The educational screen (c1922-c1956])

Mayv 1923 -School Department 223 poilred into hewn-out tree trunks, from which the sun absorbs the water and pure salt is left. In an island where no deposits of rock salt are found, the native makes offerings in wayside shrines to the gods, that the sea water may always be salt. Scarcely could there be a finer pictorial tribute to the ingenuity, th^ patience and engineering skill of the simple nativeV than the glimpses which the film gives of the rice fields, the methods of planting, and the full-grown grain standing on hundreds of terraced slopes to which water from the sea or from wells must be painstakingly conveyed. Nor has the film neglected to record scenes on market days : women with loads on their heads after the fashion of tropical countries and the market place itself, in which cock-fighting offers diversion when bargaining lags. One of the most picturesque customs of the island is the March of the Toadstools, which from a distance looks exactly like a file of huge toadstools wending its way slowly along a fringing reef. In reality, the toadstools are huge tightlywoven baskets, each borne over the head and shoulders of the fishermaidens, who wade out into the quiet waters, place the baskets on the shallow human driftwood is shown — opium fiends waiting to earn a bit of rice for the day's sustenance— and the superstitious custom of giving entertainment for the pleasure of the spirit world, at which time gorgeous costumes ornamented with swords, ". . . dancing girls wear crowns and costumes of beaten gold." bottom, encircle a large area and drive the little fish toward the baskets, from which they are caught and placed in the container worn as part of the headdress of the fishergirl. The life of the islands has its sordid and unsavory phases, which are as faithfully pictured as some of the more pleasant scenes. Some of the "Schuman walked up within ten feet." their hilts diamond-studded, mingle with weird likenesses to animals. The material of the four reels is so grouped that each is a more or less unified subject by itself. For instance. Reel II is very largely taken up with the rajah and his many wives, the interior of the harem "an orgy of extravagance" where dancing girls wear crowns and costumes of beaten gold and where standards are no better than we should expect. And the final reel gives a share of attention to an ape-man of the jungle who is seen among the monkeys in the tropical forest, climbing a tree in search of fruit, and; in closer view, drinking the milk of the cocoanut he has picked up. Here and there in the reels, also, are strikingly beautiful bits of the purely scenic — foliage of the tropics, views of an active volcano and its crater, and beautiful panoramas of cloudless mountain tops. Man vs. Beast (Educational), 2 reels — A genuine and realistic story, not without its full quota of thrills, of the big game hunt in the heart of Africa, so hazardous that in the end it cost the life of Louis Shuman, the explorer and sportsman who was responsible for the expedition of which this is the record. It is said that the film, along with his museum specimens collected during the expedition, are his "heritage to the world." The arrangement is roughly chronological, starting first with the expedition setting out, and going along with the pack train of natives, watching them with their leader participating in some of the most thrilling moments, when Shuman's