Sir John Lubbock gave one of his very amusing lectures,
on " Savages, and their Manners,"—or Want of Manners, at the Royal Victoria Hall, Waterloo Bridge Road, on Tuesday ; and his stories brought out vividly what we are very apt to forget, bow exactly the marvels which we ourselves now only find in the phonograph or the electrophone, are really contained in such ordinary practices as reading and writing :— "Writing, too, was puzzling to, savages. In South America, on one occasion, a native was sent by a missionary to a friend with a note and four loaves of bread. The native ate one on the way, and was amazed to find that the note discovered his theft. On the next occasion that he was sent with four loaves, he sat. on the note while eating one of them. In North America, writing was considered a charm." And a charm it is, though a charm of which we know the method. That attempt of the South American to prevent the note from giving up its secret by sitting upon it while be ate the loaf, erred only by attributing the intelligence to the charm instead of to the charmer. We all do the same thing to a less extent when we treat any writing or book as absolutely containing, instead of merely shadowing forth, the mind of the author.
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