Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review Volumes 32 and 33.djvu/293

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Reviews. 281

deserves further expert investigation, and it may be hoped that Mr. Hutton's appeal to English anthropologists will not have been made in vain. An expedition organised by one of our Universities would receive cordial assistance from the Local Government of Assam and its officers, and in addition to an ethnographical survey of the tribes many valuable specimens, like those which Mr. Hutton has generously presented to the Pitt-Rivers Museum at Oxford, could be secured.

It is impossible within a limited space to discuss in detail the many interesting questions which arise from this survey, but as the book must be in the hands of every student of Indian ethnography it is unnecessary to say more than that it furnishes an ample, detailed account of a most interesting people. It is well supplied with maps and excellent photographs. The scheme is to give in an introductory chapter an account of the geographical environment, the ethnology, appearance, dress and ornaments, weapons and character of the people. This is followed by an account of the domestic life ; laws and customs ; religion ; folk-lore (including superstitions, traditions, legends, contes, songs) ; an account of the language, and appendixes on special points of interest, such as rain-making, gennas or tabus ; the orientation of the dead and of houses, and a considerable amount of anthropometrical material from measurements taken by Professor Dixon of Harvard and the author. The only criti- cism — and that a trifling one — which I would venture to make, is that it would have been a convenience to students if cross- references had been supplied to the other volumes of this series, indicating how far the beliefs and customs of the Angamis agree with, or differ from, those of the cognate tribes.

Generally speaking, the remarkable fact connected with them is that their character, beliefs and institutions conflict with some of their customs. " All who know the Angami Naga will readily admit his high degree of intelligence, and it has been estimated that his cranial capacity is little less than that of 'the average European." " One of the first characteristics that strikes a visitor is his hospitality, a hospitality which is always ready to entertain a visitor, and which forms a curious contrast to the very canny frugality of his domestic economy." He is