June 2b. 19 13] 



NATURE 



42/ 



be immediately riveted by the account of the 

 Human Leopard and Alligator Societies (first re- 

 vealed to most Englishmen by the writings of the 

 late Mary Kingsley), the late (1912) activity of 

 which recently drove the local Government to action 

 and provoked an interchange of questions in the 

 imperial Parliament. 



Ethnography in the widest sense, linguistics 

 (especially on the Bantu affinities of Ekoi and on 

 its secret signarv, " Xsibidi "), folklore, native art, 

 even archaeology, all these, with much valuable 

 natural history, go to make up a fascinating 

 volume full of direct and irresistible appeal. The 

 ai hievement is worthy of one who, besides his 

 administrative experience, can claim to have made 



defiance of the protests of Dutch scholars, whose 

 noble efforts, like those of Raffles (pp. 55, 76, 

 238), are freely acknowledged. The work clearlv 

 illustrates the real significance of " Boro Budoor " 

 as a sculptured record of the history of Buddhism, 

 the type being that of the Mahayanistic or northern 

 Church (pp. 222,235), not the Hinayanistic or 

 southern type, as was claimed for his Church 

 by the late royal visitor. W. W. Skeat. 



THE BRILLIANT FIREBALLS OF JUNE 14. 

 /^\N June 14 at 8h. 4m., when the sun was 

 ^-^ shining, and at ioh. om., in the bright moon- 

 light, very large meteors made their appearance. 



Fie. 2.— Reliefs of the Boro Budoor 



history in companionship with the late Boyd 

 Alexander. 



(3) The record of official ineptitude and rapine 

 pictured in Mr. Scheltema's erudite and enlighten- 

 ing "Monumental Java" is almost incredible. 

 Thus (p. 240) Mr. Scheltema, with biting sarcasm : 

 " We are told in legendary lore of statues which 

 flew through the air . . . dissolving into space ; 

 the statues of the Boro Budoor developed that 

 faculty in an astonishing degree ! " The climax 

 was reached in 1897, when the late King of Siam, 

 on his visit, was invited and allowed to remove 

 (p. 244) from that "superb temple, whose soul 

 is the soul of Java," eight cartloads of 

 irreplaceable statuary ! Such vandalism was in 

 NO. 2 2/8, VOL. 91] 



The former gave a startling flash, even in the 

 daylight, and the latter was strikingly brighter 

 than the moon, according to the testimony of 

 several observers. 



Neither of the fireballs passed over any part of 

 England, though witnessed by many persons from 

 the eastern and south-western counties respec- 

 tively. The earlier fireball at 8b. 4m. appeared 

 over the sea off the eastern coast near Harwich 

 and Aldborough, and it had numerous spectators 

 in Kent, Essex, Suffolk, and Norfolk. The other 

 passed above the sea far west of Land's End, 

 and had a long and horizontal flight of 490 miles 

 directed from south-east to north-west from over 

 L'Orient, about sixty miles south-east of Brest 



