Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 11, 1900.djvu/442

 422 Reviews.

Superstitions of the Highlands and Islands of Scotland, COLLECTED ENTIRELY FROM Oral Sources. By [the late] John Gregorson Campbell, Minister of Tiree. xx. 318 pp. Glasgow: MacLehose. 1900.

Many readers of Folk-Lore know the admirable work of the late Rev. J. G. Campbell as exemplified in vols. iv. and v. of Waifs a7id Strays of Celtic Tradition, and will be prepared to extend a warm welcome to this posthmiious volume, excellently edited by his sister, Mrs. Wallace, fragmentary though it be. It consists of twelve chapters : The Fairies ; Tales illustrative of Fairy Super- stition ; Tutelary Beings ; The Urisk, The Blue Men, and the Mermaid ; The Water Horse ; Superstitions about Animals ; Mis- cellaneous Superstitions; Augury; Premonitions and Divination; Dreams and Prophecies; Imprecations, Spells, and the Black Art; The Devil ; and reflects with rigorous fidelity popular lore in the Gaelic districts of Western Scotland during the second half of the century. Statements and beliefs are given exactly as they reached the author, nor do I think it would be possible to detect a single instance in which wider knowledge or prepossession of any kind has induced him to alter or distort a fact. This rigid con- scientiousness will always secure for Mr. Campbell's work the confidence and regard of true folklorists.

The author has not essayed to harmonise the popular pre- sentation of the fairy world, but has left it in all its striking and perplexing inconsistency. Thus, e.g., on p. 23 we are told that " (fairy) gifts have evil influence cormected with them, and however inviting at first, are productive of bad luck in the end," whilst on p. 24 we learn that a fairy gift, or rather returned loan, of oatmeal " proved inexhaustible," provided certain conditions were com- plied with. This very inconsistency is a warrant of the faithful- ness with which the lore has been recorded ; the fairy beUef of Gaelic Ireland and Scotland represents a very archaic creed over- laid by alien and inimical systems of faith ; in the popular mind of to-day, traces of incongruous or opposing doctrine are inevitably bound to make themselves felt.

Mr. Campbell may be the more implicitly trusted because in certain respects he shared the linguistic interpretations of his informants. Thus he fully accepts the popular connection of the word sidhe, used to designate the fairy race, with sith = peace, and

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