Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 7.djvu/368

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NOTES AND QUERIES. 19 th s. VIL MAY 4, 1901.

many have said on Hebrew life and customs ; but we miss the creative faculty, the scholarly instinct, which can make what would otherwise be a dull book one of living interest. He divides his volume into two parts the social life of the early Hebrews, called for shortness ' The Time of the Judges,' and that in ' The Time of the Monarchy 'tracing under each the influence of the clan, the family, and the environment upon the manners, morals, and laws of the Chosen People. Some of Mr. Day's obiter dicta we cannot quite away with. We cannot believe that " the modern pic-nic is undoubtedly [!] a sur- vival of such primitive gatherings" as the old sacrificial feast in honour of Yahven, "just as the New England donation-party [whatever that may be] is a survival of a later custom, that of sending a portion of the victim slain to the legally con- stituted priest." This at all events, we venture to think, is a discovery of Mr. Day's own. Again, it is quite possible to explain the spirit of Yahveh as an overpowering influence urging a man to strange action or enterprise, as in the case of Samson, without calling it " a demonic power." It is not very illuminating to be told that in times of sick- ness " ordinarily, when circumstances allowed of it, nurses were employed. Games were played by the children, and pet animals were common. The love &f the husband and father was not unconfessed," and so on. Surely nobody ever doubted that the Hebrews were human.

That Mr. Day is an American writing for Ame- ricans we are not allowed to forget for long; e.g., this rendering : " He taketh the poor from the city- dump and maketh him to sit among the nobles." This is verily the Psalter down to date ! Indeed, the writer makes no effort to rise above the slip- shod of the tramcar. " We wonder," he says, 'whether the sick and famished man survived the two raisin cakes which were fed him." Can we feed a man a cake ? That much is to be desired in the matter of style will appear from the unfortunate sentence with which the book begins enough to deter any wavering reader: "The designation of the period of Hebrew life which is considered in this part of the present work is not as easy as it at lirst thought seems, for the term here employed, the usual one, is misleading, though perhaps not as misleading to many as some other might be" !

Xofes on Dan and Scorpio and Sagittarius. By

J. M. Lawrence. (Banks & Son.) WHEN we took up this brochure, on Biblical astro- logy we suspected we should soon come on the Druids, and Anglo-Israelites, and Dr. Gumming. We were not mistaken. But we felt that we were too inveterately prejudiced to give it a fair criticism, especially when our eye fell on the equation of Saxons with " Isaac's sons."

Journal of the Anthropological Institute. New

Series. Vol. III.

A SPECIALLY interesting volume of the Journal of the, Anthropological Institute opens with the report of the annual meeting and with the address of the President, Mr. C. H. Read, F.S.A. Following this comes a very valuable article by Mr. H. M. Chad- wick, M.A., on 'The Oak and the Thunder God.' The historical portion of this deals at some length with the worship of the thunder god among the Northern peoples, and with the question of tree sanctuaries in Scandinavia, Germany, and else- where. Association between the oak and the

thunder god prevailed among the Prussians, Ger- mans, Kelts, Romans, and Greeks. Mr. Frazer's theory that the oak was not merely the symbol or habitation of the god, but was itself the object of worship, is not fully accepted, Mr. Chadwick hold- ing that the thunder god was supposed to inhabit the oak because it had formerly been the dwelling- place of his worshippers. Mr. A. L. Lewis has an interesting communication on ' The Stone Circles of Scotland,' and Dr. Kingston an important contri- bution on the contents of caves near Knysna, in South Africa. Other essays, each of which merits special notice, are included in a work with which many of our readers have long been familiar. The society is doing noble service, being worthily sup- ported in so doing by the aid of a few men of means. Thoroughly to carry out its schemes requires an accession of members. Its special need is for work- ing Fellows, who will carry out in different parts of the world the kind of exploration for the under- taking and due conduct of which it was established. Its home is at 3, Hanover Square, W., where those interested in anthropological pursuits may com- municate with Mr. J. L. Myres, the secretary, or Mr. A. L. Lewis, the treasurer.

MESSRS. BELL will publish immediately a new and enlarged edition of Prof. Kuno Francke's ' His- tory of German Literature,' which first appeared in New York under the title of ' Social Forces in Ger- man Literature,' and is now published in England for the first time. They also announce English editions of Prof. T. R. Lounsbury's ' History of the English Language' and Mr. H. S. Pancoast's 'Introduction to English Literature,' both of which are text-books in the United States.

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To secure insertion of communications corre- spondents must observe the following rules. 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 wishes to appear. When answer- ing queries, or making notes with regard to previous entries in the paper, contributors are requested to put in parentheses, immediately after the exact heading, the series, volume, and page or pages to which they refer. Correspondents who repeat queries are requested to head the second com- munication " Duplicate."

F. J. P., Boston, Mass. ("Straight off," ante, p. 239). We think this phrase is authorized in England, but are open to correction.

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