Page:The International Journal of Psycho-Analysis II 1921 2.djvu/91

 BOOK REVIEWS 247

‘chief has imposed his totem on the whole tribe’ (‘Totemism in Fiji’, an article published in Jaz, 1908, VII, p. 134 et seq.). Mr. Deane notices that the chief god of one village is a shark, but does not draw the obvious conclusion as to the survival of totemism in the new institution of tribal chieftainship. One is tempted to ask whether if the author had more clearly recognised this he might not have gained further insight into the extremely interesting facts he adduces about the customs of the tambia or whale’s tooth. This object he rightly pronounces to be far more than the medium of exchange or complimentary Present it merely appears at first sight. Its connection with ‘mana’, the veneration paid to it, its close association with the rites of burial and with the belief in immortality—it must be tendered by every Fijian ghost on passing a certain tree in the Pathway of Souls (Sala Ni Yalo)—all would point to its being a ‘symbol’ in a sense that Mr. Deane despite his deliberate choice of the word seems to miss.

The whole book is naturally largely inspired by the author's interest in the development and possible ‘uplift’ of the Fijian character, but he is not altogether convincing when for example he attempts to derive the sense of moral obligation from taboo, partly because he appears to ignore the fundamental meaning of taboo, and to assign the pheno- menon to accident or caprice. His study of Fijian mental characteristics is however for the most part illuminating as well as sympathetic.

A lighter note is struck in the amusing chapter on Etiquette. To wear a shoulder scarf or to use palm leaf as an umbrella is tambu (not done), an offence doubtless equivalent to that of appearing at the Eton and Harrow match in a straw hat. A recent letter to Zhe Times dilating on the enormity of this lapse sets us wondering how far we are after all from the mentality of these simple and punctilious

islanders. C. J. M. Huspacx.

ADVANCED SUGGESTION (NEUROINDUCTION). By Haydn Brown, L.R.C. PS etc. Edin, (Baillitre, Tindall and Cox, London, 1921. Pp. 402. Price 10s. 6d.).

" Egotism is the only word to. describe this book on ‘Advanced Sug- gestion’. The style from beginning: to end is bombastic and self-lauda- tory. It is almost inconceivable that a medical man in writing what is intended to be a scientific work for medical men should make such a remark as the following: “It was ‘not to favour me that a Gold Medalist M.D. was recommended to me as patient by another Gold Medalist M.D.” (p. 16). Self-satisfiedness and desire for notoriety is evident in this passage (p. 357): “I shall be glad to demonstrate before

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