Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 25, 1914.djvu/435

 Revicivs. 403

dealing with Betrothal and Marriage Customs, and covers pp. 72 to 2tS of the projected work. Researches into the official ])apers of his native land combined with the knowledge of local folk customs have furnished the author with his foundation, and very wisely and profitably he begins his studies at home, though he draws on European folk-custom for illustrations of his Swiss material.

For convenience the pagination of the larger work has been given, ^ and it would perhaps have been kinder to readers of this forerunner if the bibliography promised in the completed book had also been added. As I have begun importuning the author, I should like further to suggest that at least the foreign student would be grateful for a few illustrations. It would certainly be of interest to have pictures say of the various types of ritual marriage coins described on pp. 81 «?/ seq., or of the bridal chests of p. 118.

The bulk of the book is concerned with the collection of evi- dence as to betrothal ceremonies, the forms of written contracts, the verbal declarations, customs like those of Confarreatio or the mutual drinking of wine, pledges, and betrothal gifts. Among the latter the ring of course takes the foremost place, and a great deal of interesting material has been collected in connection with its use. The practice of hiring rings belonging to the church for temporary use during the ceremony (p. 88) was new to me, and the fulminations of the Church against the use of more than one ring has a curious justification. One ring only may be used i?i signum rejcctae a Christo polygamiae.

Amongst other interesting facts elicited with regard to pledges may be mentioned the light thrown upon the conventional pictorial representation of the Sposalizio of Joseph and Mary by the giving of twigs and the breaking of staves in betrothal ritual, the one what van Gennep would call a rite d^ agregatio7i and the other a rite de separation.-

The chapter on Brautkauf utid Bratitraub comes to very little more than a list of alleged survivals of these hypothetical marriage customs. For the present we are warned not lightly to accept the

^ For the purpose of reference here I have used the pagination of the present instalment.

- See pp. 56 et seq.