Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 27, 1916.djvu/465

 Reviews. 437

need not be pointed out. Some tales lend themselves better than others to this purpose. They are simple ; the plot possesses a unity and an inevitableness, and appears to bear the stamp of having been conceived and constructed once for all — an artistic vi^hole. This is the side of the study to which the late Prof. Joseph Jacobs was devoted. At the time of his too early death he was engaged in attempting to reconstruct the primitive form of some of the common stock of European tales. This too is the side of the study that mainly interests Prof. Halliday ; and it has resulted in many an interesting page in his chapter of the present work.

In the mouths of the Greek peasants of the districts represented here the stories are not at their best. " Broken down " is Prof. Halliday 's description of some of them. They are perhaps hardly less important on that account to the student. Folklore in its decay often has as many lessons to teach as in its maturity. It is instructive, for instance, to see what episodes of a tale have a relatively enduring life in the memories of a community that is beginning to forget it, and how the form of an incident changes with the changes of culture.

The citations here from various Greek collections will be much appreciated by students. The Italian collections might have been consulted with advantage. Indeed, the great Sicilian collec- tion by Dr. Pitre was probably made from a people whose condi- tion and environment in many respects nearly resembled those of Greek story-tellers. Most of his stories are well told. Prima facie it would seem that the Sicilians had kept the art of story-telling which the Greeks of Asia Minor, as represented in the volume before us, had lost. This conclusion to the disadvantage of the Greeks, though perhaps true, is not necessary. Pitre, being a fellow-countryman with an extensive medical practice, whom everyone trusted and loved, had facilities for becoming acquainted with the best story-tellers, and a greater choice of them, probably denied to Mr. Dawkins. His stories, therefore, are not only of value to students, as are Mr. Dawkins', but they make his book most entertaining to read. Comparison of these, as of other Italian stories, with the Greek stories, however, does impress the student with the truth of Prof Halliday's remark that " in spite of