Sept. 1, 1870] 
flying, swimming, and sprouting up, are used as the signs 
for bird, fish, and plant. 
Mr. Tylor is usually very cautious in concluding that 
any art or custom found among distant peoples has had 
a common origin, or can be used to measure the compara- 
tive antiquity of the migrations of races, Yet, in one 
case, in which he considers that it can be so used, he 
arrives at conclusions which hardly seem warranted by 
the facts. The Madagascans smelt iron, as do also the 
natives of Africa and of the western islands of the Malay 
Archipelago, but the bellows used in Madagascar is the 
peculiar Malay form—an upright bamboo, with piston 
formed of a bunch of feathers, and entirely different 
rom the inflated skin-bellows of Africa. This curious 
fact, taken in conjunction with many others, and with the 
presence of a considerable Malay element in the Malagasi 
language, as well as some physical resemblance between 
the Hovas and Malays, conclusively proves that there 
has been a Malay immigration to Madagascar, and also 
that it took place subsequent to the introduction of the 
art of working iron. So far the facts lead us safely ; 
but Mr. Tylor, if we understand him rightly, goes further 
than this, and holds it to be proved that the art of 
smelting iron was first introduced from Malaisia rather 
than from Africa, and also that the Malay migration to 
Madagascar was a much later event than the Malay 
migration to Poynesia, where the use of iron was un- 
known till introduced by Europeans. Now, for all that 
the facts tell us, iron working may have been known in 
Madagascar before the Malays came, they merely intro- 
ducing the bamboo bellows, which would be especially 
adapted to a country in which bamboos were abun- 
dant, but cattle, deer, and all large animals which 
could furnish suitable skins, em¢ively absext. They 
certainly might have introduced iron-working also, but 
the fact of their introducing a more useful form of 
bellows does not prove it. So, with regard to Polynesia, 
there are two sufficient reasons why iron-working should 
not have been introduced there, even if the Malay 
immigration had been long subsequent to that which 
invaded Madagascar. The only Malay iron-smelters 
are certain tribes of Borneo, Sumatra, and the Malay 
peninsula, while among the Javanese and Coast Malays 
who are the chief navigators, as well as among the whole 
of the Moluccan tribes, the art is entirely unknown. But 
the Malay element in the Polynesian languages is com- 
posed of pure Malay and Javanese words, and there is 
every reason to believe that wandering traders of these 
nations introduced the Malay language into Polynesia. 
Added to this the fact that the volcanic and coralline 
islands of the Pacific contain no iron ore, and we need 
not wonder at iron workers not being found among them, or 
that the tribes who still more recently peopled New Zealand 
should not know how to make use of the iron ore that oc- 
curs there. The evidence of language on the other hand 
would seem to be in favour of the Madagascar migration 
being the Most ancient, because the Malay and Javanese 
words are generally more changed in the Malagasi than in 
the Polynesian languages. Inthe latter, scores of words are 
slightly modified but intelligible Malay, as ua for bua 
(fruit), zka for zkan (fish), while in the former many equally 
common words have been greatly altered, as ravina for 
ron, Jay. (leaf), Zanitra for langét (sky); and the word 
NATURE 
351 
lima or rima (five), which extends almost unchanged over 
the whole of Polynesia, becomes the hardly recognisable 
dimi in Malagasi. The Hovas are undoubtedly much 
nearer the true Malays in both physical and mental cha- 
racteristics, than are the Maories or Tahitians, and this 
would indicate that a larger and more compact body had 
reached Madagascar than Polynesia. This is what we 
might expect, for the chances are so much against a safe 
canoe voyage across the open Indian Ocean, a distance 
of nearly 3,000 miles with scarcely an intervening island, 
that we can hardly suppose it to have occurred more than 
once ; while the numerous islands in every part of the 
Pacific render it much more probable that canoes acci- 
dental'y blown out of their course from the Moluccas or 
New Guinea, might repeatedly reach some islands tenanted 
by the Polynesian race. But a compact body which ulti- 
mately conquered much of the country and established a 
dominant race, would have a greater tendency to preserve 
their language unchanged ; and the fact that so much 
change has taken place is an additional argument for 
the comparative antiquity of the Madagascar immigra- 
tion. The ignorance of making pottery in Polynesia, an 
art which has certainly been known to the Malays and 
Javanese from a very early period, seems at first sight 
opposed to the theory of a late communication ; but this 
fact may, I think, be easily understood when we con- 
sider that the immigranis were most probably traders, and 
of the male sex, and therefore ignorant of an art which 
in their native country is almost entirely practised by 
women. While treating of this subject, Mr. Tylor falls 
into some confusion by speaking of the ‘‘ Malayo-Poly- 
nesian culture,” and “the pure Malayo-Polynesian race,” 
things which can have no existence, if, as I believe, 
Malays and Polynesians are almost as distinct as Malays 
and Africans. 
The geographical distribution of cus!oms, beliefs, and 
myths, furnishes our author with materials for some of his 
most curious and interesting chapters ; but, still less than 
the arts of savage life, do they appear to afford any safe 
ground for conclusions as to the affinities or early migra- 
tions of the races of mankind. We cannot conclude 
without expressing our admiration of Mr. Tylor’s industry 
and research in so little trodden and comparatively un- 
productive a field. He has carefully brought together a 
vast number of interesting phenomena illustrative of the 
mental coi.dition of savage man, but we cannot help feel- 
ing that a satisfactory explanation of them has not yet 
been arrived at, and that we require researches of a very 
different nature before we can form any adequate concep- 
tion of the various causes that have influenced the early 
mental development of the human race. 
A. R. WALLACE 
KARL KOCH ON TREE-CULTIVATION 
Denitrologie: Biume, Straucher und Halbstraucher, welche 
in Mittel- und Nord-Europa im Freien kultivirt 
werden. By Prof. Karl Koch. 8vo. Vol. I. 735 pp., 
without illustrations. (Erlangen: F. Enke, 1869. 
London: Asher and Co.; Williams and Norgate,) 
HE work of Prof. Karl Koch is a valuable addition to 
the literature of applied Botany ; andnodoubtthrough- 
out German-speaking countries it must early become the 
| volume of all others most redolent of Nicotian essence 
