Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 8, 1897.djvu/284

 26o Reviews.

collections, as well as between the whole story-store of India and of the West. By giving the folklore student who is ignorant of Pali opportunity for making this further study, the corps of trans- lators of i\\Q/dtaka are earning the gratitude of all interested in the fascinating study of the migration of stories.

Joseph Jacobs.

The Cults of the Greek States. By L. R. Farnell. In Three Volumes. Clarendon Press. Vols. I. and II. 1896.

This book is an important contribution to the study of Greek religion. Materials for such a work have been accumulating for a long time ; and the discovery of countless inscriptions, the closer study of ancient monuments, and the speculations of scholars, have made such works as those of Gerhard and Maury quite out of date. All these have been laid under contribution, and the result is a very complete and reliable account of the results of research within the Greek field. The book impresses the reader with its clearness and sanity. Clearness amid such a wealth of material is by no means easy to gain ; and per- haps in this respect a little more might have been done in the way of summing up at the end of each section. But as the authorities are not merely referred to in footnotes, but quoted in full and carefully arranged in appendices to each section, it is quite possible to get a complete oversight of the cult, titles, and distribution of each of the divinities here treated without referring to the index. For sanity the author's judgment is remarkable. Few, if any, of the speculations of scholars have been passed over ; but the author is by no means inclined to accept new theories because they are new. Many are mentioned but to be dismissed (and that is often all they deserve) ; combinations based on insufficient evidence are not adopted, however plausible ; and, in particular, the tendency of a certain German school to reduce at all costs all divinities to a leading idea, whether a moral notion or an aspect of nature, is most justly condemned. If we have a fault to find, it is that the author has been too cautious. We might expect more attempts to explain origins ; and although the plan of the work is to give facts, not to find origins, yet it would