Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 18, 1907.djvu/284

 248 Reviews.

vivid glimpses of the Malay pawang, or magician, a figure now fast disappearing under the continual increasing pressure of Islamic practice, but one of whom we would fain know more. "A Tale by the Wayside" contains a selection of mouse-deer stories, the mouse-deer being the "Brer Rabbit" of the Peninsula. "A Deer-drive" describes the " make-beHeve " by means of which the deer are driven into the toils. The horrible end of "A Were-Tiger" is a reminiscence of the darker days of the Peninsula, before the strong arm of the British Government had destroyed the power once so arrogantly claimed by the Malay chiefs, to slay men at pleasure without being asked the reason. If we were requested to name the best of these stories, we should be inclined to choose "The Pinjih Rhino," which contains a very good account of a spiritualistic seance, at which permission to slay the rhinoceros in question was extracted by dint of sheer perseverance from the spirits of the jungle.

The book might have been better arranged, and would have been greatly helped by illustrations ; and the addition of a i^vf more references to its sources would improve the appendix. There are a few slight misprints and errors, which we give in order that they may be avoided in a subsequent edition. We may mention " Nasmorhedus " for "Nemorhedus" (pp. 168, 169), "Malin" for " Malim " (p. 122), "Pinjih" for "Pinjih" (p. 303), "Biaua" for "Biawak" (p. 295), and "Cocoa nut" for " Coconut " {passim). The transliteration of the Arabic phrases might be here and there improved, and there are one or two slips in translation. "Voice Folk" (p. 178) {prang bunyi, i.e., seinbunyi) should be " Invisible Folk," and Unta (p. 55), in conjunction with sirih zxiA pittang, cannot mean "camel." We feel doubtful, moreover, as to the rendering of Salam di rimba by " Peace of the Forest " ; and we have always understood that it is with his forefeet, rather than his hindfeet (p. 238), that the buck does his tapping in rutting-time.

Walter W. Skeat.

Books for Review should be addressed to The EDITOR OF Folk-Lore, c/o David Nutt, 57-59 Long Acre, London.