Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 12.djvu/326

 318

NOTES AND QUERIES. [9* s. XIL OCT. 17, 1903.

searcher on the occasion to which I referred. It is obvious that I am not a paid custodian of registers if I do not receive the fees to which the custodian is entitled. I do not complain that my office is not a sinecure ; but I do claim some consideration for the custo- dian, and that, I believe, is not generally withheld by those who really value the infor- mation for which they seek. I suppose the regulations with regard to fees were intended to secure some kind of recognition of help afforded, even from those who may be un- willing to own indebtedness. If H. H. D. should at any time require my assistance he will not find that I am unwilling to help him, even should he decline to allow that I am entitled to a fee. F. JARRATT.

I wish I could feel that " the sordid demand, Pay, pay, pay," was "growing obsolete." Will H. H. D. try his fortune with the rector of St. Giles's-in-the-Fields 1 His address is 52, Bedford Place. I was refused even an interview, though having a letter introduc- tory from the amicable rector of St. Anne's, Soho ; and by the female in charge of the registers I was refused even a look at them without payment of full fees. The St. Giles's registers are said to be some of the most interesting in the kingdom, and to me especially interesting just now in connexion with a history which I am preparing for the Ancestor. A friendly lawsuit a test case to ascertain the actual rights of literary searchers is very desirable, and I could even find it in my heart to be plaintiff in a friendly suit against the inaccessible custodian at St. Giles's if fellow antiquaries would join in

the COSt. C. SWYNNERTON.

Society of Antiquaries.

NOTES ON BOOKS, &c.

Cunnie Rabbit, Mr. Spider, and the other Beef: Went- African Folk- Tales. By Florence M. Cronise and Henry W. Ward. (Sonnenschein & Co. ) THE folk-lore tales herein supplied have been col- lected by Miss Gronise from mission boys and girls in Africa, and have received their setting from Mr. Ward. Not altogether an easy task is their perusal to those unfamiliar with West African speech. It is worth attempting, however, since the stories themselves are less sophisticated than those which reach us from American plantations, and with which they have much in common. Some difficulty attended their collection. In Sierra Leone, as in Scottish or Irish Highlands, in Australia, and else- where, natives are instinctively suspicious of those who seek to spy into their knowledge, superstitions, and beliefs, and even into their childish stones, and tact is necessary in order to obtain the required information. In Africa, as in America, negro folk-

lore consists largely in assigning to various animals human qualities and characteristics. The spider, in whom Miss Cronise traces a sort of impersona- tion of the genius of the negro race, holds in the folk-lore of West Africa the place assigned to Brer Rabbit in the tales of the Southern negro, to Annancy in the West Indies, and Hlakanyana among the Kaffirs. Less benevolent and amiable than Brer Rabbit is the Spider, who is ordinarily, however, on the best of terms with him, and an African audience chuckles with contentment over the way in which, in pursuit of beef, this cunning creature gets the better of animals such as the elephant and the hippopotamus. Cunnie Rabbit, we are told, is not a rabbit at all, but " the water- deerlet or chevrotain, noted for its nimbleness and cunning." Inquiries as to where the stories come from were always answered, " Oh, please, missus, f 'om f-a-r up country," with a prolonged emphasis on the " far." The stories are often almost identical with those in the " Uncle Remus " series and in the " Annancy Stories." The ' Tar Baby ' story, found in the oral literature of almost all African tribes, appears as the * Wax Girl,' while the Temne story of the Turtle making a riding-horse of Mr. Leopard finds a parallel in Brer Rabbit riding Brer Fox. Much curious information as to African supersti- tion is furnished in the introduction, which is a valuable contribution to folk-knowledge. Illustra- tions by Mr. Gerald Sichel are quaint and numerous, and add greatly to the attractions of an interesting volume.

Fly Leaves. By Charles Stuart Calverley. (Bell

& Sons.)

MESSRS. BELL & SONS have issued a shilling edition of the ' Fly Leaves,' which cannot fail of a welcome. It is well and legibly printed, and has a portrait of Calverley on the cover. The only respect in which the work departs from the first edition seems to be in supplying on the title-page the full name instead of the initials, and in adding the ' Pickwick ' exami- nation paper and key.

The Reliquary and Illustrated Archaeologist. Edited by J. Romilly Allen. October. (Bern rose & Sons.) IN this number the first article is by Mr. W. Heneage Legge, ' On Purses,' treating of their origin. Several illustrations are given of early purse frames, including one found in the moat of Binham Priory. Mr. Legge gives an account of the priory, the first, he believes, to have been published. The second article, by an old contributor to 'N. & Q.,' Mr. Alfred Charles Jonas, is on 'Archbishop Whitgift's Hospital of the Holy Trinity, Croydon/ The illus- trations to this include the entrance to audience chamber, its overmantel, and that part showing the "Armada chest." Mr. Giberne Sieveking writes on ' The Mediaeval Chapbook as an Educational Factor in the Past.' ' Some Pre-Norman Finds at Lancaster ' is by Mr. W. G Collingwood, who, in describing in the Reliquary last year these frag- ments of pre-Norman work built into the north wall of Lancaster parish church, expressed a hope that in the intended alterations they would be preserved. This hope has been more than fulfilled. Mr. Austin, the architect, has not only recovered these most interesting stones, but has found more, making ten fragments altogether. These range from the earliest type of fine old Anglian work, earlier, in Mr. Collingwood's judgment, " than the Anglian crosshead from Lancaster now