Page:Folklore1919.djvu/527

 prehistoric times more or less directly from the Ægean: in fact, the Druids came from Crete. This accounts for its religion, megalithic monuments, art, literature, everything. The proof of this, and of many other things which the author takes by the way, is facile where the meaning and derivations of words can be manipulated as freely as in these pages; for, as the author observes, “every ancient term bore many meanings.” Apparently it bore any meaning a reckless and ingenious theoriser might choose to place upon it.

The author’s reading has been wide, and every scrap that can suit his purpose—not only from scientific and first-rate authorities, but also (and without any indication that he is conscious of the difference in value) from writers whose evidence or opinion is of little or no weight, and writers whose point of view has long been passed in the progress of knowledge—is equally pressed into his service. Many of his illustrations and large areas of the text are quite irrelevant, though occasionally the reader who wades through the book is startled by observations surprisingly in harmony with the results of modern research. It is all vitiated, however, by “the jig-saw system,” which cuts its way through relevances and irrelevances, regardless of any consideration of reason or fact. A reference to, and plan of, an alleged prehistoric building discovered by the author’s brother, and still unexcavated, somewhere in this country, inspire no confidence, since all information as to its situation and discovery is carefully withheld. Nor do frequent mis-spellings of the names of writers cited, and such blunders as the reference to Dr. Coneybeare (sic) as a “cleric” betray a very close attention to accuracy in detail. These trifies are of course insignificant in a “profound and far-reaching contribution to English Archaeology.” E. S. H.



book is written round the thesis that “the custom of placing funeral offerings in graves originated in some remote 