No.401.] REVIEWS OF RECENT LITERATURE. 433 
Notes. — The Smithsonian Institution has issued a reprint, in a 
single pamphlet, of two papers by Professor Otis T. Mason that were 
published in the Smithsonian Reports for 1876 and 1884: * The 
Latimer Collection of Antiquities from Porto Rico in the National 
Museum,” and * The Guesde Collection of Antiquities in Point-à- 
Pitre, Guadeloupe, West Indies.” 
In his preface to the reprint Professor Mason states that con- 
siderable literature has accumulated relating to the Greater and 
Lesser Antilles since the first publication of the papers. The num- 
ber of collars known now amounts to one hundred, the number of 
zemes has been also greatly increased. The Guesde collection is 
easily identified with the Carib work of the continent of South 
America, The preface concludes with a list of publications relating 
to West Indian antiquities which contains thirteen titles. 
In the Proceedings of the Linnean Societies of New South Wales 
Mr. R. Etheridge, curator of the Australian Museum, describes the 
spear becket of New Caledonia. The beckets in the Australian 
Museum are from six to thirteen inches long and are of plaited cord, 
with an “eye” at one end and an “ overhand " knot, or a “ grum- 
met head,” at the other. The cord is a square or flat sinnet made 
from tightly twisted rush or grass, or a less tightly twisted beaten- 
bark string. Labillardiere is quoted as authority for the statement 
that the beckets of New Caledonians were of cocoanut fibre and 
fish skin at the beginning of this century. Twelve beckets are 
figured in the five accompanying plates. 
Mr. Etheridge describes also the “ widow’s cap” worn during the 
period of mourning by Australian women. It is of gypsum plaster, 
two or three inches in thickness, and varying in weight from four to 
fourteen pounds. 
Mr. W. R. Harper gives an account of the exploration of aborigi- - 
nal rock shelters at Port Hacking, Australia. Human skeletons 
and objects made by man were found. Two of the three shelters 
mentioned contained impressions of hands in red and black pigment. 
The Annual Report of the director of the Field Columbian 
Museum for 1898-99 contains a number of valuable plates, a half 
dozen of which are of anthropologic interest. The list of accessions 
to the department of anthropology includes several groups of figures 
illustrating aboriginal industries and customs. 
Dr. Ales Hrdlitka presented before the annual meeting of the 
American Medico-Psychological Association, 1899, the results of his 
