Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 18, 1907.djvu/148

 1 1 6 Reviews.

inventors ; how far, for instance, the outcome was the result of fortuitous trials, how far of manipulations which were expected to give immediate results of a definite kind, and how far there was a conscious working towards a pattern, either from the beginning, or from some stage in another figure, or after fortuitous trials had suggested the possibility of a definite design. Such observations might go far to elucidate the mode of genesis of different forms of string figures, and the devotees of the game might then profitably experiment with children. After giving a certain amount of knowledge (which would have to be very carefully defined), children might be set to discover patterns for themselves, and the kinds of pattern made by children of different ages and capabilities might aftord material for further insight into the nature of the processes involved.

W. H. R. Rivers.

Altagyptische Sagen und Marchen. By Prof. Alfred Wiedemann. Volksnumd, vol. vi. Leipzig : Deutsche Ver- lagsactiengesellschaft. Price i mk.

The well-known Egyptologist of Bonn, Prof. Wiedemann, has published as the sixth volume of Volksfnmid a collection of nine ancient Egyptian tales and one account of an Egyptian voyage in the Mediterranean about looo B.C., which he treats as a folk-tale, though it is not generally regarded in that light. Most of these stories have long been known to the Folklorist, as well as to the Egyptologist, through the translations of Maspero in his Co?ites Populaires dc VEgypte Ancienne, but in this edition Prof. Wiedemann brings them in convenient form before the popular audience of Germany. The old favourites reappear, of course : the " Tale of the Two Brothers," the " Story of Saneha," " The Possessed Princess of Bekhten," and so on, are all well known to the popular audience of England, largely through the translations of Dr. Wallis Budge, which