Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 23, 1912.djvu/420

 39^ Reviews.

line of evidence to reinforce the argument is, to say the least, hazardous; and the evidence here adduced in support of the existence of totemism in Greece seems to be no stronger than that collected by Dr. Frazer in 1SS7, and now discarded by him. It is, it may be said, arguable that the evidence from mother-right and totemism does not materially strengthen the argument, but the use of doubtful materials weakens conclusions which find their best support from other sources.

With these reservations we may accept this delightful book as a valuable contribution to our knowledge of the beliefs of ancient Greece. It remains to be proved how this novel method of interpretation will stand the test when it is applied, as is inevitable, to solve like problems beyond the Hellenic area. The risk that Miss Harrison's conclusions may not be regarded as final is only the condition more or less of all pioneer work in the advancement of learning.

W. Crooke.

La Societe ISIusulmane du Maghrib. Magie et Religion DANS l'Afrique DU NoRD. Par Edmond Doutte. Alger: Typographie Adolphe Jourdan, 1909. 8vo, pp. vi + 617.

The author of this important work is Professor at the Ecole Superieure des Lettres at Algiers, and the book itself has grown out of a course of lectures delivered by him in that capacity. The subject of this course of instruction was the application to the religious phenomena observed in North Africa of the theories elaborated during the last half-century by anthropologists, especially by the English and French schools. An introductory chapter discusses the exclusively religious character of Moslem civilization and polity, the limitations of all other knowledge than theological, and the suspicious attitude of Islam to art of almost every kind. The clash of Moslem culture with that of the different peoples subjected to its sway is sketched. Its most complete triumphs have been won over the civilizations, either primitive or degenerate, in or near the Mediterranean basin, among peoples who differ little at bottom from the Semitic races, and in climates and countries