30 APRIL 1881, Page 23

historical Sketches of Savage Life in Polynesia, with Illustrative Clan

Songs. By the Rev, W. W. Gill, B.A. (Didsbury, Wellington.)—

This volume is a sequel to the author's "Myths and Songs from the South Pacific." Much legend is mixed up with the history, but, doubtless, there is a basis of fact, this real element having in some cases an antiquity of four or five centuries. Mr. Gill has earned the thanks of those who find it value in a part of human history, however sombre—and the Polynesian annals are full of "darkness and cruelty "—for be has preserved what woald probably have soon been forgotten. The songs are curious, and sometimes show traces of literary power. "Time Lament for Vivo and Tito (composed about 1795), and" The Capture of Vaiaa," of a date somewhat earlier, may be mentioned.