Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 15, 1904.djvu/506

 474 Reviews.

careful, patient, and sympathetic, yet critical, observation. Its special value is that it supplies in a great measure the links which unite the beliefs and practices of the Arunta with those described by Mr. Walter Roth in his Ethnological Studies of the inhabitants of North-west-central Queensland, and in the valuable series of Bulletins by the same observer, now being issued by the Queens- land Government. Where we have so much given us it is only human to wish for more. Again and again the reflection presents itself in reading that the one thing wanted to elucidate many points is an account of the languages spoken by these tribes, an etymo- logical interpretation of the terms they use. The spelling of many of the words has been varied from that of the earlier volume. The tribe there referred to as the Waagai is here called Worgaia ; the Chingali are here called Tjingilli. Speaking generally, the sound represented in the earlier volume by ch or tch is here represented by tj. Some of these changes seem somewhat arbitrary, though others may have been caused by more accurate hearing, or by reporting different dialects.

The index both in this and the preceding volume might with advantage have been fuller. Many words are not to be found at all. The word Atjilpa (wild cat, the name of one of the totems of the Arunta tribe, called in the earlier volume Achilpa), for example, does not occur in the index to either volume. Speak- ing of this, let me note a small slip. The Atjilpa is stated on p. 768 not to be eaten by the Arunta, though eaten by other tribes. This is true in general terms. But a reference to pp. 468, 472 of the Central T7-ibes shows that the restriction against eating it does not apply to the old men and women.

As in the earlier work, the tables, maps, plates, and figures are in the main excellent, though some of the photographic details are not very clear. This is partly caused by the small size of some of the views.

E. Sidney Hartland.