Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 20, 1909.djvu/283

 Reviews. 243

of certain motifs in Celtic story-telling. The search for the most aged of living creatures, the theme of the second tale, and the accomplishment of seemingly impossible tasks, the theme of the first, recur again and again both in Irish and Scottish GaeHc literature ; it strikes us as a mark of the inventive- ness of the Gaelic mind that so many variations could be hung upon the same subject. But the Irish story-teller recounts his tale from pure delight in inventing and detailing the marvellous, and in making the impossible as impossible as he can ; while the Scottish Gael never is quite oblivious of both a literary and a moral purpose. He constructs his story with greater care, and moulds it consciously into a work of art; also he seldom forgets to adorn it with a moral significance. It is unnecessary here to criticise these popular tales, which come before us pleasantly bound and illustrated, but it is worth remarking that we have in Ireland a story of a Madadh maol, or Bald or Crop-Eared Dog, who plays the same part of faithful helper that is performed by the same animal in " The Spirit of Eld" here translated the "Dog of the Great Mull." But in the Irish story the incidents are woven into an Arthurian romance, and the Bald or Cropped Dog is the companion and indispensable helper of Sir Galahad, whom he extricates by his sagacity from numerous difficulties. This story has lately been published by the Irish Texts Society. Eleanor Hull.

A Bibliography of Congo Languages. By Frederick Starr. University of Chicago Press, 1908. 4to, pp. 97.

This book, with its 678 items, will come as a surprise even to men who have long been interested in the philology of the Congo regions. Thirty years ago, when the country was first entered methodically by Europeans, almost the only book at all helpful was Bishop Steere's Grammar and Dictionary of Swahih, a language then spoken only on the east coast. Now over thirty of the numerous languages of the Congo basin have to some extent been reduced to writing, and of some elaborate grammars and dictionaries are available. As the philologists