Reviews. 419
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 gentle- man who has spent over forty years in close and continued com- munion with his countrymen of the crofter and fisher class, gathering up and recording their traditional lore. For his infor- mants 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 eesthetic sense. The result is a book of rare unity of aim and 2 E 2
