Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 16, 1905.djvu/276

 238 Reviews.

primitive Semitic physical type) owing to contact with Hamitic neighbours, and that we can base on their mythology alone an argument for their Semitic origin is to attach to traditions, which are not pan-Masai, which are not necessarily Masai at all, and which, if they are now genuine Masai, may well owe their Semitic character to lateral not lineal transmission, an importance which no one save the most fanatical opponent of the borrowing theory would dream of conceding to them. It is therefore not surprising that his views have not been received with general acceptance even in Germany.

Marker's views have been brought to our notice in England mainly through a futile controversy in the Contemporary Revieiv on the subject of the Higher Criticism. As neither disputant possessed any of the knowledge, anthropological and otherwise, essential to a fruitful discussion of the question, it is unnecessary to allude further to their debate here.

Mr. Hollis's book is well illustrated ; some of the pictures from one point of view suffer from the smallness of the page, but he has wisely chosen to give us large scale pictures with much detail rather than small figures and more artistic illustration. There seems to be an idea abroad that anything in the way of indexes is good enough for anthropologists ; though Mr. Hollis's work is indexed more creditably than some other works of the last twelve months, it can hardly be called adequate.

N. W. Thomas.

English and Scottish Popular Ballads. Edited from the Collection of Francis James Child by Helen Child Sargent and George Lyman Kittredge. London : D.

Nutt. 1905.

Mrs. Sargent and Mr. Kittredge have produced a very good book of ballads, about the size of the globe editions of English poets, by selecting one or more versions of each in Professor Child's famous gathering, adding concise prefaces, and furnishing a brief introduction, with a discussion of the evolution of our