May 18, 1899] 
NATURE 
51 
The party next reached British New Guinea. Our author 
found Port Moresby dreary and dried up. It has often 
been described as picturesque. He tells us the dress of 
the men consists “only of asmall piece of cord round the 
waist.” The dress does consist of a piece of small cord ; 
but a respectable member of the community would be as 
much scandalised to appear in public dressed as described 
‘by Captain Webster as would be that gentleman himself. 
The philosophy of clothes offers in New Guinea a great 
field for the student, but it is not so near the surface as 
Captain Webster thinks. On the way to Samarai they saw 
“numerous villages along the coast, and cocoa-nut 
trees in great profusion were observed high up on the 
mountains, but I was informed (says Captain Webster) 
that the natives were very treacherous and have a bad 
reputation.” 
As a matter of fact they are, according to the British 
New Guinea Reports, under the control of the village 
police all along the coast from Port Moresby to Samarai, 
and are settled communities. At Samarai he found “a 
judge from Queensland presiding there to try the 
numerous small native cases.” It did not occur to 
Captain Webster that the Queensland judge would have 
no jurisdiction in another colony. He visited native 
villages in that district. He describes the weapons of 
the natives as “bows, arrows and spears.” The bow 
and arrow is, however, not used east of Port Moresby 
He visited Kwato, and pays a meed of praise to the 
mission there. He adds: 
“ At night could be heard far away in the forest weird 
sounds from their tom-toms and drums, wailings and 
shouting, which told us that their lewd dances and other 
disgusting orgies were taking place.” 
This is a four de force of the imagination fit for the 
“Inferno” of the Divina Commedia. In sober fact there 
is no man within “tom-tom” range of Kwato that is not 
a church-goer. The great fault one really has to find with 
their dances is their dull, dreary monotony. The dis- 
gusting orgies are not scientific facts. John Knox said 
to his Queen : 
“ And of dancing, madam, I do not utterly damn it.” 
He was right. No wise Government will try to put 
down dancing, especially in a coloured population. Its 
suppression has been attempted more than once in the 
Pacific. In the code of M. Tardy Montravel it was 
enacted : 
“13° Toute danse nocturne est interdite. Les del- 
inquants seront punis d’un emprisonnement de un 4 trois 
“, ” 
jours. 
Of this Paul Cordeil, chief of the Judicial Service of 
New Caledonia, writes : 
“Les codes de M. de Montravel sont toujours restés 
lettre morte.” 
Let legislators and travellers take warning accordingly. 
Dancing is, next to eating, the greatest enjoyment the 
‘Papuan has. The drum is silent only after death or 
disaster. It is only unacquaintance with the drum and 
the dance that connects these with heinous sin. Assign- 
NO. 1542, VOL. 60] 
ations are doubtless made at dances. They would be 
made in any case. It was in church that Petrarch fell 
in love with Laura, and Boccaccio with Fiametta. 
Nothing noteworthy occurred after the party left Kwato 
till they met with the “duk-duk” in the German Islands. 
Captain Webster thinks it was invented in the Duke of 
York group as a form of native police. His view of it is 
far too narrow. Many natives came off to them on the 
coast of New Ireland. ‘They are all ferocious cannibals 
and very treacherous. Many had been to Fiji, to Samoa, 
and Queensland, but they are none the more to be 
trusted.” They landed at New Hanover, assisted at 
some festivities, saw some pretty dances, and obtained 
photographs. Of course these dances were seen by 
Captain Webster, and were decent. Here he “found 
that the natives have a belief that every man, woman, 
and child belong to one or other species of birds, accord- 
ing to the lines of the hands.” He connects this with 
the old palmistry of our forefathers. We recognise it as 
belonging to the totemism that exists or existed from the 
St. Lawrence to the west end of New Guinea, and probably 
much further. But we shall before long hear more on 
this subject from Captain Webster’s distinguished host 
at Ralum. 
The party then proceeded to the Admiralty Group, but 
did not dare to land there. 
The last chapter is a summary of anthropolegy and 
ethnology. It requires to be regarded cautiously before 
it can be used for scientific purposes. 
The collections made were large. In birds it was dis- 
appointing, at least as regards those of the Paradise 
family. The insects turned out better. The specimens 
collected are already to be met with in museums from 
the south of Italy to the north of Germany. Captain 
Webster has therefore the satisfaction of knowing that, 
as a collector, he has made a contribution to the sum of 
human knowledge. 
OUR BOOK 
The Philosophy of Memory, 
D. T. Smith, M.D. Pp. 203. 
Morton and Co., 1899.) 
Dr. D. T. SMITH is an amateur of philosophy in that 
wider sense of the word which includes physics, and his 
speculations, as they are modestly put forward in the 
present volume, range from psychology to sphere- 
formation, and from the distinction of organic and 
inorganic to an adverse criticism of the nebular hypo- 
thesis. The essay which gives its title to the book is an 
attempt, notwithstanding the sterility of the inorganic 
and the reproductive capacity of the organic, to trace 
continuity, and apply analogies, from the one to the 
other, in the form of a physical-vibration theory of 
ideation. Even conscience is an “orderly operation of 
ether vibrations with respect to conduct.” The second 
essay, on emphasis or rhythm, is a further application of 
the wave-theory. The third paper, on “the functions of 
the fluid wedge,” is interesting as suggested by the 
author’s expert physiological studies, and carried out 
in the alien field of hydrostatics. The present writer 
confesses to non-comprehension. The fourth essay 
objects to the nebular hypothesis that the facts of rota- 
tion are against it. “The earth could revolve on its own 
separate axis in the same direction as the sun only by 
SHELF. 
and other Essays. By 
(Louisville, Ky.: J. P. 
