Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 9, 1898.djvu/375

Rh it is compiled out of the official records, and wherever possible their very words are used. It seems that these records are written by scholars specially deputed, who place them in a sealed chest, which is never opened until the dynasty changes. The new dynasty makes a point of compiling the history of its forerunner. Thus the Chinese hope to get the truth without favour. In the notes, or incidentally, information may be found of the Chinese Creation-myth, culture-heroes (of whom there are quite a number), miraculous births (e.g., after conception by touching a stair, p. 5), divination, and magical rites; and the method of royal burial is well worth study.

has sojourned for business purposes in the Greek islands, and has become interested in them and their population, In the former of the two papers above mentioned (a copy of which he has kindly presented to the Society through Mr. Milne; he traces the life of a Kythniote from birth to death, in relation to the superstitions with which every act is surrounded. Indeed, he does not end with the Kythniote's death, for he delineates the superstitions relating to the life after death, to vampires and ghosts. The lecture forms a welcome addition to the meagre information we have about the folklore of the Cyclades.

With certain insular peculiarities, the general character of the superstitions is that of all EuropeEurope. [sic] Here, for instance, recurs the curious objection mentioned by the Rev. M. MacPhail as known in his youth in the Hebrides (supra, vol. viii., p. 381) to combing the hair on Sundays. A tradition of still wider acceptance is that of the Supernatural Wife. An anecdote given by M. Hauttecœur is, he states, guaranteed as authentic by the whole island. A member of the Bophelios family of Masseria married a Nereid