Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 4, 1893.djvu/101

Rh traditions of a deluge in certain regions, therefore there are none to be found? Is it certain, too, that he is right in rejecting, for example, the Celtic and Norse myths as founded on Christian teaching?

The first volume of the Miti, Leggende e Superstizioni del Medio Evo deals chiefly with the myths discussed in their literary shape. But the attention of students ought to be called to the work, not merely because its plan comprises much of scientific interest, but also because the subjects are treated in an attractive manner; the notes indicate many works which may be consulted with advantage, and the appendices include a number of mediaeval texts. The subjects treated in this first volume are The Earthly Paradise, The periodical respite allowed to the Damned, and The Belief in Fatalism.

M. Robert Auning's little work consists of a collection of Lettish folk-tales and superstitions concerning the Puhkis, or dragon, myth current among the people of Livland. The texts are given in Lettish, and most of them are translated into German. The collection is followed by some eminently sane and cautious observations on the myth, which is identified with the North German Pûks and the English Puck. The Puhkis is by no means confined to dragon, or serpent, form. It appears at various times also as a lump of charcoal, a log of wood, a bundle, a cat, a mouse, a bird, a toad, a whirlwind, a ball of light, a besom with a fiery head, a thong of leather, the tail of a pig. It appears in the familiar capacity of "drudging goblin" who must not be gifted with clothes. And the reason for this prohibition, obscure in the German and English variants, seems to be that it was the custom to dismiss farm-servants with new clothes. Did this custom ever obtain in England? The Puhkis is to be bought; and its life is bound up with that of its owner, so that if the former be destroyed the latter also comes to an end. It must be fed, and indeed must be presented with the first-fruits of its owner's produce. It is further identified with the dragon in tales of the Perseus group, of which