Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 28, 1917.djvu/143

 Reviews. 1 1 1

Dr. Dalziels book provides a useful glossary of plants in Hausaland. It contains little in the way of folklore, except the folk names of many plants which may be useful for comparison with those of other countries.

W. Crooke.

Earliest Man. By F. W. H. Migcod. London : Kegan Paul, Trench, Triibner cK: Co., Limited. 19 16.

This book, intended to suggest a scheme of the evolution of humanity, has been written mostly in the Bush of the Cape Colony, where the author's knowledge of animal life has been used to assist the enquiry. The writer admits " that in dealing with such a subject as this it must be remembered that nearly all is conjecture. The actual facts with which to pin down one's line of argument as it is pursued, are few and far between." This being freely admitted, some of his suggestions are interesting. The impulse for man's ascent in culture is ascribed principally to geological changes which enforced movement. Man first used implements in connexion with food, as, for instance, to break a nut ; or he saw the value of a stone when he struck against one with his bare hands in digging roots. Cutting implements were suggested by the difficulty of eating the skin of an animal, in order to make the first incision to enable it to be torn off. Cooking came when he found a half burnt animal after a forest fire. Religion was primarily based on fear, and the multitude of deities was the result of variety of environment. The book would have been of greater value if it had been provided with references.

Hawaiian Legends of Volcanoes (Mythology). Collected and translated from the Hawaiian by W. D. Westervelt. Boston, Mass., U.S.A. : Ellis Press ; London : Constable & Co. 1 916.

The Hawaiian islands form one of the most important regions of volcanic action in the world. In part, the islands are moun-