In the "Notes on Cochiti, New Mexico" by the late Father Noel Dumarest, translated and annotated by Dr. Elsie Clews Parsons (Memoirs, Amer. Anth. Assn., vol. VI, n. 3), the ethnologist has acquired an excellent sketch of the religious and social life of a hitherto little-known Keresan people, as well as a serviceable introduction to the study of Southwestern culture generally. Clan descent at Cochiti is matrilineal, but marriage is patrilocal. There is a tribal society into which all males but no women are initiated. It is this organization that produces rain by impersonating the supernatural beings, i.e. specifically the dead, who can grant rain, health, and welfare. The women and children believe that the masked actors are the gods themselves and the men at least hold that by donning the sacred regalia they assume a holy character. Quite distinct from this society are the curing fraternities into which women are admitted. Their function is to extract the rattlesnakes, stones, and other objects conjured into the patient's body by evil magicians, of whom the natives stand in morbid fear. The oldest member of one of these organizations serves as "cacique" or spiritual head of the community. He is an honored but by no means absolute official, since he may be punished for transgressions of customary law. He himself is free from executive work but appoints an annual governor and other administrative officers. In his spiritual labors he has the assistance of the war priest, always chosen from those who are not members of the curing fraternities. This priest advises the cacique and with his deputies forms a sort of ritualistic police, since he supervises and organizes the masked dances.

Especially valuable from the psychological point of view is "The Autobiography of a Winnebago Indian," edited and annotated by P. Radin (Univ. of Cal. Pub., vol. XVI, pp. 381-473). It reveals from the inside the workings of a culture from the Woodland-Plains border area, as well as the transformations wrought by modern conditions, especially by the recent Peyote religion in which ancient Winnebago faiths blend with Christian conceptions. An interesting field report by A. B. Skinner on the "Medicine Ceremony of the Menomini, Iowa, and Wahpeton Dakota" (Indian Notes and Monographs, vol. IV) is devoted to the religious life of the same region.

In his "Decorative Art and Basketry of the Cherokee" (Bulletin, Public Museum of the City of Milwaukee, vol. II, no. 2), F. G. Speck traces the gradual diffusion of cane basketry. He finds the industry to have centred in the Lower Mississippi region, though its ultimate place of origin may lie in the Antilles or even in South America. The Iroquois, whose southern derivation is now generally accepted, may be regarded as the carriers of the technique to more northern localities, but naturally the cane material of the South was supplanted by splints of oak and ash.

Baron Erland Nordenskiöld has published a sequel to earlier South American researches under the caption of The Changes in the Material Culture of Two Indian Tribes under the Influence of New Surroundings, the new volumes being dedicated to the Chiriguano and Chane tribes, the former representing the Guarani stock, and the latter the Arawakan. The Chiriguano entered the borderland of Bolivia and the Argentine Republic in the sixteenth century, subduing the

native Chane population. Nordenskiöld studies the mutual influence of the two cultures thus brought into intimate contact, as well as the later effects due to European and Negro intrusions.

In "Notes on the Bribri of Costa Rica" (Indian Notes and Monographs, vol. VI, no. 3) A. Skinner offers observations on the material existence, social and ceremonial life of this Chibchan people. They are divided into exogamous matrilineal moieties subdivided into lesser clans. Mortuary ceremonies still figure prominently and notions of taboo and ritual uncleanness are in full swing.

Under the caption of The Mythology of All Races: Latin American, forming volume XI of the series, H. A. Alexander presents the first upto-date summary of Central and South American myths. "The Sources and Authenticity of the History of the Ancient Mexicans" (Univ. of Cal. Pub., vol. XVII, pp. 1-150) are dealt with by P. Radin, who in a measure seeks to vindicate the trustworthiness of aboriginal accounts of ostensibly historical character.

OTHER CONTINENTS. A valuable study of an unusual character is embodied in Martha W. Beckwith's "The Hawaiian Romance of Laieikawai" (33rd Ann. Rept., Bur. Am. Ethnol.). It presents not merely the original text and a translation of a lengthy Hawaiian tale, but also a detailed commentary together with an investigation of Hawaiian literary style and activity. Much of the material of Hawaiian literature is found to be traditional among other Polynesians. It mirrors the aristocratic polity of the Hawaiian, verse-making having indeed been practiced in the households of chiefs. The theme is usually the career of a hero whose supernatural powers are established in a series of contests. In some cases he is divine, in others a demigod, in still others a human being of exalted rank, and again he may be merely an ordinary man aided by spiritual helpers. Prose and poetry have developed along distinct paths. In prose there is connected narrative and considerable realism.. Poetry embraces dirges, lyric songs, and eulogistic hymns. The latter are not built up as connected accounts of achievement but are ejaculatory panegyrics. The poems abound in symbolical allusions, antitheses, repetition, puns, riddles, and other stylistic devices.

F. Speiser, the explorer of the New Hebrides, has published a paper entitled "Kultur-Komplexe in den Neuen Hebriden, Neu-Caledonien u. den Sta.-Cruz Inseln" (Archives suisses d'Anthropologie générale, 1919, pp. 300-319). He discusses the data from the point of view of independent development versus borrowing and arrives at the conclusion that many traits have evolved spontaneously.

A result that, if verified, would revolutionize linguistic classification has been announced by A. Conrady (reported in Anthropos, XII-XIII, 702-706). Father Schmidt has connected the Malyo-Polynesian stock with certain languages of India and Farther India, merging them in a single "Austric" family. Conrady extends the comparison to the Tibeto-Burman languages and arrives at the conclusion that the Austric stock in turn is genetically related with all the languages of Farther India, with Chinese and Tibetan.

On the basis of a 12-years' residence in northern Luzon, C. R. Moss describes "Nabaloi Law

ANTHROPOLOGY

and Ritual and Kankanay Ceremonies" (Univ. of Cal. Pub. in Amer. Arch. and Eth., vol. XV, nos. 3 and 4). The Nabaloi are the southernmost Igorot and, while sharing the general mode of life of their northern congeners, present interesting variations. There is a division into two castes on the basis of wealth, the rich lording it over the poor. Communal dormitories for boys and girls were once in vogue but are no longer so, and head-hunting likewise has become obsolete. The Nabaloi believe in a considerable number of spirits, whose cult is in the hands of the priests, those directing certain ceremonies being women. Most of the rituals are held for a curative purpose, the proper performance being first determined by divination. Sickness is conceived to result from the action of malevolent spirits or the craving of the souls of the dead for food and raiment. Two of the most important ceremonials which were formerly devoted to the celebration of a head-hunting raid and the cementing of peace, respectively, have assumed an altered significance, being now performed in order to cure or avert disease. Expensive ritual feasts are obligatory on the rich who wish to maintain their social status. Great importance is attached to the death ceremonies. In each case the spoken ritual consists of either a petition or a story that functions as a magical formula. The ceremonial scheme of the Kankanay confirms in its broad outlines to the Nabaloi pattern but exhibits greater local differentiation.

In two treatises on Fêtes et chanson anciennes de la Chine and La polygynie sororale et le sororat dans la Chine féodale, Marcel Granet develops facts and conceptions of general ethnological interest. He distinguishes as "sororate" the custom of marrying a deceased wife's sister, while the simultaneous marriage of several sisters is designated as sororal polygyny. In China about 25 centuries ago a nobleman was expected to marry wives belonging to a single family or bearing a single family name, but union with three sisters was tabooed. The orthodox allotment of wives comprised a woman, her younger sister, and her elder brother's daughter, all three being married by a single ceremony. The levirate was strictly forbidden, though connived at among commoners. A man and his elder brother's wife were not permitted to hold conversation. The feudal marriage law is supposed to have been superimposed on the simpler usages of the common folk, who were organized in local kin groups bearing a family name. Granet conceives these communes to have had connubial relations in pairs, each member of a pair exchanging its girls for those of the complementary group. The kinship nomenclature is suggestive in linking together father and paternal uncle, mother and maternal aunt, father's sister and mother-in-law, mother's brother and father-inlaw, son-in-law and sister's son, respectively.

An important addition to ethnographic knowledge is offered in E. W. Smith's and A. M. Dale's two volume work on The Ila-speaking People of Northern Rhodesia. The Ba-ila, who correspond to other writers' Mashukulumbwe, live on the Kafue plains about 200 miles north of the Victoria Falls of the Zambesi. They are divided into a great number of matrilineal exogamous clans associated with totems which are not eaten by the group bearing the totem's name. Although the maternal uncle exercises some special

powers over his sister's children, a husband retains control of them in case of divorce since he has purchased his wife's issue with the brideprice. He has the usufruct of her body, but she holds property rights independently of him. Both the levirate and sororate are practiced and men also marry their cross-cousins but only the daughters of their paternal aunts. Besides the orthodox forms of permanent marriage there are also temporary exchange of wives and licensed cicisbeism. In additions to one's clan each individual also looks for assistance to his and her age-mates, i.e. those born or initiated in the same year. Fellow-members of an age-grade have the right of taking all sorts of privileges with one another, such as exercising ridicule or even hurling curses. Communities and lesser hamlets are governed by chiefs and headmen respectively, but chiefs are not absolute rulers, having definitely circumscribed prerogatives, such as allotting new land, admitting or excluding strangers, and exacting taxes for special purposes. Succession is not fixed, a council of elders selecting the fittest candidate from among the deceased chief's clansmen or sons. In judicial procedure oaths and ordeals figure prominently, the latter as either hot water or poison tests. The religious beliefs comprise faith in an impersonal power, in the transmigration of souls, in ghosts, divinities of varying rank, and a supreme deity named Leza who figures as the founder of many customs and is supplicated in times of drought and sickness. Below him are the communal gods, who are relied upon for success in war and protection against lions and pestilence. They are invoked jointly by all members of the community, while other spirits are associated exclusively with kin groups, husband and wife praying to distinct beings. Special spots are consecrated to the several gods but no effigies are made of them. On numerous occasions there are ceremonial offerings.

In a work on Herkunft und Wanderung der Hamiten the zoölogist L. Adametz attempts to solve the Hamitic problem through a study of the domesticated animals found among the Hamites. He argues that since the wild forms of the typically Hamitic sheep and goat, viz. Ovis vignei cycloceros and Capra falconeri, occur in Afghanistan, Beluchistan, and Northwestern India, this region must be regarded as the starting-point of Hamitic migrations. The longhorned ox of ancient Egypt is also regarded as a product of Hamitic domestication, having been bred from Bos primigenius on Egyptian soil.

A monumental three-volume work has been issued by F. Von Luschan on Die Altertümer von Benin. The author gives a detailed account of the Benin antiquities scattered over the world since the British punitive expedition. He stresses the essentially African character of the art products, but in corroboration of Frobenius' results assumes an ancient cultural connection between the western Sudanese and southern Europe. As regards the famous bronzes cast in the cire perdue manner of the Renaissance, Von Luschan points out that most of them contain very little tin.

In his "Etude éthnographique et anthropologique sur les Tedas du Tibesti" (L'Anthropologie, XXX, pp. 115-135) P. Noel supplements Nachtigal's earlier notes on this Saharan people, especially with reference to social custom. Infant betrothal is found to hold sway and in case

of the boy's death before maturity he is superseded by a younger brother or paternal kinsman. Polygyny is common but the wives generally live in different localities visited by their husband. an arrangement consistent with the nomadic habits of the tribe. In the marriage ceremonial there is a pretense of capturing the bride, who is secluded for a period—four months, if a noblewoman-before she takes up the distinctively feminine labors of skin-dressing, matting and hasketry. The avoidance rules are interesting. The son-in-law and his wife's kin avoid each other until the birth of a son, when they may exchange a few words. On the other hand, the wife speaks freely with her parents-in-law. The wife is not permitted to pronounce her husband's name and must not uncover her head before him.

EXPEDITIONS, MEETINGS, PERSONALIA. Toward the close of the year an ambitious scheme for the ethnological and archæological exploration of Polynesia was launched through the generosity of Mr. Bayard Dominick and under the auspices of the Bishop Museum in Honolulu. The participants have been largely recruited from the United States. Drs. E. S. Handy and R. Linton have set out for the Marquesas Islands, E. W. Gifford and Wm. C. McKern to Tonga, and R. T. Aitken and J. F. G. Stokes to the Austral group. Not technically connected with this project but in consonance with its aims a somatological survey of Hawaiians has been undertaken by L. R. Sullivan, particular attention being directed to problems of miscegenation. A midsummer conference of scholars from different parts of the world was held in Honolulu to promote Polynesian research; American anthropology was represented by C. Wissler, A. M. Tozzer, and A. L. Kroeber.

In Canada field work has been resumed on almost ante-bellum scale, but in the United States it has hardly recovered that fortunate stage as yet. The Geological Survey of Canada has dispatched H. I. Smith to study the material culture of the West Coast tribes; C. M. Barbeau has resumed his intensive investigations of the Tsimshian; and there has been some archæological work in the East by Wintemberg, as well as some ethnographic research in the Great Lakes region by Waugh. The United States National Museum sent Dr. W. Hough to work among the Hopi and Apache, while Dr. A. Hrdlicka of the same institution visited China, Japan, Korea, and Hawaii and N. M. Judd visited Chaco Cañon and Northwestern Arizona. Dr. J. W. Fewkes, chief of the Bureau of American Ethnology, resumed his archæological labors in the Mesa Verde National Park; of his staff Dr. T. Michelson is continuing his investigation of Fox and other Algonkin tongues. N. C. Nelson of the American Museum of Natural History is engaged in archæological work in the southwest. The Museum of the American Indian Heye Foundation has continued its support of local archæological research under the direction of Messrs. M. R. Harrington, G. H. Pepper, and A. Skinner, and Prof. M. H. Saville has left to carry on Mexican investigations. Excavations of Seneca sites in Ontario county, N. Y., have been made by A. C. Parker, the archæologist of the New York State Museum. Of European scholars, Dr. H. P. Steensby visited the lower St. Lawrence county in connection with historical studies bearing on early Norse exploration, and Dr. Karsten returned to Sweden after a several years' so

journ among the Jibaro and Colorado of Ecuador. The British Mackie Expedition has been carrying on investigations in Uganda under the leadership of Rev. John Roscoe. Three months were devoted to the Bahima of Ankole, then a Bantu tribe inhabiting the mountains of Kigezi was visited, and finally the Bunyoro were studied.

The United States was visited by the two most eminent British representatives of the diffusionist point of view, Drs. W. H. R. Rivers and G. Elliot Smith, who lectured and exchanged opinions with their American colleagues. Anthropology has sustained the loss of Wm. Churchill, the well-known student of Polynesian linguistics and ethnography; of W. Radloff, Director of the Museum in Petrograd, the foremost investigator of the Siberian Turks; of Dr. S. A. Lafone Quevedo, the veteran Argentine ethnologist and linguist; and of the famous Italian anthropologist Rodolfo Livi, renowned for his Antropometria militare.

ANTIGUA. See LEEWARD ISLANDS.

ANTI-SALOON LEAGUE OF AMERICA. Founded in 1895 by the coalition of the AntiSaloon leagues of five States, this is a national federation of organizations whose object is the extermination of the beverage liquor traffic in the world. In 1920 it has 50 subsidiary State leagues and was working in coöperation with more than 40 other national temperance leagues. More than 1000 representatives conduct the work of the League. Despite the fact that the prohibition amendment to the Constitution had been passed, the League found a great deal of work necessary for its proper enforcement. The fight over the question of 2.75 beer was bitter, especially as the League had not obtained many favorable results in its efforts to prohibit this beverage. The League claims that the great harm in alcohol is the poisoning that it produces, and not the drunkenness, and that a small amount of alcohol each day leads to very serious and harmful consequences. The following_survey was printed in the Anti-Saloon Year Book, showing what has happened to the erstwhile saloons and breweries: 500 breweries were manufacturing non-intoxicating cereal beverages; about 23 per cent of the breweries had been turned into ice factories and cold storage plants; others had been converted into oil refineries, canning factories, candy factories, vinegar plants, packing houses, creameries, beet-sugar factories, chemical factories, etc. The advent of prohibition had put out of business 236 distilleries, 1090 breweries, and 177,790 saloons. The League sent out a large number of questionaires during the year as to the result of prohibition and as to how it is regarded by various interests. The results and a great deal of other information were pub lished in the Year Book of the organization.

Reports from foreign countries showed in general that steps were being taken to curb the excessive drinking of intoxicating liquors. In Great Britain, however, there was a 60 per cent increase in 1919 of the amount of liquor consumed over the amount in 1918. The fact that a considerable number of European countries are dependent on wine as one of their principal products, makes it hard to introduce prohibition by any other than slow degrees.

The officers of the League for 1920 were Bishop Luther B. Wilson, president; Hon. S. E. Nicholson, secretary; Rev. P. A. Baker, general superintendent; Ernest H. Cherrington, general

APHRODITE

manager of publishing interests. The American Issue is the official organ of the League, and there are 29 subsidiary and State organs. The publishing house and executive offices are in Westerville, Ohio, where three tons of literature are turned out daily. The legislative committee has its headquarters in the Bliss Building, Washington, D. C.

APHRODITE. See MUSIC, Opera. AQUEDUCTS. The most notable projects of 1920 were those involved in the extensions of the water supply systems of New York and San Francisco. In the former city J. Waldo Smith, Chief Engineer, in his annual report stated that progress on the construction of the Shandaken tunnel of the Catskill water supply system for New York City had continued during 1919 and at the year's end all but one of the eight shafts had been completed and the tunnel heads turned. During the year 2356 linear feet of shaft were sunk and 1098 feet of tunnel were driven. A transmission line for the purpose of furnishing electrical energy to the various parts of the project had been constructed from a point near Kingston to the intake shaft at the Schoharie reservoir, a total distance of 50 miles.

During the year 1920 the contract for the Shandaken tunnel was assigned by the original contractors, the Degnon Contracting Company of New York City, to the Shandaken Tunnel Corporation, incorporated by the Ulen Contracting Corporation of New York, the Fidelity and Deposit Company of Maryland, and the National Surety Company, with a paid-in capital of $750,000. This corporation was organized specially for completing the project which it took over towards the end of the year, with approximately $2,000,000 worth of work completed. The seven construction and the one intake shafts had all been sunk and turned. The original contract was let to the Degnon Company Nov. 10, 1917, the 'contract price being approximately $12,000,000.

SAN FRANCISCO-HETCH HETCHY PROJECT. This work advanced materially during the year 1920 both as regards the dam begun in 1919 (see YEAR BOOK for 1919, article DAMS) and the main tunnel to carry the water to San Francisco. At the site of the main Hetch Hetchy dam the Utah Construction Company had excavated both abutments from crest level down to water level, opened quarries, built tracks to bunkers, crushers, and screens and installed another incline, with a capacity of 40 tons, down to the floor of the valley. The entire foundation of the dam was expected to be exposed, and ready for concrete pouring early in 1921.

By the early summer of 1920 more than 3 miles of tunnel had been excavated on the Mountain Division of the Hetch Hetchy Aqueduct. The Construction Company of North America, which began operations on May 17th, had excavated almost half a mile of tunnel since taking over the city's forces. The validity of their contract was attacked in a taxpayers' suit which placed an injunction on the payment of $276, 776, the initial fee due the construction company, thus, as will be seen below, somewhat embarrassing the prosecution of the work.

Later in the summer the Construction Company of North America sublet the 18-mile contract to two well-known tunnel men. A. C. Dennis became responsible for 10 miles of the work on the west or Priest portal end and Rex C. Starr the 8 miles on the Early Intake end.

Mr. Dennis was in personal charge of construction on the 5-mile Rogers Pass tunnel for the Canadian Pacific Railway, where exceptional progress records were made. Mr. Starr had also gained a reputation for speedy work in tunnel driving. Later he assigned his contract. The following was the progress to the summer at each end of the tunnel headings where work was being carried on: Priest Portal, 6320 linear feet; Big Creek, west heading, 1400 linear feet; Big Creek, east heading, 1000 linear feet; South Fork, 4280 linear feet; Early Intake, 4000 linear feet.

However, work on the tunnels was shut down on August 26th by a strike of the tunnel workers, and, pending the outcome of the suit over the contract, was not resumed. This decision was rendered on Oct. 16, 1920, and new crews were then brought in and, beginning November 1st. the several headings were all being worked.

The Supreme Court of California decided that nothing in San Francisco's charter prevented the city from entering into a contract on a cost-plus fee basis such as that made with the Construction Company of North America for driving 18 miles of tunnel on the Hetch Hetchy project. The decision was of general interest as possibly applying elsewhere, where such contracts had been made. Accordingly in the Engineering News-Record a résumé of the features involved, supplied by M. M. O'Shaughnessy, city engineer of San Francisco, was printed as follows: The contract embodies construction on the cost-plus plan, with the following modifications: 1. The contractor's fee is a flat sum fixed by competitive bidding and is payable in installments, including three annual advance payments which assist the contractor in financing his work.

2. While the contractor is required to secure and superintend the labor, and is given the right to "hire and fire" men, no change in wage scale can be made without concurrence of both the contractor and the board of public works. Materials and supplies furnished are purchased directly by the city after competitive bidding, in which the contractor himself may participate.

3. The contract contains a guarantee by the contractor as to maximum unit costs of work which were specified by him in his bid. If the actual costs exceed these bid costs, such excess is deducted from the unpaid balance of the contractor's fee. The method of determining the costs is set forth in detail in the specifications.

4. In order to insure the city's receiving the lowest possible bids both for contractor's fee and guaranteed unit costs, the board of public works was permitted to award the contract to the lowest bidder on either basis.

The contract has been in effect about six months, although payment of the contractor's fee had been withheld until the final determination of the suit. The system has worked very satisfactorily so far, and the City of San Francisco anticipated that the total cost will be less, by some $2,000,000, than the lowest flat price bid received under alternative specifications at the same time.

SPRING VALLEY WATER SUPPLY. The City of San Francisco in addition to the Hetch Hetchy project was proposing in 1920 to acquire the properties of the Spring Valley Water Company, a private corporation which had supplied the city. The Railroad Commission of California began in March at the request of the city authori

ties extended investigations of the properties of the company, and late in the year announced that it had placed on the same a valuation of $37,000,000. The city authorities agreed to submit to the voters a proposition to acquire this valuable property by purchase, and the company on the other hand agreed to submit to its stockholders the proposition to sell at a price fixed by the commission. At the end of 1920 it was planned to hold in the following February a special city election to pass on the proposed purchase. A similar proposition to purchase the Spring Valley Water Company property in 1914 was defeated at a popular election, but the basic price then proposed figured in the 1920 negotiations with modifications in the way of depreciation and later additions. The 1920 valuation estimates also considered the cost to reproduce the plant and appurtenances not on prevailing costs but on average prices from 1914 to 1920.

With reference to the wisdom of the immediate purchase of the Spring Valley system by the city, the commission stated "There is no escape from the conclusion that the present supply of water for the city of San Francisco is dangerously near the point of insufficiency. Immediate steps to increase the supply should be taken. The water supply can be increased only in two ways: either by the city doing its own development in the immediate future or by creating conditions where the Spring Valley Water Co. can be put in a position to proceed with such develop ment. In view of existing conditions it is not to be expected that the company is ready or able to raise the necessary new capital for construction and extensions and the city cannot afford to wait for an improvement of the urgent present water situation until the completion of the Hetch Hetchy system.

"With efficient operation and under reasonable water rates the purchase of the Spring Valley system will carry itself. It may be assumed that the Calaveras dam will be completed in the case of the purchase of the system by the city. The completion of the Calaveras reservoir will make available an additional supply of water sufficient to take care of the present urgent needs of the city. It is estimated that this addition will be suflicient to meet the demands of the city until the completion of the Hetch Hetchy system and supply the needs of a population in excess of 700,000."

WELLINGTON, NEW ZEALAND, PROPOSED AQUEDUCT. The city council of Wellington, the capital of New Zealand, during 1920 decided to expend about $500,000 in cutting two tunnels through the hills near the city to bring water from the Orongorongo River, with the additional expenditure of $1,119,295 for extra mains and other expenses to provide a water supply sufficient for a city of 130,000 people. The population of Wellington and its suburbs in 1920 was about 95,000. See WATER SUPPLY.

ARABIA. The large peninsula in southwestern Asia lying to the south of Syria, Mesopotamia, and the Persian Gulf, with an area estimated at 1,200,000 square miles, or excluding the Syrian desert and the Sinaitic peninsula, about 1,000,000 square miles, and a population variously estimated, the highest figure being about 7,500,000. There are great tracts of desert occupied only by Bedouin tribes which are nomadic in their habits, and in these regions a traveler may preceed many days without meeting

a

person. The difficulty of determining the population even approximately cannot be overcome and according to some estimates there are only 4,000,000 people in the country. The northern sand belt and the great southern desert are uninhabitable. The people are found mainly on the northern edge of the northern sand belt, and in the hinterland of Yemen, the interior of Oman, and the highlands of Asir. In Central Arabia there are many oases, however, and these as well as the fertile districts on the coasts support settled communities. The country in 1919 was divided among the following political organizations, which, however, were not of a determinate character: The kingdom of Hejaz or Hedjaz with uncertain frontiers, but with a population of about 750,000. Historically and from the point of view of religion it is the most important part, as it contains the holy places and the sacred cities of Mecca (80,000) and Medina (40,000). It was formerly included in the Turkish Empire, constituting the vilayet of Hejaz. There is a railway terminating at Medina. Its chief port and capital is Jidda on the Red Sea (population 20,000). By the treaty with Turkey the independence of Hejaz was recognized.

The emirate of Nejd and Hassa is the greater of the two principalities in the central part of the country and the seat of the Saud dynasty whose great extension of power in recent years is noted below, under History. It sprang from the old Wahabite Empire founded in 1745. The capital is Riyadh.

The emirate of Jebel Shêmmar or Shammar, lying to the north of Nejd, was formerly under its control but broke away and maintained its independence under the Rashid family until the great war. Recently a reconciliation between this dynasty and that of Sand was reported, which again brought it under the Saud influence. Its capital is the Bedouin city, Hail, and the emir in 1920 was Adullah Ibn Mitah who succeeded at the assassination of his father in May of that year.

The principality of Asir is on the western coast between Hejaz and Yemen and its capital is Sabiyah in the south. In part of the region, especially in the highland country, the tribes are virtually independent.

Finally the imamate of Yemen is centred about Sanaa under a dynasty which traces its descent to the daughter of Fatima. Here there is a large cultivatable area and a considerable agricultural production. In 1920, the imam was Yahya Mohammed Hamid-ed-Din. Population of Yemen, about 1,000,000. Its capital is Sanaa, with a population of about 25,000, and its chief ports are Mocha and Hodeida. For mention of the other divisions which are found within the limits of Arabia, see the articles, ADEN, OMAN, and KOWEIT.

was

HISTORY. In preceding YEAR BOOKS an account has been given of the rise and history of the kingdom of Hejaz, which was founded during the war (1916) when Hussein, Sherif of Mecca, freed himself from Turkish power and crowned king of the Hejaz. The new kingdom was supported by British arms and stood before the world as the chief power in Arabia. Almost all the discussion in the press during the war and afterward had to do with Hejaz and little was said about the remainder of the country. The kingdom of Hejaz, however, was not the