Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 10, 1899.djvu/267

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book was apparently written about the tenth century in Egypt by a Mohammedan. Notwithstanding the title and some vague reservations in the text, the unknown writer seems to have really intended to give a true account of the world since the Creation, followed by a history of Egypt down to the Israelitish Exodus. As a matter of fact, continual prodigies turn even the historical part into a fairy tale, the result being a work interesting especially to folklorists. The disorder, repetitions, and contradictions are such as to arouse doubts whether the work was meant for publication in its present shape. There is an index to the Baron Carra de Vaux's translation, but as it does not comprise beliefs and usages, the following references may be of use. They belong to Egypt, unless stated otherwise. The numbers are those of the pages in the volume.

Spittle for infant lustration was used by Moses; he placed it in his son's mouth, 391. A marriage ceremony in Zanzibar (Zendj) consisted in blackening the man's face and seating him on a mound with the woman seated before him; the assistants then covered them with a dome of reeds and remained feasting before them for three days, 102. Widows and other members of the dead chiefs family were sacrificed to his spirit in Egypt, 183, 317; among the Bordjan, conjectured by the translator to be Bulgarians of the Volga, 124. An Egyptian queen drank the blood of a chief she had slain, "because the blood of kings gives health," 338. Head hunters are described, 70, perhaps the Dyaks of Borneo. Females were preferred to males for inheritance among the Chinese, 119, among the Bordjan (see above), 124. The droit du seigneur is mentioned as existing in Arabia, 154, in Egypt, 219. The castes of Egypt as described have a likeness to those of India, 194, 270.

Alexander the Great is conspicuous among wandering heroes, as is usual in Mohammedan legend. The account of his visit to the island of the Cynocephals, near to another island where Brahmans lived, 46, refers doubtless to some part of the Indian seas,