Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 11, 1900.djvu/212

 202 Reviews.

fore has a right to claim that he has been able to record much which a stranger would never have heard of. Country folk are shy of talking to strangers about their beliefs, especially of such as are now generally made a joke of. The author has been so fortunate as to get hold of several manuscript books of folk- medicine ; and these he has supplemented by inquiry and from his own knowledge. He has not given us the books complete, but classified the contents ; thus each bit appears in its place amongst traditional lore of the same kind. As regards his faithfulness in dealing with the authorities we have no means of judging, but the extracts show every appearance of care in copying. The classi- fication and subdivision is perhaps a trifle overdone, a fault often noticeable in German books ; and the description of the books is needlessly minute. But after all these are faults on the right side. It is easy to skip what we do not want to read, and there is a full index. A useful list of authorities is appended. The contents of the book are of all sorts, and we have no space to give a full account of them. We would, however, call attention to the creature called Doggeli, an odd mixture of witch and goblin. The book may be recommended to students.

RiJGENSCHE Skizzen. Herausgegeben von Dr. A. Haas. Greifs- wald, Juhus Abel, 1898.

This little book, beautifully printed, and illustrated chiefly from photographs, is a collection of nine papers contributed at different times to local periodicals. They deal in an archaeological spirit with various points in the history and ethnography of the isle of Riio-en. A large part of the volume, although interesting, does not specially concern students of folklore. It contains, however, two chapters on marriage-customs and harvest-customs. Both have been studied at first-hand, and for the former the author has also availed himself of the accounts left by earlier writers. Both sets of customs are worth study. In both, the songs sung and rhymed speeches are given at length. Among the bridal customs are some very curious. There were five bridesmaids, named Nibb, Tull, Niill, Foy, and Sack, of whom Nibb ranked as chief brides-