Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 21, 1910.djvu/562

 520 Reviews.

Mr. Howitt replied that I had misunderstood him ; but he did not say that Mr. Frazer and Mr. Hartland had also done so, — as they had. Even now I do not think that his statement was lucid, nor am I entirely certain that he did regard the All Father creed as a concomitant of social advance, while the question was superfluously complicated by his belief in "group marriage" among the Dieri and their congeners. The certain fact is that the All Father belief is common, or universal, in South Eastern tribes whether with male or female descent, whether with or without communities of local basis, while the belief is absent, or merely vestigial, in northern and central tribes with male descent and local communities. These are the facts, and they exclude the opinion that, in Australia, the presence or absence of the All Father is a concomitant of social advance or failure to advance. ^

There is no room for a criticism here of Pere Schmidt's opinions about social evolution in Australia. He is inclined to think that, in Australia, descent in the male line is earlier than descent in the female line, and he enters into ethnological theories of race. My reply exists in a book which will probably appear some day. But into these ethnological theories about various races, with various institutions, now combined in Australia, I cannot here enter. I confess to being a sceptic about all ethnological specula- tion whether concerning Pelasgians in Greece, or Papuans and Negritians in Australia. My knowledge does not enable me to estimate the value of linguistic arguments and tests of race ; it is for philologists acquainted with many outlandish tongues to criticise Pere Schmidt's conclusions. He reviews battles long ago, waged in Folk-Lore between Mr. Hartland and myself. To me he seems an impartial umpire, for, though on the whole he sides with me, he allows plenty of " points " to Mr. Hartland. If I were re-writing my book I should find much advantage in Pere Schmidt's verdicts. "Mr. Hartland's piercing eye has discovered many weak places, inaccuracies, and exaggerations in the system of Lang." Being on my side, after all, Pere Schmidt, naturally, gives me the majority of "points," mainly objecting to "the emphasis with which Lang so often insists on the word " father." "

'Pere Schmidt, (p. 131, Note 3), has unluckily credited me with some opinions entirely contrary to what I hold.