The vocabularies of the present notice are due to Dr. W. M. Strong. They were collected at Panakrusima (Earle Island) in the east-centralpart of the Calyados Chain, about 48 miles south-east of Panaieti(Deboyne Island) and at Panatinani (Joannet Island), about 18 milesto the east, close to North-West Tagula (Sud-Est Island).

THE vessels used by the peoples of the Pacific in their migrations and colonisations are of primary importance in Oceanic ethnology. They have been described by various writers, but only partially, and generally from the technological side. Now, in an interesting Bulletin of the Dominion Museum of New Zealand,1 Mr. Elsdon Best has collected all that is known or can be learned from native sources about Maori canoes. Every aspect of the subject is discussed and fully illustrated by copies of early prints or modern photographs.

A Papuan Dictionary.—Wörterbuch der Kâte-Sprache gesprochen in Neuguinea. Dictionary of the Kàte-Language as spoken in New Guinea. Von Christian Keysser. Berlin, 1923. Verlag von Dietrich Reimer (Ernst Vohsen), A.-G. Hamburg: C. Boysen. (Beihefte zur Zeitschrift für Eingeborenen Sprachen. Siebentes Heft.) - Volume 4 Issue 1

THE very scant record of Melanesian mythology has been considerably augmented by the publication of myths and stories collected by the Rev. A. Kleintitschen of the Sacred Heart Mission from the natives of Paparatava, inland from Herbertshöhe in the Gazelle Peninsula of New Britain. With the similar collection made by Father Meier from the coastal people, the stories illustrate the beliefs of an important section of the Melanesian people.Mythen und Erzählungen eines Melanesierstammes aus Paparatava, Neupommern, Südsee: Gesammelt und versehen mit Einleitungen und Erklärungen.Von P. August Kleintitschen. (Anthropos Ethnologische Bibliothek: Internationale Sammlung Ethnologischer Monographien, Band 2, Heft 4.) Pp. 509. (Mödling bei Wien: Verlag der Administration des Anthropos, St. Gabriel, 1924.) 15 gold marks.

SOME important studies of two Polynesian peoples are published by the Bayard Dominick Expedition in the Memoirs of the Bishop Museum at Honolulu.1 In vol. ix. Mr. H. D. Skinner gives a comprehensive account of the almost extinct Morioris of Chatham Islands. Of these only two living representatives were found in a population of foreigners, most of whom were Maoris. One other was living in New Zealand. In vol. viii. Mr. R. Linton discusses the material culture of the Marquesans, and in vol. ix. Mr. L. D. Sullivan their somatology. These are also a dying and diseased race and Mr. Sullivan doubts whether there is a wholly sound physical specimen alive, while Mr. Linton considers that their language and portions of their culture may be preserved for several generations by their numerous half-Chinese or half-European descendants, who are more resistant to disease than the pure-blooded natives.

THE authorities of the Dominion Museum at Wellington, New Zealand, have published a series of monographs on the ancient institutions, mental and spiritual concepts, and ceremonies of the pre-European Maori, with an examination of the esoteric meaning underlying innumerable personifications and mytho-poetic allegories. They are written by Mr. Elsdon Best, who is regarded as the greatest living authority on Maori history and folklore.

IN the National Museum of Victoria at Melbourne a special gallery has been devoted to a fairly representative collection of objects connected with the daily life of the Australian aborigines. A very instructive and well illustrated account of the exhibits has been written by Sir Baldwin Spencer, and this gives, in a wonderfully succinct form, what are practically short comparative essays on the arts and crafts of the natives.

IN his Report on the Territorv of Papua for the year ending June, 1919, the Lieutenant-Governor, the Hon. J. H. P. Murray, shows that, as in so many other parts of the world, the scarcity and irregularity of shipping facilities are acting prejudicially to the progress and development of the Territory. This is especially indicated by the decrease of exports upon which the prosperity of the country mainly depends. Rubber alone showed an increase, but the quantity is as yet small (207 tons as compared with 144 tons in 1918). Another important vegetable export, copra, has decreased (2598 tons as compared with 3189 tons in 1918). Native-made copra forms a large proportion of the output, and, owing to variation in the production, this does not increase steadily like the plantation product. The production of sisal hemp has also decreased, whilst the value of all the crops has been much reduced by a fall in prices. The export of the chief minerals, gold and copper, has decreased, but there are good prospects of development and increased production at Port Moresby and Misima Island. The value of the gold was 26,766l. in 1919 as against 33,512l. in 1918. Copper was worth 11,537l. in 1918, but only 1653l. in 1919.

THE sixth volume of the Memoirs of the Bishop Museum at Honolulu1 continues the publication of Judge Fornander's literary collections. The first portion contains two important papers by native writers on the religion of the Hawaians. One, by Kamakau, contributed to the collection by Dr. W. D. Alexander, describes certain ancient ceremonies of which the principal are those connected with the prenatal development of the royal child, the direction of services to the gods, the catching of the fish ofelu, and the feasts of the year. There are shorter notes on heathen prayers and the ceremonial erection of the heiau or god's house. A much longer paper by the Hawaian author, S. N. Haleole, deals with the functions of the Kahuna, “the priesthood called the Order of Sorcery.” The word in varying forms (tahuna, tahunga, tauna) is used throughout the Eastern Pacific to denote persons possessed of varying degrees of wisdom from priesthood to sorcery, but in the west, in Tonga and Samoa, has become entirely secularised, and there (in the form tufunga) means nothing more than a carpenter or skilled workman.

IN an interesting book on his experiences as a magistrate in the western division of Papua, Mr. Wilfred Beaver has given a vivid description of life in a practically unknown portion of that little-known land.

IN the Records of the South Australian Museum for August, 1919,l Mr. E. R. Waite completes a description of the Toas or direction signs of the Australian aborigines which was partly translated and arranged from the manuscript of the late Rev. J. G. Reuther, of the Lutheran Mission, by the late Sir Edward Stirling.

THE Solomon Islands form the racial centre of the Oceanic world. On the south are the Melanesians, on the east the Polynesians, whilst westward the Melanesians blend with the Papuans, and northward the Micronesians link both Melanesians and Polynesians to the Indonesians. In the Solomons, also, are found remnants of a more primitive people who occupied the islands before their present inhabitants came from the west. But, although thus important, the peoples of this region have received comparatively little attention from anthropologists, and there are only partial records of customs, languages, and folk-lore. In this dictionary Dr. Ivens has put together his collections of words in representative languages of one part of the Solomon group. These are the Sa‘a, at the southern end of the large island of Malaita, and the Ulawa (Con-trariété Island of the charts), about thirty miles to the east of Sa‘a. Both languages come from a common stock, and the author has found it quite practicable to adjust grammar and dictionary to the same method of arrangement. The language fairly represents the speech of the island of Malaita, and, with the Tolo and Lau spoken to the north, forms a transition between the languages of San Cristoval and those of Guadalcanar and Florida. Dictionary and Grammar of the Language of Sa'a and Ulawa, Solomon Islands. By Walter G. Ivens. With appendices. Pp. vii + 249 + 11 plates. (Washington: Carnegie Institution of Washington, 1918.)