Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 22, 1911.djvu/434

 39^ Reviews.

a representative of this science as Mr. Thomas. Is it not an anomaly that a small country, like Belgium, should have a very active bureau of ethnology, and that England, with such a variety of peoples to govern, should have no institution of this kind? I sincerely hope that the example of Nigeria will be followed shortly by all the colonies, and that a central body for classification and preservation of the material gathered will be established in London.

E. TORDAY.

University of Pennsylvania. Anthropological Publica- tions OF THE University Museum. Vol. ii, No. i. Takelma Texts. By Edward Saphir. Vol. iii. No. i. Excavations in the Island of Pseira, Crete. By Richard B. Seager. Philadelphia: Univ. Museum, 1909- 10. 4to, pp. 264; pp. 38, 9 plates and text ill.

These are two valuable additions to the rapidly growing series of works for which students have to thank the tardy awakening to anthropology and archaeology of modern universities. The Takelma Texts from Oregon were prepared as a result of a research fellowship in 1908-9. Mr. Saphir believes the culture- hero Daldal, (or Daldal and his brother, who form a hero-pair of the kind known also among other tribes), whose wanderings are told in one of the myths, to represent the dragon-fly. The stories as a whole have perhaps rather more of the element of naive immodesty than most similar collections, but this may be due to the single narrator from whom the collection was made. The story end-formula is "Go gather and eat your ba'^p' seeds." A trace was found of the weird Indian myth of the rolling head, but amongst the tales telling why the otter's skin is black, why the raven croaks, and so on, and charms for sneezing, the new moon, against heavy rain, etc., the most curious item is a tar-baby story, (" Coyote and Pitch," pp. 86-9). Although a similar Yana tale has been found, and although the details are Indian, it is difficult to think with Mr. Saphir that this " proves it beyond doubt to be entirely aboriginal," and not that it is an example of the diffusion