July 28, 1910] 



NATURE 



107 



jiiinimum iioo c.c' to enable anything like a man to 

 compass the degree of thought and reflection neces- 

 sarj' to adroit use of implements and the contriving 

 the death or capture of their prey. 



Dr. Weule goes very fully into the boy and <,'irl 

 initiation ceremonies among the tribes above-men- 

 tioned. He seems to have omitted none of the 

 details of these rites, all of which, whether excessively 

 obscene, prophylactic, or rudely moral, are yet instinct 

 with a certain feeling of natural religion : that is to 

 say, they are performed not for their incidental 

 lubricity but with the intention of making the girls 

 good wives and mothers and the boys vigorous 

 husbands and faithful members of the clan. Still, as 

 regards the young women, native therapeutics^ are 

 •entirely at fault, and the missionaries are quite right 

 in believing and teaching that these " Unyago " cere- 

 monies are in reality detrimental to health and morals. 



having long ago named all the leading features of 

 the landscapes. Dr. Bernhard Struck (the well-known 

 philologist) contributes an article on Masai place- 

 names and on the correct orthography of African 

 words. It is, indeed, a pity that all civilised nation . 

 cannot agree to adopt a uniform phonetic alphabet 

 for such purposes. Of course, the basis for such a 

 system is best found in the Lepsius standard alphabet, 

 with certain slight changes. As Lepsius was a 

 German, one would think that the Germans would 

 agree with us in adopting his system. But no : there 

 are two schools at present in the Fatherland : one 

 that sticks to the old-fashioned German extravagance 

 in consonants — the dscli, tsch, a for e, doubled s's, s 

 for plan — still used by Dr. Weule; and the over- 

 particular new German linguists and geographers who 

 fatigue and dishearten the average student with their 

 meticulousness in spelling, their accents, diacritical 



d from Mitieilitngcn aits den deutschen Schutzgebictcn. 



The elaborate dances and their meanings, the 

 strange dancing masks, the birth, marriage, death, 

 and burial ceremonies are all described in detail, and 

 a good deal of this information is absolutely new. 

 Altogether Dr. Weule has made an important con- 

 tribution to our knowledge of the still primitive Bantu 

 tribes of the Ruvuma country, and incidentally has 

 supplied some charming pictures of this great East 

 African river ; first studied by Livingstone in the vain 

 hope that it might prove to be a water-route to 

 Central Africa. 



Prof. Uhlig's cartographical information on the 

 German end of the Rift Valley is an important addi- 

 tion to our geographical knowledge of this somewhat 

 desolate part of East Africa, a region, however, which 

 IS coming into such importance for the salts, phos- 

 phates, and sodas of its evaporating lakes that the 

 British are building a branch railway to tap its 

 products from the north. The human population is 

 scanty, and consists mamly of Masai ; and the Masai 



le cranial capacity of the NeanHenhal skull w, 

 ich as in the artificial hypertrophy of the labh 



NO. 2126, VOL. 84] 



i about 1500 c 



and elliptical marks, their circumflexes, dots, under- 

 linings, and otjier cabalistic signs. Why cannot all the 

 world agree to confine itself to such a phonetic alpha- 

 bet as that adopted and used by the great German ex- 

 plorer in the service of the British Government — 

 Henry Barth? In the humble opinion of the reviewer 

 Barth's system is about perfect in accuracy and 

 simplicity. It is, of course, founded on the alphabet 

 devised by Lepsius. 



Another important piece of African research is Herr 

 Seiner's journey of exploration in that still little 

 explored country bounded by the L'pper Zambezi on 

 the east, the Kunene River on the north-west, and 

 tlie Kalahari desert on the south, the region separating 

 the Bechuana peoples from the Herero stock (Ama- 

 herero, Ovambo, &c.), and the Herero from the Zam- 

 bezian peoples (Ba-luyi, Basubia, Batonga, &c.). The 

 hydrography of this region is still an unsolved 

 problem. There is, first of all, the isolated basin 

 of Lake Etosa in north-east Damaraland; then come 

 the questions of the Ngami-Botletle-Makari-kari sys- 

 tem, the real destination of the waters of the immense 



