sweet potatoes and peanuts, the former were cultivated in Asia
before the discovery of America, while the latter, mentioned by Ibn
Batutah as an article of food in Africa, took to the New World, their
African names _mandube_, _goober_ and _pinder_ (compare Mozambique
_manduwe_, Basunde _nguba_, Nyombo _pinda_). Professor Wiener's
conclusion is that manioc culture was taught to the Brazilian Indians
before 1492 by Portuguese castaways, who knew of the economic
importance of the plant in Africa, while the peanut, spreading north
and south from the Antilles, may also have reached America a few years
before Columbus.

The numerous full-page illustrations are extremely helpful in aiding
the reader to a clear understanding of difficult points in the
discussion.

The book is epoch-making. To all seekers of the truth, the coming of
the second volume, in which Professor Wiener will deal exhaustively
with the Negro element in Indian culture, will be an eagerly
anticipated event.

PHILLIPS BARRY, A.M., S.T.B.
CAMBRIDGE MASSACHUSETTS

* * * * *

_A Comparative Study of the Bantu and Semi-Bantu Languages._ By
SIR HARRY H. JOHNSTON, G.C.M.G., K.C.B., D.Sc. (Cambs). Oxford:
at the Clarendon Press, 1919, pp. 815, 2 sketch maps.

The author of this monumental work, in the opinion of the reviewer, is
in himself a composite of many of the capacities, which, combined or
singly in her subjects have made the greatness of Britain. He has been
a great colonial administrator, a distinguished African explorer; he
is a talented artist, and has recently astonished the literary world
by producing what H. G. Wells declares to be one of the best first
novels he has ever read. The contributions of Sir Harry Johnston to
the sciences of botany, zoology, and anthropology are truly
prodigious. It is in the last named field that his major interests
have lain, and a succession of important works have established him as
the foremost authority upon the ethnology of Africa and upon the
anthropology of the Negro race.

This ponderous volume on the Bantu and Semi-Bantu languages is the
first part of a work which represents the fruit of many years of study
of multitudinous African languages and dialects. The major portion of
the book consists of illustrative vocabularies of 366 Bantu and 87
Semi-Bantu languages and dialects with an extensive bibliography. A
competent