Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 21, 1910.djvu/578

 536 Reviews.

mispil is not unhappy, but poor Migiul, the prettiest mispil in the isle, looks profoundly melancholy. In another photograph of her sent to me by Dr. Furness pere^ the eminent Shake- spearean scholar, she is much prettier than in the published copy (p. 124). If a mispil bears a child she becomes the individual wife of a member of the club. You may meet matrons of the most unimpeachable virtue marked with the mispil tattoo. Still, it is not a pretty custom. The stone money, — huge circles of perforated stone, — is hardly a medium of exchange, but a circle lost at sea is still at the owner's account at the bank. Shell money is also in circulation. A three-span fei^ of good whiteness and shape, purchases fifty baskets of food, but the owner of the baskets need not carry off the fei; it lies at his account.

In religion we find, atop of the topmost bough, Yalafath, " the ruler of Heaven," "the creator of the world," Lord of the dead; he is kind, but rather unsympathetic. Nevertheless he is addressed in prayers. After a stay with Yalafath, souls seem to return, invisible, to Uap. Yalafath "is the supreme deity and has the general supervision of mankind." There is a polytheism of departmental deities ; Dr. Furness found no sacrifice, and no priests, but there are paid wise men and exorcists. Colours are easily distinguished by the natives, but blue and green pass as lighter shades of black, and all three are rutigidu. Tattooing is on the wane; slaves may not tattoo themselves. Burying is by interment ; various postures are given to the corpse. The living are "delightful people," and the Germans, to their infinite credit, prohibit alcoholic drinks. There is given a pretty full vocabu- lary. Yalafath is rendered " God of Creation," Dr. Furness not having before him the fear of critics. But what he gives as the " Creation Legend " says nothing about what we mean by "creator," and is not of much authority.

A. Lang.

Melanesians and Polynesians. Their Life-histories described and compared. By George Brown. Macmillan, 19 10. 8vo, pp. XV 4- 45 1. 111.

Dr. George Brown has given us in this beautiful volume the