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NOTES AND QUERIES.

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Commissioner to West Africa and Consul-General of the Niger Coast Protectorate, having previously been Consul-General at Zanzibar. Concerning his own exploits Major Ferryman is becomingly reti- cent. He supplies, however, an admirably concise and graphic picture of the growth of our huge West African empire, furnishing in abundance the infor- mation in which the ethnologist, the anthropologist, and the student of primitive culture most delight. Few geographical problems inspired more interest than that of the course of the Niger. Besides Nigeria, the work deals with Gambia, Sierra Leone, the Gold Coast, Ashanti, and Lagos. It embraces, indeed, the whole district between the Sahara on the north and the Atlantic on the south, and between the Gambia river on the west and Lake Chad on the east, a region ominously known as the most fatal in the world to Europeans. In regard to this most important of questions our author is a pes- simist, holding, with Winwood Reade, that in " a sinuous coast-Tine of several thousand miles there is not a single cubic inch of air which is not in the night time impregnated with malaria," and assert- ing, with melancholy boldness of conviction, that "no human exertion can make it other." The black-water fever is regarded as produced by the presence in the blood of a "new malarial parasite," and not, as we are now being told, the result of the employment of quinine. It appears as if the only remedy for the malarial scourge will be found in residence inland above the fever belt. As yet it is only the sea fringe of Western Africa that has been thoroughly explored. It is in the hinterland we must look for the future of Africa. The soil there is fertile and capable of producing crops in abund- ance, and with settled government and improved communication the "old Hausa states have pro- spects as brilliant as any part of tropical Africa." Deeply interesting is the volume, the illustrations and maps with which it abounds adding greatly to its value. Many of the illustrations are of remarkable merit, and the book, like others issued from the Imperial Press, is admirably got up in all respects.

The Monastery. By Sir Walter Scott, Edited by

Andrew Lang. (Nimmo.)

THE tenth volume of Mr. Nimmo's handsome re- issue of the "Border Edition" of the Waverley novels consists of ' The Monastery,' which is re-

B tinted with the ten spirited designs of Mr. Gordon rowne. It is impossible to resist the conviction, once more impressed upon our mind, that the Wizard of the North for once nodded. After reading carefully the apologia for to this it almost amounts of Sir Walter we turned afresh to the work, and were afresh disappointed. Defensible enough may have been the scheme, and portions may be well worked out. The antagonism between Henry Warden and Father Eustace is excellent. But the story as story is dull ; the White Lady of Avenel is unimpressive ; Halbert Glendinning is no better than other of Scott's heroes ; Mary is an un- interesting and unattractive little Puritan; and Sir Fiercie bhafton, though well conceived, is unskilfully trea ted. Some of the subordinate characters are well drawn ; but even in these we seem to feel that fecott s hand has lost something of its cunning. We nnd traces of effort even in the description of Christie of the Clinthill ; and the ebulliency of fetawarth Bolton fails to commend him to us. ' The Monastery' has, however, to be included in the

Waverley novels, whether it is read or neglected. previous works, and it wins forgiveness and recognition when we remember that it is an indis- pensable introduction to ' The Abbot.'
 * has, moreover, the elegance of get-up of the

Lincolnshire Tales. By Mabel Peacock. (Brige

Jackson & Sons.)

Miss MABEL PEACOCK'S Lincolnshire stories come within our ken for two reasons : they furnish the aptest illustrations accessible of Lincolnshire speech, and they brim over with interesting folk-lore. A dozen years have passed since Miss Peacock issued her Tales and Rhymes in the Lindsey Folk-Speech ' (see 7 th S. 11. 179), a volume the contents of which were principally humorous. There is humour in abundance in the later volume, the general atmo- sphere of which, however, is sentimental. Many

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together, being narrated by a certain Elijah Twigg Very charming is the account they comprise of the Warrenden family. We strongly commend Miss Peacock s tales to all lovers of folk-speech, and to those also in search of short stories healthful, pure, and sympathetic, and endowed with a delight- ful literary flavour.

Place-Kamex in Glengarry and Glenquoich and them- Origin. By Edward C. Ellice. (Sonnenschein & Co.)

MR. ELLICE'S little volume is one of a class of books now happily become common, an account of the place-names and traditions of a definite district written by one who has his home and life-interest in the neighbourhood ; but we cannot say that it is a favourable specimen of the class. The author manifests no special aptitude for the task he has undertaken, and appears not to have made up his mind whether he would write some discursive historical notices or etymological notes on the glens and lochs of his Highland home. As to tine origin of the names, the bare Gaelic equivalent ra- for the most part supplied, and a padding of slight anecdotes of mere local interest makes up the- residue. A reprehensible want of proportion i shown in devoting more than one-tenth of the volume to a single article, 'Field of the Shirts/ But the comic sketches inserted at intervals seem to show that Mr. Ellice does not take his own book very seriously.

A Small BrasK Cup found in the Grmveyard of tke Church of St. Clement, Rodil, Harrin. With & Note on the Chalice. By David Murray, LL.D. (Glasgow, MacLehose.)

DR. MURRAY has written an interesting account of this curious cup, and has added a really important essay on chalices, both of the eucharistic and sym- bolic kinds. His paper is a reprint from the Trans- actions of the Glasgow Archaeological Society, with the addition of notices of two silver chalices in the Museum of Copenhagen.

The Rodil cup is very small. It is but three and a half inches high, and weighs only seven ounces. In the penal days which followed the Reformation, we know that missionary priests were accustomed to bear about them on their persons very small chalices ; but all we have seen or heard of were of silver, and none of them so minute as this one. We are, of course, aware that in very early days eucha-