Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 21, 1910.djvu/287

 Reviews. 251

brought out and unity in the design. It is impossible to quote from the book; as soon as we begin one anecdote the eye catches another, and there is nothing for it but a self-denying ordinance. You must buy the book, there's an end of the matter. But I will just note a few of the topics it deals with. Here are descriptions of the face and form or the dress of the people, with sketches to show how they shave their hair. Headtufts and headwraps are not too insignificant for Miss Durham ; she learns that the headwrap is said to date from the battle of Thermopylae ! Then there is the blood-feud, which is not only explained in detail, but comes again and again into the story with great effect ; our readers will be interested to hear about the Old Law, as it is called. Politics appear, — not as hatched by callous and greedy men in chancelleries, but as they affect the people. How they hate the Turks ! Miss Durham asked one how long a certain village had been Moslem : the answer was, — " They have stunk for seven generations." It was not want of washing ; Islamism stinks. Here again is the local telegraph; news is shouted from hill to hill, and any one who hears it sends it on. How much does a wife cost ? Twelve Napoleons in Vulki, where they are cheap. Charms and the evil eye come in on occasion ; one man made a bunch of grapes shrivel by looking at it. Excellent folk-tales appear. And that unhappy " Constitution," hailed with such joy, but practically stillborn ! Some of us know what a Turkish con- stitution means ; but not in England. " It was not until I came to London," says Miss Durham, " that I met people who really believed in the ' Konstituzion.' " The Albanians still say you cannot trust a Turk. But Miss Durham ends thus : " I cannot write

FINIS

for the END is not yet." So I have quoted after all. Never mind. What does consistency matter ? I am still consistent, anyhow, in saying that this is a delightful book.

W. H. D. Rouse.