Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 20, 1909.djvu/141

Rh value. Nor are they content to sit still and wait for offers of fresh material. In addition to five pages of most suggestive questions on local customs and superstitions, the present volume contains various appeals for help in special subjects, such as the correct noting of place-names (for which full directions are given, and the supply of a good ordnance map offered), or the recording of names and superstitions attached to the many huge blocks of glacial stone scattered over the country.

A very interesting article deals with the manners and customs of the Bjerre district, which seems to have long withstood the modernising influences which affected its neighbours. One is not surprised to hear of men and women who cannot read or write, but here there are said to be still a few who cannot count above five, though intelligent enough in all practical matters. A certain number of wattle and mud buildings remain, and a woman born in 1833 describes how she and other farmgirls used to be employed on the original daubing and yearly repairing of these mud walls, which at that time were very common. All the girls of the neighbourhood would assemble at each farm in turn, so that the work might progress quickly, and these annual meetings were evidently looked upon as cheerful occasions, when hard work went hand in hand with good living.

Among other articles are a psychological study of the very mixed race found in Zealand, and an account of the various forms and probable origin of the very old Danish game of Trebold, or Three-ball, which the author supposes to have been a form of camp exercise. At the same time, allusions to the ball in certain old ballads as a "head of gold," and the mention of one form of the game as having been played "in the spring, when the weather was warm and the roads good," suggest a possible connection with the symbolic Shrove Tuesday game still found in parts of England. There are several shorter communications relating to various well-known superstitions and customs.

The whole volume shows great thoroughness, its editors insisting repeatedly upon the immense value of the work that may be done by any person who will note carefully and