September lo, 1908] 



iVA rURE 



469 



others. As soon as the crown or " cabbage " is affected 

 the tree dies, as in the figure, k bleeding patch is seen 

 just above the level of " podion's," or boy's, head, and 

 there are two other smaller ones higher up. Young trees 

 succumb much sooner than old ones. The remedy recom- 

 mended by Mr. T. Fetch consists in cutting out the 

 diseased areas with a chisel, searing the cavities, and 

 applying hot coal-tar. 



Earwigs are generally supposed to make but very 

 occasional use of their complexly folded wings. In the 

 August issue (vol. iii., No. 2) of the Journal of Economic 

 Biology Mr. W. E. CoUinge records, however, that on 

 many evenings in June and July last a considerable number 

 of these insects was observed on the wing, apparently in 

 the neighbourhood of Berkhampstead. Individuals — all 

 males — ranging in number from seven to eleven flew into 

 a single lighted room on three evenings, thus indicating 

 that manv more must have been on the wing out-of-doors. 



An article treating of the cotton varieties in Egypt is 

 contributed by' Mr. W. L. Balls to the Cairo Scientific 

 Journal (July). The author, discussing the mi.Ked nature 

 of the crop, attributes it not only to the number of varie- 

 ties, but also to the developments arising out of inter- 

 planting and natural crossing. With regard to the origin 

 of the Egyptian cottons, while it is possible to indicate 

 the source of one or two, such as ."^bassi and Yannovitch, 

 the source of most of the varieties is indeterminable. 

 .Also it is noted that unless the original strain is pure, 

 there must be continual breaking away from the type. A 

 scheme for improving the crop is foreshadowed in con- 

 nection with an experiment station that is being founded 

 by the Khedivial Agricultural Society. The plan consists 

 in obtaining pure varieties by selection or crossing, and 

 the maintenance of such pure varieties by special pre- 

 cautions. 



The current number of the Kew Bulletin (No. 7) opens 

 with a short account, communicated by Mr. G. Massee, of 

 the fungus Naemospora crocca, that causes " die-back " 

 of peach shoots. The genus falls in the group of " fungi 

 imporfecti," as only the conidial reproductive stage is 

 known. Conidial infection is limited to shoots of the 

 year's growth. Mr. A. L. Simmons, adding to the list 

 of Lepidoptera taken in the gardens, records the discovery 

 of pupae of the spurge hawk-moth and the capture of a 

 swallow-tail butterfly. There are also published analyses 

 of the tuberous roots of the new Ecanda rubber plant 

 Raphionncme utilis, and an article on the cultivation of 

 the d,-jto-palm in Mesopotamia. 



Mr. p. S. Sparkman, an Englishman settled in San 

 Diego County, California, devoted his life to the study of 

 the Luiseno tribe of Indians, among whom he lived. 

 Before his murder in May, 1907, he had completed a 

 dictionary of the native dialect and an account of the 

 culture of the tribe, the latter being now issued as a 

 part of vol. viii. of the University of California memoirs 

 on archaeology and ethnology. The culture of the tribe 

 presents no features of special interest, that of the neigh- 

 bouring and allied tribes having been already illustrated in 

 other issues of the same series. Their food largely consists 

 of various kinds of acorns, for the crushing of which a 

 stone mortar is required. This is formed by chipping in 

 a rock a slight cavity, round which a basin-shaped basket 

 is fixed with pitch to prevent the contents from flying out 

 when struck by the pestle. With constant use this cavity 

 becomes deeper and deeper, until the basket, being no 

 longer necessary, is removed. The tribe supplies an e,\- 



NO. 2028, VOL. 78] 



cellent example of that curious institution, the Couvade. 

 The father for some time after the birth of a child is 

 obliged to take as much care of himself as the mother 

 does. He must not take cold, lest the health of the infant 

 might be endangered ; he cannot drink cold water ia 

 winter ; he must eat the same diet as that prescribed for 

 the baby. If the child dies, its mother attributes her loss 

 to his neglect of these precautions. We have also a full 

 account of the initiation rites, and the writer has been 

 lucky enough to procure a full record of the exhortation 

 addressed by the person in charge of the rite, who care- 

 fully explains, with appropriate warnings, the rules of 

 life and etiquette which the boys and girls are expected 

 to obey. Morals, in fact, merely mean the observance of 

 the long-established customs of the tribe, and do not 

 include those higher rules of conduct which the codes of 

 more advanced societies prescribe. 



Throughout Africa are played games, usually between 

 two players, which consist of transferring counters from- 

 one hole to another ; formerly these have been classed by 

 ethnologists under the Nubian name of mangala, man- 

 kalah, &c., but Captain R. Avelot (Bull. Soc. d'Anth., 

 Paris, 1908, p. g) distinguishes three types, for which he 

 adopts the names of tshila for the games of skill, tab 

 for games of the backgammon group, and ouri (uri) for 

 games of mathematical combinations. The author men- 

 tions the distribution of the three types, and gives a map- 

 of the spread of hole games, more particularly of uri, as 

 well as a list of the native names for these games. He 

 concludes that uri may be considered as absolutely 

 African, which appears to have arisen among a Hamitic 

 tribe in the neighbourhood of Ethiopia, whence it has been 

 spread (a) by the Fulah across south Sahara to Sene- 

 gambia, and thence to Guinea and Gabon ; (b) by Nubian 

 slave-merchants, who took it down the Nile ; (c) by the 

 Jaggas, who, skirting the south of the equatorial forests, 

 carried it to Angola ; (d) by a Negro-Hamitic people it 

 proceeded south as far as Manica. The hole games have 

 nothing to do with cup-markings. Although the author 

 in this and his earlier paper (Bnll., 1906, p. 267) gives 

 numerous references, he has overloo'Ked S. Culin's paper, 

 " Mancala, the National Game of Africa," Report U.S. 

 Nat. Mus. for 1894 (1896), p. 597, and Flinders Petrie's 

 remarks in "Egyptian Tales," 2nd series, 1895, p. 136. 



The lake dwellers of Lower Dahomey, who have been 

 studied by Major-Surgeon Gaillard (V Anthropologic, xviii., 

 p. 99), do not present many analogies with the inhabitants 

 of aquatic pile-dwellings of Malaysia and New Guinea. 

 In some cases the village in the water is opposite one of 

 the same name on the land, and there is evidence in favour 

 of the view that the natives were driven to build on the 

 Like to escape the depredations of the Dahomians, who 

 could not cross the water on account of the fetish customs. 

 The lake-dwellers are not attached to their condition, and 

 during the existing state of political security have re- 

 turned to the ordinary agriculture of the district, though- 

 still remaining fisher-folk, and a great number have built 

 ordinary land houses, but these are accused by those who- 

 remain faithful to the pile-dwellings of being incapable 

 fishermen. Fishing grounds are free to all. The miser- 

 able condition of their houses is due to a lack of fore- 

 thought and a passion for tobacco and alcohol. 



The Corps of Mining Engineers of Peru has issued a 

 Boletin (No. 57), by Mr. E. A. L. de Romafia. on the tin 

 deposits of Bolivia and prospecting for tin in Peru. 

 Covering 100 pages, with twenty-eight illustrations, it is 



