August 25. 1910] 



NATURE 



251 



connected with traps ; many of these are described by the 

 author. 



In this favoured wooded region berries are abundant, and 

 there are numerous land mammals and birds. The prin- 

 cipal method of hunting the former is by means of traps; 

 bow and arrow and spear are not used extensively for this 

 purpose. Birds are generally snared or shot with arrows. 



"~Tts*r-^ 



-Kwakiutl Mask representing Whale and Thunder- Bird. Lsiigt 



The peculiar socio-religious beliefs and practices of the 

 Kwakiutl, together with their skill in working wood, have 

 led to the decoration of the majority of their domestic tools 

 and appliances with human and animal forms and motives. 

 House posts are often decorated with human and animal 

 forms, and human efligies are frequently carved; but their 

 fancy runs riot in the masks which are employed on 

 ceremonial occasions; these often have movable jaws, and 

 are well carved and brilliantly painted ; numerous plain 

 and coloured illustrations of these are given, one of which 

 is shown in Fig. 2. 



Prof. Boas has " spared no trouble to collect descriptions 

 of customs and beliefs in the language of the Indian, 

 because in these the points that seem important to him are 

 emphasised, and the almost unavoidable distortion contained 

 in the descriptions given by the casual visitor and student 

 is eliminated." He goes on to say he has for many years 

 advocated a more extended application of this method in 

 our studies of the American aborigines. Other field 

 workers might with advantage adopt this suggestion, whicli 

 has, however, been more or less systematically employed b\ 

 previous investigators. In this particular instance, Prol 

 Boas .has given. a presentation of the culture as it appear-- 

 to the Indian himself. These accounts by the Indians of 

 their technical processes afford very interesting reading 

 from various points of view, and it was a happy idea to 

 publish them in full, but, as so many Kwakiutl texts have 

 alreadv been published, it seems hardly worth while .to have 

 gone to the expense of printing so many of the native texts 

 in full in addition to the translations. 



Dr. W. Bogoras gives us forty-.seven Chukchee myths 

 and tales, ten incantations, and several songs, proverbs, 

 riddles, &c., the native text being given in many instances. 

 The pronunciation of the women differs from that of the 

 men ; they generally use s instead of c and r, and si 

 instead of rfc and ch ; also contracted forms of words are 

 never used by them. They are not unable to pronounce 

 these letters, and in talcs, when quoting a man's words, 

 they use the male pronuciation ; but in ordinary conversa- 

 tion the male pronunciation is considered unbecoming in a 

 woman. The tales give a valuable insight into native life 

 and thought, and, on the whole, appear to be very similar 

 to those current among the tribes living on the north-west 

 coast of America, but no comparisons are made or general 

 conclusions drawn in the present memoir. 



Of great interest and value is the first part of Dr. W. 

 Jochelson's monograph on the Yukaghirs, a tribe now on 

 the verge of complete physical and ethnic extinction. The 

 whole area between the rivers Lena and Kolyma, and 

 between the .Arctic Sea and the Verkhoyansk Range, may 

 be considered as the ancient boundary of the Yukaghir 

 tribe. Probablv Finnish tribes were formerly the neigh- 

 bours of the Yukaghir west of the Lena, as the '^■akut and 



Tungus appenr to have come there in comparatively recent 



times, but the original home of the Samoyed tribes was 



evidently in the Sayan Mountains, whence they were driven 



northwards by the Turko-Tatar peoples ; in their new abode 



they had to wage long wars with the Finnish tribes. 



Chukchee formerly inhabited the tundra between the 



mouths of the .Vlaseya and Kolyma rivers ; when the 



Russians came they moved east, and 



only about sixty years ago one division 



crossed the Kolyma and spread west as 



far as the Yerchen (long. 150° E.). 



Now the Yukaghir are confined to the 



no.ih and north-west of their ancient 



area. 



The term Yukaghir is probably of 

 Tungus origin ; the people call them- 

 selves Odul, which means "strong," 

 " powerful." A sutBciently full account 

 1 is given of the physical characters of 

 1 the people, accompanied by numerous 

 e.xcellent photographs of types. There 

 I ■ is an admirable account of their physio- 

 ' logical characteristics, and theif 

 nervous diseases are treated in detail, 

 the description of arctic hysteria being 

 the best we have seen. Two principal 

 forms of arctic hysteria may , be , dis- 

 tinguished ; one has little to dis- 

 tinguish it from fits of hysteria in- civilised countries. 

 The fits occur mostly in grown-up girls or young 

 women, while in the young males they are prin- 

 cio.allv due to the influence of religious imagination ; they 

 are observed in the nervously strained youths who are 

 i'Tclined to become shamans. i'he characteristic feature of 

 this type is that the patient continues to sing a long time. 



f the Yukaghir Tribe 



enunciating in the song the wishes of the spirit that 

 tortures him or her. The other form is more strange and 

 complicated, the first symptom being extreme impression- 

 ableness and a feeling of fright or timidity. At the least 

 knock, shout, or unexpected noise, the patient shudders or 

 falls backward, and the fright usually evokes the ^ most 

 obscene words or phrases. Another phase is akin to 



NO. 2 I 30, VOL. 84] 



