No. 390.) REVIEWS OF RECENT LITERATURE. 517 
the Salish. Their habitat is restricted to two narrow fiords on the 
central portion of the coast of British Columbia. Through long-con- 
tinued contact with tribes of other stocks around them they differ 
from the Southern Salish in both physical appearance and in cus- 
toms and beliefs. 
Dr. Boas refers briefly to the papers hitherto published relating to 
the Bella Coola, and then presents a general description of the mythol- 
ogy of the tribe. “All the collections which have been made here- 
tofore do not bring out clearly the principal characteristic of the 
mythology of the Bella Coola. The tribes of the North Pacific coast 
consider the sun as the most important deity, but at the same time 
they believe in a great many beings of supernatural power. For this 
reason their mythology is very unsystematic. The Bella Coola, on 
the other hand, have developed a peculiar mythology, in which a 
number of supernatural beings have been coordinated.” They be- 
lieve that there are five worlds, of which this earth is the middle one; 
above are two heavens, and beneath are two underworlds. The 
supreme deity is a woman, who lives in the upper heaven and inter- 
feres but little with the affairs of men. In the center of the lower 
heaven stands a house, in which reside the Sun and all the other 
deities. Our earth is an island floating in the ocean. 
“ The underworld is inhabited by the ghosts, who are at liberty to 
return to heaven, whence they may be sent down again to our earth. 
The ghosts who die a second death sink to the lowest world, from 
which there is no return.” Following the description of the deities 
and their abodes is an account of the village communities and their 
traditions ; miscellaneous traditions; and, in conclusion, a sketch is 
offered of the probable lines of development of the mythology of the 
Bella Coola. The tribe is endogamous and divided into village com- 
munities. Six plates accompany the text, depicting the masks used 
to represent the mythical personages. This memoir must prove 
to be of value to the general student of ethnology as well as to the 
specialist. FRANK RUSSELL. 
Anthropological Notes. — Edouard de Sainville has published a 
brief account of his journey to the mouth of the Mackenzie River, 
and of his explorations about the Delta, in the Buletin of the Société 
de Géographie de Paris, T. xix, pp. 290-307. The article is accom- 
panied by a map which locates the harbor discovered by the Count, 
and which corrects errors in the coast line as now represented on our 
charts. As de Sainville became intimately acquainted with the natives 
