Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 16, 1905.djvu/135

 Reviews. 1 1 3

of much interest to folklorists. The author's experience is great, but he appears to have a very superficial knowledge of the work of anthropologists of the study. Have the natives large secret supplies of radium? (cf. p. 283). The heart of their magic has not been reached by Mr. Nassau, or by any white man.

A. Lang.

ZwEi Jahre unter den Kannibalen der Salomo-Inseln : Reiseerlebnisse und Schilderunge von Land und Leuten. By Carl Ribbe. 352 pp. 86 figures in the text. 14 plates. 10 diagrams and 3 maps. Dresden-Blasewitz, Elbgau-Buchdruckerei, H. Beyer, 1903.

There are very few parts of the world which would better repay thorough anthropological investigation than Melanesia, and one of the most fascinating fields for research in that region is the ethnology of the Solomon Islands. To accomplish this effec- tively not only must sufficient time be given, but preliminary training is necessary, and it is not specially evident that Carl Ribbe, who has published the results of his wandering for two years in that group, had that qualification. He is a good observer, and tells us many interesting facts, but his accounts of social and rehgious institutions lack thoroughness ; for example, like most travellers, he constantly employs the word " devil " without, in every case, mentioning what is implied by that term. Travellers should always note, and print, a native word, despite the fact that the expression " devil " may be used by the native in the English jargon that he speaks to a foreigner. The majority of the figures in the text are from paintings by the author ; they illustrate the text, but actual photographs would have been better. Incidentally, a student can gather from the illustrations something about the distribution of certain designs and ornaments, but this is a subject that needs to be investigated on the spot by one

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