November 6, 1902] 



NA TURE 



1 1 



Negroes of the Nile Valley and some Hamitic people. 

 The information furnished was collected in the first in- 

 stance for administrative purposes. It consequently 

 relates chiefly to such matters as would come more 

 directly under the notice of a British official in the early 

 stages of the settlement of the country. Mr. Hobley has 

 in regard to such matters been minute and careful in his 



^"*NDAH POLLS •• O . 



Fig. i. — Plan of Kavirondo Hut. 



inquiries. He has made an excellent beginning, though, 

 as he himself says, "it would be presumptuous to suppose 

 that [his] observations do more than touch the fringe of 

 inquiry into the habits and customs of these interesting 

 people." As examples of the painstaking manner in which 

 he has collected his material, his plans of the Kavirondo 

 and Nandi huts, and his figures, placed side by side, of 

 the hoe (the principal agricultural implement of the con- 

 tinent) used by the Kavirondo and that used by the 

 Nandi, may be referred to. By the courtesy of the 

 Anthropological Institute we are enabled to reproduce 

 these. 



The externals of native life and the outline of their 

 customs, especially the customs relating to marriage and 

 married life, are most fully treated. But there is evi- 

 dently much detail still to be ascertained, and the under- 

 lying beliefs call for inquiry. The social 

 organisation is hardly touched. Mr. Hob- 

 ley's use of the words clan and tribe lacks 

 precision. Both words seem to be used 

 territorially ; the clan is a local subdivision 

 of the tribe, under a subordinate chief. By 

 anthropologists the word clan is now gener- 

 ally used to indicate blood-relationship, 

 actual or imputed. It should be kept strictly 

 for this purpose and some other word found 

 for a village settlement or other local sub- 

 division the inhabitants of which may or 

 may not be held to be blood-brothers. The 

 important subject of religion, so intimately 

 connected with social organisation, is almost 

 a blank. The details concerning divination 

 by the entrails of animals slain (in sacrifice?) 

 and concerning the ceremonies in making 

 peace, however, are interesting and valuable. These are 

 matters likely to have come frequently under the sub-com- 

 missioner's eye. On the other hand, he is not likely to have 

 suffered much from the medical practice of the Kavirondo. 

 Hence his account of it is not very illuminating. The 

 anthropologist who reads that the old women who are 

 called in " put pebbles in a gourd and rattle them, and 

 then advise certain remedies," will suspect that the 



pebbles are not only put into the gourd, but thrown out 

 like dice, and that the practitioner divines from their fall, 

 as among the more southerly Bantu, what is the matter 

 and what remedies, if any, are to be prescribed. 

 Probably Mr. Hobley has never witnes sed theceremony 

 but writes from imperfect information. Useful plates of 

 the Ja-luo are provided, and a plate of three Masai 

 warriors. But nothing in the way of 

 physical measurement has been at- 

 tempted. Physical descriptions are 

 vague, and evidence of race is chiefly 

 made to rest on the deceptive basis 

 of language. There is an excellent 

 map of the district, showing the 

 distribution of the various tribes. 

 Vocabularies of several of the lan- 

 guages and grammatical observations 

 are appended. 



I have called attention to some of 

 the deficiencies of this "Survey," not 

 by any means for the purpose of 

 finding fault, but in the hope that 

 Mr. Hobley, who has commenced so 

 well, will be induced to prosecute the 

 work still further. Such investiga- 

 tions ought to have the most strenuous 

 encouragement on the part of the 

 administration, both for scientific pur- 

 poses (to which no administration 

 ought to be indifferent) and because 

 everything that contributes to our 

 knowledge of the people, their physical and mental 

 capacities, their prejudices, customs and beliefs must 

 make for good government. E. Sidney Hartland. 



NOTES. 

 Prof. W. H. Holmes, head curator for anthropology of the 

 National Museum, has been appointed chief of the United 

 States Bureau of Ethnology at Washington in succession to the 

 late Major J. W. Powell, the former director. Prof. Holmes is 

 well known to anthropologists for his studies on the pottery and 

 decorative art of the aborigines of America, and on the 

 manufacture of stone implements, &c. He has also decided 

 and advanced views on the arrangement of ethnological 

 museums. 



door 



Plan of Nandi Hut 



-Kavirondo Hoe. 



-Nandi Hoe. 



NO. 1723, VOL. 67] 



The Lancaster Town Council has decided to confer the 

 honorary freedom of the borough upon Mr. James Mansergh, 

 F. R.S., past president of the Institution of Civil Engineers, 

 who is a native of the borough. 



Last week the Bangor Eisteddfod Committee voted from 

 its surplus a sum of 30/. to the University College of North 

 Wales to assist in the development of the fisheries department. 



