Page:Folklore1919.djvu/621

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been validated.
Reviews.
255

a large amount of material collected by himself. The first volume is of special interest to students of folklore, as it contains a large mass of novel material in connection with the orthodox and local cults and usages, with a long account of the Saints and practices of the followers of Islām which here, as in other parts of India, has been greatly modified from its original standard by the assimilation of the beliefs of the people. Space does not allow of the consideration of this work in detail, but it will be indispensable to all who are interested in these subjects. A book of the same type by the late Mr. R. V. Russell on the Tribes and Castes of the Central Provinces was judiciously entrusted by the Local Government to a firm of English publishers, and it was issued in an attractive style with useful illustrations. Mr. Rose’s work was left to the mercy of the local Panjab presses, and the result is far from satisfactory. But with this reservation his untiring labours in the collection of facts may be cordially commended.



The Tale of the Two Travellers, or The Blinded Man: A Comparative Study, by Reidar Th. Christiansen. Folklore Fellows Communications, No. 26. Hamina, 1916, Published by the Finnish Academy of Science.

This work comes from the important school of students of folklore in Finland, with the productions of which, owing chiefly to difficulties of language, we in this country are too little acquainted. It is the only publication of the F.F. series I have had the privilege of seeing. If the titles in the list of publications at the end be any guide, they are chiefly in German, with a minority in English, and special attention is paid to folk-tales. The present work is a very careful and learned study of the many variants of a tale widely spread in Europe and Asia. The story concerns two persons who meet, or are travelling together. It takes two alternative forms. In the first type one of the travellers exhausts his means and applies to the other to give him food. His request is only granted on condition of sacrificing his eyes. In the second the two persons quarrel over the