Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 8, 1897.djvu/302

 278 Reviews,

folktales will be explained by the influence of these primary civili- sations permeating by way of the great trade routes. These are wide questions, and would need not an essay or a review, but a book to deal with the m. It would be unfair to criticise this theory of the origin of culture solely in connection with Greek folklore, since Mr. Stuart-Glennie bases it mainly upon Egyptian, Babylonian, and Chinese facts. If we find that Greece does not entirely support it, this need not be thought a fatal objection. Whether we regard Greek culture in the main as a native de- velopment of elements borrowed from the Nile and Euphrates valleys, or as a native development of elements common to Greece with other Aryan-speaking races, in either case the effective causes on which Mr. Stuart-Glennie most relies seem to be lacking. Mycenean civilisation seems not to have been due to causes which are possible enough in the case of Egypt and Babylonia. Be this as it may, Mr. Stuart-Glennie's theory widens the student's horizon, and the line of inquiry seems likely to lead to important results ; the theory well explains, as the editor claims, many elements in the Swan-maiden marriage. Still, we must repeat, the evidence given is not enough to prove it. This would need a much wider induction. The editor writes in a style which would seem to have disguised even to himself the scantiness of the facts he relies upon. He must not think hard things of us because we do not rest satisfied with his satisfaction ; we are open to conviction, and only ask that his facts may be speedily produced for our behoof.^

' We have noted a few misprints, i. 77, note, read Vrykolakas ; i. 112, the reference should be Passow, ccciv. a ; i. 290, reference should be to note 51, not 52.