Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 26, 1915.djvu/119

 S/ioi't Bibliographical Notices. 109

Hausa Mai-Bori and the English Witch ? " which will be awaited with interest.

The Threshold of Religion. By R. R. Marett, M.A., D.Sc. 2nd ed. Cr. 8vo, pp. xxxii + 224. Methuen & Co., 19 14. Price 6s. net.

It is unnecessary to recommend the reissue of this book, which marks an epoch in the study of Comparative Religion. Two of the chapters originally appeared in these columns : " Pre- Animistic Religion" {Folk-Lore, vol. xi. p. 162 sqq^ and "From Spell to Prayer" (vol. xv. p. 132 sqq.). In the new edition are included " Savage Supreme Beings and the Bull-Roarer," and " In a Pre- historic Sanctuary," from the Hibbert Jotirnal., and the valuable essay entitled " The Birth of Humility," delivered as an inaugural lecture on his appointment as Reader in Social Anthropology in the University of Oxford. The book is largely occupied in dis- cussing the views that animism, because it is too intellectuistic, supplies an inadequate definition of primitive beliefs ; that spell occasionally develops into prayer, and that primitive religion includes an element of mana as well as of tabu. " In a Prehistoric Sanctuary " describes the Aurignacian cave-drawings at Gargas. At Niaux is a remarkable "creep," so narrow that fasting would be a suitable preparation for exploring it. The suggestion that in these places some kind of magico-religious rites were performed is certainly fascinating.

The book is written with the verve and charm of style which characterizes Dr. Marett's work.

Boanerges. By Rendali. Harris. Demy Svo, pp. xxiv -1-424. Cambridge: The University Press, 19 13. Price 15s.

This is an extended survey of Twin-cults previously considered by the writer in his Dioscuri in the Christian Legends and The Cult of the Heavenly Twins. He begins by asking why the two sons of Zebedee — Simeon and John — are named " Sons of Thunder." This question he answers by the statement of M. Junod, in Les Baronga, that by this people twins are called Bana- ba-Tilo, "Children of Tilo," — Tilo meaning the sky in its various