462 
NA ERORL 
[ Marcu 14, 1907 
examinations, and alone determine the granting of 
degrees. The appointment of examiners outside the 
influence of local institutions is desirable, so as to 
secure confidence in the impartiality of the examin- 
ation; examiners of experience in teaching the sub- 
jects in which they examine should be employed. 
Efficiency, as well as confidence, would further be 
secured by obtaining as presiding members of each 
board of studies examiners experienced in teaching 
in institutions in the older centres of education. 
(4) That all colleges should be affiliated with the 
University, and should be directly represented on the 
University council, if necessary, larger representation 
being given to the larger institutions. 
(5) That in any new Act of Incorporation or new 
charter provision should be made so as to leave the 
University free to expand, and to include new teach- 
ing bodies, as well as to develop in any direction in 
which the progress and prosperity of the country 
might in the future indicate. 
ANTHROPOLOGIST AMONG THE TODAS.‘ 
(ES RIVERS has re-discovered the Todas. This 
curious little nation, long known to us as an 
isolated social abnormality, in which the dairy in- 
dustry takes the place of religion and matrimonial 
safety found in a plurality of—husbands, now 
appears to be both much more and much less than 
this. As a descriptive 
book is a remarkable achievement, but it is, perhaps, 
most significant on account of its method. 
social sciences are at a disadvantage in that they 
not exact, as physical and mathematical sciences 
is 
are 
Fic. 1.—The ‘‘ Palikartmokh” 
From “‘ The Todas.” 
exact; but the present work is a proof that anthrop- 
ology is attaining such exactness as the nature of 
the subject allows. This means a good deal, as any- 
one may see who compares the present monograph 
with the earlier accounts of the Todas. The testing 
of the evidence and the verification of fact have been 
carried out in the most pertinacious and patient 
manner, and the general method followed is new 
1 “*The Todas.” By W. H. R. Rivers, Fellow of St. John’s College, 
Cambridge. Pp. xviiit+755; with illustrations and tables. 
Maemillan and Co., Ltd., 1906.) Price 21s. net. 
NO. 1950, VOL. 75 | 
(London: 
| 
monograph in ethnology the | 
The | 
| 
are 
saluting the threshold of the dairy at Kiudr ‘‘ Pavnersatiti.” 
in its application to deserve the epithet 
To the superficial reader little trace of this 
enough 
original. 
laborious preliminary process may be revealed, but 
the worl will justify itself by remaining unmsuper- 
seded. Jt struck me as interesting that the account 
is compiled in such a way as to show itself in the 
making, that it is an organism, revealing its own 
evolution. 
The Todas are sufficiently isolated as to render the 
problem of their origin more or less insoluble. Dr. 
Rivers makes a very good case, of the cumulative 
sort, for their provenance from the Malabar races. 
There are some interesting clues leading us back to 
the Christianising of South India more than a 
thousand years ago 
In their social organisation, the new facts collected 
by Dr. Rivers make our knowledge of the Todas 
practically free from lacuna. To the comparative 
student this very full and detailed account will serve, 
among other things, to connect the sociology of India 
with that of the rest of mankind. The polyandrous 
character of marriage, and the customs of terersthi 
and the like, deserve studying in these pages by 
anyone who talxes an interest in the marriage pro- 
blems of Western civilisation. The Toda view of 
morality in this sphere merits consideration, especially 
in connection with the altruistic emotions. Some- 
thing similar has been recently observed by Messrs. 
Spencer and Gillen among the natives of Central 
Australia. Not least remarlable is the way in which 
their form of marriage seems actually to male for 
efficiency and—righteousness. 
The chief regulations of the marriage system are in 
brief :—Prohibition of intermarriage between the two 
‘castes’? Tartharol and Teitvaliol; 
exogamy among the clans which 
compose these ‘‘castes’’; certain 
kinship prohibitions; polyandry, the 
typical form of marital association, 
the extra husbands being generally 
brothers of the husband proper; 
polygyny, now on the _ increase, 
either in the ordinary form, or two 
men having two wives in common; 
the transference of wives from one 
group of husbands to another, 
terersthi; a sort of concubinage, as 
between members of the two great 
““ castes,’’? mokhthoditi. 
We are supplied with a wealth of 
detail, practically new, in all the 
spheres of social life and religious 
practice. |The economic sources of 
religion are more clearly laid bare 
in the full description of the dairy- 
religion of the Todas than would 
have ever appeared possible to the 
a priori speculator in anthropo- 
\logical theory. To quote ‘Dr. 
Rivers :—‘‘ The sacred animals are 
attended by men especially set apart 
who form the Toda priesthood, and 
the milk of the sacred animals is 
churned in dairies which may be re- 
garded as the Toda temples, and are so regarded by 
the people themselves. The ordinary operations of the 
dairy have become a ‘religious ritual, and ceremonies 
of a religious character accompany nearly every im- 
portant incident in the lives of the buffaloes.’’ It 
would be a pity to attempt to skim the cream from 
the rich supply presented here; the reader will find it 
deeply interesting, and the student of religious origins 
will be well advised to ponder the whole subject. 
The best photographs in a well- illustrated bool repre- 
sent the operations of these milkmen, priests and 
