16 SEPTEMBER 1916, Page 21

My Siberian Year. By M. A. Czaplicka. (Mills and Boon.

10s. 8d. net.)—Miss Czaplicka has written an interesting account of the Tungus, the aborigines of Arctic Siberia, among whom she spent a year in 1914-15. She lived for some months at Golchiliha, on the Lower Yenisei, well within the Arctic Circle, in order to pursue her studies of this primitive and little-known people. Her notes on their cult— Shamanism or Devil-Worship—aro curious ; some of the Russian peasants migrating to Siberia are, she says, perverts to this form of paganism. It is odd to learn that on the Yenisei " zhentilman " is a term of abuse which might bring the user before a Russian Magistrate on a charge of defamation of character. The only Tungus tribe that has attained fame is the Manchu, which gave China its late dynasty. Like most travellers, Miss Czaplicka formed a very high opinion of the potentialities of Siberia.