Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 25, 1914.djvu/140

 1 2 8 Reviews.

useful arts, namely those of pottery-making, navigation, and archery, in various localities in Oceania. The second of these is the most important for the general study of ethnology, as, if it can be supported by examples from other parts of the world, it may lead to a revision of our views of the provenance of the populations of several countries, notably S. America, which have long been standing puzzles and have led to much postulating of sunken continents and other land-bridges. The discussion of the passing of archery, which it is suggested (p. 122) went out of fashion owing to the sentimental fondness of the Polynesians for the club and the curiously ceremonial and to our ideas unpractical methods of waging war in those parts of the world, may well be connected with an essay by Rudolf Hoisti (pp. 137 £"/ seq.), in which a con- venient summary is given of superstitious customs, ancient and modern, connected with warfare. The examples are for the most part very well known, and the classical ones show a certain lack of complete familiarity with that department of research. The thesis is, that war has not among savage races acted as a factor for promoting the survival of the fittest, because its intimate connec- tion with magico-religious beliefs has kept it from being a satis- factory trial of the relative strength of the contending parties, the stronger nation or tribe being often in quite provable instances worsted through its own superstitious fears.. This, we think, is to some extent beside the point. It is clear that war has not always meant the survival of the most physically fit nation ; but the history of Rome alone shows clearly how frequently these very superstitions have brought out the superior mental and moral fit- ness of the conquering people. A nation which would not join battle because its sacred chickens would not feed was certainly at a disadvantage as against one which had no such scruples ; but, when it could produce a general who, the secular conditions being favourable, was capable of advancing on the strength of a false report about these same chickens and assuring the/ao: deoriim by letting the originator of the report be slain ; or another who travelled in a closed litter lest any ill-omened sight should stop him ; Rome's destinies were in safe hands so far as military efficiency went.

Of considerable theoretical interest for the study of early ideas