The special character of the folklore here recorded does not exclude a general resemblance to that of other European countries. The sacredness of bread, for example, is a very wide-spread superstition. It is not unusual, when bread falls to the ground, to kiss it on picking it up. But in Catania the loaf is also kissed before cutting or breaking it. And, with reference to a Hebridean superstition recently noted in these pages (vol. viii. p. 380), it may be mentioned that it is regarded as unlucky to dress the hair on Friday. A local rhyme blesses the dough that is made, and curses the tresses that are bound on that day. The distinction is curious, and demands further inquiry.
Many other interesting superstitions are collected in these exquisitely printed pages. The author's analysis of the Canzoni will be useful to students of folk-poetry.
In this volume Signer Pitrè adds yet further to the store of Sicilian folklore which he has long been accumulating with indefatigable zeal. The collection of riddles and verbal puzzles here gathered together fills more than four hundred pages, and is preceded by an introduction of great value. The author commences by devoting his attention to the nomenclature of indovinelli, and subsequently undertakes to define the true character of the riddle, after which he occupies some space with an examination of the indecent folk-riddle, quoting Guastella to the effect that the nature of the popular enigma in Sicily, and in every other country of Europe, is an attempt—frequently ingenious—to describe ordinary objects with such ambiguity of phrase as to suggest obscene things and actions. This curious form of grossness is offensive enough to the cultivated mind, yet it must be allowed that the underlying idea may be no more licentious than the conception used as the groundwork of some carefully-sketched romance of the passions.
