Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 15, 1904.djvu/395

 Reviews. 2>^'j

that he is right; but there seems to be no reason for questioning the pagan origin of Loki's share in the fall of the Gods. Like Prometheus an elemental spirit, he serves the Gods for a time; like Prometheus bound because of his real hostility, his share in their fall is foreknown, and he is chief agent and an essential part of the myth. The return of Balder is a different question. He has indeed no real connexion with Ragnarok, nor, in all pro- bability, with the Viking religion. There is no evidence of any worship paid to him in any heathen saga, as to Odin, Thor, and Frey. They were the living Gods of the Viking age, the Gods whose fall was doomed ; Balder was but a survival, and his return when the earth rises again from the deep is probably literary invention.

L. Winifred Faraday.

The Shaikhs of Morocco in the XVIth Century. By T. H. Weir, B.D., M.R.A.S. Edinburgh : G. A. Morton. 1904.

To students of Muslim hagiology this book will be of considerable interest. It consists of a series of gossiping memoirs of a number of saints of the Sufi school, mainly derived from the writings of Ibn Askar, who died in 1578. Mr. Weir calls him "a Moorish Boswell, or Jocelin of Brakelond, credulous and conscientious, and not hesitating to exalt his heroes at his own expense." This Moroccan Acta Sanctorum contains some curious folklore, and much quaint discussion, in a humorous vein, of Musalman theo- logical questions.

These saints deal largely in miracles. When locusts and sparrows attacked a village, the people would write to the Shaikh Ghazwani requesting their removal, and would fasten the letter upon a stick set up in the field, which immediately had the desired effect. When the Shaikh Abdallah was offended and decided to leave his village, all his doves accompanied him, and the people, in dismay, followed and begged him to return. Once a Jinni carried off the daughter of a poor man. He complained