Bari Grammar and Vocabulary. Edited by Captain R. C. R.
Owen. (J. and E. Bumpus.)—It is not likely that many of our readers will have occasion to make use of this book, though there are doubtless a minority with whom all linguistic know- ledge counts for something. An acknowledgment, however, is due to the courage and industry which must have been brought into action before a work of this kind was produced. The fact that young British officers will undertake such work in their leisure time purely out of a desire to make the tasks of civilisation and of government easier, and to increase knowledge, is the best answer to those who think and talk of soldiers as "idlers of the butcher's trade." The Bari, it should be explained, are a tribe of the Soudan between 3° 40' and 5° 45' North latitude,— to the north, to put their position shortly, of the Albert Nyanza Lake. They suffered, Captain Owen tells us, much under Dervish rule; let us hope that the Pax Britannica is bringing them recovery. Let us say in conclusion that the book under review does honour to its author.
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