Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 13, 1902.djvu/468

 448 Reviews.

Sir Otis de Lisle's brachet was no doubt a supernatural animal. One point of this description has passed unnoticed. In the final encounter one of the magician-knights escapes wounded, and Sir Libeaus laments his want 'of foresight in not dispatching him at once, as he is sure to suffer harm from him later. Of course we ought to hear more of this, instead of which the adventure ends rather abruptly. This is then apparently a survival from an earlier version, and it might be adduced as evidence in favour of this form of the story (in which the enchanters Mabon and Yrain are two and not one), being the more original. The story closes with the hero being kissed by a " worm" or dragon, who thereupon turns into a beautiful woman. This is an event of frequent occurrence ; but there are two points which so far as we know are peculiar to the present version. In the first place the worm has a woman's face. In the second the worm kisses the hero, not the hero the worm, as it should be. This is probably due to the hero being, as we are informed, petrified at the sight of the beast, and would seem to be most likely a purely literary vagary on the part of the poet. It is however always well to speak with caution on such points.

Walter W, Greg. The Sin of Witchcraft. By Alexander Pulling. D. Nutt. is. We have here a paper read at a meeting of the Hitchin Society of Arts and Letters on February 15th last. In the short space of an address it was not possible to do more than pick out the salient points necessary for Mr. Pulling's thesis, and this task he has successfully accomplished. His study is entirely of a literary character, and consists of a brief but useful survey of the chief points about witchcraft which occur in classical and mediaeval literature. We do not pretend to suggest that he has presented any new view of its origin and the causes of its revival ; but at least he has not added any fresh errors to those accumulated round the subject, and he has carefully abstained from that worst " sin of witchcraft," which consists in suggesting a whole host of theories without adducing a single foundation in evidence. His readers will have nothing to unlearn.