DECEMBER 17, 1903] 
NATURE 
153 
and to unveil their faces, the object of his travels 
would be attained. As soon as possible he set out for 
the Tawarek tents, and he was fortunate enough not 
only to be received, but to be invited to take snuff with 
them. He found that ‘‘ they were all filthily dirty,” 
for no true Tawarek ever washes. Such ablutions as 
are necessary for religious purposes are performed with 
sand or stone; occasionally, with the view of improving 
his appearance, he rubs himself with indigo. Mr. 
Harding King found that his hosts all had ‘‘ thick, 
purring voices,’’ a shifty manner, and large, lustrous, 
furtive eyes. By and by some of them lifted their 
“‘lithams,’’? and so exposed the upper part of their 
faces, and he saw that some were white skinned, some 
very dark, and ‘‘ their aquiline noses showed that no 
trace of a negro stain was present in their blood.” 
“‘ Tifinagh,”’ and they derived it from the Berbers; it 
may be descended from the old Libyan, but it is un- 
likely to be of any very great antiquity, and if it has 
any very close affinity with the Libyan characters on 
the Tugga Stone, which was set up by Ataban, the 
son of Yaphmatath, and which is now in the British 
Museum, it is not very much older, probably, than B.c. 
4oo. Mr. Harding King’s narrative is very readable 
and modest, and is well illustrated by many good repro- 
ductions of photographs; it cannot be regarded as a 
scientific exposition of Tawarek lore, but it contains 
a great deal of knowledge collected at first hand by 
ie who has no ‘axe to grind,”’ and is therefore of 
value, 
SIERRA LEONE. 
HE major portion of this work is 
7 devoted to a description of the 
native rising in the Sierra Leone Pro- 
tectorate in 1898. Many examples are 
given of the hideous tortures with which 
the natives murdered those natives and 
European women and children who fell 
into their hands. But only those who 
have heard from actual word of mouth 
of those who had been through the in- 
surrection can fully realise the hellish 
cruelty of the native. These chapters. 
should be read by those who forget or 
do not know of what diabolical acts the 
native is capable. They should be re- 
membered by those who nowadays urge 
= ” 
us to *‘ take the native with us ”’ in our 
reforms. Justice to the native the 
Englishman will always measure out, 
but it will be long before the native can 
be treated as our social, intellectual, or 
moral equal. While we must not for- 
get these terrible traits in the native 
character, we may yet do full justice 
to his many admirable points, and Cap- 
tain Wallis’s tribute to the men of the 
native frontier force who remained loyal 
throughout the rising is nobly deserved. 
It is well, too, that a book of this kind 
should have been written, recording, as 
it does, individual acts of bravery and 
heroic defences under the terrible con- 
ditions of the West African climate. 
The portion of the book that will 
perhaps most interest the general reader 
will be the account of the secret socie- 
ties, ‘‘ the Alligator,’ ‘‘ the Leopard,’” 
Fic, 2 —A Tawarek Noble. 
After a little time he was allowed to wander round 
their camp, and eventually succeeded in obtaining two 
photographs of a group of his hosts. A day or two 
later Mr. Harding King paid a second visit to the 
Tawareks, and good fortune enabled him to photo- 
graph a number of women in their tents; he found 
their hands small and neat, with long tapering fingers, 
their arms ‘‘ the prettiest imaginable,” their wrists 
“beautifully rounded,”’ &c. ; finally, the young Tawarek 
who was outside the tent removed his veil, and our 
traveller was rewarded by being allowed to take the 
photograph of which an excellent reproduction faces 
P- 315. 
In a short appendix Mr. Harding King repeats a 
number of usually accepted statements about the 
Tawarek alphabet, but, naturally, contributes few new 
or startling facts. The Tawareks call their alphabet 
NO. 1781, VOL. 69 | 
(From ‘‘ A Search for the Masked Tawareks.’’) 
and others still, as Captain Wallis 
admits, existing, but yet much cur- 
tailed in their devilish operations. So 
much is here recorded of them that it would appear 
certain that the whole origin, meaning, and ramifi- 
cations of these societies could be unravelled by a 
careful investigator with time and money at his dis- 
posal. ‘‘ Sass stick,’’? the mwavi of British Central 
Africa, is still used in the protectorate, and we welk 
remember the long journey made by us into the bush 
in search of the tree, which we found almost completely 
denuded of bark, showing that it was much in use. 
As the author points out, the subject of native medicine 
is still neglected, and although there are botanical 
gardens at Freetown and Songo, Aburi (Gold Coast) 
and at Lagos, we should be surprised to learn that 
any contribution to this subject ever came out of 
them. 
By C. Braithwaite 
1 ‘The Advance of Our West African Empire.” 
Price 218. 
Wallis. Pp. xv+318. (London: Fisher Unwin, 1503.) 
