828 



REVIEW OF REVIEWS. 



October 1, 191 J. 



in the course of his argument lead one 

 to suppose that his informants were de- 

 liberately deceiving him. The first is 

 the steadily increasing power of the 

 coloured population, especially the 

 Basutos, caused by the fact that in 

 many parts the native chiefs are fully 

 awake to the power given by education. 

 Moreover, the proportion of coloured 

 children in the schools is vastly greater 

 than that of the whites, 10 to 7 in Cape 

 Colony. 



The second danger is a corollary of 

 this, and is a consequence of the illi- 



teracy of the whites themselves. No 

 white, whether Boer or British, is ac- 

 customed to do manual labour, and it 

 has actually become a mark of in- 

 feriority to do such work, therefore the 

 illiterate whites who will not do manual 

 labour, and cannot do skilled labour 

 are in the condition of paupers, and 

 there are settlements at several places 

 in which the residents are all paupers, 

 living mostly on charity when they are 

 not thieves. 



The book is well illustrated and 

 written in interesting fashion 



BOOKS IN BRIEF. 



University and Historical Addresses. By 

 James Bryce. (Macmillan, 8/6 net.) 



In his preface Mr. Bryce says that during 

 six years spent in Washington it has been 

 his "duty and pleasure to travel about the 

 United States addressing Universities, Bar 

 Associations, Chambers of Commerce, etc., 

 and the warmth with which he was received 

 and the encouragement given to him to 

 speak on non-political topics was a great 

 enjoyment. The speeches in this book refer 

 to subjects which possess a more than pass- 

 ing interest, and of which Mr. Bryce had 

 kept notes. Reading these essays, so ade- 

 quately phrased, and in which the subject 

 is so clearly and lucidly expressed, it is 

 as if one were amongst Mr. Bryce's audi- 

 ence, listening to those thoughtful opinions, 

 which are as valuable to his own country- 

 men as they were to the people he was ad- 

 dressing. For instance, take the sentence : 

 "Every country has the newspapers it de- 

 serves, for the papers are what the people 

 make them," which occurs in an address 

 delivered at Lake Mohank. " Always have 

 something to say ; the man who has some- 

 thing to say, and who is known never to 

 speak unless he has, is sure to be listened 

 to," Mr. Bryce said at the State Univer- 

 sity of Iowa. Take, again, his appeal to 

 the United States to " take the initiative 

 toward the reduction of those armies and 

 navies which consume so large a part of the 

 revenues of the nations." Such are the 

 texts upon which his discourses turn, 

 characteristic of the writer and suggesting 

 new trains of thought to the reader. 



Great Writers. No. kh- Maurice Maeter- 

 linck. By Jethro Bithell. (Walter 

 Scott Publishing Co., 1/- net.) 



A well-written running account of Maeter- 

 linck's works, with suggestions as to their 

 interpretation and value. The comparison 

 between the intentions of Shakespeare and 

 those of Maeterlinck, for instance, is terse 

 and good. Mr. Bithell wishes vainly that 

 lie could give more about the personality of 

 bis subject. 



Hausa Suiyerstitions and Customs. By A. J. 

 N. Tremearne. (Bale and Danielsson. 

 21/- net.) 



The Hausa people, who number upwards of 

 five millions, form the most important 

 nation of the central Sudan. They are 

 clever agriculturists and manufacturers and 

 good fighters, so that they are the backbone 

 of the military police in Sierra Leone and 

 the Gold Coast Territory. Major Tre- 

 mearne counts that the people are interest- 

 ing, not only on account of their beliefs 

 and habits, but also because of their ser- 

 vices as soldiers to the Empire; and that 

 this description of their folk-lore is not a 

 collection of silly stories, but throws so 

 much light upon the religious and legal 

 systems of the inhabitants of the district in 

 which they arise that they are to a great 

 extent folk-law, and as such will be of 

 value to English folk who have dealings 

 with them as well as to philologists. About 

 half the book is taken up with legends, 

 short or long, and examples of the variants 

 of these stories, and the ordinary reader 

 will find it interesting to trace in some 

 their likeness to the fairy tales familiar to 

 English children. An example of a letter 

 in the Hausa language, which is a form of 

 Arabic, is given. The chapter on the 

 "dance" known as the Bori is illustrated. 

 and a map is given showing the part of 

 Africa where the Hausa people are mostly 

 congregated. There are over forty illustra- 

 tions, beside the figure drawings. 



Ancient Greece. By H. B. Cotterill, M.A. 

 (Harrap, 7/6 net.) 



This book, by the translator of the " Odys- 

 sey," is a kind of encyclopaedia of matters 

 connected with the history of Greece up to 

 the time of Alexander the Great. There 

 are some 150 illustrations of dress, coins, 

 pottery, monuments, etc., accompanied in 

 each case by a verification. Some few of 

 the illustrations are in colour, and there is 

 a full and good index. 



