November 23, 1883.] 



SCIENCE. 



695 



from Suinatia, offering,_if some assistance could be 

 forwarded him, to attempt an expedition to Tinior- 

 laut. The Briti.--h association granted the needed 

 funds, and the trip was made. This island must not 

 be confounded with Timor, lying to the south-west. 

 A large collection of crania and culture-objects was 

 made, and a vocabulary of several hundred words 

 compiled. Among their customs described are their 

 methods of dressing the hair, the clothing and orna- 

 mentation of the body, their agriculture, meals, fish- 

 ing, armor, marriage, care of children, mourning, 

 Inheritance, oaths, government, slavery, physical 

 characteristics, intellectual and moral qualities, pas- 

 times, music, and calendars. Commenting on the 

 paper, Prof. Flower stated, that, of the twelve crania, 

 eight were braohycephalic, and of decidedly Malay 

 type; one was dolichocephalic, prognathous, and with 

 large teeth, indicating Papuan or Melanesian aftini- 

 ties; and the other three were more or less interme- 

 diate. Nearly all showed signs of artificial flattening 

 of the occipital region. 



Mr. Keane remarked that Mr. Forbes confirmed 

 the prevalent opinion regarding the extremely com- 

 plex nature of the ethnical relations throughout the 

 whole of Malaysia and Polynesia. In Timor-laut, 

 Papuan, Malayan, and even Polynesian tribes had 

 here become intermingled in diverse proportions; the 

 result being a distinctly mixed race, such as was 

 everywhere in this region often designated by the in- 

 convenient term of ' Alfuro.' Timor-laut, however, 

 seemed to present the peculiarity that the various 

 elements had not here become so completely amal- 

 gamated as in most of the neighboring islands. 

 Hence the remarkable phenomenon of frizzly and 

 lank hair, brown and black complexion, very tall and 

 very short stature, dolichocephalous and brachy- 

 cephalous heads, etc., all still found side by side in 

 the same village community. The resemblance in so 

 many of the crania to those of the brown Polynesian 

 race of Samoa, Tahiti, Hawaii, etc., was very strik- 

 ing; so that Timor-laut must have been one of the 

 last islands occupied by this race in Malaysia during 

 its eastward migration to the remote archipelagoes 

 of the Pacific. — {Journ. anthrop. inst, xiii. 8.) 

 J. W. p. [406 



The Mavia tribe of negroes. — Cape Delgado 

 is on the east coast of Africa, about 11° south. Mr. 

 H. O'Neill, H.M. consul, has made a journey inland 

 from this point into the country of the Mavias, or 

 Mabibas, whose existence was first pointc<l out by 

 Livingstone, and who have baffled the efforts of suc- 

 ceeding travellers to penetrate their country. Mr. 

 Joseph Thomson and Mr. Chauncey Maples both tes- 

 tify to their exclusiveness. A description of one vil- 

 lage will serve for all. A circular belt sixty to eighty 

 feet wide was thickly planted with trees and under- 

 brush. At two or three points a narrow path was left 

 for entrance, and guarded by double or triple gates. 

 The gate is a framework of two strong uprights, deeply 

 embedded in the ground, and strengthened by two 

 horizontal bars about five feet apart. Two other mov- 

 able horizontal bars fit, one end in a hole, the other 

 in a niche in the uprights. A number of smaller up- 



rights have holes burnt through both their ends, by 

 which they are threaded upon the two horizontal bars 

 until the framework is com|)letely closed, when the 

 ends are thrust into the holes and niches, and the 

 whole strengthened by beams placed against it on 

 the inside. The gates are carefully closed at sunset. 

 Forty or fifty huts are built in the space, and goats 

 and poultry take the place of the Irishman's pig in 

 each shanty. This tribe wear immense lip rings or 

 studs, which give to them a hideous profile. They 

 show a great respect for the dead, aud carefully tend 

 the graves of any of their chiefs or head men. On 

 some of these are raised mounds of clay, enclosed 

 with a low ridge. This again had a raised framework 

 upon it, roofed in with thatch, and the corner posts 

 ornamented with small streamers of cloth. Mr. 

 O'Xeill appends a vocabulary of about a hundred 

 words. — {Proc. geogr. soc. Land., July.) j. w. p. 



[407 

 EARLY INSTITUTIONS. 



French and English law. — Some time ago the 

 Institute of France proposed as a subject for com- 

 petitive writing a comparison of the French and 

 English systems of law in their history and develop- 

 ment. An extensive work (5 vols. S°) was forth- 

 with produced by M. Glasson. It was accepted and 

 ' crowned' by the academy. It is entitled Histoirc da 

 droit et des institutions politiquex, civiles, et judici- 

 aires de VAngleterre, compares au droit et aux instilii^ 

 tions de la France, depuis leur origine jiisqiCli nog 

 jours. The book is being reviewed, and is much 

 praised. The student who finds Reeves' History of 

 the English law obsolete and tiresome will be glad 

 to have a substitute for it. The writer takes up dif- 

 ferent subjects, — ' the king,' ' parliament,' ' property,' 

 etc., — and treats them separately. The sequence of 

 events, and their relationship with one another, are 

 by this method lost sight of to a certain extent. The 

 method has its advantages, however; and a subject 

 so comprehensive could hardly be treated, we should 

 think, in any other way. It is quite impossible to 

 bring history, with its innumeralile beginnings and 

 endings, or issues, into one continuous narrative. 

 French history begins with the meetiiig of the Ger- 

 mans and the Romans. French institutions are, to 

 begin with, partly German, partly Roman. English 

 institutions are, however, almost purely German 

 down to the period of the Norman conquest. It is 

 in England, therefore, that we trace the development 

 of German institutions, rather than in France. The 

 monarchy, for example, was in France framed upon 

 the Roman model; while in England the Teutonic 

 model was adhered to. While we have an absolute 

 monarchy in France, we have a very limited mon- 

 archy in England, — a democratic republic, with a 

 monarchical head, so to speak. Feudalism is described 

 as the result of German and Roman influences. It es- 

 tablished itself in France, and was taken from France 

 into England. The English were verging towards 

 feudalism, to be sure. There was a good de.al of feu- 

 dalism in England before the conquest. The custom 

 of commendation was not unknown, but it was not 

 associated with the holding of benefices. The hold- 



