506 Notices of Scientific Works. [Oct., 



of this are mentioned from the accounts of various travellers ; in- 

 deed, the number of authorities quoted under each chapter is truly 

 surprising. No fewer than 178 authors and upwards of 200 works 

 have been consulted and are referred to in these pages, the author in 

 every case being cited, and credited with the statement made on his 

 authority. 



The cosmopolitan character of some customs has induced a 

 strong belief in the unity of origin of the races among which such 

 practices prevail; for example, among many races a woman is 

 absolutely forbidden to speak to her son-in-law. Another curious 

 custom is that known in Beam under the name of " La Couvade." 

 It would seem to be a very wide-spread custom for the father, upon 

 the birth of a child, to be put to bed instead of the mother. The 

 ideas among savages respecting the influence of food are equally 

 ludicrous. Thus the Malays give a large price for the flesh of the 

 tiger, not because they like it, but because they believe that the man 

 who eats tiger acquires the sagacity as well as the courage of that 

 animal. For the same reason the New Zealand baby at its baptism 

 is made to swallow pebbles, so that its heart might be hard and 

 incapable of pity. The reflexion of many of these ideas still linger 

 with children and uneducated persons. A little girl was heard to 

 say to her brother, " If you eat so much goose you will be quite 

 silly." To take the portrait of a native is looked upon as most 

 injurious, and the better the portrait the worse for the sitter ; so 

 much life could not be put into the copy except at the expense 

 of the original. Pictures are also considered as efficient charms. 

 Writing is believed to be even more magical than drawing. 



Mungo Park on one occasion profited by this idea ; a Bambarran 

 offered him a supper of rice if he would write him a charm on his 

 writing-board, to protect him from wicked men. The proposal was 

 at once accepted. Park wrote the board full from top to bottom 

 on both sides. The Bambarran, in order to secure the full force of 

 the charm, washed the writing from the board into a calabash with 

 a little water, and having said a few prayers over it, drank the 

 powerful draught ; after which, lest a single word should escape, he 

 licked the board until it was quite dry. 



The science of medicine, indeed, like that of astronomy, and 

 like religion, takes among savages very much the character of 

 witchcraft. Many savages do not believe in disease or natural 

 death, but if a man die, however old, they conclude that he must 

 have been the victim of magic. 



Twins are considered as a bad omen, and in most cases one, in 

 some others both are killed. 



The belief in the attributes of life appertaining to inanimate 

 objects is also very wide-spread. 



A hook that has once caught a big fish is preferred to twenty 



