Page:The Folk-Lore Journal Volume 1 1883.djvu/103

Rh tries to show that the conception of a supreme god was common to the Aryan race before their dispersion; that he was originally the personified sky, and that the anthropomorphic process had made such progress when the dispersion did take place that the subsequent development among the different branches was and could only be very similar. He shows, however, that whilst the Iranian, the Greek, the Latin, and the Slave, retained to the last the sky god as the head of their pantheon, the Indian and the Lithuanian substituted the lightning-god, the German the stormwind-god. Such is a brief summary of the result arrived at in these learned and brilliantly written articles. We have left ourselves no space to speak of the remaining contents of this fascinating volume, in which fulness of knowledge and sureness of method are united to literary skill and sympathetic insight.

The Almanack des traditions populaires for 1883, which has recently been issued by Messrs. Maisonneuve and Co., of Paris, is even superior in interest and value to the 1882 volume. Besides a fresh instalment of addresses of Continental and English folk-lorists there is a full and carefully compiled bibliography of the publications of the past year. The "Chronique" gives an interesting account of the dinners of "Ma Mère l'Oye," which were started last year to enable the folk-lorists of Paris to meet each other in a friendly and informal way. Four of them were held last year with MM. Gaston Paris and Loys Bruyère (the accomplished editor of the Contes Populaires de la Grande Bretagne) in the chair. The dates for the forthcoming season are, the 13th of March, 10th of April, 8th of May, 13th of November, and 11th of December. English members of the Society who may happen to be in Paris on any of these dates, and apply to M. L. Bruyère, 134, Boulevard Haussmann, for tickets will be made heartily welcome. London folk-lorists might well follow the good example set them by their Paris brethren, and start a course of Mother Goose dinners. Will any members who think the idea a good one write to the Secretary?

The apostolic spirit is evidently not wanting in M. Oscar Havard, who, in the Monde Hebdomadaire for the 9th, 16th, and 23rd Septem-