Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 23, 1912.djvu/145

 Reviews. 123

map shows graphically the three areas of Denmark in which the thunderstone is ici) a stone implement or the like, (/;) a belemnite, and ic) a fossil sea-urchin. An illustrated account of stone axes on Dravidian altars in south India throws light on cults of Greek cities in Asia, Crete, etc. The antiquity of the group of beliefs seems indicated by their uniformity over all the Old World, from Japan to Ireland, Siberia to India, and Norway to the Guinea Coast, although they are faint in districts such as Iceland, where thunderstorms are rare. In the East Indies as in Denmark a genuine thunderstone protects stuff wound round it from fire ; in Yunnan as in Germany thunderbolts return above ground after a time ; and in India as in Sweden thunderbolts are associated with cattle diseases and milk. The author's account of Buddhist ritual thunderbolts omits the unusual 'nine-pointed' form, and the refer- ences for meteorites called thunderstones are very incomplete. The fall of meteorites was probably at least a contributory cause of the thunderbolt idea, which the author ascribes only to the linking of thunder with the crash and sparks produced by a stone axe ; and the vitreous rods and tubes (fulgurites) produced by lightning strokes in sand and certain rocks (Armenia, Germany, etc.) may have fostered the notion. The. book is a valuable encyclopaedia of its subject, but its usefulness is sadly marred by the absence of an index.

A. R. Wright.

The World of Dreams. By Havelock Ellis. Constable 6^ Co., 191 1. Svo, pp. xii4-288.

The Presidential Address for 191 2 points out that the future progress of folklore must largely depend on its alliance with other sciences. Of the sister studies psychology may prove one of the most helpful, and dreams must receive attention otherwise than as means of divination (oneiromancy and incubation). When a beginner consults the great library of works on dreams, — ranging from that of Synesius, the Bishop of Cyrene who plays a part in Kingsley's Hypatia, to the crowded shelf for the present century, — he can hardly do better than choose Mr. Ellis' World of Dreams.