Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 11, 1900.djvu/422

 402 Reviews.

Horns of Honour, and other Studies in the By-ways of Archeology. By F. T. Elworthy. Murray. los. 6d. Illustrated.

The author of this book, like so many others, tries to prove too much. Not content with collecting examples of the use of horns as helmet-crests, as emblems, and so forth, he tries to associate them with the crescent moon. Not content with that, he tries to prove that other crests, not in the least like horns, are also derived from the moon. The lucky horseshoe is the crescent moon ; votive plaques (round, in fact) of terra-cotta, bearing the head of Hera, are the crescent moon ; the cross-branches at the top of an Etruscan hut are also horns of honour, and therefore the crescent moon : it is hard to discover what is not the crescent moon. Mr. Elworthy disregards the many streams which converge in a given form ; the magical power of iron in the horseshoe, for example, is more important than the shape; and goats, bulls, and stags wear horns as well as the crescent moon. It is always a mistake, but it seems to be almost an inevitable mistake, to explain every- thing on one principle. Mr. Elworthy's interpretations are not convincing.

When this is said, and when we have added that there is little method in the book, we have done with criticism. There is a great deal here which is interesting, much also which is new. Mr. Elworthy has drawn and published for the first time a remarkable series of magical hands, most of which are to be found in the Italian museums. These objects, from an artistic point of view hideous and loathsome, show a whole swarm of symbolic things upon them : a man in Phrygian dress, fruit, snake, lizard, dagger, scales, vase, Mercury's staff, bells, skulls, a woman in childbed, heaven knows what not. Here artificial interpretations are in place ; the hands are the product of a debased and self-conscious stage, not ancient and simple. A series of terra-cotta votive discs, from Tarentum, is also described. All this is new ; and so are a great many of the notes and observations scattered about in the volume. Not only descriptions of objects are given, but notes of customs connected with horns or hands, some from the author's own knowledge. This part of the book may be regarded as a supplement to Mr. Elworthy's Evil Eye. As a collection of material, this book is valuable ; but the reader must know how to use it.