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In this huge volume the author gives us really three things: some speculative theories of his own on anthropological theory and field work, an account of the Tungus tribe and, especially, an exceptionally exhaustive and valuable account of Tungus shamanism. Apart from his unfortunate addictedness to the use of the word 'complex' and his tendency to use a cumbersome pseudo-scientific jargon, the author's remarks on field work are valuable. But the best part of the book is undoubtedly the account of shamanism. 'One of the interesting aspects of the shaman's psychology is the waging of war among shamans.' Not all shamans are supposed to do it, only those who are regarded as 'bad-natured' persons. Shamans fight each other in their dreams; and the fight is always connected with some kind of metamorphosis, such as fire, cloud, bear and tiger or a 'cart with horses' (p. 371). I have discussed quite similar concepts in Hungarian folklore (cf. my book on Magyar Néphit és Népszokások, 1925) and the fact that the same (far from universal) idea occurs in the Far East and on the Danube plain speaks for the age and unity of Ural-Altaic and Siberian shamanism. The author remarks: 'The above-given description of the wars among the shamans is in reality a description of disturbed psychomental conditions of the shamans. Undoubtedly they suffer from the mania of persecution which may attain very extreme forms with a fatal issue for the shamans, who very often perish, according to the Tungus' (p. 373). I think the author overestimates the amount of reality in the accounts of his informants, as for instance when he regards shamans with a 'bad heart' as an actual fact and attributes this condition to some psychosis instead of regarding it as due to projection on the part of the