Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 21, 1910.djvu/579

 Reviews. 537

ethnological information he has collected during nearly fifty years in the West Pacific, but practically the book is a comparison between the natives of a limited area of New Britain and those of Samoa. Dr. Brown was one of the first white men to go to New Britain, and, though some similar information has been pubUshed by Parkinson (especially in Dreissig Jdhre in der Sildsee) and by others, his first-hand account is of great value, as it deals with the time of the first contact of the natives with Europeans. For various and obvious reasons many sections dealing with New Britain lack that thoroughness which modern science requires, but it is not fair to expect expert work to be accomplished by a pioneer missionary. In addition to his own information. Dr. Brown gives some valuable quotations from various missionaries and native teachers in the Bismarck Archipelago, from the Rev. W. E. Bromilow for parallels in south-east New Guinea, and from other correspondents elsewhere. An extremely good idea of savage life can be gained by the reader, and the student of folk- lore will find much to interest him, especially from a comparative point of view, for he has to hand two contrasted stages of evolution, not indeed of the same people, but at all events of people not too remote from each other geographically and culturally. Where there is so much to choose from, it is diffi- cult to make selections, and all that the present writer can do is to recommend the book heartily as interesting, informing, and accurate ; but there is so much more one would like to hear about ! Dr. Codrington's Melanesians still retains the premier place amongst books dealing with the Western Pacific south of Dr. Brown's particular field, and for more precise infor- mation on mainly sociological and religious matters we await the publication of the investigations undertaken by Dr. Rivers. Would that an English student could supplement Dr. Brown's work in New Britain, working by modern methods !

Our gratitude is also due to Dr. Brown for the beauty of his illustrations, and to his publishers for their number. They add to the attractiveness of the book, and contain much valuable ethnographical information.

A. C. Haddon.