136
NOTE3 AND QUERIES. [9 th s. VIIL AUG. 10, 1901.
and original. An account of 'Rural New
York City' supplies interesting pictures of a
district little known to English travellers, but
full of character. 'A Little Savage Gentleman'
gives an account of a young Samoan, a son oi
a chief and a friend of Robert Louis Stevenson.
The cover of the magazine is beautiful and the
illustrations throughout are excellent. In the
CornhUl Mr. Thomas Seccombe, under the title
- Smelfungus goes South,' deals with Smollett's
' Travels through France and Italy,' which he pro- nounces " well written and instructive." Of Smol- lett himself we obtain a capital account, and the article is in its line a model. Mr. Fitchett's revival of the great Mutiny still stirs the soul like the blast of a trumpet. Mrs. Woods has an amusing account of ' In a Mangrove Swamp,' and Mrs. Archibald Lewis some stimulating pages on 'Peking Revisited.' In No. 8 of "Family Budgets " Lady Agnew tells ' How to Live on Ten Thousand a Year,' a task, it appears, less easy than it seems to most of us. An account of the French press shows that a notable improvement has been made of late in the obtaining of news. It presents, we fear, a rather too sanguine view of French feel- ing towards England, but is well worthy of study.
- The Cup and the Lip ' is occupied with Alpine
climbing. Mr. Austin Dobson has a short poem in his best vein on the ' Five-Hundredth Number of the Cornhill Magazine.' In the Gentleman's Dr. Alexander H. Japp has a readable and interesting 4 Study of Nightjars,' Miss Georgiana Hill an essay on 'Napoleon and Prince Metternich,' and Mr. H. F. Hills an account of the fight at Bow, near London, in 1648. Sylvan us Urban, at second hand, advocates the establishment of a society for the preservation of the English language, the existence of which is imperilled by journalists and so-styled literary men. The scheme merits attention. To Longman's the Rev. H. C. Beeching, himself an examiner, sends ' Some Notes on an Examination.' It furnishes some wonderful revelations of crass ignorance. It is written in part as an answer to a previous paper in the same magazine by Mr. Andrew Lang. Mr. Lang himself is in his best vein in 'At the Sign of the Ship,' dealing with ghost stories, early discoverers of America, and other matters. A delightful story is told of Robert Maccullock, a hero of the " '45." We wish we could afford space to extract it. 'Recollections of a Tenderfoot' and 'Autumn by the Sea' will repay perusal. Amidst much spirited fiction the Idler has an historical article, well illustrated, on ' The Fall of Quebec.'
THE two principal articles in the current number of Folk-lore relate to the games of the red men of Guiana, and to the superstitions and popular belief s of Lincolnshire. In the former paper Mr. im Thurn furnishes a valuable record of the sports of the Macusis and other tribes. " The simplest and earliest form of game, whether we regard the life of the individual or of the race, is the imitation by children of their elders." Hence, since human nature is conservative, the traditional amusements of the young often throw light on the ancient con- dition of their ancestors. " It is curious," says Mr. im Thurn, "and I think characteristic, that one of the simplest of games, which has developed again and again among many different peoples, and has taken on an infinity of elaborate forms I mean ball-play is almost unrepresented among'lithese
utilitarian savages." Probably, in many instances
at least, ball-play has been evolved from peculiar
rites connected with nature-worship; and where
these rites were unknown it might have no spon-
taneous development, but owe its final appearance
to adoption from some other people. In the account
of Lincolnshire folk-lore Miss Peacock speaks of
the beliefs of the county as being prosaic and want-
ing in distinct originality. Each parish possesses
its own variants of popular European superstitions,
but the picturesque individuality to be detected in
the conceptions of people in whom the Celtic and
pre-Celtic blood predominates is absent. A mingling
of English and Danish ancestry does not apparently
tend to the production of a poetic and imaginative
race.
THE * Notes of the Month ' in the Antiquary for July are of unusual interest, commencing as they do with extracts from Mr. A. J. Evans's letters to the Times on the late archaeological discoveries in Crete. Following on these notes comes an article on the probable site of the battlefield of Ethandune, and a description of 'The Souldier's Catechisme' (1644).
The recent numbers of the Interme'diaire are quite up to the accustomed standard. In the issue for 10 July antiquaries concerned in the accurate inter- pretation of the jus primes, noctis are referred to Count Ame'dee de Foras's ' Droit du Seigneur au Moyen-age ' and to Schmidt's 'Jus Primse Noctis' for information.
THE REV. W. C. BOULTER (Norton Vicarage, Evesham) begs to say that all the papers mentioned ante p. 96 are disposed of.
txr
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 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- mg queries, or making notes with regard to previous entries in the paper, contributors are requested to out 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."
J. BoucHiBR.-In 1776 your reference will be found : Johnson s present appearance put me in mind of my uncle Dr. BoswelPs description of him A robust genius, born to grapple with whole ibranes.' "
NOTICE.
S? it ?, r }? 11 com , muni cations 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.
