Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 9, 1898.djvu/376

342 whose power resided in her veil. All went well for years, until a grand ball was to be given at Anemolylo, when she begged her husband to let her have the veil, that she might appear to the best advantage on such an occasion. He complied. She appeared marvellously beautiful, and everybody admired her grace and loveliness, and envied her husband's happiness. All at once her form dilated to a supernatural size, and she vanished for ever.

The second of the two papers is reprinted from the Bulletin de la Société Royale Beige de Géographie. It is a general account of the island of Siphnos. Incidentally the author mentions interesting superstitions relating to streams, fountains, and trees. Thus, when a haunted tree is cut down the woodcutters drop silently on their knees as the tree falls, lest the spirit strike them as it passes away. Sometimes they put a big stone on the trunk to hinder the spirit from escaping.

this book (to which Dr. Krauss, whose reputation as a collector and interpreter of folklore, especially of the South Slavonic peoples, stands high among English students, has contributed a preface) the author has brought together about 1,000 traditions relative to the old Duchy of Berg, a district lying on the right bank of the Rhine, the chief town in which is Elberfeld, but of which the capital, when the Duchy was something more than a geographical expression, was Düsseldorf. Many of the traditions included are taken from mediæval and older modern works; and it is convenient to have them brought together thus. The majority, however, are direct from the mouths of the people. As Dr. Krauss observes, they seem chiefly to belong to the common stock. We have not, indeed, been able to test them very far, owing to the danger of the book's falling to pieces. For we regret to say that, as a material fabric, the work before us is a sample of the lingering custom of issuing books without stitching them: a custom happily now honoured by most German publishers