Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 22, 1911.djvu/286

250 month-names, in which he makes additions to his book on that subject. There are a few papers of the comparative or critical type, but most are what we want in such a periodical,—records of fact.

If this periodical continues to be as good as the first volumes it will be a most valuable storehouse of new facts. It may well be better still. The list of members covers a large part of the Greek world, and if each searches his own district there will be no lack of matter to fill dozens of volumes. It would be a very useful thing if some one would disinter the folk-tales from the files of the old Hestia and Parnasos, where they are really lost to the world.

has chosen a fruitful subject, which many have played with and none investigated critically and thoroughly. Her book suffers from lack of unity. Some of the chapters have a critical or historical aim, and some are descriptive and popular. In examining the cases, really few, where a saint seems to have taken the place of an ancient god because the names were alike. Miss Hamilton draws a distinction without much difference (p. 19). The essential point is that the tradition remains; whether the saint was chosen because of the name may be doubted, but any theory on the subject needs a wider induction than any student has yet made. St. Merkyrios now curing sore ears instead of going on messages (p. 32) is enough to make us hesitate, and there are many such differences, the coincidences being very few. The book collects a good many facts from the more obvious sources, and describes the modern festivals,—(not all, but most of the famous ones),—from first-hand knowledge. It is a pleasant and readable introduction to the subject.