The Northern Tribes of Central Australia. By Baldwin Spencer, M.A.,
and F. J. Gillen. (Macmillan and Co. 21s. net.)—This book ought to have received such notice as we are able to give to it some time ago. We are unwilling to pass over with a few per- functory words the result of so much labour, but the fact is that nothing more is possible. The authors describe the social system of tribes about which no one, we may be sure, knows so much as they do. "Both are regarded as fully initiated members" of what may be called the chief tribe. What they show us is a creation of amazing complexity. It has been sometimes said that the number of words which are found in the Homeric dialect for various relationships of kindred and marriage indicates an advanced stage of civilisation. The argument certainly loses its force when we read what Messrs. Spencer and Gillen have to tell us. The Mara tribe, for instance, has twenty-seven terms for such relationships, besides six others which are used only by women. (A man speaks of his daughter's husband as Gnagun ; a woman calls him Tjamerlunga.) There are separate names for father's mother and mother's mother, for father's sister and mother's sister.. The intricacy of the marriage system, where alliances are lawful and where they are forbidden, is extraordinary. The whole book, though naturally it is not for all readers, is, both for actual contents and for the wide vistas of thought which it seems to open up, of the greatest interest. The authors, who were con- tent to give up a year to studies which must have had a "seamy side," deserve the gratitude of all students of anthropology ; in- deed, of all who feel the force of the maxim, "Nihil humani a me alienum puto." We are glad to give all the currency we can to the authors' expression of gratitude to Mr. David Syme of Melbourne, whose generosity provided for the expenses of the expedition.
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