ravine where lies a large block of quartzite, surrounded by some small
rounded stones. The large block represents the full-grown grub; the
small stones stand for the eggs. On reaching the cave the head man of
the totem group begins to sing, while he taps the large block with a
wooden trough, such as is used for scooping the earth out of burrows.
All the other men at the same time tap it with twigs of a particular
gum tree, chanting the while. The burden of their song is an
invitation to the insect to go and lay eggs. Next, the leader takes up
one of the smaller stones, representing an egg, and strikes each man
in the stomach with it, saying, 'You have eaten much food,' after
which he butts at the man's stomach with his forehead.... Ceremonies
of the same sort are performed at ten different places. When the round
has been completed the party returns home. Here, at some distance from
the camp, a long structure of boughs has been got ready; it is
designed to represent the chrysalis from which the full-grown insect
emerges. Into this structure the men, each with the sacred design of
the totem painted in red ochre and pipe clay on his body, enter and
sing of the grub in the various stages of its development. After
chanting thus for a while they shuffle out of the mock chrysalis one
by one, with a gliding motion, singing all the time about the
emergence of the real insect out of the real chrysalis, of which
their own performance is clearly an imitation."
The Emu men have their own ceremonies, equally elaborate and quite as
well adapted to promote the multiplication of emus as those of the
witchetty-grub men to produce an abundance of witchetty grubs. The
earnestness which is thrown into these ceremonies is beyond all
question; and it seems to be clear that each totemic group in turn
takes up its own burden of social responsibility: each has its duty to
the tribe as a whole, and performs it to the best of its ability.
Through their united efforts, as they firmly believe, the various
processes of Nature are maintained in satisfactory activity; the
succulent grub comes forth in due season and in reasonable quantity;
the emu, the kangaroo, the bandicoot, and other useful animals keep up
their numbers and continue to furnish food for the community; the
hakea flower and the manna of the mulga tree grow in normal abundance;
the winds blow; the streams flow; the clouds yield rain and the sun
goes on shining by day and the stars by night, with, on the whole, an
admirable regularity. A more satisfactory system it would really be
difficult to conceive. How absurd, not to say profane, it would be for
any one to suggest that ceremonies which were so abundantly justified
by results might without danger be omitted! Skepticism is indeed very
much out of place in certain stages of human development.
The interesting feature, however, as Mr. Frazer holds, in the
descriptions given by the two Australian writers we have named is the
proof they afford that totemism, instead of being an irrational,
unexplainable aberration of the nascent intellect of man, was really a
scheme for securing the greatest possible multiplicity of benefits for
the savage community. The whole tribe was divided into groups, and
each group undertook to look after some function of Nature and keep it
up to the mark. Here was a notable step in the direction of division
of labor. How it came about that the particular animal or plant which
was the totem of a group became wholly or partially _taboo_ to the
group is not very easily explained; but it seems not impossible that
some sense of tribal duty, gradually developed, kept those who were
credited with providing any particular food element from being
themselves greedy consumers of it. So far as that article was
concerned they may have felt themselves as sustaining somewhat the
character of hosts or entertainers of the tribe, and it may thus have
become the custom that they should either not partake at all of that
special thing, or partake of it only sparingly. If so, we find the
foundations already laid both of politeness and of morality. It is an
interesting question how far the notions which have been described
have died out of modern civilized society. That they are wholly
extinct it would be rash to affirm. There are many traces, indeed, of
the surviving influence of symbolism, and here and there lingering
tendencies toward a belief in magic are easily discoverable. Perhaps
the wisest of us may learn to understand ourselves a little better by
studying the operations of the human mind in its very earliest stages,
before reason had yet shaken itself free from the random suggestions
of sense.
_THE BOSTON PUBLIC LIBRARY AND SCIENCE._
Apropos of the recent notable issue, by the Boston Public Library, of
a comprehensive Bibliography of the Anthropology and Ethnology of
Europe, to accompany Professor Ripley's Races of Europe, the twofold
and diversely opposed interests of a great institution of this sort
are called to mind. On the one hand are its manifold obligations to
the great mass of the public, to the average reader, to the
ubiquitous novel and fiction consumer, to private clubs, and to school
children. A field of activity and value in popular education is
involved, scarcely secondary to that of the public schools, appealing
to the general reader, the taxpayer, and, above all, to the
well-wisher for democratic political institutions and representative
government in the future. In stimulating work of this character in
Boston, in bringing the Public Library into deserved prominence among
the educational institutions of the community, Mr. Herbert Putnam
achieved great and deserved success during his administration, winning
commendation upon all sides.
The second aspect of public library duty is revealed by the recent
undertaking at Boston above mentioned. It concerns the relations of
great libraries to science, to original research, not to the average
reader, but to the specialist. Instead of the purchase of twenty
copies of David Harum, or perhaps of A Bloodthirsty and Self-laudatory
History of the Recent Spanish War, by One who killed fifty men with
his own hand, to meet a sudden demand on the part of readers, the
expenditure of perhaps an equal sum of money for some rare and costly
work in a foreign language, intelligible to but half a hundred men in
the entire city, is involved. Such obligations do not of course rest
upon libraries of secondary size and importance. Their path of duty is
clearly marked out for them in the interests of the public, both on
the score of financial ability and of demand as well. With the leading
libraries of the country the case is different. Our universities are
fast taking rank with the very best in Europe. Specialists in science
and technology, the peers of those abroad, are plentiful on every
hand. Oftentimes their private means are as limited as their
appreciation and ambition are great. Without these rare books--the
tools of their trade--they are powerless. In former days they were
denied the opportunity for research, or else were obliged to spend
months of study in Europe. We have the men and the minds here in
America now; there is every indication that the books and apparatus
are speedily becoming available as well.
This Bibliography of the Boston Public Library is a case in point. A
collection of works relating to the physical history, the origins,
migrations, and languages of the peoples of Europe is indicated upon
its shelves, in all probability, we venture to predict, superior to
any single one existing in Europe. This startling statement is based
upon several considerations familiar to any specialist. Scientific
book materials are of two classes. The first are the expensive and
compendious volumes, generally to be found in great libraries,
although oftentimes the paucity of their scientific collections is
very surprising, especially in all that concerns the newer sciences of
biology, anthropology, and the like. The second order of publications,
often rarer and scientifically more valuable than the first, are the
scattered monographs or pamphlets published in all manner of forms and
by societies, oftentimes ephemeral and of all degrees of eminence.
This second class of materials is generally richly represented in the
collections of the various scientific societies, especially in the
form of reprints presented by the authors. But the great and expensive
tomes are seldom thus presented, and the societies can seldom afford
to purchase them. Thus it comes about that these two classes of raw
materials have to be separately hunted down, being rarely found
together. For example, the library of the Société d'Anthropologie at
Paris, judging by its printed catalogues, while abounding in
scattered monographs and reprints, contains very few of the expensive
volumes. One must seek these, and if they be in English or German,
very likely in vain, in the Bibliothèque Nationale.
The Public Library of the city of Boston has apparently tried an
experiment in this direction, and is certainly to be congratulated
upon the result. To a very rich collection of standard works has been
added, by co-operation with a special investigator, a large part of
the _flotsam_ and _jetsam_ which is of such extreme value to the
student of original sources. The library has set a worthy example of
encouragement to research; it has offered definite proof of the
ability of our American institutions to rival their European
contemporaries. And a peculiarly appropriate rounding-out to the
successful career in the distinctively popular phases of
administration of the institution of the late librarian, Mr. Herbert
Putnam, is afforded in this work, the last at Boston officially,
perhaps, to bear his signature and the stamp of his approval.
_OUR RACE TROUBLES._
The article which we publish in the present number of the Monthly,
under the title of The Race Problem in the United States, is a sequel
to one which appeared in the May number entitled The Negro Question.
Both writers have a special acquaintance with the subject, and are
widely known as active workers for the elevation of the negro
race--Mr. Booker T. Washington, the writer of the second article,
being himself one of its most distinguished representatives. While
both manifest abundant sympathy with the negro, and a deep sense of
the pressing nature of the problems to which the presence of a large
negro element in the population of certain of our States gives rise,
they virtually acknowledge that it is extremely difficult in
discussing the subject to do more than present a few broad general
views. That there is a very bad condition of things in some of our
Southern States no one will dispute. The crimes which have been
committed by white men, in avenging real or supposed crimes committed
by black men, stamp a character of utter savagery on the communities
in which they have occurred, and in which they have remained
unpunished. At the same time there is no doubt that the existence of
so large a negro element in the South constitutes a serious obstacle
to the moral and intellectual as well as to the economic development
of that part of the country, and tends to keep alive a dangerous
condition of public feeling. Our contributor, Dr. Curry, states
significantly that he could give very impressive details on this
point, were it not that it would furnish altogether too unpleasant
reading.
What are we going to do about it? No doubt we have before us an
illustration of the old adage, "The fathers have eaten sour grapes,
and the children's teeth are set on edge." The South had its "peculiar
institution" for some generations, and held to it with extraordinary
tenacity--went to war rather than give it up. Now, by the simple force
of events, the old patriarchal and slaveholding system is broken up,
and there the former slaves and their descendants are--emancipated
citizens who have their rights under the Constitution, and who
therefore have to be reckoned with. They can not be deported against
their will; they have the same right to live in the country that any
white man has.
Manifestly there is but one honorable way of dealing with the blacks,
and that is to treat them with absolute justice. Upon this point we
are in entire agreement with Mr. Booker T. Washington. If a black man
is excluded from the suffrage on account of his ignorance, let the
equally ignorant white man be equally excluded. We have great faith in
the educative effect of justice, and a firm administration of law. It
would at once raise the self-respect of the negro to know that what
was law for the white man was law for him, and _vice versa_; and
self-respect is a sure ground for further advance. In the matter of
education, we hold that education for the colored race should be
almost wholly of a practical kind. We go further, and say that the
education given to white children everywhere might with great
advantage be much more practical than it is. The proper education for
any individual is that which will tend to make him more efficient,
successful, and self-sufficing in the position which he is called to
occupy. This principle, far from implying a stationary condition of
the individual, is precisely the one which provides best for his
advancement. It is the man who is thoroughly competent for the work he
has at any given moment to do who passes beyond that work to something
better. The misery of existing systems of education is that to so
large extent they educate for a hypothetical position beyond that for
which an immediate preparation is necessary. The result is that the
schools unload upon the community year by year a levy of adventurous
youths who at once begin to live by their wits in no very creditable
sense, and who constitute a distinct menace to the stability of
society.
We would therefore urge most earnestly upon all who take an interest
in the education of the colored race to keep in view above all things
the importance and necessity of fitting the negro to take an active
part in the practical industries of the country, and above all in
agriculture. An education directed mainly to this end would do far
more to develop his intelligence than one of a more abstract and
ambitious character and would furnish a far better foundation for
success in life. Far from tying the negro down to manual occupations,
it would prepare the way for his eventual participation in all
occupations. But occupation for occupation, where is there one that
can reasonably be rated higher than the intelligent and successful
cultivation of the soil? If the negro problem can not be solved by
common sense and common honesty it can not be solved at all. Before
giving it up as insoluble we should make full proof of these homely
specifics. We have long been proclaiming that the negro is a man and a
brother; let us therefore treat him as such, and if we find out
anything that is particularly good for his moral and intellectual
improvement, let us try a little of it ourselves. It surely will not
do us any harm.
Scientific Literature.
SPECIAL BOOKS.
_The Lesson of Popular Government_[12] is a fruit of thirty years'
study, by Mr. _Bradford_, of certain peculiarities in the political
workings of our institutions. The book is not for those who consider
it patriotic to shut their eyes to whatever is going wrong, but for
those whose regard for the Federal Constitution and the organization
of our governments is only increased by the consciousness of the
strain to which they are exposed, and who feel strongly that while the
principles of the Government and the character of the people "are
still sound and reliable, some modifications and readjustments of the
machinery must take place, unless we are to drift through practical
anarchy and increasing corruption to military despotism." For the sake
of putting the subject in a clearer light, the three more prominent
approaches to democratic government in modern times--those of England,
France, and the United States--are studied comparatively in the former
part of the work. The carrying on of governments in accordance with
the expressed wish of the people is spoken of in the beginning as the
appearance of a new force which has changed the whole face of society,
and points to still greater changes in the future. How it has worked
in the three countries in which it has been in operation for a little
more than a century, and what it has done, are the questions which the
author undertakes to answer. In England, popular government has taken
the form, with a powerless hereditary sovereign commanding universal
loyalty, of a ministry responsible to a Parliament, which is directly
responsible to the people. In France, the executive is controlled by a
legislative body chosen by universal suffrage, the majority of which
is held together by party discipline. The virtue of this government is
undergoing a supreme test in the Dreyfus case, the right issue of
which would show a greater proportional advance in true liberty and
the justification of popular government than has taken place in any
other nation. In the United States, power is passing more and more
into Congress, a body chosen separately from the President, whose
members are actuated by personal, local, and partisan motives, and
rarely rise to the conception of broad national views or look further
than to the immediate present, while the nation at large and the
Executive are without representation such as insures the co-operation
of the ministry and Parliament in England. In all other respects than
appointments to office, which must be made "in strict subordination to
the demands of members of his party in both Houses of Congress," the
recognized power of the Executive is confined within very narrow
limits. In matters of legislation he has no voice whatever beyond
general recommendations, such as are open to any citizen, and to which
Congress pays little or no attention. In fact, that body resents
anything like an expression of opinion from the President. The system
is not encouraging to the filling of the office by men of the first
rank, and men of that rank seldom reach it. The House of
Representatives, meeting every two years a new body, suffers from its
entire want of coherency and the absence of a qualified leader, and
falls an easy prey to the lobbyist and the boss. So, while "there are
still many, perhaps the majority, of men of good character in public
life, the tendency is steadily downward." It has been customary in
some quarters to charge the evils we suffer upon universal suffrage,
but Mr. Bradford maintains that it is this which to-day is keeping up
the character of the Government, and that but for the restraints
imposed by it our political condition would be a great deal worse than
it is. Further light is sought upon the situation, and further
pictures are given of the conditions existing in comprehensive reviews
of the State and municipal governments of the country. In considering
proposed remedies the referendum is dismissed as tending to destroy
personality and diffuse responsibility even more than is done now--the
reverse of the concentration of executive power as the only really
indispensable part of the Government, which should be sought. The
enforcement of this principle of executive supremacy with immediate
responsibility is the purpose of the book. Mr. Bradford would obtain
this by giving the representatives of the administrative departments
seats in the House, with power to suggest legislation, make
explanations, and participate in debate. His final argument is that it
can not be charged that democracy is a failure; but, "with a wholly
new force introduced into the world, the proper machinery for its
application has not yet been employed. In its nature it is reasonable,
sound, and, on the whole, beneficent." Using the words of an English
writer, "the failures of government in the United States are not the
result of democracy, but of the craftiest combination of schemes to
defeat the will of democracy ever devised in the world."
[Footnote 12: The Lesson of Popular Government. By Gamaliel
Bradford. New York: The Macmillan Company. Two volumes. Pp. 520
and 590. Price, $4.]
We have already published a fairly comprehensive review of _Richard
Semon's In the Australian Bush_,[13] based upon the German original,
by Prof. E. P. Evans, in the fifty-second volume of the Monthly
(November, 1897). But little needs to be added to what Professor Evans
has said of the book besides announcing the appearance of the English
edition, the translation for which was written under the author's own
superintendence, and the contents of which do not differ in any
important particular from the German impression. Professor Semon went
to Australia on a special zoölogical mission, and spent two years
there. His purpose was the study of the wonderful Australian fauna,
the oviparous mammals, marsupials, and ceratodus (lungfish). These
animals represent forms which, with a few notable exceptions, have
long since become extinct in other countries, where they have to be
studied in such parts of their bony forms as happen to have been
preserved in the rocks, while here they can be examined alive and in
the flesh--"living fossils," as the author fittingly calls them, links
between the present age and one of the geological periods of the past.
His observations on these subjects are in course of publication in a
special scientific work, not quite half of which has appeared. The
present volume consists in the notes of travel and adventure, the
dealing with men, the anthropological studies, and what we might call
the _obiter_ observations of the expedition. Almost simultaneously
with Professor Semon's narrative we have from the same publishers
another book, on _The Native Tribes of Central Australia_,[14] which
deals more fully, exclusively, and perhaps more expertly with the
anthropology of a part of the Australian continent. Of the authors,
Mr. _Gillen_ has spent the greater part of the past twenty years in
the center of the continent, and as sub-protector of the aborigines
has had exceptional opportunities of coming in contact with the Arunta
tribe; and both of them have been made fully initiated members of that
tribe. Though both about Australia, the two books do not cover the
same ground. Australia is very large, and its physical conditions are
such that the groups of tribes inhabiting the various regions have for
a long period of time been isolated from one another and have followed
different lines in development. Professor Semon's observations were
made in the Burnett district of northeastern Queensland, while those
recorded in the work of Spencer and Gillen were made in the very
center of South Australia and of the continent. Consequently, in
reading them we read really about different things. In addition to the
investigation of various customs, such as those connected with
initiation and magic, special attention has been paid by Messrs.
Spencer and Gillen to the totemic system and to matters connected with
the social organization of the tribes; and here again the authors
insist upon the differences between the groups of tribes, and that the
customs of no one tribe or group can be taken as typical of Australia
generally in any other sense than as broad outline. Both works deal
with considerable fullness with the institution of marriage among the
Australians, and the customs by which too close intermarriage is
prevented. Among other subjects treated with especial fullness by
Messrs. Spencer and Gillen are the totems, the bull-roarers, the
Intichuma ceremonies (associated with the totems), the initiation
ceremonies, customs relative to the knocking out of teeth, traditions,
burial and mourning, spirit individuals, medicine men and magic,
methods of obtaining wives, myths, clothing, weapons, implements,
decorative art, and names. Professor Semon formed a moderate opinion
of the capacity of the Australians. Though coarse and heavy, their
faces are not bad looking and have expression. They are "no link
between monkeys and men, but human creatures through and through,"
though of one of the lowest types. They have no pottery, no
agriculture, no abstract ideas of any kind, can not count very far,
but are clever in learning to write, read, and draw, are experts in
signaling, and have their intellect and senses "brilliantly developed
in all directions bearing on the hunt," with great dexterity in the
use of weapons.
[Footnote 13: In the Australian Bush, and on the Coast of the
Coral Sea. Being the Experiences and Observations of a Naturalist
in Australia, New Guinea, and the Moluccas. New York: The
Macmillan Company. Pp. 552. Price, $6.50.]