of "Le Chevalier du Papegau," is really, as Herr Freymond seems to think, a distorted version of the same story. The cat may have been originally a water-monster, but that aspect of the story seems to have been lost in that of the demoniac character of the beast. Strictly speaking, it is as a fight with a fiend, "uns anemis," that the Romancer regards it. Nor is its origin as given in the Triads precisely that of a water-demon, though it is fished out of the water. The Chevalier-Poisson story seems rather to belong to a line of tradition in which the water origin is insisted upon : we should class it with the Grendel story, and the analogous account given in Diu Crône of the slaying cf a water-monster and his mother by Gawain, which Herr Freymond seems to have overlooked. We have not the poem at hand, and our notes are scanty, but unless we mistake, the creatures were of monstrous shape, and overgrown with seaweed. To his dragon stories Herr Freymond might well have added that of König Ortnit, a capital illustration of his points. The monster is treacherously introduced into his land by the heathen king whose daughter he has carried off. It is sent as a present, a harmless beast. Grown to full size, it devastates the land, and finally, when Ortnit goes to slay it, he himself falls a victim Should Herr Freymond ever project a second edition of his excellent monograph, he may, perhaps, think these hints worth following up. JESSIE L. WESTON. SHAKSPEARE'S PERICLES AND APOLLONIUS OF TYRE, A STUDY IN COMPARATIVE LITERATURE. By ALBERT H. SMYTH. Philadelphia: MacCalla and Co. 1898. MR. SMYTH in this essay has collected all the available facts about the distribution of the Apollonius romance in different languages in the Middle Ages. In an appendix, the Gesta Romanorum version is given, and it was apparently at first Mr. Smyth's intention to give the Anglo-Saxon Apollonius also. As Zupitza's edition in the Archiv 1896 is not easily found, it is to be regretted that this original design was not carried out. A great deal of diligence has been given to the survey of the field and the search for information about Apollonius; the result is a book which illustrates in an interesting and useful way the common processes of transmission between different languages in the Middle Ages and the common forms employed in the publication of favourite stories. By means of Mr. Smyth's indications, the way may be found to a large number of sources for the study of mediæval literature. Folklore has a much smaller place in the book than the literary and professional adaptations of romance according to the taste of different markets. But the interest of popular and oral tradition, distinct from that of the professional dealers in romance, is not left out of account. There are one or two oversights. In the passage about Solomon and his wife, in legend, there ought to have been a reference to Cligés, and to Professor W. Förster's Introduction in his edition of Chrestien de Troyes. Some names should be corrected: e.g. "Lopez de Vega," "Vincentius Bellovac," and "Alphonse le Savant," in the middle of an English sentence, used for Alphonso the Wise of Castile. Odense is not in Finland, and "lystig og fornöjelig at læse og höre" does not mean "jolly and novel to read and hear." These things are trivial, but they detract somewhat from the merit of the book and make the reader uncomfortable. Mr. Smyth, it should be noted, has reprinted the rhyming English Apollonius fragment published by Halliwell in 1850. JOURNAL OF THE FOLK-SONG SOCIETY. Vol. I., No. 1, 1899, pp. viii., 26. No. 2, 1900, pp. viii., 27-62. Printed for the Society by Spottiswoode & Co. OUR unpretending but vigorous offshoot, the Folk-Song Society, has now been at work for two years, and has fully justified its claim to a separate existence. Its scheme of operations consists of the collection, annual performance, and subsequent publication of inedited folk-music, as well words as airs, with notes thereon. The numbers of its annual Journal for 1899-1900 are now before us. The first contains an introductory address by Sir Hubert Parry, one of the vice-presidents; a paper on "Modal Survivals in Folk-Song," by Mr. E. S. Jacques-survivals such as an uninstructed collector might be liable to mistake for errors of the singer, and to obliterate in transcription; an entertaining paper by the Hon. Secretary, Mrs. Kate Lee, on the "Experiences of a Folk-Song Collector," containing practical hints which many a folklorist might study with profit; and finally, twelve traditional airs, previously unpublished. The second number contains a report of the year's work, from which it seems that thirty-one tunes have been received from nine collectors for collation and consideration by the committee; a paper on Jewish Synagogue Music, and another on English Sailors' Songs; and lastly, ten inedited folk-songs, and ten preserved in the traditions of the Synagogue. As to the matter of these gleanings, the majority are narrative love-songs, possessing, even when obviously corrupted by repetition, that curious affecting pathos which is a "note of the genuine folk-song all over the world. A few ballads ("folk-tales in verse") are mentioned among the sea-songs, but only one of the real old sort is given: "Come, Mother, Come Make up my Bed" -a variant on the old theme of the separated lovers who die for love. Trade and labour-songs are not represented. More attention, however, has been paid to the music than to the words; and undoubtedly the study of folk-music has its own importance, not only as throwing light on the history and development of musical science, but for its bearing on some of the problems of folklore. For here we can often get at actual facts, where in other departments we have to depend on reasoning and probability. Take, for instance, the Jewish evidence now before us. The melodies used in synagogal and other worship are in reality the folk-tunes of the several countries in which Jewish immigrants have settled, but interwoven by their adapters with curious cadences of an Oriental cast; thus displaying clearly the double influence of race and environment. Again, the "toughness" of popular tradition, especially when sanctioned by ritual or ecclesiastical practice, is illustrated by the fact that one at least of the melodies still traditionally sung by the descendants of Spanish Jews was originally set to words by Rabbi Judah Hallevi, who was born in Castile in 1085. After this, the information that the ballad of the capture of the Sweet Trinity, printed in black letter in the reign of Elizabeth, is still sung by our sailors under the name of the Golden Vanity, seems flat and commonplace in comparison. Yet much new light may be thrown on the diffusion and transmission of folklore when the subjects of sailors' songs and gipsies' songs shall have been systematically studied. Considering the magic power universally attributed to song, folklorists might with advantage pay more attention to it than has hitherto been customary. This is especially advisable in cases where musical airs are enshrined in some ritual or ceremonial custom. Old-fashioned civic ceremonials, for instance, often have a special tune associated with them. The assistance of a musical friend, or of the local organist, may usually be obtained, if skill in transcription be lacking; and the judgment of experts on the character and rarity of the tune is now easily procurable through the Folk-Song Society. With this end in view, the Honorary Secretary (a member herself of the Folk-Lore Society) will forgive us for adding her name and address: Mrs. KATE LEE, 8, Victoria Road, Kensington, London, W. CARMINA GADELICA. Hymns and Incantations, with Illustrative Notes on Words, Rites, and Customs, dying and obsolete: orally collected in the Highlands and Islands of Scotland, and translated into English by ALEXANDER CARMICHAEL. 2 vols., 4to. 1900. xxxii. 339, xii. 350 pp. Edinburgh: Printed for the Author by T. & A. Constable, and sold by Norman Macleod. 300 copies printed. MR. ALEXANDER CARMICHAEL, whose portrait, an admirable and speaking likeness, adorns the first volume, is a Highland gentleman who has spent over forty years in close and continued communion with his countrymen of the crofter and fisher class, gathering up and recording their traditional lore. For his informants he manifests throughout strong affection and sincere regard; with their mode and conception of life his sympathy is evident. It is plain to see that the feelings and fancies which he has chronicled so reverently, appeal alike to his moral and to his æsthetic sense. The result is a book of rare unity of aim and effect, in which we never lose sight of the human life which underlies and animates the recorded lore, in which every fragment bears its witness to a definite system of culture whose charm, felt by the author, is communicated to the reader. From among the mass of lore which he has collected, Mr. Carmichael has here selected the invocations, charms, spells, prayers, and soothsayings of daily life and occupation in the house, the field, the byre, and the fishing-boat. The illustrative notes appended to each section picture in a most vivid and charming way the conditions of existence among a peasantry which has preserved the appropriate formula, the fitting rite, the hallowed ceremonial, for every act of its simple and laborious life. Much of the recorded matter is of course familiar, being merely the Gaelic expression of what is common to the peasant class throughout Europe, and what may be defined as the result of compromise between Christian teaching and pre-Christian conceptions. A very distinct flavour is, however, given to this European popular Christian oral literature by the passionate intensity of affection displayed towards the two chief patron saints of the Western Isles, Columba and Bridget (Bride). On the whole Mr. Carmichael's collection exemplifies much more the popular Christianity than the pre-Christian conceptions of Gaeldom. Whilst we can detect throughout an underlying stratum of far older belief and custom, yet the expression is nearly always that of orthodox Christianity, orthodox of course in the medieval sense. Much of what Mr. Carmichael has noted may rank with the most exquisite expressions of popular Christian feeling in any language. pan Mr. Carmichael earnestly disclaims having rendered his originals in their full beauty. I can only say that his English has a charm, a grace, and a noble dignity it would be difficult to overpraise. I quote one passage, both on account of its intrinsic merit and because it enables me to illustrate afresh that unity of tone and spirit throughout Gaelic literature upon which I have so often insisted. The piece entitled Ora nam Buadh, Invocation of the Graces, probably composed, thinks Mr. Carmichael, to a maiden on her marriage, opens thus: I bathe thy palms In showers of wine, |