Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 23, 1912.djvu/263

Rh complete account of Religion and Ethics throughout the World." Such an attempt on such a scale by its nobleness almost disarms criticism, which must also be mindful of the difficulties in enlisting (and humouring) an army of experts, in laying out suitable headings, in avoiding too obvious contradictions by different writers, and in restricting the overlapping of articles. So, if an article occasionally seems the work of a pupil rather than of a master of his subject, or if a discussion is truncated to avoid trenching on another section, or search for an article or reference under, say, Doomsday is in vain, we do not feel entitled to complain. It is all to the good that one finds unexpected headings, — such as Consumption (Economic) or Development (Biological),—but we will venture to suggest that an alphabetical list of articles would be a useful preface to each volume. Such a list could be examined much more rapidly than the volume as a whole, and many interesting notes, such as those on Corners and Dew, would be more likely to catch the eye. There is already prefixed a list of authors, (many of them familiar in Folk-Lore), with their articles and some of their qualifications. It would be also a great boon if the illustrations,—now confined to rare diagrams,—could be extended. The most important folklore sections in the present volume are,—Cosmogony and cosmology (54 pp.); Death and disposal of the dead (101 pp., including an introduction by Mr. Hartland); Demons and spirits (71 pp.); Disease and medicine (49 pp.); Divination (55 pp.); and Drama (41 pp.). But there are many other valuable shorter articles, such as those under Cross; Crossroads; Cuchulainn cycle; Cursing and blessing; Dese Matres; and Door. The article on Creation is disappointingly brief, and the section on funeral chaplets under Crown does not refer to English funeral garlands (Folk-Lore, vol. xxii., p. 496). Perhaps a fair test of the volume is to search for its contents concerning a country in which one is interested. For example, China is dealt with under Confucian religion; Confucius; Cosmogony and cosmology; Crimes and punishments; Death and disposal of the dead; Demons and spirits; and Drama. The principal omissions seem to be under Disease and medicine, and under Divination (where at least a reference might be inserted to Cosmogony