lian secures fortune's favor; but onyx is baleful to the wearer at night. Garnets are worn in Bombay and Brazil to ward off the plague and yellow fever. Jasper is antipodistic to melancholy and disease. Sardonyx procures honors, wordly position and rising fame for the wearer.

THE NATIVE RACES OF CENTRAL AUSTRALIA."

A REVIEW BY J. W. MURPHY.

Regarded from an ethnological point of view, this is one of the most satisfactory works recently published. In fact, so thoroughly is it done that it is probably within. bounds to assert that a careful study ot its pages will make us as well acquainted with the natives of Central Australiatheir social and political organization, manners and customs, arts and industries, traditions, myths, rites, and ceremonies as we are with tribes that are nearer home, and with whose institutions we are supposed to be more familiar.

Important as such thorough investigations are at all times, they have, in this case, an added interest for us in so far as they necessitate a radical change in the opinion we have hitherto held of the Australian's position in the scale of progress. Instead of groveling in the lowest depths of savagery, as we have been accustomed to picture him, it is now in order to assign him a place which (except, perhaps, in the development of a few industries) is but little inferior to that occupied by our own Indians. Certainly, in the capacity he has shown for social and political organization he has nothing to fear from a comparison with his savage compeers here or elsewhere; and in everything that relates to his intercourse with his neighbors, and with other tribes, to say nothing of the consideration with which he treats his women and children, and especially the cld and infirm, he is not behind, if, indeed, he is not, mentally and morally, somewhat in advance of the standard by which we assume to measure his progress.

Of course this is but another way of saying that these tribes, like savages everywhere, have the virtues and vices of their condition, and consequently that resemblances more or less striking are to be expected in their customs, institutions, and mode of life generally. This, we need not add, is apparent even to the most casual reader; and yet in spite of the uniformity that is to be found at the base of most of their institutions, there are differences existing, not only between tribes that are far apart, but among those in close

By Baldwin Spencer, M. A., and F. J. Gillen, Special Magistrate and Sub-Protector of the Aborigines, Alice Springs, South Australia. The Macmillan Co., 1899, 8v0, pp. 671.

proximity to each other, so numerous and so pronounced in character as to call for an explanation. Take, for example, the question of descent, and we find that in some of these tribes it is in the paternal, and in others in the maternal, line, and that it is not yet possible to say which of the two methods is the more widely practised" or the more primitive. So, too, in regard to the system of organization known as the totemic, and to some of the obligations and limitations to which it gives rise. Among the Urabunna, for instance, totems govern marriage, and children belong to the mother's totem; while among their next neighborsthe Arunia-totems have nothing to do with marriage, though the tribe, like all central Australians, is divided into two exogamous intermarrying groups; and a child's totem, owing to a belief in what may be termed the theory of reincarnation, "will sometimes be found to be the same as that of the father, sometimes the same as that of the mother, and not infrequently it will be different from that of either parent." Other differences there are in the privi leges and restrictions that belong to this particular system of organization, just as there are in some of the ceremonies connected with the rite of initiation, and in a few of their arts and industries. It is unnecessary, however, to refer to them in detail, as they are one and all believed to be of degree and not of kind, and hence do not indicate a difference in race. On this point our authors hold very decided opinions, for, after telling us, that "this great continent was most probably peopled by men who entered from the the north," they add:

The most striking fact in regard to these at the present day is, that, over the whole continent, so far as is known, we can detect a community of customs and social organizations sufficient to show that all the tribes inhabiting various parts are the offsprings of ancestors who, prior to their migrating in various directions across the continent, and thus giving rise to groups separated to a great extent from oue another by physical barriers, already practiced certain customs and had the germs of organization which has developed along different lines in different localities."

In other words, they hold, and, as we think, justly, that the fact of the existence of a custom, or a form of organi zation, among two or more tribes is a proof of uniformity that cannot be gainsaid by differences that may have supervened in the way such a custom or system is observed or followed.

Among the other questions that are here discussed and have for us a special interest, may be mentioned the fact that, in declaring their belief in the former existence of group marriage among these people, our authors bear out Morgan's theory on this point, though the contrary opinion, as held by McLennan. Curr, and others, has of late, been

much in vogue. We are also told, somewhat to our surprise, that marriage by capture, which has been so frequently described as characteristic of Australian tribes, is the very rarest way in which a Central Australian secures a wife,' thus, or course, doing away with the accoant, once frmiliar to most of us, of a band of savages lying in wait by a waterhole against the coming of the lubras for water, when such of them as were rebuired were seized, "and if they attempted to make any resistance, they were struck down insensible and dragged off." So, too, contrary to what we have hitherto been taught, we are now to learn that the practice of sub-incision could not have been instituted for the purpose of preventing or even checking procreation, for the simple reason that it does nothing of the kind. This is proved by the fact that "every man without exception throughout the central area, in all tribes in which the rite is practiced, is sub-incised. He must be before he is allowed to take a wife, and infringement of this rule would simply mean death to him if found out.”

Infanticide, not sub-incision, is said to be the explanation of the small size of the average family, and it is resorted to "not with any idea at all of regulating the food supply, so far as the adults are concerned, but simply from the point of view that, if the mother is suckling one child, she cannot properly provide food for another, quite apart from the question of carrying two children about." Powerful as this practice must have been in keeping down the population, it was probably not so destructive in its effects as was the belief in sorcery. Among them, for instance (and the same thing will apply to our Indians), there is no such thing as belief in natural death; however old or decrepit a man or woman may be when this takes place, it is at once supposed, that it has been brought about by the magic influence of some enemy, and in the normal condition of the tribe the death of one individual is followed by the murder of some one else, who is supposed to be guilty of having caused the death.

In an appendix we have a table of the bodily measurements of twenty men and ten women, the majority of whom belonged to the Arunta tribe. Limiting ourselves to the men and to what is termed the cephalic index, we find that it ranges 68.8, to the extreme of dolichocephalism, through all the different degrees of mesaticephalism to 80.55, which is just within the limit of sub-brachycephalism. As the group of which this tribe forms one, has been, for long ages locally isolated" and "shut off from contact with other peoples," the variation here noted would seem to show that there is practically no limit to the differences that may be found in the head-form of a people of relatively pure breed, and, consequently, that the cephalic index is of little or no value as an indication of race.

In conclusion, it may not be out of place to call attention to the fact that, rude as is the Australians' code of morals, "their conduct is governed by it, and any known breaches are dealt with both surely and severely."

Especially is this true of the infractions of any regulation governing the intercourse between the sexes. These are punished by death, or in some severe manner, and, curiously enough, the reason assigned for such severity is that the offence. is against the tribe, and "has no relation to the feelings of the individual." In thus transferring the duty of punishment from the individual to the tribe, these people may be said to have reached a level of development not yet attained by some of us who are rated much higher in ths scale of progress.

Generosity, we may add, is one of their leading features, as it is always their custom to give a share of their food, or what they may possess, to their fellows, and particularly to the children and to the aged and infirm, who are unable to provide for themselves. Of course, there were times of scarcity, and possibly they were frequent here, owing to the inhospitable nature of the soil. But when times are favorable the "black fellow," we are told, is lighthearted, lives in the present, and gives no thought as to what the morrow may bring forth.

At night time men, women, and children gather round the common camp-fires, talking and singing their monotonous chants hour after hour, until one after the other they drop out of the circle, going off to their different camps, and then at length all will be quiet, except for the occasional cry of a child who, as not seldom happens, rolls over into the fire and has to be comforted or scolded into quietness. Granted always that his food supply is abundant, it may be said that the life of the Australian native is, for the most part, a pleasant one.

TORTURES AMONG THE ABORIGINES.

That torture was practised among the aborigines, especially at the time of the initiation of their warriors, is well known. Catlin has described the manner in which they inflicted these tortures, and has given a plate in his works which illustrates it. The custom has disappeared from among most of the tribes, but survives among a few, as will be shown from the following clipping from a Spokane (Washington) newspaper.

Yakima Indians on the reservation near Toppenish, Wash., gave a medicine dance this week. Half of the tribe, including Chief White Swan, is civilized. Old customs and dances have long been abolished. Two hundred Indians gathered unknown to the chief and performed the rites. Seven candidates for the place of medicine man underwent severe tests of endurance. Every day the candidates would torture themselves. Fire brands were applied to the bare skin until the flesh dropped from the bones. Gashes were cut on the back and breast. The one who withstood these self-inflicted tortures longest won the position."

THE DELUGE TABLETS.

BY REV. J. N. FRADENBURGH.

The year 1872 is memorable in the history of Oriental discovery. In the autumn of that year, George Smith, assistant in the Assyrian department of the British Museum, whose genius in this line of research has been seldom equalled, and, perhaps, never, excelled, discovered among the thousands of tablets that once belonged to the library of Assurbanipal, King of Assyria, the half of a clay tablet that apparently had been divided into three columns, and in the third column of the front side read: "On the mountain Nizir, the ship stood still. Then I took a dove out, and let her fly. The dove flew hither and thither; but, since there was no resting-place there, she returned back to the ship." He did not find the remainder of this tablet; but succeeded in piecing out from many fragments parts of two others. These completed the text, and furnished several various readings. One of the copies contained the colophen: "The property of Assurbanipal, the king of hosts, the king of the land of Assyria," and also the interesting statement that this account of the Deluge was the eleventh canto of a series of twelve. Here, then, was a great heroic poem, which was afterward found to consist of about three thousand lines and to celebrate the exploits of an old King of Erech.

In 1882, Sir Henry Rawlinson pointed out the fact that has gained wide acceptance, that these twelve cantos symbolize the course of the sun through the heavens during the year of twelve months. This has been worked out with great learning and patience by several Assyriologists, and its application to the sixth, seventh, and eleventh months-and, perhaps, some others as well- may be considered unquestionable. The eleventh canto in three copies is the best preserved of the series, only the beginning being much mutilated.

In 1878, Hormuzd Rassam brought from Mesopotamia a fragment of a tablet; and at a little later date the Museum acquired still another, with the beginning of the story nearly perfect. Paul Haupt, working in the Museum, made further discoveries in 1882. We are indebted to this accomplished scholar for the publication of all the discovered material, the arrangement of the incidents in their order, and probably the most accurate translation. Prof. Jastrow, in his "The Religion of Babylonia and Assyria," presents a masterly analysis of the work, to which I am especially indebted.

The centre of the action in the first tablet of the series is the city of Uruk, or Erech, a walled city in southern Babylonia, known as the place of seven walls. This was the capital of a kingdom which was probably contemporaneous with the earliest