Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 10, 1899.djvu/126

100 offers much that is akin in spirit and in mode of expression (not in form) to the ballad; very early Celtic poetry can show nothing of the kind. The mythico-heroic Irish sagas, those earliest known products of Celtic imagination, are frequently interlarded with verse; the earliest examples of Welsh heroic saga are in verse. In both cases the poetry differs from the ballads; it is epical, lyrical, or elegiac, but it never, or hardly ever, presents that combination of narrative and drama which is the distinguishing mark of the ballad. Celtic myth and history, whether Gaelic or Cymric, offered abundant material for the creation of a ballad literature, had the genius of the race been favourable. It was not, why we are unable to say. It is true that the absence of the ballad form in historic Celtic literature is no proof of its non-existence among the Celts in prehistoric times, but it does justify our claiming that an hypothesis such as that of M. Pineau should be supported by overwhelming evidence.

The speculative portion of M. Pineau's work to which I have practically restricted my notice is open to discussion. His presentment of a fascinating and magnificent literature is worthy of all praise, and will retain its value even if his hypotheses should fail to win acceptance.

If Mr. Moss's friends admire the jaunty and over-familiar style in which it is his lot to write, they must be as easily entertained as were Mr. Peter Magnus's acquaintances when he signed his hastily-scribbled notes "Afternoon." The subjects with which he deals are worthy of a more serious treatment than Mr. Moss seems able to bestow on them. His manner of expressing himself is often strikingly infelicitous, and his book has the added defect of being far too discursive. It must be said, however, that among the mass of generally-known folklore and miscellaneous information filling out its pages, there is to be found a good deal of curious and original matter. For instance, when dwelling on