Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 20, 1909.djvu/419

 Reviews. 365

be sought for outside Ireland, it must be elsewhere than in the Hebrew Scriptures.

It is interesting to compare Section 6, — " The proper qualities of a chief," — with the Praises of Finn and of Goll in Ossianic poetry. Substantially all the elements of the brilliant and captivating picture drawn by the later poets are to be found in the earlier text, a fact which effectually disposes of Mr. Smart's surmise, in his James Macpherson, that the Praises are of late mediaeval origin and represent the reflex in Ireland of the chivalric-feudal ideal. On the contrary, it will be found that, in form as well as in substance, they are closely connected with the ninth-century text. The standard of chiefhood is extraordinarily high and noble, and, even if the accumulation of every kind of virtue seems altogether to remove the ideal from the world of reality, still high praise must be accorded to the writer who conceived and set it down. A lengthy section. No. 16 (122 lines), is given to that Dispraise of Woman which is to be found in nearly all early gnomic literature, and to which it is seldom that, as in the Proverbs of Solomon, there is a countervailing Eulogy. I can only commend this section to anti-suffrage speakers ; they will find therein a wealth of depreciatory criticism, an exuberance of vituperation, unsurpassed even in the rich literature of mediaeval misogyny. And it must be confessed that the Irish writer has a shrewd eye. In the midst of the too familiar Kyrielle of evil qualities, one is startled by such touches as that women are " stiff when paying a visit," " tearful during music," that they "set themselves against comfort," are "sulky on a journey," and finally "exceed all bounds in keeping others waiting." There is a modern ring about some of these reproaches which is indeed to be noted elsewhere in the collection : Anbul cech mchach, every person with vested interests is shameless ; bdeth cech tren, every athlete is dull-witted ; these seem echoes from controversies of to-day. It may be remarked that a thousand years ago there was by no means unanimity as to the value of physical exercise. Among the things which are worst for the body of man are reckoned, — running and leaping too much, and exertion beyond one's strength.

I trust these few remarks may lead many readers to this interest- ing text, for the publication of which our hearty thanks are due