Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 22, 1911.djvu/285

 Reviews. 249

founder of Greek folklore study : long may he live to give of his stores, and to inspire by his example. He contributes to the first number an essay on Aaoy/oa^ta, a description of the Eratocritos, and notes on a folk-tale and on Albanian songs printed by two others. In the second number he deals with the Death of Digenes (the hero of the modern epic which will find its Peisis- tratus, we hope, in Mr. Dawkins), marriage in Leucas, and notes. In the third he surveys the periodical press for his subject. Other articles are Miscellanea, short contributions, local marriage customs, remains of the epic of Digenes, and lists of new books.

The date and authorship of Eratocritos are more important for Greece than for us : the work has been a favourite for centuries, and, if it were lost, it could probably be restored from the memories of Cretans alone. The hero and heroine have long since passed into proverbs. More important for us are the new stories and poems. The story of ApoUonius of Tyana remains as a folk-tale in Cytliera (i, 71). A metrical version exists, published by Wagner {Carm. Gr. Med. Aevi, p. 248). The Albanian texts appear to be reproduced with great care phonetically, but I am not able to judge how well ; a Greek translation is given. Polites gives European and Greek parallels to the tales. The paper on the Death of Digenes contains a number of variants collected from different sources, with authorities. Chaviaras follows with some relics of this epic cycle from Rhodes. It seems that at weddings half a century ago the band of singers were called Digenes's chorus, and the leader Digenes. Koukoule prints a collection of Cretan distichs, with vocabulary. Other parts of the cycle, from Rhodes, come in the second volume. We cannot go into details as to these or the other articles, but we must mention Papageorgios's description of the carnival in Scyros. This is already well known to scholars from the articles in the British School Annual and Hellenic Journal : a more detailed account is given here by a native, with photographs.

Polites contributes also to the other parts of vol. 2 ; other contributions are St. Helen in Cyprus, Cytherean riddles, stories from Aetolia, proverbs, marriage customs, and superstitions from various parts. An original paper is that of Boutouras on modern