Thomas has "woven a dress of dainty English," when Mr. Thomas himself says, "the style of the originals has been left largely untouched," the said "style of the originals" being often as deplorable an example of the way in which a folk-story should not be told as can be imagined. Instances such as this one make it necessary to say that the greatest danger in front of the neo-Celtic movement is lack of self-criticism, the tendency to be-swan every goose if so be it is supposed to have been reared on a Celtic common. Work is judged not by its intrinsic merit, but by its assumed "national" tendency. A conventional jargon has arisen which has its justification neither in history nor in psychology, and is ladled out broadcast with an utter lack of discrimination which would be comic if it were not fraught with peril to a cause in itself deserving the support of all who love what is beautiful, individual, and pregnant with life. Just as in the eighteenth century a charlatan of genius deluded the world into accepting his own (in its way very interesting) conception of life and art as the genuine expression of the archaic Celtic spirit, so to-day a number of charlatans, lacking Macpherson's gifts, are foisting on the world an equally deluding phantasm. And whereas Macpherson had some excuse, in that the true sources were hard of access in his day and the true method of using and appreciating them had not been elaborated, his present-day successors, if they would only do a little honest hard work, have at hand the materials for veracious and intelligent criticism and exposition of the Celtic spirit. But they prefer to absorb themselves in the contemplation of their own navels, and to spin therefrom endless. cobwebs which are only substantial in so far as they shut out light and life.

ALFRED NUTT.

POPULAR HANDBOOKS OF RELIGIONS.

66

1. J. ABRAHAMS, "JUDAISM"; 2. E. ANWYL, "CELTIC RELIGION IN PRE-CHRISTIAN TIMES"; 3. C. BAILEY, "RELIGION OF ANCIENT ROME"; 4. L. D. BARNETT, "HINDUISM"; 5. W. A. CRAIGIE, "RELIGION OF ANCIENT SCANDINAVIA"; 6. W. M. F. Petrie, "RELIGION OF ANCIENT EGYPT"; 7. T. G. PINCHES, "Religion of Babylonia and Assyria”; 8. C. SQUIRE, "MYTHOLOGY OF ANCIENT BRITAIN AND IRELAND." London: Constable & Co., 1906-7.

It is a welcome indication of the growing interest in the study of comparative religion that demand has arisen for this excellent cheap series of popular manuals. The names of the writers furnish a guarantee that the information is supplied in a scholarly form, and that the manuals embody the results of the most recent investigations. The volumes naturally vary in interest and value. Where the writer has to deal with a welldefined collection of beliefs, like those of Judaism and Islam, each of which refers for its authority to a sacred Canon which has now been finally closed, the task is naturally easier than in the case of an amorphous creed like that of Hinduism. Limitations of space have in many of these volumes prevented the exposition from being little more than a bald summary, and no room has been left for a treatment of the subject on philosophical lines. Literary form, again, except in the case of Mr. Anwyl's account of Celtic Religion, and Mr. Bailey's essay on that of Ancient Rome, has become of secondary importance. In some cases the method of treatment is hardly satisfactory. In the case of Hinduism, for instance, Dr. Barnett has, it is true, given a good summary, so far as it goes, of its leading phases; but it seems open to question whether a different method would not have been more effective. The explorer has to force his way through a jungle of sectarian gods and their myriad cults, while it would have been more useful to the student new to the subject, to explain with more clearness that the development of the faith took the form of an evolution within the boundaries of the faith itself, from Vedism to Brahmanism, and thence to worship of the sectarian gods; to exhibit

in greater detail the effect of caste on religion, the growth of the principle of metempsychosis and pantheistic beliefs; to make it more evident that Buddhism and Jainism were not violent reforms enforced by agencies foreign to Hinduism; to explain why these movements arose in western Bengal, and why the impulse which led to the reformed neo-Brahmanism came from southern India. But this is only to say that such a line of treatment was not the immediate object of the writer, and was impossible under the general scheme of the series, and within the narrow limits assigned to him. In some cases the bibliographies might have been with advantage extended, and only one volume, that on Egypt, is provided with an index. On the whole this series of popular manuals will serve a useful purpose, if they do not encourage in the general reader the belief that each contains all that is worth knowing on the vast subject with which it deals, and if the study of them leads him to investigate the original literature to which they supply an adequate introduction.

W. CROOKE.

SHORT BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTICES.

Volkskundliche Zeitschriftenschau für 1904, herausgegeben im Auftrage der hessischen Vereinigung für Volkskunde von L. DIETRICH. Leipzig: Teubner, 1907. Pp. 328.

THIS bibliography maintains the promise of its predecessor, and it says much for the Vereinigung that the lamented death of Prof. Strack has simply delayed the appearance of a single annual issue. The contents are classified into fifteen sections, plus one of addenda, according to the character of the periodical analysed. Then follow indexes of periodicals, books, and subjects. The volume is already large, and perhaps an index of authors is impossible, but one is certainly desirable.

The compte rendu of each article follows the title, and this arrangement makes it impossible either to glance through the latter or to arrange the former under subject headings. It is a

matter for consideration whether it would not be a more convenient plan to give a list of titles (with references) and add the "Referate," after the manner of the Botanisches Jahrbuch, under a separate heading; this would permit of a classification of the latter without compelling any alteration in the present classification by periodicals, reference from title to "Referat " being made by means of numbers.

N. W. THOMAS.

Transactions of the First Annual Congress of the European Theosophical Society, held at Amsterdam, 1904. Edited by

JOHAN VAN MAUEN. Amsterdam, 1906. Second Congress,

London, 1905. London, 1907. Third Congress, Paris,

1906. London, 1907.

UNLESS attention is specially called to these volumes, they may escape the notice of folklorists; but they, especially the later ones, deal with many subjects pertinent to Folklore study, and contain papers which should by no means be overlooked. Department B. includes the subjects of Religion, Mysticism, Myths and Legends, and Folklore; while several papers in the sections of Philosophy, Science and Art, bear upon various points more or less connected with folklore. The following are some of the most interesting and important papers from this point of view.

Trans. I., Amsterdam.

E. Weise, Fraternity as found in the Laws of Primitive Races. (Marriage-laws, taboo, totemism, etc.)

D. v. Hinlasper, Labbertav Kitab Tasaref. (A Dutch paper, relating to a curious Javanese philosophical work.)

Trans. II., London.

A. von Ulrich, The Religion of our Forefathers; The Mythology of Germany in the Light of Theosophy. (Deals chiefly with the Eddas and the Sagas connected with them.)

Trans. III., Paris.

George M. Doe, Some Folklore Gleanings, principally from Devonshire. (An important paper, including notes on Omens and Warnings, Charms and Incantations, Witchcraft, and Beliefs and Customs.)

A. von Ulrich, The Religion of our Forefathers in the Slavonic Race. (Some of the remains of old religious beliefs to be found among the Lithuanians, Russians, Bohemians and Poles, and the Wends and Prussians.)

M. U. Green, Some Notes on the Voyage of Bran, with special references to other Planes and States of Being. Ed. Bailly, Invocation aux Dieux Planétaires.

W. F. KIRBY.

Orkney and Shetland Old Lore, vol. i., 1907, and vol. ii., part i., January, 1908: together with Diplomatarium Orcadense et Hialtlandense. Collected and edited by ALFRED W. JOHNSTON, AMY JOHNSTON, and JÓN STEFÁNSSON. London: Printed at the King's Weigh House for the Viking Club.

THIS new venture of the Viking Club promises to be an excellent local-historical publication, of which the second section-the legal documents-especially should prove useful to historians. The only articles bearing on folklore in the first volume are an account of the ancient system of dividing seaweed (for use as manure) among the farms in Orkney (pp. 33, 34), the jingle-refrain of a spinning-song (p. 89), and an excellent translation of a legend from the Fljótsdæla Saga (pp. 72-77, 96-105), which relates the rescue by a young Icelandic hero, armed with a magic sword, of a maiden-the Earl of Shetland's daughter-from the cave of a giant in the face of a sea-cliff. The giant had cut steps in the rock to avoid wetting his feet. A correspondent asks (p. 120) whether giants usually objected to wet feet. Reference to County Folklore, vol. iii. (Orkney and Shetland), p. 260, would show him one in Shetland itself who provided himself with a stepping-stone for this reason.