Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 9, 1898.djvu/196

172 utterly inadequate notion of their wealth of detail. The care with which the enquries have been made is shown again and again by such observations as: "There is no trace of the couvade"; "There appears to be no trace of the Palamau custom" of anointing the bride with oil or ghi; and so forth. Mr. Crooke has not been content to record what he has actually observed. He has noted what has been recorded of tribes kindred with, or in an analogous condition to, those with which he is dealing, and has asked his correspondents and informants specifically on these heads. His own remarks are not obtruded. Where given, they are shrewd and to the point. If we cannot always assent to them in their entirety, we diverge with diffidence; for they are invariably entitled to the respect due to a clear, calm judgment and intimate knowledge of the people among whom the author administered the benefits of British rule.

The reference to Bhuinhârs on pp. 128 and 129 of vol. iv. should be to Bhuiyars.

long-expected edition of Pausanias by Mr. Frazer has at length appeared. It is dangerous to keep people waiting, for they either expect more and more, or grow more and more irritable; but this work will console these and satisfy even those. Pausanias taxes the editor more than most authors, because he speaks of so many different things; but Mr. Frazer is equal to the emergency. We knew that Mr. Frazer was at home in folk-lore, but now we find him a competent guide in archaeology: indeed, there is more archaeology than folk-lore in the book. Not only this; he can tell us about natural history—white blackbirds, breeds of silkworms, poultry, honey-bees; about earthquakes, topography maniacal possession, the derivation of words, and a host of other things. On subjects which he does not profess to know he gets the