Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 15, 1904.djvu/386

 358 Reviews.

special ceremonies, which seem in some cases to have been performed by the clans bearing the names of the animals. Cere- monies were performed to ensure a good crop of fruit, and rain and wind making were not unknown. One of the most interesting as well as the most valuable portions of the book is that on the cult of Kwoiam, a hero who is regarded as an aiigud or totem in some of the islands. He appears to have been a real person, a North Queensland native, whose mother migrated to jNIabuiag. His saga is found in the Folktale section. He is essentially a war- chief, and on the war-path two a?/gud-men with Kwoiam emblems led the two columns into which the warriors were divided. His shrine was a cave in which were baskets of skulls and other objects.

On the island of Yam the heroes were Sigai and Maiau, and in their case the totemic character was more marked. Two totems seem to have been swallowing up the rest, and a unique feature of the cult was the presence of a stone beneath the effigies of the heroes in which the augud's life resided.

The idea of a deity seems to have been unknown to the Western Islanders, and their ideas on the subject of a future life were vague, if, as is very probable, European influence has not led to the details of them being forgotten.

It is perhaps unfortunate that the index is to appear in the last volume. If it is as full as it should be, it may be a trifle unwieldy, and it cannot in any case appear for some time. The convenience of students would have been consulted if indexes, or in default of them elaborate analyses, had been added to each volume. They are the more needed as, in the volume before us, the same subject is treated by more than one of the authors, with the result that the data tend to be scattered. But even if the difficulties attendant on multiple authorship have not been overcome in every case, the work is nevertheless one which does credit to the authors and the publishers alike. The illustrations are excellent, so is the general get-up of the volume. It is not a little curious that England is the only nation with many lower races under her sway who does not think anthropology worthy of official encouragement, ^^l^en we have got so far we shall find that there are no more savages left to study.

N. W. Thomas.