Supplement to ''Nature^' May 5, 1904 



KIS.sHIP LVD MARRIAGE. 

 Kinship and Marriat^c in Early Arabia. By the late 

 W. Robertson Smith. New Edition, with Addi- 

 tional Notes by the Author and by Prof. I. Goidziher, 

 Budapest. Edited by Stanley A. Cook, M..\. Pp. 

 .\.\ii+ :;24. (London: A. and (.". Black, igoj.) 

 Price "loi-. 6ii. 



THLS new edition of a masterly work should be 

 welcomed by all who take an interest in the 

 sludy of primitive man, a studv which, it is no paradox 

 ti> say, has more practical bearing than academic 

 history on the social problems of the future. Before 

 his death Robertson Smith made corrections and 

 .idded notes to the first edition of 18S5, which are now 

 incorporated. As anthropologists and orientalists 

 know, the essay is an application of the theories of 

 J. F. McLennan to early Arabia, conducted with the 

 originality, insight, logical clearness and brilliance of 

 exposition which arc inseparable from the name of 

 Robertson Smith. 



Beginning with an exposure of the easy methods of 

 the .Arabian genealogists, he proceeds to argue that 

 " female kinship " was once the rule. The strong Arab 

 sense of blood-unity " can only have come from female 

 kinship " and from a state of society where children 

 were reckoned to the tribal kin, but not to a particular 

 father. He regards the mota marriages, common in 

 the time of Mohammed, as a last relic of McLennan 's 

 heena marriage, in which the husband goes to live 

 with his wife's people. This system of heena or sadica 

 marriage with female kinship and totemism was 

 broken up by the growth of the idea of the family 

 (dar). the result being male kinship and baal marriage, 

 in which the husband has "dominion." The change 

 was made through " marriage by capture," followed 

 by marriage by purchase. But there is also to be ex- 

 plained the acceptance of male kinship in a state of 

 society where there was " no notion that a 

 man should keep his wife strictly to himself." 

 The only possible explanation lies, the author 

 thinks, in Tibetan polyandry, in which a group 

 of brothers bring to their common home a 

 common wife. This must have been preceded by 

 Nair polyandry, in which a group of brothers is enter- 

 tained in her home by a common wife. The whole 

 doctrine of the paternal system implies that this 

 polyandry was quite widely spread. Lastly, bars to 

 marriage before Islam were made on female kinship 

 alone ; the early Arabians and northern Semites 

 possessed totemism and exogamy. 



How far the author might have modified his con- 

 clusions is an idle speculation. Criticism of one who 

 has taught us all is especially invidious in the case of 

 a book which in substance is nearly twenty years old. 

 ■ But it is only fair to science to point out that recent 

 research has found grave objections to McLennan 's 

 theory of social development and to many of his 

 " universal institutions " themselves. Much also of 

 .McLennan 's evidence was bad; the author quotes (p. 

 i»S) one of his examples of " marriage by capture," 

 which is nothing of the kind. The best authorities 

 contradict the statement on p. 262 as to the prevalence 

 of such " marriage " in Australia, and that on p. 267 

 a> to " marriage by capture " being followed by 

 NO. I 80 1, VOL. 70] 



e.Kogamy. Objections may be raised to the suggestioni 

 that beena marriage with adoption into the woman's 

 kin are proved by Genesis ii. 24 — " a man shall leave 

 his father and mother and shall cleave unto his wife, 

 and they two shall be one flesh '" ; to the old idea that 

 early man considered animals to be men in disguise ; 

 to the view that the Arabs " practised " cannibalism, 

 and that " promiscuous " behaviour at religious feasts 

 is a survival of polyandry ; and to the acceptance of 

 metronyms in the genealogies as proofs of female kin- 

 ship, while patronyms are rejected. 



Recent speculation, however, is but beginning tO' 

 reconstruct the development of the primitive social 

 organism. The great value of this book is to prove 

 that the earlv Semites followed the same lines of de- 

 velopment, whatever they were, as other races, and ta 

 provide the best exposition of the prevalent theory. 

 Ernest Crawley.. 



SYLVICULTURE. 

 Schlich's Manual of Forestry. Vol. ii. Sylviculture. 

 Third edition. Pp. viii + 393. (London : Bradbury,. 

 Agnew and Co., Ltd., 1904.) Price 8s. net. 



IN N-UL-RE of July 23, 1891 (vol. xliv. p. 265), Sir 

 Dietrich Brandis, K.C.LE., reviewed the first 

 edition of the above volume. He then prophesied a 

 great future for Prof. Schlich's work. That the 

 prophecy was not a vain one has been amply proved 

 by the test of time. The book reached the second 

 edition in 1897, and has now passed into the third. 

 There is no preface tO' this edition, but the arrange- 

 ment of the former editions has, on the whole, been 

 retained ; however, the subject-matter has been some- 

 what differently classified. The present volume con- 

 sists of four parts — each part is divided into chapters 

 and sections, which are further subdivided as occa- 

 sion demands. Part i. deals with the foundations of 

 sylviculture — this was formerly part iv. of vol. i. of 

 the " Manual." Part ii. comprises the formation and 

 regeneration of woods. Part iii. is devoted to the 

 tending of woods, while part iv. consists of sylvicul- 

 tural notes on British forest trees. 



The author has condensed a marvellous amount of 

 information into a small space. At the same time, 

 each subject is dealt with at sufficient length to be 

 quite intelligible to the student and practical forester.. 

 This is largely due to the admirable way in which 

 Prof. Schlich has arranged his matter. One subject 

 leads on quite naturally to another, so that there is 

 no needless repetition and overlapping. 



The author assumes that the student has already 

 made some progress in other branches of science upon 

 which sylviculture depends — " the forester requires to 

 be well acquainted with the manner in which soil and 

 climate act on forest \'egetation, in order to decide 

 in each case which species and method of treatment 

 are best adapted, under a given set of conditions, to 

 yield the most fav-ourable results. The detailed con- 

 sideration of the laws which govern this branch of 

 forestry finds a place in the auxiliary sciences, such 

 as physics, chemistry, meteorology, mineralogy and 

 geology." Why not botany? especially plant phy- 

 siology, the bed-rock upon which true scientific sylvicul- 

 ture must be founded. It has been for long a criti- 



