Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 7, 1896.djvu/435

Rh poetical tale, is a cosmic myth of the creation of the stars from a handful of earth and some mice (p. 209).

Some interesting classical survivals appear besides that of Diana. The legend of Deucalion and Pyrrha is given in a somewhat pathetic form (p. 136); there is a mirror that petrifies (p. 150); and a nail is driven for luck into a pillar (p. 32), reminding us of Etruscan custom. Lamia is the heroine of two stories (pp. 248, 256).

One tale contains a curious sentence: "If you take a cup of this water," refering to a certain fountain, "and then carefully place a pin or a needle on the surface, should it float even an instant before sinking you will get your wish" (p. 154). Have we at last found the reason why pins were cast into sacred wells?

The style of the book is vivid, and indeed there is not a dull page in it.

book, which from its title is attractive enough to the inquirer into folklore, contains very little if anything of value to this study. It is a pity; for we cannot but think that Mr. Stirling could have concluded his volume with notes of customs and beliefs which cannot be recorded except by diligent inquirers working on the spot. There is no note, for instance, that the parish and borough records which have been consulted contain any notices of witch-cases or of other beliefs of the people; and we cannot think that Inveresk is peculiar in this respect, while other places surrounding contain many important relics of the older cults. Mr. Stirling's book will, however, no doubt be of service to inquirers into parish social ways and habits.

book is interesting as showing what form of art the eighteenth century found best adapted for memorials to the dead.

Mr. Vincent has done good work in preserving them, for they are history; and though history of a base and degraded kind we ought not to be allowed to forget it. Relating to folklore we cannot discover anything.