Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 14, 1903.djvu/473

 Reviews. 43 1

segmentation from one primitive clan or horde. Moreover, the division of objects by regions, and the division of society by clans are inextricably interlaced and confounded, so that, strictly speaking, objects are classed neither by clans nor by regions, but by clans orientated.

This classification is obviously composite. It has reached a stage of evolution beyond the Australian classification. Whence did it start ? From classification by regions, or by clans ? A long argument follows to prove that it is a development from a classification precisely similar to that of the Australians, and that in its own structure and in the less highly evolved systems of various Sioux tribes we are able to trace the various stages through which it has passed. The authors then return to Australia and show by the evidence of Mr. Howitt that the Wotjoballuk have the beginnings of a similar classification by regions. They contend, further, from the example of other peoples in America, Australia, and Melanesia, that it is a necessary development from the classi- fication by clans. For in assemblies and in camps of the tribe each phratry and each clan must have its definite localisation. Once this is fixed, the evolution of ideas follows its natural course.

The divinatory system of the Chinese is next examined. This system is at the base of the philosophy and religion known as Taoism ; and it governs every detail of life of the immense popu- lation of China, Tibet, Mongolia, Cambodia, and Siam. This, too, is a composite system. One of its most essential principles is the division of space according to the four cardinal points, over each of which an animal presides and gives its name to the region. Properly speaking this animal, real or mythical, is confounded with the region. The blue dragon is the East, the red bird is the South, the white tiger is the West, the black tortoise is the North. Thus each region has not only its animal but its colour. But every cardinal point is divided into two, with a resulting total of eight cardinal points corresponding to the eight winds. The eiijht winds in their turn are in close relations with eight powers, namely, (i) heaven, (2) earth, (3) vapour and clouds, (4) fire and light, (5) thunder, (6) wind and wood, (7) water, and lastly mountains. All beings, all events, all attributes, substances, accidents, are classified under the rubric of these eight powers. To the four regions correspond, moreover, the four seasons. But the Chinese year is more minutely subdivided. It has twenty-four seasons,