DECEMBER 6, 1906 | 
NATURE 
129 
book : it is artistic rather than scientific. 
history of the Kafir child, an excellent record of many 
facts concerning customs, practices, games, songs, 
sayings; and it may be particularly commended for 
the number of capital photographs which illustrate it. 
But the scientific possibilities in all this field of ob- 
It is a life- 
servation have been practically untouched. The Kafir | 
of our population, and that the remedy is declared 
baby has not been studied from the Darwinian stand- 
point, the superstitions which affect him have hardly 
been looked at with the folklorist’s knowledge, racial 
customs and practices have scarcely been viewed in 
the light of anthropology. 
One must have expected to find in savage children 
many instances of those Simian characters which have 
been noted among European children; even—because 
the Kafir child is on a lower scale—to find them more 
pronounced. But the author says nothing about them, 
and his photographs give very little in this way. 
One picture—it is the frontispiece in the book 
shows a shy child, who has instinctively assumed an 
attitude of self-defence, and has its arm raised as if to 
ward off a blow, and especially to protect the eyes. 
Now, as fear is the natural basis of shyness, this atti- 
tude is very happy. It is an inherited instinct, no 
doubt, but not necessarily Simian; yet if the author | 
had been on the watch for exhibitions of inherited in- 
stinct he would certainly have obtained many which 
were truly Simian in their orijzin. 
Had the author been more fully acquainted with | 
folklore results he would not show so many doubts 
about accounting for various customs. For instance, 
he notices (pp. 41, 42) the practice of a Kafir mother 
protecting her child by leaving a ring of her mill 
round it, or by squeezing ‘‘a few drops of her milk 
on to its head.’’ He suggests two explanations; 
but from folllore research he could learn that the 
second is more nearly correct—that the milk forms a 
connecting link with the mother; or, rather, that the 
milk is actually the mother herself present. As Mr. 
Hartland says in discussing the life-token, ‘* the 
external object is believed to be, or to contain, a 
part of the man himself ’’ (‘‘ Legend of Perseus,’’ ii., 
p. 51). The word “ part ’’ there is hardly sufficient. The 
external object, the detached portion of a person, or 
anything which has absorbed a portion of a person, 
is believed to be more than a part: it is rather looked 
on as the alter ego, subject to all his disabilities, en- 
dowed with all his potentialities; and just as destruc- 
tion of the alter ego involves destruction of the ego, | 
the very basis of witchcraft, so the power to watch 
and ward, which the ego possessed, is supposed to be 
also inherent in the alter ego. The mother’s mill: is 
as capable a protector as the mother herself. 
The basis of the same superstition—that a part of 
self is the other self—is further illustrated by the 
author in ‘‘ Confusion of Self with the Clothing and 
Possessions,’’ ‘‘ with the Shadow,”’ ‘‘ with the Pic- 
ture,”’ ‘ with the Name,’’ and so on (pp. 66 et seqq.); 
and he gives quite the right explanation of these. 
The man’s shadow is but another form of himself, 
and anything done to his shadow is done to him. 
The “native doctors apply medicine to people’s 
shadows as well as to their bodies’’ (p. 70), that is, | 
application to the shadow is quite as efficacious as to 
the body. So a man refused to be photographed ; 
because the person having the photograph would 
have a hold on him (p. 71). 
The secret burning of the child’s sleeping mat 
(p. 84) is another case. The mat is burnt to prevent 
it falling into the hands of any evil-disposed person, 
who could then work ill on the child. Here we 
have the apparent contradiction that meets us in 
such customs. One would at first think that the de- 
struction of the mat would mean the killing of the 
child. So it would, if done with evil intent; because 
NO. 1936, VOL. 75] 
| give their money to him (the chief). 
| of the rights of the individual. 
the intention with which an action is done makes 
all the difference. 
To conclude, one may quote some admirable re- 
marks of the author on the unfortunate result of 
ignorant European interference with Kafir customs. 
When it is considered how terrible a failure individu- 
alistic civilisation is, at any rate for some millions 
to be Socialism, it is quite possible to echo the 
author’s protest against forcing individualism on 
people who appear to have got great enjoyment out 
of life under Socialism. The author says (p. 129), 
——— 
~—— 
near the 
_on an ant-heap 
Z From ‘ Savage Childhood,” in which the photo. is about an 
inch longer and wider than this illustration. 
Fic. 1.—Boys playing ‘“‘ King of the Castle” 
Zambezi. 
“While English magistrates are above suspicion as to 
the justness of their decisions from a Western point of 
view, yet the natives complain not a little concerning 
the injustice of our government. . . . In olden days 
no Kafir felt it to be unjust on the part of a chief 
to make his subjects work for white men, and yet 
To Europeans 
this is essentially unjust, for it is an infringement 
To the native the 
rights of the corporate clan are vastly more important 
than those of the individual. Consequently, when in 
