Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 22, 1911.djvu/141

 Reviews. 115

of Stadtschreiber or Recorder of Lucerne, at that time a highly important post, which he filled in the most exemplary way. Cysat spent most of his leisure amongst " the people," for whom he had a great affection. From the lips of peasants and the unlettered classes he noted legends and lore of all kinds, besides dialects. His training in botany, natural history, and science, coupled with his talent for languages, helped him greatly in his observations, as did also his historical and political know- ledge. Cysat's interest in folk-drama serves to remind us that another of his contemporaries was Shakespeare. He was appointed director of the great annual Easter-play in Lucerne, and himself wrote many plays for his fellow-townsmen to act. These, and the numerous poems composed by Cysat in the manner of the people, throw invaluable light upon the customs and dialects of old Switzerland. Whilst ably performing his poHtical duties, Cysat found time to study and set in order the archives of Lucerne, found by him in confusion, and also to make a polyglot dictionary. His honest, sympathetic, and humorous temperament gives a singular charm to his writings. Herr Brandstetter has had access to the many manuscript folios of Cysat's work, chiefly in his own handwriting, which are pre- served in Lucerne, and from them has already compiled one monograph of rare value and fascination. We look forward eagerly to this admirable editor's promised essay on Cysat, der reichste Stilist unter den altschweizerischen Schj-iftstelierfi.

By an easy transition we turn from the Swiss pioneer, Cysat, to some recent publications of the Schweizerische Gesellschaft fur Volkskunde, or Swiss Folklore Society, now in its fourteenth year. The three numbers of the (\\xax\.&x\y Journal now under review contain much of interest. Amongst the more important articles are those on St. Luzio or Uguzo, patron of cattle-herds, and his cult ; hemp-dressing parties amongst the Grison peasants, which recall the " waulking " or cloth-dressing parties of Scottish High- landers; a folk-play, " Brunner Bartlispiel " ; and "Cysatiana," in which Professor Hoffmann-Krayer quotes at considerable length from Herr Brandstetter's monograph above mentioned, whilst extracting and tabulating such parts of Cysat's writings as may interest folklorists most.