Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 15, 1904.djvu/510

 478 Reviews.

made [the italics are ours], but not in the same general way as formerly, by the salesman to the buyer at fairs and markets :

2S. a score on sheep and i^. a head on bullocks," &c

to Leicestershire [!]," cScc " Sun-worship. — That the Cale- donians paid a superstitious respect to the sun as was the practice among many other nations is evident not only by the sacrifice at Baltein but upon many other occasions," &c. As to the pre- tension to being up to date, the modern additions seem to consist of extracts from Notes and Queries^ without exact references, some cuttings from recent newspapers, and a few items from private correspondents of the editor, or so they appear to be. Thus : "Kitchen Fires. — In Yorkshire there is, or was, a house where a niece of Charles Richardson, the lexicographer, visited, and where they would think it a bad omen if the kitchen fire went out ; and I understand from this lady that it had been kept up incessantly where she had lived for some years. The custom used to be observed in many other districts." As to the bibliographical information which occasionally occurs, the many entries on Games contain no reference to Mrs. Gom.me, the article on the Sin-Eater does not mention Mr. Hartland, that on Harvest-customs does not allude to Mr. Frazer. (It does^ however, contain one good bit of first- hand observation from Rutland, by " Cuthbert Bede," in N. and Q., 1 2th October, 1875 — for once we have an exact reference.) There is no unity of design, no consistency, in the whole work ; the headings are ill-devised, the matter ill-arranged, the subjects dealt with at hap-hazard ; and any definite principle of inclusion or exclusion is indiscoverable. One enraged folklorist has even been heard to observe that it is absolutely wicked to bring out such a book in the twentieth century ! corrupting its innocent youth, no doubt, with so evil an example of slipshod work and misapplied labour. Without going so far as to endorse this senti- ment, it must be said that it is difficult to imagine to whom such a book can possibly be useful, unless perhaps to the purveyors of folklore paragraphs for the daily papers.
 * ' Seven Whistlers, The. — This superstition seems to be peculiar

Charlotte S. Burne.