Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 10, 1899.djvu/259

 Reviews. 221

that their existence in Irish forwarded their increased employment in the Icelandic Court poetry, though it is obvious that in poetry like Old English and Icelandic, depending on alliteration, the need for many synonyms will be felt, and therefore the employ- ment of " Kennings " must be looked for. For the authorities on the Coiwade, the New English Dictionary should be consulted, sub voce.

F. Y. P.

Les Chants et les Contes des Baronga de la Baie de Delagoa. Recueillis et transcrits par Henri A. Junod. Lausanne: Georges Bridel et Cie. 1897.

This is is a most attractive little book, and will go far to dispel a prejudice current among many worthy people, and perhaps (who knows ?) dating back to Mrs. Jellyby, that Africa is, if not a beast, a bore. The very spirited and life-like design, on the cover, of a Delagoa Bay kehia playing on his timbila is about as far removed as can be from ordinary conceptions of the African, while the contents will serve fairly well to refute a strange assertion of Mr. Bryce's that the " Kafirs " (he is speaking of South African natives in general) have not even an elementary idea of poetry.

The Baronga are one of the tribes of the Thonga (or Amatonga) nation, whose territory extends from St. Lucia Bay on the south to the Sabi River on the north. Their neighbours on the south are the Zulus, on the west the Swazis, the Bapedi (a Basuto tribe in the Transvaal), and Babvecha, and on the north the Banjao, who live between the Sabi and Zambesi. Their language and customs show the Thonga tribes to be not very closely allied to the Zulus, who (under the chiefs of Gungunyane's house) made themselves overlords of a great part of their country. Their relationship with the Zambezi tribes — the Nyai, Njao, and Mang'anja — is more obvious.

The first part of M. Junod's book, though the shorter, is not the least interesting. It deals with the songs of the Baronga, and contains numerous valuable observations on native music and musical instruments, as well as a great number of melodies tran- scribed in staff notation. The words of these melodies are as