Reports of the Cambridge Anthropological Expedition to Torres Straits. (Cambridge
University Press. 21s. net.)--This volume is, in respect of subject, the sixth in the series. The matters with which it deals are sociology, magic, and religion, and the region concerned the Eastern Islands. Folk-tales, genealogies, kinship, customs of courtship and marriage (curious and elaborate to a degree), property, funeral ceremonies, social organisation, trade, quarrels and warfare, are the subdivisions of "Sociology." There is a morality, very narrow, but well defined. Magic, which occupies a considerable part of the folk-tales, has, as might be expected, a large domain. Religion consists mainly of totemism, animism, and omens, with some vague notions of mythical beings; but, says Mr. Haddon, who is one of the chief contributors to the Report, "we did not discover in Torres Straits anything like an All-Father or Supreme Being."
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