Short Bibliographical Notices. 427
Short Bibliographical Notices.
Negro Folk Singing-Games and Folk Games of the Habitants. Traditional Melodies and Text transcribed by Grace Cleve- land Porter. Accompaniments by Harvey Worthington LooMis. Large 4to, pp. xi + 85. London, L Curwen &: Sons, 1914.
This collection of Negro Singing and Folk Games is based on articles by Mr. H. E. Krehbiel and information from a Negro nurse. Mammy Mary. A pleasant Introduction gives a charming account of this delightful old lady. Some of the games were shown for the first time in Europe, in 19 13, by the children of the Esperance Guild of Morris Dancers, at Miss Porter's Recital in Small Queen's Hall, and were received with much favour. It is a valuable addi- tion to the stock of Singing Games, and doubtless in a few years they will be as popular among English as they now are to American children, and form yet another link with our over- sea neighbours.
Modern Greek Carols in Honour of St. Basil. By W. R. Paton and W. R. Halliday, reprinted from The Aft?iual of the British School at Athens. No. xx., 191 3-14.
This pamphlet contains an interesting collection of carols sung by singers who go about from house to house on the Eve of St. Basil, which is fixed at New Year's Day, and make collections under the pretext of wishing the inmates good luck for the coming year. It is a curious fact that throughout the Christianity of the Nearer East St. Basil has not been uniformly honoured by popular rites ; he does not appear in the carols of the Armenians, and Dr. Gaster calls attention to the remarkable point that, as the Saint dropped out of recollection, the plant busuoic (basilicutn), which enjoys a high reputation owing to some legends connecting it with the Passion, has been substituted for him. A bunch of bnsjioic is offered as a gift, or carried about as a protection against all kinds of evil influence. The basil plant plays, as is well known, an important part in the religious rites and superstitions of modern Greece.
