I have thought it right to make these observations, not by way of depreciating this new collection, but to point out what I consider from the student's point of view somewhat grave qualifications of the value of a work it were superfluous to praise in general terms.
As on the former occasion, Mr. Lang contributes an introduction. The opportunity is taken to add a buttress or two to his new fabric of savage religion. He is always interesting. But after repudiating folklore as an interpreter of savage belief, what is the good of turning round and calling it in evidence now? Either it is of value, or it is not. Mr. Lang should take his choice. But he is not free from human weakness: to him folklore is a good witness when on his side, but quite untrustworthy when it is against him.
This admirable work recalls, by the care and minuteness with which the material has been collected and recorded, the monographs published from time to time by the Bureau of Ethnology at Washington. It is an account of certain of the tribes in the territory of South Australia, inhabiting the Macdonnell Ranges and the country both north and south of those mountains. The mountains themselves are situate about half-way as the crow flies between the Great Australian Bight and the Gulf of Carpentaria. The tribes inhabiting this district, itself hardly suitable for the occupation of civilised man, have been more or less isolated for many ages from their nearest neighbours by a vast tract of what is practically desert country. Thus, within the already isolated continent of Australia they present the spectacle of still greater isolation, a small number of tribes of common origin with the rest, cut off from their congeners and left to stagnate, or to develop their common institutions and material civilisation independently. The interest of the book lies in the startling differences disclosed between the beliefs and customs of the peoples
