Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 8.djvu/505

 s. vm. NOV. as, 1907.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

419

NOTES ON BOOKS, &o.

Cradle Tales of Hinduism. By the Sister Nivedita.

(Longmans & Co.).

WHEN folk-tales are presented to the public in a popular form we have often a lurking suspicion that the simple narrative of the story-teller has been elaborated and polished in the literary workshop to make it more acceptable to sophisticated tastes. We have no means of determining how far, if at all, we are warranted in giving way to this suspicion in the case of the collection made by Miss Noble, " in religion " Sister Nivedita. She certainly recounts the native tales in English of the finest quality, and with occasional passages of a metaphysical and philosophical character which are doubtless natural to the Oriental mind. Miss Noble assures us of the authenticity and genuineness of the good things she sets before us, most of them having oeen taken down from word of mouth. Many of the stories, however, are only traditional and popularized versions of incidents from the great national epics of the ' Mahabharata ' and ' Ramayana ' and the Puranas ; we have them here as told by old wives to the children before bedtime.

We notice a certain want of symmetry in one respect that while the majority of the tales launch off at once in the words of the Hindu narrator, others e.g., the story of Druwa without any note of warning, begin with some literary comments which are obviously due to the redactor, and the point of junction is not indicated. Some occa- sional notes of an explanatory kind would have been welcome. The compiler in her preface advances a theory that the Krishna, who holds a prominent place in the Cradle Tales, may be the Heracles of Central Asia referred to by the Greek writer Megasthenes about the year 300 B.C. A larger question still is whether both alike may not be specialized presentations of the old Babylonian Semitic Gilgamesh, and so akin to the Phcenician Melkarth and other popular heroes of mythology. The wonderful unity of folk - tales might render it possible. The incident in the first story which tells how Utanka, while drinking at a spring, is robbed of his treasure by Takshaka, king of the serpents, has curious points of correspondence with the Babylonian story of Gilganiesh, who halts at a fountain, and has the plant of immortality snatched from him by a serpent-demon. The account of the boy's wish in the Story of Prahlad,' when given a choice of blessings by his deity, recalls that of Solomon in 2 Chronicles, and suggests some know- ledge of the Old Testament. The tales are attrac- tively told, and will be liked by children of a larger growth as well as by folk-lorists.

The Life of Charles Dickens, by John Forster, has just been published jointly by Messrs. Chapman & Hall and Mr. Frowde, in the Fireside Edition " of Dickens. It is an essential complement to the novels, and will be welcomed by a large body of readers, for this issue, though most moderate in price, is well printed and contains several illus- trations. The 'Life' has its weak points, and was, as our late beloved Editor used to say, jestingly called ' Forster 's Life by Dickens.' This, however, is hardly fair, and the biography gives a very good idea of the delightful exuberance of spirits wnich

kept Dickens always on the go, and led him in his later years to overdo himself with his "Readings." With all the contemporary enthusiasm for Dickens's pathetic figures modern criticism has not found) itself able to agree, as was hinted by the issue of this very ' Life ' revised by George Gissing. Here, however, the critics are probably still in a large minority, and we may expect that the capable record by the " harbitrary gent " will take its proper place by the side of the long row of novels, and entertain many fireside readers this winter. The lives of literary men are not always consonant with their published \vorks, and even constitute a sad shook to their admirers. There can be no doubts of this sort in the case of Dickens. He is himself a masterpiece of life and humour, equal to anything. He has the walking powers of the Pick- wiekians ; the extraordinary gaiety of Quilp and Swiveller ; and powers of observation and deduc- tion equal to those of the most admired detectives. Even in his early days he could see a whole man, his. profession and habits, in an old coat. There was too in Dickens, besides these amazing gifts, zeal for reform a zeal not often associated with personal gaiety.

Te Tohunga : the Ancient Legends and Traditions of the Maoris. Collected and pictured by W. Dittmer. (Routledge & Sons.) IN the illustrations accompanying the poetical, nature-myths and hero-stories given in this gather- ing of New Zealand traditions Maori art is com- bined with that of the white race. Whether the. result is successful New Zealanders can best de- cide. To European eyes these representations of the god-powers and their feats are full of a strange and puzzling convention which makes them difficult to judge.

As to the legends themselves, the stories of Rangi, Papa, Tane, Maui, and their fellows are picturesque enough. They show how sensitive the Maori intellect is to the beauty of sky, earth, and sea ; but no other story is quite so pleasing as the version given of Hinemoa's celebrated exploit. This forms a love - tale as charming as that of Eros and Psyche. When Tutanekai found him- self thinking of Hinemoa, who was as beautiful as a white heron among a flock of Kiwi, "his heart was frightened. He was frightened and ill, and was full of wrath over it, as over a lizard that ate away his heart." Even falling on his enemies as a dark cloud, war and victory, only gave him temporary relief. So he sent Tiki, his friend, to Hinemoa, "to ask her to come to him and to his heart, that it might lose its fright and be full of gladness." " Eh-hu, answered Hinemoa, " is then each of us growing in the heart of the other? " and for love's sake she, the daughter of a great chief, swam by stealth across the lake Rotorua to the island of Mokoia, guided by the sweet music played by Tutanekai. Unlike the legend of Hero and Leander, the story ends with playful deception, laughter, and delight. Evi- dently the great and mighty god of whom Dan Chaucer rimed was lord of the land which Maui fished up from the depths of the sea long before the man of the North took the blessings and curses of his civilization to the children of the South.

The Quarterly Review. October. (John Murray.) THE paper on M. Sorel's ' L'Europeetla Revolution Frangaise' is highly condensed. The writer is,.