Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 22, 1911.djvu/427

 Reviews. 39 1

drawing of others, including many of the illustrations in the text exhibiting the native patterns of cloths, pottery, and carving, the processes of manufacture, tattooing, and other designs not repro- duced from photographs, and they abundantly testify to her skill. Some of the photographs in the text are good, but most of them are small and lack clearness. Two maps are given of the explorers' route.

E. Sidney Hartland.

Anthropological Report on the Edo-speaking Peoples of Nigeria. Part I. : Law and Custom. Part II. : Linguistics. ByNoRTHCOTE W. Thomas. Harrison & Sons, 1910. 2 vols. 8vo, pp. 163 + 251.

The Edo-speaking peoples inhabit the Central Province of Southern Nigeria, and it is among them that Mr. Thomas began his work as Government anthropologist ; the two volumes before us are the outcome of his first expedition. The first of them deals with law and custom, and the second with folklore and linguistics. My impression is that Mr. Thomas has been obliged to cover more ground than is compatible with thoroughness; the conse- quence of this is that his survey is a most excellent handbook for the local official, but leaves the anthropologist with a thirst for more information. But, as these volumes are published by the Government, there can be no doubt that the practical part of an ethnological survey had to be kept in view by the author, and that he had to reserve much of his material, collected during his travels, for later works. The purpose of these volumes is clearly shown by the way they are indexed; as soon as one tries to find some passage of interest only to the specialist, no reference can be found to it.

Fortunately this is all that can be said against the book, and now I can turn to the more pleasant task of praising it, Mr. Thomas has adopted the excellent method of recording folk-tales by means of the phonograph, and thus giving us an exact account in the natives' own words, appending a verbatim translation.