Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 10, 1899.djvu/260

 22 2 Reviews.

often as not improvised, though some are traditional ; there is no metre in our sense of the word, though there is a certain rhythm imposed by the music. M. Junod shows the common notion that all native African music is in the minor key to be erroneous ; but he points out that the plaintive effect which has given rise to this impression is produced by the way in which the tunes almost invariably begin on a high note and descend. Of course it would be vain to look for what we understand by poetry in these rudi- mentary chants, but that they contain its elements will be evident on a cursory inspection. See especially the hunting-song on p. 55, the Sabela war-song on p. 62, and the lament for Nwamantibyane on p. 65. There is usually not much coherence in the words of these ditties — perhaps as much as in some of the favourite " chanties " of our sailors — and of some, probably because they have become archaic, it is exceedingly difficult to make sense at all. But we must pass from this part of the subject to the stories which take up the greater part of the book.

The author divides them into " Animal Stories," stories illus- trative of what he calls " La Sagesse des Petits," what we may call stories of the Cinderella type, ogre stories, moral tales, and foreign or imported stories. Of these last, some are clearly of Arab or Indian origin.

In the animal stories, as might be expected, it is the hare (here : mpfundla) who plays the chief part. M. Junod has been fortunate in obtaining two fairly connected cycles of his adven- tures, which he has entitled " Le Roman du Lievre." This story contains the famous Tar-Baby episode, almost exactly as related by Uncle Remus. Another prominent figure in the stories is the little toad known to science as Breviceps mosambicensis, to the Baronga as chinmia, and to the Yaos as kaswenene. This crea- ture (which is about three-quarters of an inch long, but possesses the faculty of inflating itself till it is somewhat larger and almost spherical in shape) has a whole epopee to itself, and in another tale even gets the better of Brer Rabbit.

The story of the " Hare and the Swallow " is not in itself a very remarkable one, but worth noting in connection with the diffusion of folk-tales. Camilla Chigwiyane, of Louren^o Mar- ques, who dictated this story to M. Junod, told him that it was a " Kua " tale — i.e. that it came from Mozambique, further north. But it was also obtained by M. Jacottet (see Revue des Traditions