Feb. 4, 1886J 



NATURE 



325 



(a plural one), of which fifteen altogether are represented 

 in this member of the Bantu family. But "unfortunately 

 I cannot ask any of my friends, ' What is your eighth 

 prefix ? ' I should never be understood if I explained for 

 a hundred years. I have to get at it in some other way. 

 'What is this.'' I ask, holding up a knife. ' Ki-osho,' 

 they reply. 'Just so.' I replied ; ' ki ' is the seventh prefix, 

 and the plural must give the form of the eighth. ' How 

 do you say many knives,' I continue; ' ki-osho is owt' ; 

 what is many?' ' Shingi ' (many), they reply. ' No, but 

 many knives?' 'Shingi' is again repeated. Then I ask, 

 ' See, this is one knife — ki-osho khno (holding up one 

 finger). What is for /wo knives ? ' (holding up two fingers). 

 ' Two fingers,' they reply, looking up very much puzzled. 

 Then in despair I send for another knife, and placing it 



beside the original one, again ply them with a question. 

 This only elicits the word for 'another'; but at length 

 after many disappointments they are induced to say 

 shi-osho shivi {tivo knives), which gives me shi-osho as 

 the plural of ki-osho, and consequently shi is the form 

 of the eighth prefix, and so on" (p. 162). Of course all 

 travellers amongst the lower races are familiar with diffi- 

 culties of this sort. But it is not every traveller who during 

 the off hours of a six months' expedition contrives to 

 collect sufticient linguistic materials to reconstitute the 

 philology of a continent. 



Mr. Johnston, who is also an accomplished artist, has 

 added much to the value of his work by the numerous 

 illustrations with which he has enriched this handsome 

 volume. His skill especially in portraying animal and 



Fig. 4. — Colobiisgu 



vegetable forms is sufficiently attested by the specimens 

 here adduced. He also supplies a copious index, as well 

 as carefully prepared route and linguistic charts, besides 

 a large map brought well up to date of Eastern Equatorial 

 Africa between the parallels of i" N. and 6' S. It remains 

 to be stated that in this notice the somewhat unfamiliar 

 orthographic system of Lepsius, adopted bv the author, 

 has been replaced by the usual and sufficiently accurate 

 method adhered to by Stanley, Thomson, and most other 

 English travellers in Central Africa. To the writer it 

 seems that the plan of combining the English consonantal 

 with the Italian vocalic system adapts itself fairly well to 

 the transHteration of most African (Negro) and especially 

 of the Bantu languages. A. H. Keane 



NOTES 



Lord Roseberv has endowed a new lectureship in the Uni- 

 versity of Edinburgh. The course, which will extend over five 

 years, will consist of thirty lectures on the Philosophy of Natural 

 History. The lectureship has been offered to, and accepted by, 

 Mr. G. J. Romanes, M..\., LL.D., F.R.S. This is the second 

 lectureship which has recently been founded in connection with 

 the Chair of Natural History. The other one is on Comparative 

 Embryology, and is occupied by Mr. G. Brook, F. L. S. 



An important discovery has been made by Dr. O. Tumlirz, 

 of Prague. Hitherto no substance amongst those which exhibit 

 diamagnetic properties has been observed to possess any per- 



