Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 20, 1909.djvu/148

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little book of fairy tales, very much "arranged" for English-speaking children. It were to be wished that the stories could be reproduced, by the ladies who are responsible for the collection, exactly as they were told, since most of them are from the Swazi, and others from the Shangani and Mapoch, of whose traditional lore little or nothing is known. It is needless to say that the volume includes variants of Kaffir stories already known.—

book consists mainly of attacks upon the defects of European civilisation, and contains practically nothing of interest to the folklorist except a few items about the Veys (the feeding of crocodiles at Zontomy Creek, river bars as entrances to spirit land, proverbs, etc.). The annual customs of Dahomey etc. are defended as "a calm, judicial, religious taking of life" of criminals, and polygamy, communalism, etc. as suited to African conditions. "It is certain that Religion originated in Africa. It went from Ethiopia, that is to say, from Negro-land eastward and northward to Egypt and down the Nile, ascending to the heart of Asia. All representations of Buddha which we have seen are painted black"!