Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 16, 1905.djvu/551

 Reviews. 493

find a good example of it in the number of the ScJnveizerisches Archiv before us, where Meier continues his account of the folk- lore of Freiamt and Kelleramt. The number also contains the conclusion of a collection of riddles from Miinchenbuchsee. This (Moore's Isle of Man paper excepted) is a type of research to which the Folklore Society has not so far turned its attention. The remaining paper deals with a subject— dairy apparatus — which the Society excludes from its sphere of work ; and as a matter of fact there is but little work to be done in the British Isles in this direction. Peasant life is far more characteristic of the Continent, and there we find materials for study which are lacking in England.

The wider scope of the Vienna Society, again, makes it inevitable that much of what they publish should fall without the limits which the Folklore Society sets itself. As a matter of fact not one article in these two Parts of the Viennese Mitteilungen, interests the folklorist pure and simple. There is, however, a long article, which will prove attractive to many, on the fields and peasants' houses of Carinthia, illustrated with many plans and sketches. In England, too, the names of fields are often of folkloric interest, and members of the Society might do useful work in recording them.

The little collection of local traditions, historical and legendary, of the city of Weimar, which stands last on our list, is not issued under the auspices of any Society, but though due to individual effort, it may conveniently be noticed here. The authors set an example to the industrious but unambitious folklorist. There is no attempt to "improve" the stories, and where there is a literary source there are full references. The authors would, however, have done well to go further than the mere '■'■ mi'mdlich^'' and to give name, age, and other details, of the narrators of stories from their own collections. The arrangement is topo- graphical, doubtless a convenient one for the local reader, but less satisfactory for comparative purposes.

N. W. Thomas.