Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 25, 1914.djvu/146

 1 34 Reviews.

whose dragon-myth we may happen to be considering should be carefully examined before attempting to explain the myth itself. Then, if we find a fair proportion of astral myths, for example, we may acquiesce in M. Roheim's dictum that in this case " mutato nomine de Sole fabula narratur" {ibid.). If, on the other hand, we find a predominance of the cult of the dead, or of river-spirits, we may put the dragon and his slayer into the corresponding classes. Thus we would cheerfully accept a Modoc sun-dragon- slayer; but, when the myth originates in Greece, we look rather for a river-, spring-, or earth-deity of some sort who has taken dragon form.

M. Polites draws our attention particularly (pp. 207 et seq.) to the prevalence of the water-guarding dragon in Greek myth, ancient and modern. He instances the Hydra, Python, and others, and suggests that the churlish Amykos, who prevents the Argonauts from watering until Polydeukes overthrows him, is developed out of a similar monster. To this type St. George's dragon conforms. By an acute analysis of a number of variants of a popular song on the subject, — a song by the way which is not without a certain beauty of its own, — he arrives at the conclusion that the legend is not taken from the ecclesiastical lives of the saint, into which indeed it intrudes quite late, but is due to a relic of the Perseus myth, preserved in popular traditions, most likely those of Anakou or Eneghi in Cappadocia. Like M. Roheim and most other writers, he sees in the exposed princess a relic of actual

human sacrifice.

H. J. Rose.

Despre Cimilituri. By G. Pascu. Part I., Philological Study. Jasi, 1909. 8vo, pp. xi-f276. Part II., Folkloric Study. Bucharesti, 191 1. 4to, pp. 220.

The literature of riddles is very scanty, and Roumanian literature is little accessible. From both points of view, therefore, it may prove of interest to draw attention to the publications above, which have appeared in Jassy and Bucharest. Dr. G. Pascu ■made the study of Roumanian riddles the subject of his Doctorate Dissertation, but under his hand the work has grown from a small