868 Recent Literature. [ September, 
RECENT LITERATURE. 
Prince ROLAND BONAPARTE’S Les HABITANTS DE SURINAME. 
—The contents of this luxurious and costly volume will prove 
the Warrau and the ’Arowak. Though in contact with Europe- 
ans for longer than a century, they have retained many of their 
aboriginal characteristics. No Indian of the wid interior tribes — 
had been brought to the Amsterdam exhibition, and hence these 
were omitted from the description in detail. The coast Indians 
o not count over 800 individuals now; they assimilate with. 
difficulty and tend to disappear under the funest influence of fire- 
water and disease. The chapter following this deals with cus- 
toms, habits and beliefs of the Indians, and entirely rests on per- 
sonal or otherwise trustworthy information. The singular cus- 
tom of the couvade or male childbed is alluded to at length and 
an explanation offered. Heretofore our information upon the 
large class of runaway slaves (“ nègres marrons ”), or descendants 
of such, was very limited, but here new points are presented in 
logical order and profusion. These escaped “ Negroes of the 
bush ” who, for more than a century back in time, settled along 
the large rivers descending from the interior, and exulting in their 
_ newly-gained freedom, often made raids upon the plantations, are 
_ first alluded to in the pages of the “Lettres Edifiantes.” It 
‘there are now about 8000 of them, divided locally 
1 Les Habitants de Suriname. Notes recuillies à P Exposition coloniale @ Amster- 
dam en 1883. Paris, imprimiere de Quentin, 1884. Gr. fol. 227 pp., 2 cartes 72 
