178
NOTES AND QUERIES. [ID- s. n. AU. 27, IDM.
throughout Australia to screen from the obser-
vation of women and children ceremonies to which
Englishmen that is some Englishmen are ad-
mitted. In the preliminary proceedings in the rite
of circumcision women sometimes take part, though
never in the actual ceremony. In the case of sub-
incision in the Arunta, Kaitish, Unmatjera, and
other tribes neither women nor children are allowed
anywhere near the ground during the period of its
performance. Messrs. Spencer and Gillen are dis-
posed to believe that this was not always so, and
to hold that, according to a tradition common to
almost all the central tribes, women had once a much
greater share in the performance of ceremonies
than is now allotted them.
In a race in which almost everything is remark- able the influence exercised over the imagination by the belief in the reincarnation of ancestors is perhaps the most remarkable. The belief is not confined to tribes such as the Arunta, Warramunga, Binbinga, Anula, c., amongwhom descentiscounted in the main line, but is no less strongly developed in the Urabunna tribe, " in which descent, both of clan and totem, is strictly maternal." In the case of childbirth it is believed that, independent of all human contact, the child is the direct result of the entrance into the mother of an ancestral spirit individual. Stones in the Arunta country are sup- posed to be " charged with spirit children, who can, by magic, be made to enter the bodies of women, or will do so of their own accord." In the Warra- munga tribe, again, women are careful lest the axe they carry should strike the trunks of certain trees, since the blow might detach minute spirit children which might enter their bodies. Superstitions bearing some resemblance to this were not unknown among the ancients. In the district of Port Darwin there is a tribe, the Laraka, which practises neither circumcision nor subincision, nor even the practice, all but universally observed, of knocking out teeth. Though spared the "terrible rite," the adolescent youth does not even here escape scot free. He is taken to a retired spot and subject to the caprice, which includes starvation and blows, of an aged man, whose special care he is, and who is a species of Nestor to the swarthy Telemachus. When travelling together the aged man and his pupil are safe from any kind of molestation or injury. It is only in the tribes of the interior of Australia that the processes of initiation may be observed. Such customs were at one time, it is held, universally diffused. At the present time the coastal tribes are either extinct or much too civilized or sophisticated to know any- thing about such matters. Little remains to be added to what was previously said as to the over- whelming amount of information that is supplied concerning totems, magic, and the strange con- ditions of so-called consanguinity. There is no reason to be either astonished or greatly shocked at the species of promiscuity involved in the inter- change of " luras," such having long been current among the Polynesians.
In the glossary the term alcheringa, or dream- times, indicative of the period in which lived the mythic ancestors, is the most poetical. A quaint idea, embodied in no other mythology, is what is called the atnitta urima, or the endowment of the intestines with magic sight, by which a man can detect the approach of a kurdaitcha, or feather- footed enemy, or even the infidelity of his wife.
Once more we can but say that a great task has been splendidly accomplished, that the book over-
flows with information of the highest value to the-
anthropologist, and that the illustrations constitute-
a remarkable and a most important feature.
Slingsby and Slingsby Castle. By Arthur St. Clair
Brooke, M.A. (Methuen & Co.) DURING twenty-two years the Rev. Arthur St. Clair Brooke has been rector of the parish church of Slingsby, a small village, one of many "situated along the southern edge of the vale of Pickering, in the North Riding of Yorkshire and the wapen- take of Ryedale." A man of scientific and scholarly tastes, with, it may be supposed, abundance of leisure, a geologist and a botanist, he has accom- plished the laudable task of writing the history of his own pastoral parish. Slingsby, which gives its name to the old Yorkshire family of Slingsby of Scriven, is a small and pleasantly situated village of some 2,570 acres, with a church, rebuilt 1869, containing some ancient remains, including the effigy of a knight, temp. Henry III., supposed to belong to the Wyville family. It boasts also the remains of a castle of no great antiquity or historic interest. A Roman road runs near at hand, and from the upper portions of the district there is a. fine view over the sylvan glades and the stately house (designed by Vanbrugh) of Castle Howard.. From the barrows near have been extracted pre- historic remains, some of them now in the British Museum. Chap, ii., headed 'The Making of Slingsby, and Slingsby in Domesday,' is full of his- torical information and conjecture. Of the lords of Slingsby the Wyvilles occupy a separate chapter. The houses of Mowbray, Hastings, and Cavendish are also dealt with, many interesting documents being quoted. Under the Cavendishes much in- formation is conveyed concerning the celebrated Duke of Newcastle and his still more celebrated Duchess. A painting of the Duke and Duchess, themselves often painted, and their not less often painted family, is among the many excellent illus- trations that grace the book. This is taken from ' The World's Olio : Nature's Pictures painted to the Life,' an interesting frontispiece rarely found in that scarce volume. After these come the Shetfields- and the Howards. What remains of Slingsby Castle seems to occupy the place of an earlier edifice, concerning which we know little. A view of the castle from the north-west forms a frontispiece. Others of the church, the Mowbray oak, and the Wyville monument follow. Mr. Brooke has written a most interesting work, which every Yorkshireman and every antiquary will be glad to possess.
Great Masters. Part XXII. (Heinemann.) TITIAN'S picture called vaguely 'Sacred and Pro- fane Love' opens out the twenty-second part of ' Great Masters.' In this work one of the treasures of the Borghese Gallery, Rome the greatest of Venetian masters first developed his magical gifts, as a colourist. An early work, it is decidedly Giorgionesque in atmosphere. What it is intended to convey, or what should be its real title, remains- unsettled. As good an idea of its magic as modern means of reproduction permit is conveyed, and the warmth and serenity of the original are superbly rendered. Not less rich is the reproduction of the- 'Portrait of a Lady,' by Gerard Terborch, from Mr. George Donaldson's collection. The rich embroidered skirt of white satin, the black robe, and the exquisite lace "chemisette" are marvellously-
