Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 27, 1916.djvu/466

 438 Revieivs.

the wide distribution of incidents and tales, it is possible in many cases to trace a narrower nationality in the tone and content of a body of allied folk-stories." In this volume the Greek tales are imbued with oriental and particularly Turkish culture, thus supporting his contention that " the oriental and particularly Turkish character of Greek stories has never been sufhciently recognized." The ogres {devs, dhraki, ezderhas) are not the Sicilian ogres, the social arrangements are different, the moral emphasis is not quite the same, and so on. Greek peasant culture is, in fact, a half-way house between oriental and western peasant culture. And its study as exhibited in these and other tales should lead to useful conclusions.

But the study of folk-tales is not exhausted by a consideration of the plots, and of the "atmosphere." Equally important is that of the incidents. Most folk-tales are a compound of incidents more or less loosely strung together, and appearing in variants some- times in one position, sometimes in another, often dropped altogether and replaced by others which are foreign to the general framework. The relation of incident to plot is a very nice problem. In many cases, no doubt, it depends on the memory and abilities of the traditional reciter. In other cases it is due to the difference of culture and social organization ; and still other causes may easily be conjectured. In any event, the bulk of the incidents are the product of ideas that go very deep down into savagery. They are found in closely related, often identical, forms almost all over the world. Their meaning and distribution are questions the answers to which may throw light on many of the riddles of anthropology. An incident which often opens a tale of the type known as The Teacher and his Scholar, or as The Magician's Apprentice, may illustrate this. It appears in this volume in a tale from Ulaghatsh. As the father is taking his son to find a master he drinks at a spring, and having drunk he cries "Of!" apparently a mere grunt of satisfaction. Immediately a person appears and says "Why did you call me? My own name is Of." This person, of course, is a supernatural being; and his appearance leads to the adventures which form the story. Prof. Halliday cites a number of variants. M. Cosquin, to whom he refers, cites a great many more in his important study of the