Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 2, 1891.djvu/252

 REVIEW.

, the editor of this collection, has with great skill and success grouped together in logical order, and classified under many headings, a perfect mine of folk-lore material. It contains 782 items, in as many sections, not including a considerable number of variants given in the Appendix. To each section is appended in a footnote the name of the collector, the place of collection, together with the age and sex of the narrator.

The variety of game in Finland is still very considerable, and includes the bear, reindeer, stag, wolf, lynx, fox, otter, martin, hare, and squirrel, not to mention birds of various kinds. But to be a successful hunter or trapper many precautions are necessary. The guardian spirits of the forest must be propitiated, though this may be less necessary if the hunter, like Esau, is a hairy man from his birth, for that always ensures success at the chase. His luck may be destroyed by the evil eye of another, though there are several ways of counteracting this malign influence, such as by bringing a litter of young foxes secretly into his house and feeding them in a dark place; or it may be injured through his own imprudence, by playing, for instance, with his daughters late at night. Much depends on having a good dog, but more on being the owner of a straight shooting gun. During the shooting season, to keep it in good condition, it should be given a vapour bath every Saturday. If it won't go off, the best