Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 27, 1916.djvu/470

 442 Reviews.

achievements in the way of technological invention, the mother of which is either genius or luck. For instance, I can see no psychological reason why the bow-and-arrow should be among the most primitive of weapons. But if Professor Wundt, desert- ing his methodological principle, is relying on the purely ethno- logical ground that the Pygmies have it, then, at least the matter should have been thrashed out as a strictly chronological question; and in that case the prehistoric evidence as to the relative anti- quity of the bow (but Professor Wundt seems to be quite out of touch with prehistorics) ought to have been carefully considered. For the rest, I shall not attempt to follow Professor Wundt through his manifold speculations concerning the beginnings of totemism. British anthropologists meeting him on this their chosen ground may be trusted to deal with him faithfully. I would only say that they may learn from him that there is a certain advantage in dispensing with the old view of Australian culture as the terminus a quo of social evolution — even if the representation of a still earlier condition be mostly a feat of pure imagination. And here must perforce close this rapid survey of a book which, even when it is least convincing, is always instinct with the suggestiveness of a powerful mind.

R. R. Marett.

The Code of Handsome Lake, the Seneca Prophet, edited by A. C. Parker: BuUeiin, New York State Museum, No. 330, I St November, 191 2.

This prophet of the Seneca tribe was born in 1735 and died in 1815. His teaching is the basis of the "New Religion" of the Six Nations, and is preached or recited at all the annual mid-winter festivals on the various Iroquois reservations m New York and Ontario, where adherents of the faith are to be found. The pamphlet contains much information on tribal rites and beliefs, and a considerable amount of folklore.

Charms. — "Should a person die holding a secret, one may dis- cover it by sleeping on the ground with a handful of the grave dirt beneath his head. Then, if all conditions are perfect, the dead

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