Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 23, 1912.djvu/546

 52 2 Reviews.

The Mafulu Mountain People of British New Guinea. By RoBT. W. Williamson. With Intro, by Dr. A. C. Haddon. Macmillan & Co., 19 12. 8vo, pp. xxiii + 364. Map; 91 pL, 10 figs, in text.

Papua or British New Guinea. By J. H. P. Murray. With Intro, by Sir William MacGregor. T. Fisher Unwin, 19 12. 8vo, pp. 338. Map ; 38 ill.

Mr. Williamson's book on the Mafulu ranks among those valuable ethnological monographs the writers of which, in devoting themselves to the description of a single people, follow the often- quoted modern watchword "an intensive study of a limited area." We welcome this work so much the more, as hardly anything has been published before of the natives it deals with, — one of the tribes inhabiting the mountainous hinterland of the Mekeo district on the eastern side of the Papuan gulf.

In his Introduction Dr. Haddon tells us of the circumstances under which Mr. Williamson planned and carried out his expedi- tion, and the hardships he had to undergo, being unwell during the whole period of his stay in New Guinea owing to climatic and other conditions. We cannot but join in Dr. Haddon's word of congratulation that in spite of these difficulties Mr. Williamson has been able to accomplish so large and thorough a piece of work. We do not know how long the author stayed in the country, and whether he was able to use the native language in his enquiries ; more than once Mr. Williamson himself modestly expresses his regret that he cannot give a more detailed account of some of the subjects. But what we must appreciate is the great care with which he has made his researches as complete as possible, and also his true scientific conscientiousness in pointing out all matters in which any uncertainty might prevail.

It is perhaps the material culture of the Mafulu which has been most systematically and thoroughly studied in the book. But other chapters also offer a large amount of interesting and new information, and on the whole the Mafulu represent a great number of peculiar beliefs and customs. Mr. Williamson's field of research links up with that covered by Dr. Seligmann in his important work The Melanesians of Nezv Guinea, and will in other