Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 24, 1913.djvu/286

 264 Reviews.

Hagiar Kim is connected with the Adonis cult. Among customs, that of stripping the flesh from the bones before burial of the corpse, possibly a method of purification intended to propitiate the ghost, and that of burying articles with the dead, are interesting.

Mr. Bradley admits that his philological theories will not meet with immediate acceptance. He finds an Arabic or Semitic sub- stratum in English to which he assigns words like the ash-Xxtt^ baby, black, chisel, hoof. Jewel, ?nerry, tail, talk, and tall.

Even with some reservations in regard to certain anthropological and philological speculations, the book is fresh and interesting. We know so little of the Minoan period that there is some excuse for a writer who has the courage to desert the beaten track and follow independent lines of enquiry.

W. Crooke.

The Backwaters of the Nile. Studies of Some Child Races of Central Africa. By The Rev. A. L. Kitching. Preface by Peter Giles. T. Fisher Unwin, 191 2. Demy 8vo, pp. xxiv and 295. Map + 57 ill. 12s. 6d. 71. The Great Plateau of Northern Rhodesia. Being Some Impressions of the Tanganyika Plateau. By Cullen Goulds- bury and Hubert Sheane. Intro, by Sir Alfred Sharpe. Edward Arnold, 1911. Demy 8vo, pp. xxiii-f36o. 111. Map. 1 6s. ;;. The term " epoch-making " has never been apphed with more reason to any work than to Mary Kingsley's two great books. Travels in West Africa and West African Studies, It may be boldly stated that all books on African travel can be classified as belonging to the pre-Kingsleyan or post-Kingsleyan period. This distinction does not, however, mean books which have been pub- lished before or after the appearance of her writings, but such as have, or have not, been influenced by her spirit. It is wonderful for how long a period the negro could be misunderstood by the Anglo-Saxon ; and still more so that men who were entirely devoted to the African and did not shrink from sacrificing their lives for his welfare, men of great eminence, were incapable of