Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 25, 1914.djvu/154

 1 4 2 Reviews.

Myths of the Modocs. By Jeremiah Curtin. Sampson, Low, Marston, & Co., 1913. Cr. 8vo, pp. viii + 389. I 2S. 6d. //.

This book is in some ways so valuable that we wish a little more trouble had been taken to increase its value. The Modocs are a small tribe, originally situated in the valley of Lost River, Oregon, but removed thence by the U.S. Government in 1872. In 1884 Mr. Curtin gathered a number of their legends, which are now published with a preface by M. A. Curtin and a few notes. The preface unfortunately tells us almost nothing about the people, save a sketch of their treatment by the whites, which seems to have been abominable. Nothing at all is said of their language, racial affinities, or material culture ; no specimens are given of the myths in the original ; we are not even told whether Mr. Curtin's informants used their own language or English, although the former seems more probable, and we have no means save internal evidence of judging how literal his version is and whether he has modified any of the tales. The notes consist of a few trite remarks, such as "a beautiful myth. The mind that conceived it was full of poetic thought." and some parallels, not always apposite, together with summaries of some of the stories and several attempts to make out that the bulk of the characters are personified natural forces. There is no glossary, its place being inadequately taken by a translation of the proper names prefixed to each story, and there is no index ; neither is there any reference to the existing literature, if any, dealing with the tribe. Hence the reader is continually finding himself in need of some explanation of the numerous local customs alluded to. Thus, we hear several times of polygynous marriages, while on p. 145 we have two men with one wife between them. Also, p. 199, the husband of one sister seems to be ipso facto wedded to the other also. Which of these corresponds most closely to actual Modoc custom ? A birth-tabu affecting the father is several times alluded to; a few words of explanation would be in point.

These deficiencies are the more to be regretted because the book is full of interesting material. The time at which the events take place is the remote past before the appearance of the human