Page:Journal of American Folklore vol. 12.djvu/169

 Bibliographical Notes. 157

paraphrased, and provided with the proper names of one single tribe, the Noongahburrah. By such a process, allowing for the imperfect under- standing of the language and freedom of rendering, anything might be made out. The critic is therefore quite justified in skepticism. At the same time, it is none the less clear that at the basis there is an intellectual treasure of no small worth, and we are told that, of this, part is in song. The moral therefore is, that Australian scholars ought not to lose a day in taking the only steps by which any certainty can be obtained ; that is to say, raising money, and employing educated young men of character and discretion, who may study the native languages, procure initiation in their rites, and give the world a complete and unvarnished history of the mental stock belonging to separate tribes. Whoever undertakes this task must, first of all, discard the heresy, repeatedly denounced in this Journal, " of the contempt visited on folk-tales, as if these were less important to record than ceremonies and gestures. The plain truth is, that custom, ritual, art, and archaeology, without folk-lore, is a body without a soul."

In his Introduction Mr. Lang, who has previously given countenance to this error, further helps to disseminate it by citing his own assertion that religion and mythology represent quite different moods of men. This may be so far true that the savage, in his hours of amusement, may indulge in tale-telling when the stories represent no serious belief. But it is equally true that the same savage always and everywhere is furnished with a body of legendary tales, which stand to him in a sacred relation. It is by these histories that are determined his ritual, his worship, and his social life. Any attempt to give an account of his religion which neglects this ele- ment leaves out the most important part, and can result in nothing but confusion.

W. W. Newell.

��Tales of the Enchanted Islands of the Atlantic. By Thomas Wentworth Higginson. New York : The Macmillan Co. 1899. Pp. xii, 259.

It has been from very ancient times a habit of mythologies to place wonders of nature in outlying islands, supposed to be inhabited by spirits, demons, giants, and monsters. This method of representation supposes the abode of man to be itself a central island in a middles-earth surrounded by the water-washed homes of supernatural beings. It is not clear what influences first produced such a conception ; elementary geographical ideas were wrought into this form, as is seen in the Homeric poems, where insular paradises and gardens of enchantment are already familiar to the authors. Irish narrators, moved no doubt by the outlying position of their isle, and under the impulse of the classical notions, developed stories of naviga- tors into marvellous accounts called bnrdma, forming sometimes frankly extravagant fiction. Of these we have an example in the celebrated voy- age of St. Brandan, not older than the twelfth century in its extant form. These Irish productions had considerable currency through Europe, and

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