Australia. 



Mr. Mathew devotes several chapters to a concise 

 account of the handicrafts, institutions, social customs, 

 sorcery and religion of the Australian natives, and one 

 may gain from the book a very good idea of the 

 Australians as a whole ; this account is not a mere 

 compilation from published sources, as Mr. Mathew has 

 had practical experience with " black fellows," and 

 numerous original and hitherto unpublished observations 

 are scattered throughout the book. The careful gram- 

 matical study and vocabularies of Australian languages, 

 which occupy nearly half the book, will be of 

 great assistance to students of linguistics — the Kabi 

 grammar is an original contribution. The appropriate 

 title of the book is derived from the widely-spread names 

 of the two main clan divisions of the Australians ; the 

 author asks (p. 19) : — " Is there any better explanation of 

 the facts possible than that the eaglehawk and the crow 

 represent two distinct races of men which once contested 

 for the possession of Australia, the taller, more powerful 

 and more fierce ' eaglehawk ' race [" Dravidian "] over- 

 coming and in places exterminating the weaker, more 

 scantily-equipped sable ' crows ' ? " 



The present writer has endeavoured to give a fair 

 summary of the views held by Mr. Mathew, but it 

 appears to him that the author has not fully appreciated 

 the complexity of the problem which he has set himself to 

 solve. It is also evident that Mr. Mathew has not had 

 access to a number of works that bear upon his subject ; 

 some excuse in this respect must, however, be granted to 

 students who reside in the Colonies. The author must 

 be credited with a broad grasp of Australian ethnography, 

 and even if his theories do not receive the support of 

 other students, he will have the satisfaction of knowing 

 that he has done some good service, since generalisation 

 is the salt of science. Alfred C. Haddon. ' 



CYPRIAN ARCHEOLOGY. 

 A Catalogue of the Cyprus Museum, with a Chronicle of 

 Excavations undertaken since the British Occupation, 

 and Introductory Notes on Cypriote Archceology. By 

 John L. Myres, M.A., and Max Ohnefalsch-Richter, 

 Ph.D. Pp. xii -f- 224. With eight plates. 8vo. (Oxford : 

 at the Clarendon Press, 1899.) 

 T^HIS work aspires to be at once a scientific catalogue 

 -■- of, and a handy guide to, the contents of the 

 Cyprus Museum. For the latter purpose it is provided 

 with a flexible cloth binding, for the former it is written in 

 a logical and " scientific" manner, although, by the way, 

 prehistoric archaeology is not a science, and never 

 will be one : it is simply a body of disconnected observa- 

 tions, from which one or two more or less probable con- 

 clusions can be drawn. The authors deal with an 

 enormous mass of material, and the necessity of com- 

 pressing this into a portable form has made their book 

 resemble more a collection of transcribed shorthand 

 NO. 1574, VOL. 61] 



notes than anything else. These notes, which are only 

 rendered intelligible by reference to headings which 

 themselves have sometimes to be elucidated by further 

 headings, will no doubt be of use to the student of 

 Cyprian archaeology, but will hardly be understanded of 

 the casual student tourist who essays to visit the 

 Museum with this book in his hand. What, for in- 

 stance, will he make of the following (p. 169): "6061- 

 6063. Legs and feet. 6061. Colossal. 6062-6069. San- 

 dalled. 6067. Corkscrew curls and diadem with 

 quatrefoils in relief. 6068-6069. Faces." He will not at 

 once realise the fact that for the necessary elucidation of 

 these mysterious fragments he must refer back a page 

 or so to the headings : " XI. Tamassos," " B. Statues 

 of deity or votary in native style ; colossal, life-size, or 

 smaller : all male," " a. Terra-cotta ; moulded; holloTc" 

 and that similar researches will have to be made when- 

 ever he wishes to obtain an intelligible description and 

 explanation of any object which he may be looking at. 

 Only persons with some knowledge of archaeology will 

 be able to find their way about this catalogue, and they 

 will often have to complain of the marvellous epigram- 

 matic manner in which many of the objects are described. 

 No. 5569 is described as follows (p. 156): " H. o. 10.' 

 That is all. Nor does the heading " Miscellaneous " 

 lighten our darkness very much. We eventually discover 

 that Nos. 5501-5569 are terra-cottas from Kition, but 

 what kind of miscellaneous terra-cotta No. 5569 is we 

 have not found out yet. And surely such a description 

 as "Silver Vessels, &c. 4871-4873. Spoons. Cf 

 Bibl. Nat. 1635-7." (p. 139), is insufficient. Other similar 

 instances might be quoted, but at the same time Mr. 

 Myres' descriptions are often full and careful enough : 

 e.g. Nos. 5017, 5048, 5571, or the group 5801-5826. 



No doubt the form of the book is extremely logical, but 

 this very characteristic, pushed to its extreme as it is 

 here, makes it quite useless to the casual tourist, unless 

 he has a very considerable knowledge, not only of Greek 

 archaeology generally, but also of the current theories on 

 the subject. The two aims of this catalogue are, in fact, 

 mutually exclusive. 



Treating the book entirely from the point of view of the 

 archaeologist, we still find something to criticise as well 

 as to praise. The commencement of the introduction (up 

 to the middle of p. 16) is clear and good : nothing is 

 more probable in early Greek archiieology than the general 

 position of the pr^e- Mycenaean and Mycenaean culture 

 with relation to the general development i European 

 civilisation ; they were the local phases 'the general 

 European culture of the Ages of Copper and Bronze. 

 But later on the introduction becomes somewhat wild 

 and therewith also somewhat too dogmatic in tone ; all 

 its statements as to the predominant influence of CyPrian 

 culture, as distinct from that of the " prae-Myceniean " 

 lands generally, on that of early Europe, or the deriva- 

 tion of the pottery-types of the Mondsee-area from that 

 of Cyprus and of the Central European knowledge of 

 copper from the same island are stated with very little 

 intimation of the fact that they are one and all purely 

 hypothetical, and are founded on a series of arguments 

 from analogy which are often of doubtful validity. In 

 fact, the whole gospel of the " Typology " of pots and 

 pans, which is nowadays so fashionable, and is relied 



