BOOKS.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 11923, 22 December 1900, Page 8

BOOKS.

" The Living Races o£ Mankind: Part L" By H N Hutchinson, F.R.G.S., etc., J W. Gregory, D.Sc M etc., and B. Lydekker, F.R.S., etc. London: Hutchinson and Co. Dunedin: J. (1. Sawell. The first part of this work—a popular illustrated account of the customs, habits, pursuits, feasts, and ceremonies of the races of mankind throughout the world—has readied us, and we must admit that it looks a genuine good thing in the way of popular ethnology. If the authors and publishers turn the rest of the numbers out in as good style as the first one the whole will form a most desirable possession, ire either for prince or peasant able to rightly appreciate a good thing when it conies his way. This is unmistakably a publication that' will entlirall the many wlio merely read, as well as command the approval of those whose tastes and capabilities lit them to form and express decided opinion. The authors have devoted years of time and oceans of painstaking in getting together theii material, and without a doubt their first instalment gives excellent promise that they will show a surprisingly line result when their task is completed. The pictures arc numerous and brilliantly reproduced, and are all from life and nature. This is the outstanding feature of the work, and, so far as we know, the chum macie that the like is not to be found in any previous book on the subject is a just one, at any rate in so far as popular works are concerned. It is further emphasised that such a collection is not likely to be again secured, for even now many native races are rapidly vanishing from the face oi the earth. With the exception of a few strictly scientific recent books, such as KeaneVs "Man: Past and Present' and Deniker's " Races of Man," previous ethnological works have been illustrated by methods which ensure a great deal of hopeless inaccuracy, but for the present work the 600 illustrations promised have been obtained by means of modern photography. These pictures have not been gathered in a haphazard manner either, but have been carefully selected by ethnological experts, who may bo relied "upon, -the aim being to show the purest existing types of living humanity, their dress, ornaments^ dwellings, natural surroundings, etc. The results are as striking as pleasing—the pictures speak for themselves, and are artistic in a high degree. Certainly no such perfect and complete representation of the va.-tly varied human races has ever before been'made. The letterpress also is exceptionally good—entirely free from troublesome scientific terms,'but thoroughly accurate in an ordinary way. The style adopted is of the "brightly descriptive, chatty, and anecdotal sort, which when well done (and here it is clone capitally) ensures unflagging interest on the reader's part. As an aid towards imparting a better understanding of native races with whom we have been largely in contact during the -past, and are likely to be more so in"the future, this book should have distinct value. The idea of Imperial expansion is abroad, and persual of the first instalment of " The Living Races of Mankind " has convinced us that the work in its entirety may prove very helpful as an aid towards better comprehension of possible developments incidental to that idea.