Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 4.djvu/356

 410 NOTES AND QUERIES. p» b. iv. Nov. n, •». mainly from language. Into these questions it is impossible for us to enter. We can but pronounce Dr. Mathew's views original and his arguments tenable. From his argument from tradition and mythology he draws his quaint-sounding title. Aborigines of the northern parts of Victoria hold that " the beings who created all things had sever- ally the form of the crow and the eagle." After a long feud, peace between these two beings was established, and it was arranged between them that the Murray blacks should be divided into two classes, the Mokwarra, or Eaglehawk, and the Kilparra, or Crow. Numerous myths, all of ex- treme interest, are narrated in connexion with this creed, which is not without influence upon the marriage regulations. Each separate point that Dr. Mathew raises claims a persistent attention, which those interested in the anthropology of the Australian aborigines will not be slow to accord. Very striking is the list of practices common to the Tasmanian and the Victorian aborigines, though it includes features, some of which arc not confined to the two races. Religious super- stitions, it is held, point rather to a connexion with the South Sea islands than with India, as some have held. Circumcision and the terrible rite variously called introcision, subincision, and, by our author, concision, were unknown to the Tos- manians, and even to the first comers of the second immigrating race. Circumcision was introduced in times fairly recent by Malay Mohammedans, and the "terrible rite" probably was "gradually de- veloped for personal ornament." As to the value of the theories built up and, as it is held, established by the author, we are not in a position to speak. We can but commend his book to our readers as a result of keen observation and great erudition, which will repay the closest study. What is said concerning the physical characteristics of the Aus- tralians, their habits, modes of life, government, laws, &c., especially the marriage laws and burial customs, is of more general interest. Australian wall paintings have been a subject of special study, and many striking designs are reproduced. We can only commend to philologists the linguistic por- tion of the work, which constitutes, perhaps, the most original and important portion of an original and important work. Romeo and Jvliet • The Tempest. With an Intro- duction by John Dennis and Illustrations by Byam Shaw. (Bell & Sons.) To the fascinating "Chiswick Shakespeare" have been added ' Romeo and Juliet' and' The Tempest.' The text and illustrations are as commendable as in previous volumes, the introduction and notes repay study, and each volume has a short and serviceable glossary. Enylish Satire*. With an Introduction by Oliphant Snicaton. (Blackie & Son.) To the " Warwick Series," successive volumes of which, dealing with ' English Pastorals,' ' Essays,' ' Literary Criticism,' ' Masques,' and ' Lyrics,' we have already noticed, has been added a work, noways inferior to its predecessors, on ' Eng- lish Satires,' from Chaucer to Calverley. The selection is not in every case perfect. Hood should have supplied the ' Ode to Rae Wilson' instead of that which is given, 'Cockle v. Cackle': the song by Rogers, 'The Captive,' can scarcely be classed as a satire; and no quotation whatever is given from Wither's ' Abuses Stript and Whipt,' nor from Rochester, who has been reckoned the first of English satirists. We do not agree with all that is said in the introduction, dissenting from the characterization of the leading Elizabethan satirists, and rejecting the assertion that the ' Dunciod " must not be regarded as, properly speaking, a malicious satire." In a quotation from Joseph Hall Mr. Smeaton spells Calais in the modern fashion, and not, as it was then written, Cales, the result being to destroy the value of a line :— The nuns of new-won Cales his bonnet lent. In the ' New Cry' of Ben Jonson some of the lines should run, And they know If the states make [not] peace how it will go With England. The spelling "Cleiveland" for Cleveland is de- fensible, perhaps justifiable, but uncommon and uncomfortable. We are not, however, disposed to car)). A large number of satires in prose and verse are given, aU of them being worthy of reperusal. Taken as a whole, the collection is as good as could easily be made, and the work is worthy of the eminently attractive series in which it appears. The Editor is greatly honoured and gratified by the expressions of sympathy and goodwill that have reached him from many quarters concerning the issue of the Jubilee Number. He regrets his complete inability to answer directly all the con- tributors who have cheered him by the expressions of goodwill, and begs them to accept this acknow- ledgment of communications which leave him, like Hamlet, " even poor in thanks." gloikej to ffiorrfajutnhfuts. We must call special attention to the following notices:— On all communications must be written the name and address of the sender, not necessarily for pub- lication, but as a guarantee of good faith. We cannot undertake to answer queries privately. To secure insertion of communications corre- spondents must observe the following rule. Let each note, query, or reply be written on a separate slip of paper, with the signature of the writer and such address as he wisheB to appear. Correspond- ents who repeat queries are requested to head the second communication " Duplicate." J. Gower Glover (" The mill - wheel cannot grind again," &c).—These lines, familiar in collec- tions of proverbs, appear in ' The Lesson of the Watermill,' by Sarah Doudney. See 7th S. iii. 209, 299; x. 508; xi. 79, 139; 8th S. iii. 7, 116. The question is continually asked, and bids fair to replace that of " Oil on troubled waters." Erratum.—P. 352, col. 2,1.18, for " seventeenth " read eiyhlecnth. Nones. Editorial Communications should be addressed to " The Editor of ' Notes and Queries' "—Advertise- ments and Business Letters to "The Publisher"— at the Office, Bream's Buildings, Chancery Lane, E.C. We beg leave to state that we decline to return communications which, for any reason, we do not print; and to this rule we can make no exception.