Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 2, 1891.djvu/119

 Rh and on the modifications undergone by the stories to adapt them to West Indian surroundings. Here, again, no particulars of the mode of collection are given.

Mr. Allen's Korean Tales, though placed before Western readers for the first time, are translated from a literary original. There can be little doubt, however, as to their being at bottom traditional. The series opens with a few beast tales, whence we pass to "The Enchanted Wine-jug", in which an old man is befriended by a Travelling Deity, to whom he had shown kindness, and who in return gifts him with an amulet that causes his wine-jug never to be empty. The story concerns the loss of the amulet, and its recovery by his two faithful servants, his cat and dog, at the expense, however, of perpetual enmity between cats and dogs ever since. Among the other stories is one of two brothers, one rich and covetous, the other poor and virtuous; and another illustrating the power of fate, in which we read of the son of a nobleman's concubine who is cast out and joins a band of robbers, but ultimately makes his peace with the king, and, by supernatural aid, conquers an island for himself, rescuing a fair maiden with the usual result. The stories are preceded by an interesting account of Korea.

It is not easy to know for what purpose the collection entitled Folk-lore and Legends has been published, beyond that of producing pleasant little books good in print and paper, and suitable for whiling away an idle hour. At all events, it contains little or nothing that the student will not easily find elsewhere. It only purports to be "a selection", and no hint is afforded as to the source of any of the tales, except in the Scandinavian volume, where half-adozen purport to be taken from the Prose Edda. This precludes all scientific use of the volumes. And yet the author is evidently impressed with a genuine love of folktales, and has some knowledge of the subject. He might do good work, if he would go about it in the right way.

Prof. Crane's edition of The Exempla of Jacques de Vitry,