Transactions of the Ethnological Society of London. Vol. II. Now
series. (Murray.)—A goodly octavo, containing thirty papers, read. before the society from November, 1861, to June, 1863. It would be, of course, impossible to enter into any detailed criticism of contribu- tions so numerous. Generally, however, we may say that the papers of mere observers appear to us very superior to those whose writers have a more ambitious aim. The society, and notably. its President and most voluminous writer, Mr. Crawfurcl, F.R.S., is rather given to hasty generalization. On the other hand, there are excellent papers on the Dyaks of Borneo by the warlike Bishop of Labnan, on the natives of Sierra Leone by Mr. Robert Clarke, and an especially admirable one on the Weddahs, or aboriginal inhabitants of Ceylon, by Mr. John Bailey. In style and form we consider this last would be almost a model of a scientific paper, were it not for the perpetual corrections of Sir Emerson Tennent. In his delightful book on Ceylon he does not pretend, as Mr.. Bailey himself admits, to have any personal knowledge of the Weddahs, and a single reference to the errors in his account of them would, there- fore, have been amply sufficient.
Previous page
