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widely-spread and efficiently organized service of meteorological observations; even in the less important stations these are regularly recorded, and this has been the case for a long series of years at Gunong Sitoli. This is at present the residence of the Dutch civil and military authorities in Nias; the principal magistrate is a Controleur, who, with the officer in command of the native garrison, the medical officer, and the missionaries and their wives, form the sum-total of the European residents at Nias. Gunong Sitoli is mostly peopled with Malays, Klings, and Chinamen, the trade of the island being chiefly in the hands of the latter. Here, overcoming not a few serious difficulties, Modigliani made his preparations for visiting the southern parts of Nias, freer from external contact, and therefore more interesting; and for this purpose, a Malay boat-pencialàng-was chartered. Whilst these preparations were being completed, Dr. Modigliani visited a large cave near Hili Sabegno, and, besides other interesting animals, collected specimens of a bat (Emballonura semicaudata) previously known only from Polynesia. Meanwhile, his hunters were not inactive, and, amongst other interesting specimens, four new species of birds, a singular new earthworm, and several new insects were collected in the neighbourhood of Sitoli; the birds have been recently described by Salvadori as Gracula robusta, Calornis altirostris, Miglyptes infuscatus, and Syrnium niasense.

Tobacco is the principal article for barter with the wilder inhabitants of Nias, therefore Modigliani provided himself with a large stock, mostly Sumatra grown, and called mussi; Javanese tobacco, called ginu, has a greater value. He provided himself, besides, with cotton cloth of different colours, and brass wire, also much sought by the Nias people.

At last the pencialang was ready, and Modigliani sailed in her to the south end of the island, and anchored in the Luàha Vára Bay. His first sight of the Nias Southerners was rather forbidding, and seemed to confirm decidedly the many stories he had heard of their indomitable hostility and ferocity. A large number of warriors, armed with lances and rattling their big shields with a peculiar movement of the hand on the forearm, crowded on the beach at his landing, to the no small alarm of his followers. With much pluck and presence of mind, Modigliani overcame the momentary anxious suspense, and in a few minutes he was on his way to the village of Bawo Lowaláni, surrounded and followed by the excited warriors. Here he soon made friends with Faòsi Aro, the chief, the tallest and most crafty of Southern Niassers, who appeared with two immense earrings resting on his right shoulder. A liberal distribution of tobacco soon made Modigliani popular all round. Bàwo Lowaláni is a good type of a South Nias village, placed on a height and defended by a stout stockade; the incessant wars between village and village render such precautions necessary. Our traveller passed several days here, having taken up his quarters in the house of Faòsi Aro, built as usual on stout piles; he was thus able to gather much information on the ways and manners of the Niassers. His Javanese collectors, although much afraid of the natives, who were constantly armed and on the alert, being then at war with two neighbouring villages, did some good work, and some new and rare insects and a new species of bird (Cittocincla melanura, Salvad.) were

added to the collections.

At Bàwo Lowaláni, Dr. Modigliani received a special invitation to visit Hili Dgiòno, a village further inland to the west. A deputation awaited him outside Bàwo Lowalini, not trusting themselves inside; a live fowl packed in a singularly neat manner (see Fig. 1) was presented to him, and the knife of the chief of Hili Dgiòno-the latter to be returned. Faòsi Aro did all in his power to dissuade Modigliani from going, telling him he would certainly be killed, as the Hili Dgiònans were

a bad lot; but our traveller decided to keep his promise, and the evening of the next day saw him at Hili Dgiòno, where he met with a most cordial reception, especially from the old chief, Sidúho Ghèo. At this place Modigliani passed pleasant days, was able to take a fine series of photographs, and saw more of the natives and learnt more of their customs than anywhere else. The women alone, as in most parts of Nias, kept aloof, and would not be photographed. Here Modigliani saw palpable proofs of the well-known head-hunting propensities of the Niassers. The big council house, or osale, was adorned

FIG. 1.-How a fowl travels.

with numerous skull trophies, hanging under the low roof. Heads are taken not only in war, but on many other occasions, for reasons amply given in Modigliani's book, most of which are similar to those which send the Dayaks of Borneo on their head-hunting expeditions; neither age nor sex are spared. No youngster in Nias is proclaimed a man and a warrior until he has cut off a head; he then assumes the prized calabúbo (Fig. 2), a beautiful collar made of thin circular sections cut out of the double nut of the Lodoicea seychellarum (which is often cast by the sea on the island), neatly strung on a brass wire with a circular

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FIG. 2.-A calabúbo.

brass disk at the junction. The sections of the nut diminish gradually from about an inch in diameter to less than half at both ends, where the circular collar is closed with the disk; they are polished so as to present a uniform surface. None of the trophy skulls seen by Dr. Modigliani were in any way ornamented, but in his book he gives the drawing of a very singular one with artificial hair, beard, and ears, communicated by the late Baron von Rosenberg, who saw it in a house in Nias; I should fancy that it represents a European (Dutchman), for the beard hardly grows on a Niasser's chin in such luxuriance

(Fig. 3). When old Sidúho Ghèo heard that Modigliani desired skulls (for his anthropological collection), he of course concluded that he wanted to get fresh ones as trophies, and at once offered to organize an expedition

FIG. 3.-Ornamented trophy skull.

with chosen warriors; he would not give away any of those hung under the sale.

At Hili Dgiòno, Modigliani was able to add largely to his ethnological collections, especially weapons. The

defensive armour of the Niassers is peculiar. Formerly they made singular helmets of rotang and arenga-fibre, with beard and mustachios; now the chiefs are provided with curious iron helmets, pot-shaped, ornamented with a large plume or palm-leaf cut in a thin iron lamina, usually gilt; they wear, with this, curious iron spur-like mustachios passing under the nose and secured to the ear. The head-dress of the warrior of "old Japan" was a very similar contrivance; to complete the parallel I will add that the ceremonial war-jacket, often a regular cuirass in buffalo-leather, pangolin-skin, and scales or twisted rope tissue of tough Gnetum fibres, usually projects widely over each shoulder. It is thus with the war-jacket of some of the Dayak tribes, and was thus with the ceremonial kamiscimo of the Nippon samurai. The Nias shield, balúse, is peculiar, and made in a single board of tough light wood; in the northern parts of the island a heavier one, called dagne, more akin to Bornean and Celeban shields, is used. The characteristic weapons of the Niassers are the spear (toho) and sword (ballátu), the latter not unlike the Dayak parang. The iron spearheads are generally small and narrow, simple, or more or less provided with barbs; the wood is from the Nibong palm, and usually ornamented with rings of rotang, brass, or wire, and often with tufts of hair from an enemy's head. The sword is still more characteristic. Its sheath is made with two halves neatly fitted and bound together with plaited rotang; the big sword (ballátu sebúa, number one") is, especially in the south of Nias, the favourite weapon; much trouble is taken in ornamenting it, and the carved handle is often a remarkable specimen of woodcarving. Modigliani was fortunate enough to secure a series of these swords with carved handles, giving a most interesting instance of modification of a figure, in this case a boar's head, in the opposite directions of a simplified and a complicated conventionalism (Fig. 4). Moreover, the ballátu sebúa of the Southern Niassers is

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man," of the Niassers possesses a special talismanic sword with special idols and charms attached to the scabbard. | Quite a number of old flint-lock muskets have found their way to Nias, but are fortunately often rendered useless from want of ammunition. The Niassers are able smiths, but they receive the iron and brass they use from Chinese and Malay traders.

On his way back, at Bàwo Lowaláni, Modigliani was able to buy from Faòsi Aro eleven human skulls. He next sailed to Luàha Gúndre Bay, wishing to visit the important village of Hili Sendrecheási, and possibly to proceed thence inland. He was well received by the chief and notabilities, who, however, promised much and did little. Another new bird was obtained here-Terpsiphone insularis, Salvad. Meanwhile, the head-man of another neighbouring village, Hili Simaetáno, sent messengers to invite him to go there, promising that he might stay and collect as much he liked. The death of a warrior at Sendrecheási gave Modigliani an opportunity of witnessing the funereal ceremonies of the Niassers, on which subject he gives much important information. He was not able, however, to confirm Piepers's assertion (Bat. Genoot. v. Kuns, en Wettensch., 1887) regarding the horrid and singular custom of putting the body upright in a hollow tree, tapping this below, inserting a bamboo tube, and forcing a slave to drink the putrid liquid which flowed. The unfortunate man's head was afterwards cut off, and hung to the tree as an offering to him whose body was inclosed therein. I may mention that a similar custom is attributed to certain Dayak tribes of Borneo by Perelaer, and that it recalls the ancient Javanese setra. It appears, however, that human lives are still sacrificed at the death of a chief. The author has also brought together highly interesting information as to "animism," belief in a future state, and ancestor-worship amongst the Niassers.

Although lamed, and suffering from a bad foot, he left Luàha Gúndre for Hili Simaetáno on June 1. His reception there was, however, the reverse of what he expected: the people were not only diffident, but evidently hostile, notwithstanding the invitation sent by their chief. Amongst the interesting things seen were two elaborately carved stone thrones of honour, used by the chief on solemn occasions; opposite one, on a pole, was a human skull. These two differed widely, the smaller one in the centre of the village being a sort of arm-chair, the back of which represented the bust of a warrior with a crocodile climbing up behind him. These singular stone seats of honour recall those found in far-off Ecuador. After a couple of days' stay, the hostility of the villagers was so evident that Modigliani decided to leave; and if he was not actually attacked, he owed it not only to his firmness and forbearance, but probably to the fear caused by his repeating-rifle, and to the villagers being short of ammunition. Anyway, he was able to get safely back to his pencialang. Wishing, however, to penetrate into the interior of the island, he sailed to the Nácco Islands off the opposite coast of Nias, where he hoped to get guides and information. Mára Áli, chief of Nácco, received him well, and after much palavering and a liberal distribution of presents, he was able to obtain a guide in the person of Sanabahíli, brother of the local erè, and bearers. His intention was to land on the opposite coast of Nias, and penetrate inland to one of the higher mountains, known as Matgiúa, where he hoped to make interesting collections. Having landed, after a narrow escape from shipwreck, at Cape Serombú, he proceeded boldly inland. There were no roads, and his progress was not easy or pleasant; moreover, his guide was hardly up to the office he had undertaken, and conducted him by mistake to the village of Idáno Dowu. Thence he marched to Mount Buruássi, before reaching which most of his bearers had deserted; small villages were passed, and the sites of bigger ones which

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had been destroyed during the incessant wars. báva, a strongly fortified village, was next visited; here he found a singular and grotesque idol, Adú Fangure, carved in a cocoa-palm trunk on the occasion of an epidemic which had decimated the village. Crossing next the nearly unknown district of Iraòno-Una, peopled by ferocious head-hunters, he continued on to Hili Lowaláni; here he came to the conclusion that Mount Matgiúa had been purposely missed, or more probably was sadly out of place even in the best maps of Nias, and decided to return to the north. Travelling on by Hil Hôro, he came again to Hili Simaetáno, where he was well received this time, and able to buy some skulls. At the Luàha Gúndre he was rejoined by his pencialang-not until after long waiting, anxious moments, and the risk of starvation, having finished his provisions-and sailed back to Gunong Sitoli. This voyage across the southwest end of Nias was an adventurous one, but hardly equal in results to the trouble it had cost.

After his return to Sitoli, Modigliani decided to spend what time he had left to remain in Nias in some favourable locality in the north, where, amongst quieter people, he might better complete his observations and collections. He selected the village Ombaláta, or rather the neighbouring hill called Hili Zabòbo; here he passed pleasant days and was able to do much. Amongst the interesting species collected I may mention: Pteropus nicobaricus, Chiropodomys gliroides, a rare and singular rodent lately collected by Fea in Burma: Macropygia modiglianii, Salvad., and Carpophaga consobrina Salvad.. new pigeons; a rare and beautiful lizard, Gonyocephalus grandis, and the hitherto unknown Aphaniotis acutrostris, Modigl.; and several new species of Coleoptera and ants. It is worth notice that in more than 4000 specimens of Lepidoptera collected by Dr. Modigliani no novelties were found, but he secured some fine specimens of the rare and peculiar Hebomoia vossi, Maitl. Dr. Modigliani purposes publishing complete lists of the animals of Nias; meanwhile he has given in an appendix lists of the species he collected, having determined some himself, whilst others have been studied by several specialists. He obtained 15 species of mammals, 62 of birds, 39 of reptiles, 8 of batrachians, 71 of fishes, and lists of over 400 species of insects have already been published. The bulk of these zoological collections are in the Civic Museum of Genoa. Modigliani was not able to do as much in botany as he wished, but he was able to gratify Beccari with some choice specimens of his favourite Myrmecodia and Hydnophytum, those strange epiphytal ant-harbouring plants first noticed by Jack at Nias.

The last chapters of Dr. Modigliani's book are entirely devoted to the ethnology of Nias, and great and important is the amount of information which he has gathered on this interesting subject. I will merely mention one or two of the principal items. Discussing the origin and affinities of the Niassers, he finds them not only different from the ordinary Malay, but partaking of the characters of the Mongoloids (in a restricted sense) and even of the Arianoid races; and at the same time he notes physical differences between the natives of Northern and Southern Nias. I confess that I cannot quite follow our author in this the Niassers most evidently belong to the great Malayan family, and perhaps resemble some of the Dayak tribes more than any others. The ancient and constant contact with Chinese may have slightly mongolzed them, always in the more restricted sense of that term (some of Modigliani's photographs recalled to my mind portraits of Kwei-yings of North Formosa shown to me years ago by my lamented friend Robert Swinhoe). But I fail to see traces of Arianoid features in any of the Niassers photographed by Dr. Modigliani. At the same time, I can quite understand how he found points of resemblance between them and natives of Southern India, who evidently have Malayan blood in their veins

Modigliani mentions seeing in South-West Nias natives with Arianoid Semitic features and curly or wavy hair, but he himself suspects in such cases the influence of AraboMalay immigrants from Acheen.

Amongst the many peculiarities of the inhabitants of Nias, is the custom of the women going about with a long slender stick called sio; it is of Nibong palm wood, has a heavy leaden knob, and is more or less ornamented with rings of lead and brass; it is found only in the possession of women. Great is the variety of ornaments worn by the Niassers, male and female. They often denote distinctions of rank and sex. Ear-rings and bracelets are especially varied; singularly beautiful are the bracelets (Fig. 5) carved and polished by a long and tedious process out of a solid block taken from the stony shell of the giant clam Tridacna), more elegant in shape than the equally notable armlets of the same material made by the in

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ones are classified in two grades as Bèchu and Bèla, these being, however, generic terms. The adú or idols, whose Nias name, by the way, is singularly like the equivalent Polynesian term atua, are very numerous; those which represent dead relations or immediate ancestors are called generically Adú zatúa. They appear to have great affinities with similar carved wooden anthropomorphic figures common throughout Papuasia and Melanesia, and known as karwars in Western New Guinea.

FIG. 5.-Bracelets cut in Tridacna shell.

habitants of the Solomon Islands. The Niassers also carve big solid ear-drops out of the Tridacna shell. Their principal articles of dress are still made with the beaten and manipulated inner bark of a Ficus or Arctocarpus, a kind of tappa or masi, called by them sambò salówo. Dr. Modigliani did not find or hear of stone or shell implements in Nias; possibly the first men who peopled that island were already provided with iron tools. Yet one of the commonest amongst these, the axe, fáto, has a singularly archaic form: the iron blade, very similar to the earlier forms of copper and bronze implements of the kind, is let into a slot in a short club-shaped wooden handle (Fig. 6). A yet more singular fact is that the fáto of the Niassers is a typical axe, and quite distinct from the adze used right across Malesia from the Nicobar Islands to New Guinea, being, instead, remarkably like the iron axe of some of the wilder tribes of Central Africa.

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FIG. 6-Iron axe of Nias.

I may mention here that the rich and important anthropological and ethnological collections made at Nias by Dr. Modigliani have mostly been presented by him to the National Anthropological and Ethnological Museum in Florence.

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Dr. Modigliani has collected quite a host of interesting facts relating to the myths and superstitions of the natives of Nias, which all appear to centre in a welldeveloped form of ancestor worship." The ancestors more or less remote are spirits good and evil, and as mediators between them and the living are numerous adu, or idols (Fig. 7). Amongst the numerous spirits more or less divine venerated by the Niassers is Sangarofa, the sea-god, and Modigliani justly calls attention to the strange similarity in name and attributes to Tangaroa, the sea-god of the Maories and other Polynesians. The principal good spirit is Lowaláni ; the bad

FIG. 7.-Images of ancestors.

In one of the last chapters of his book, Modigliani gives an account of the spoken language of the Niassers, which has many peculiarities; adding an alphabetically arranged collection of words with their Italian equivalents. But my task, which has been to endeavour to give an idea of the work done by Dr. Modigliani, must now come to an end. His book, containing a very complete monographic study of one of the most interesting islands of the Indian Archipelago and its inhabitants, is, and will long remain, one of the standard works on that beautiful region Malesia. HENRY H. Giglioli.

NOTES.

THE next general meeting of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers will be held on Thursday evening, May 1, and Friday evening, May 2, at 25 Great George Street, Westminster. The chair will be taken at half-past seven on each evening by the President, Mr. Joseph Tomlinson. On Thursday evening the President will deliver his inaugural address, after which the following paper will be read and discussed, and the discussion will be continued on Friday evening:-Research Committee on Marine-Engine Trials: Report upon Trials of three Steamers, Fusi Yama, Colchester, Tartar, by Prof. Alexander B. W. Kennedy, F.R.S., Chairman. The anniversary dinner will take place on Wednesday evening, April 30.

THE first annual meeting of the Museums' Association will be held in Liverpool on June 17, 18, and 19. The business of the meeting will consist of (1) the reading of papers on the management, arrangement, and working of Museums; (2) the discussion of the objects set forth by the meeting of June 20, 1889, with special reference to the following points: the means of interchange of duplicates and surplus specimens ; schemes for a

general supply of labels, illustrations, &c.; the indexing of the

general contents of Museums; concerted action for obtaining Government publications, and also specimens on loan or otherwise; and the issue of a journal devoted to the discussion of practical topics. At this meeting the scheme for the constitution of the Association will be submitted. All engaged or interested

in Museum work are cordially invited to join the Association. The conditions of membership are as follows:-Each Museum contributing not less than one guinea a year becomes a member of the Association, and can send three representatives to the meetings. Individuals interested in scientific work are admitted as Associates on payment of 10s. 6d. annually. The following are the officers of the Association :-President: Rev. H. H. Higgins; General Secretaries: H. M. Platnauer, Museum, York, T. J. Moore, Museum, Liverpool; Local Secretaries: R. Paden, Museum, Liverpool, H. A. Tobias, Museum, Liverpool.

THE next conversazione of the Royal Microscopical Society will be held on Wednesday, the 30th inst., at eight o'clock.

HERR O. JESSE sends us from Steglitz, near Berlin, some very beautiful photographs of luminous night clouds. The photographs of each pair were taken simultaneously at Nanen and Steglitz. Steglitz lies 8 kilometres south-west, Nanen 38 kilometres westnorth-west, of the Berlin Observatory. Herr Jesse would add greatly to the value of his work if, the next time he has an opportunity of undertaking it, he would photograph the spectrum.

La Nature (April 12, p. 303) notes the following curious and interesting phenomena :-Two railways, one the Sceaux line and the other the Ceinture, pass within a comparatively short distance of the Montsouris Observatory, Paris, the former line being about 80 metres distant, and the latter but some 60 metres. During the passage of trains on the Ceinture line, which is nearest to the Observatory, the bifilar magnet is found to be disturbed, and its oscillations are registered photographically; indeed the move. ments are so regular that the curve clearly indicates the exact time of each train passing the Observatory. This phenomenon is

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due to the fact that as the line crosses the direction of the magnetic meridian the wheel-tires of the carriages become magnetized by induction, and so produce, in consequence of the laws of magnetism, a deviation of the bifilar magnet. trains on the Sceaux line give rise to a phenomenon not less curious. Whenever the engine-driver blows off steam, the electrometer is partly discharged, the electrical potential of the air falling to about one-half of its original value. These disturbances are brought forward by the Director of the Paris Observatory in order to oppose the scheme which is now proposed of extending the railway from Sceaux to la Place de Médicis.

ON Tuesday evening, M. Jacques Bertillon (head of the Municipal Bureau of Statistics in Paris) delivered a lecture before the Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland, on the method now practised in France of identifying criminals by comparing their measures with those of convicted persons in the prison registers. Mr. Bertillon, who spoke in French, said that the system which he had come there to explain had for its object the recognition of a person 10, 15, 20, or even 100 years after he had been measured, for by that method it was possible to recognize a person after death, if access could be had to his skeleton. Photography was now used only as an aid to identification established by other means. The basis of the anthropometic system was to obtain measurements of those bony parts of the body which underwent little or no change after maturity, and could be measured with extreme accuracy to within so small a figure as to be practically exact. These parts were the head, the foot, the middle finger, and the extended forearm from the elbow. To clearly illustrate the system, let them suppose 90,000 photographs of men to have been collected. These would be divided into three groups of 30,000, according to the height of the men. There would be short men, men of medium height, and tall men. That these three classes might be approximately equal, it was evident that

the limits of the class of men of medium height must be restricted more than those of the other two classes. Each of these primary divisions should again be divided on the same principle, without taking any further notice of the height, into three classes, according to the length of the head of each individual. The three classes of short, medium, and long heads would each again be subdivided into three, according to the width of the heads, and would contain narrow, medium, and wide heads. Experience had proved that with most people the breadth of the head varied independently of the length-that was, given that an individual had a certain length of head, it by no means followed that the breadth of his head could be determined a priori. The length of the middle finger gave a fourth and still more precise indication by which to divide again each one of the packets of photographs; and these might be divided again according to the length of the foot, the length of the arms outstretched at right angles to the body, and also according to the colour of the eyes. Thus by these anthropometrical coefficients they would be able to divide their collection of 90,000 photographs into very small groups of about 15 each, which they could easily and rapidly examine. M. Bertillon then proceeded to give a practical demonstration of the way in which the measurements were taken. He laid stress on the importance of the hand and the ear as marks of cogniti on. The hand, because it was the organ in most confessions, became modified according to the particular character stant use in almost every calling and in many trades and proThe ear was the precise opposite to this. It changed very slightly, if at all, except perhaps in the case of prize-fighters, who developed a pecu. liarity of the ear which it was easy to recognize. The ear, therefore, was an important organ to measure, inasmuch as the results were not likely to be nullified by a change in its conformation.

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IN the new quarterly statement of the Palestine Exploration Fund, the Committee announce that they have obtained a firman granting permission to excavate at Khurbet 'Ajlân, the Eglon of Joshua. It is understood that all objects, except duplicates, found in the course of the excavations shall be forwarded to the Museum at Constantinople, but that the Committee's agents shall have the right of making squeezes, sketches, models, photographs, and copies of all such objects. The Committee have been so fortunate as to secure the services of Mr. Flinders Petrie, who is now in Syria making arrangements to start the excavations.

THE death of Dr. Gottlob Friederich H. Küchenmeister is announced. He was a great authority on Entozoa.

IN the official outline of the principal arrangements at the Crystal Palace for the summer of 1890, reference is made to the International Exhibition of Mining and Metallurgy which is to be held there from July 2 to September 30. The subjects embraced within the scope of the Exhi bition comprise machinery in motion and at rest; gold, silver, diamond, iron stone, and iron ore mining; manufacture of iron and steel; lead mining and manufacture; tin mining and smelting; copper and coal mining; the petroleum and salt industries; mining for precious stones, &c. There is every reason to expect, through the co-operation of colonial and foreign Governments, many valuable exhibits from abroad.

THE Engineer and Engineering of last week publish long illustrated accounts of the recent disaster to the City of Paris

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