Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 11, 1900.djvu/109

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into its den, but the shrewd beast cries out, " I have seen many forehead-marks, but never have I seen eyes in mud." In No. 297 the little bird whose eggs have been washed away by the tide wages successful war with the ocean. In 1259 we have the man who claimed kindred with the rich owner of a tree because his cart was made of that wood — "My second cousin plays the German flute." In No. 1629 we have a version of the familiar Three Fatal Wishes.

Among folk-beliefs, of which the author gives only very scanty information, I may note No. 216. After the bear growls at people he becomes deaf, so the only way to escape from his clutches is to shout at him before he sees you. In No. 264 we have the idea that to see two crows coupling is fatal, which is more usually re- ported of snakes (Frazer, Pausanias, vol. v. p. 61). In No, 880 we are told that the finger nails are poisonous, and hence Parsis fling their nail pairings out of doors. I am inclined to doubt whether natives believe their own nails to be poisonous. They certainly believe this of Europeans, and this explains why we use knives and forks and do not eat with our fingers as our betters do. I suspect that the Parsi takes care to dispose of the parings of his nails lest a witch may work evil to him by means of them. In No. 1453 we have the woman who when she falls down says she is wor- shipping the sun, an avoidance of evil omen like Caesar's Teneo te Africa.

It is almost needless to say that the book is produced in the admirable way which we are accustomed to in the Clarendon Press, and as the originals of the proverbs are given in the Devanagari character it may be useful to students of the Marathi tongue.

W. Crooke.

Encyclopedia Biblica : a Critical Dictionary of the Literary, Political, and Religious History, the Archeology, Geography, and Natural History of the Bible. Edited by Rev. T. K. Cheyne, M.A., D.D., and J. Sutherland Black, M.A., LL.D. Vol. i. London : A, AND C. Black, 1899.

This great work, of which the first volume has just appeared,

owes its inspiration to the late Professor Robertson Smith, whose

famous Biblical articles contiibuted to the ninth edition of the

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