Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 5, 1894.djvu/81

Rh folk-lore in a fictitious, or semi-fictitious, framework is hardly to be commended from a scientific point of view; but in the present case the value of the book is increased. The tellers of the tales, and utterers of the aphorisms, are so carefully described, with their antecedents and descent, that we are enabled to distinguish between their opinions, and to a great extent to assign their several contributions to the various influences under which the interlocutors have come.

It is very difficult to select any of the stories for special praise where all are so good. They are by no means confined to those with which we are familiar in Uncle Remus and Mr. Charles Jones' Negro Myths from the Georgia Coast. When we come upon these we find fresh and interesting variants. Many of the tales, however —probably the greater proportion—are quite new. This is to be attributed to the mixture of Indian blood and Indian influence, which has enriched the stock both of tales and of superstitions. The prescription for attaching a dog to oneself is curious, and the story of the rabbit who tried it is extremely funny. They seem to be, at bottom, Lenape traditions. The Luck-ball, too, as here described, is largely, if not chiefly, made in accordance with Indian prescriptions. Voodooism, in fact, of which we are persuaded Miss Owen has yet much of great importance to tell us, has been affected by Indian practices in the Missouri valley to an extent of which we can adequately judge only when we have a fuller and more systematic account before us, and can compare it with what we know of Indian rites. Miss Owen was able only to whet our appetite at the London Congress; and she is far from satisfying it on the subject of Voodoo mysteries in Old Rabbit. It is to be hoped that, ere long, she will give the scientific world that information she alone can supply.

The illustrations, by Miss Juliette Owen and Mr. Wain, add greatly to the amusement of the book.