s. XL JUE 6. 1903.] NOTES AND QUERIES.
459
appear to have had any wish to excuse it. The
decay, gradual as it was, of the old heathenisms,
and perhaps still more the mixed populations from
which Christianity derived its early converts, are
sufficient in a great degree, though not entirely, to
account for this state of things. There is not an
abnormal growth which we find alluded to in the
councils to which the populations of the Europe of
to-day do not supply parallels. Persons who gave
themselves up to a oelief in soothsayers were,
according to the Council of Trullo (A.D. 692), to
have inflicted upon them six years' penance; and
those who carried about with them she-bears "for
the diversion and injury of the simple" were to be
subjected to a chastisement of equal severity. This
seems at first sight a strange regulation, for we
may be sure it was not made out of any ardent
sympathy for the unhappy captive animal. We
must bear in mind, however, that all along the bear
has been highly distinguished in magic and other
kinds of folk-lore. Perhaps its faculty for learning
to dance, which, when the bear is well trained, makes
it look strangely human, may have some connexion
with this. It should be borne in mind that several
noble races of Europe and India are reputed to
have had a bear for an ancestor, as in like manner
legends tell how the common ancestress of the
Hyltons of the North wedded a raven, which, as
Robert Surtees, the Durham historian, suggested,
might have been, ki sober prose, a Northern sea-
rover. His guess is poetical, but not convincing.
Such stories we believe to have come down to us
from that far-off time when man only apprehended
in the most dim and transitory fashion the radical
difference between himself and his surroundings.
Dr. Percival points out that the hair of these and
some other animals was sold as medicine and for
the manufacture of amulets. Impostors such as
expellers of clouds, enchanters, amulet-givers, sooth-
sayers, and those who recite genealogies come under
the same ban. We presume it was not family his-
tory of a genuine kind to which the fathers of the
Council objected, but fables of descent from the
gods, which would to Christian men seem not only
false, but profane also. There are some interesting
facts concerning fires: how it was the custom to
light them before shops and houses. This practice
was strongly condemned, and a reference made as
to how Manasses caused his sons to pass through
the fire. In this instance, as in many others, the
discipline of the Church proved too weak to uproot
an immemorial custom.
Nos. 2 and 3 of the Burlington Magazine for Connoisseurs keep up the high standard of excel- lence in illustrations already attained. The most important article in the latter is that by Mr. W. M. Rossetti on ' Dante Rossetti and Elizabeth Siddal.' This is illustrated by five unpublished drawings by Dante Rossetti. A set of the publica- tion bids fair to be an enviable possession. No serial equally artistic and satisfactory has been issued in this country.
IN the Fortnightly, 'The Sunset of Old Tales,' by Fiona Macleod, offers keen attractions to our readers, giving as it does a very mystical reading and application of folk-lore. Mr. Lilly's 'New Light on the Carlyle Controversy ' developes into a formidable and, we venture to think, polemical and unsatisfactory arraignment of Froude. Mr. Le Gallienne translates three odes of Hafiz. Mr. E. H. Cooper writes on 'The Punishment of
Children,' and Mrs. Frances Campbell describes the
"wave dance" in the Pacific islands. 'lolanthe's
Wedding,' by Herr Sudermann, furnishes an inter-
esting picture of German life. One or two articles
in the Nineteenth Century have profound interest
for our readers. First we would put that by Her-
mann Lea on ' Wessex Witches, Witchery, and
Witchcraft.' From this it would appear that the
belief in witchcraft still lingers in country districts
among rustic folk. Of this we have never doubted. It
is curious, however, to trace the survival of ideas as
to the manner in which the magic of witchcraft was
to be overcome and the witch herself punished for
her crimes. Quite thrilling are the stories told.
Mr. Hinks, of the Cambridge Observatory, has an
excellent paper on ' Stonehenge and the Midsummer
Sunrise,' in which he asserts that views we have
been accustomed to hold concerning the orientation
of Stonehenge are untenable. Not wholly satis-
factory, though worth study, is what Lady Currie
says concerning ' The Way of Dreams.' Mr.
Churton Collins writes on ' Free Libraries/
In the Pall Mall Mr. Maurice Hewlett begins
what, with a recollection of a well-known Scottish
work, he calls 'The Queen's Quhair.' This is
illustrated by a fine portrait of Mary, Queen of
Scots, from a drawing by Janet; by a likeness
of the Regent Murray, one of the Cardinal de
Guise, and views of Leith and Holyrood. ' A Great
Landscape Painter' illustrates the work of Jean
Charles Cazin. Mr. William Sharp gives ' Through
Nelson's Duchy,' illustrated from photographs.
Mr. Marriott Watson sends the second part of
' The Squire of Dames.' In two parts of Scribner'x
are articles by General John B. Gordon on incidents
in the Civil War as seen from the Confederate side,
and by Brigadier-General Carter on ' The War De-
partmentMilitary Administration.' 'Painter-
Lithography in the United States ' describes and illus-
trates a new reproductive process. Many of the
designs are very beautiful. Mr. Spearman describes
4 The Sorbonne,' and E. C. Peixotto ' Cliff-Dwellers.'
The Cornhill opens with a characteristic poem by
Mr. Thomas Hardy. Canon Overton describes 'John
Wesley in his own Day.' In ' Prospects in the Pro-
fessions ' medicine is reached. It is curious to find
Stephen Duck the subject of a biography. The shade
of the thresher poet must be astonished at the revival
of interest. ' Autocarmen Seculare ' is a brilliant
parody of Mr. Henley's poem on ' Speed.' No. xi.
of ' Provincial Letters ' is dated from Canterbury.
A Wilderness of Monkeys' is at least happily
named. Mr. Shenstone, F.R.S., discourses of the
marvellous properties of ' Radium.' In Longman's
Major Rankin begins a description of ' A Night in
the Open at 22,000 Feet.' A singularly painful
experience seems to have been his, and we own to
some difficulty in accepting his enthusiasm as
genuine, being rather of the mind of the Argentine
gentleman he describes in his opening sentence.
Mr. G. A. B. Dewar has a paper on ' Lord Lindsey
in the Civil War.' Mr. Lang in ' At the Sign of
the Ship' deals with the Press Readers' Associa-
tion, and commends warmly a suggestion by Mr.
Randall. He has also much to say about a Society
For the Prevention of Cruelty to Authors. Dr. Japp
writes convincingly in the Gentleman' 1 s on 'Bird
Songs, Bird-Mating,' &c. Mr. W. J. Lawrence
describes a ' Famous Old Italian Theatre,' and Mr.
Alexander Wood gives a good account of * Drinking
Customs of the Old Scottish Gentry.' The entire
number is of high merit.
