Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 17, 1906.djvu/543

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there may have been some primitive rhythmic narrative, neither verse nor prose, out of which the ballads on the one hand and folk-tales on the other were evolved. Or in other cases there may have been ballads which degenerated partly or wholly into prose. Even prose tales may have existed from the very first. "A comparison of ballads and folk-tales preserving the same story or incident would do much to elucidate the problem, if pursued over a sufficiently wide field."

In all this there is nothing peculiarly novel or startling. It constitutes the gospel which has long been preached by this Society, and the conclusions which he has reached would have been impossible without the spade-work done by our members within the last generation. Mr. MacCuUoch's name does not appear on our members' list, and this possibly accounts for the absence of any special acknowledgment of the Society's work, though many of its publications appear in his bibliography. This Society, at anyrate, gives a hearty welcome to an inde- pendent worker who closely follows its recognised methods and uses the stores of material which it has collected.

W. Crooke.

Recueil de Memoires et de Textes publies en l'honneur DU XIV CoNGRES DBS Orientalistes. Pierre Fontana, Algiers, 1905.

This publication, as its title states, has been issued in connection with the Oriental Congress held in Algiers last year, but the essays were not presented to it. The contents, relating altogether to North Africa, have been written by professors attached to the Ecole Superieure des Lettres and to the Medersas of Algeria, among whom are many distinguished scholars. This volume is a gift offered to delegates only ; other volumes, composed of papers actually submitted to the Congress, will soon be at the disposal of all members.

The collection embraces a great variety of subjects ; only those concerning folklore will be discussed here. The first in order