Page:Folklore1919.djvu/696

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330
Reviews.

supernatural beings who interest themselves in the initiation ceremonies.

The distribution of the teleteglyphs generally coincides with that of the taphoglyphs; but judging by the map it extends much nearer to the coast. Whether this is because of the disappearance from various causes of the taphoglyphs Mr. Etheridge does not say. He is of opinion that the custom of making teleteglyphs was centred within the boundaries of the group of tribes of which the Wiradjuri and Kamilaroi were the centre, that it was "apparently filtering through to contiguous districts more or less open to the influence of those nations," and that nearly half of the sites are within the area ascribed by Howitt to the four-matrimonial-sub-class organization. What may be the meaning of this combination of elements of culture is another question; but it may turn out to be important in further investigation.

The attention of students interested not merely in the problems of Australian anthropology, but in early culture generally, should be directed to this work, the product of much careful research and illustrated with so many splendid illustrations. In years to come it will remain as the only record of these efforts of native art, beyond the few specimens preserved in museums, of which the best collection is happily in the Australian Museum under Mr. Etheridge’s own care.

Das Weib im altindischen Epos: ein Beitrag zur indischen und zur vergleichenden Kulturgeschichte. von Johann Jacob Meyer. Wilhelm Heims. Leipzig, 1915. M. 15.

This large work of 450 quarto pages aims at collecting under various headings all that is said or implied in the Indian epics about women. The sections are: The Girl, Limits and Methods of Marriage, Wedding Ceremonies, Married Life, the Mother, Sexual Relations (in some detail), Chastity, Courtezans, Love, the Wife, the Physiology of Generation, Child-birth, the Housewife, the Widow, Woman in Misfortune, the Ideal Woman,