In the next number of this Journal, notice will be taken of the
important publications, in the field of American mythology and
tradition, which have appeared during the past half year. At present it
will be possible only to offer remarks on publications entitled to
comment, dealing with other than purely American subjects.
In a treatise entitled “Böhmische Korallen aus der Götterwelt,” Dr. F.
S. Krauss discusses, in a humorous vein, apocryphal additions to the
material of Slavic and Lithuanian mythology. “Bohemian corals” are
imitations; but, as the writer remarks, these imitations had a
considerable value, until in latter days they have themselves become the
subject of imitation. There is a manufacture of folk-lore, parallel to
the production of primitive implements. In some cases these spurious
additions have been the products of misunderstanding. An amusing case is
the comment of an expert in Celtic tongues on the inscription “Encina,”
subscribed in uncial characters on a Gallo-Roman statuette, or rather on
the engraving of the statuette. The inquirer, connecting the word with
the Old Irish “ec,” death, presumed Encina to have been the designation
of a Celtic Fate. In point of fact the name was the signature of the
engraver. Among wholesale manufacturers of mythic material, Dr. E.
Veckenstedt receives an apparently merited castigation. The latter has
treated of eighty-two personages of Lithuanian mythology; of these forty
are said to have been taken from the unreliable work of Lasicki, the
other forty-two to be “original.” Pretensions of Croatian and Bulgarian
enthusiasts, anxious to exalt the antiquity and independence of their
national life, are rebuked by Dr. Krauss. Of wider scope is the review
of a work of Dr. G. Krek, professor of Slavic philology in the
University of Graz, entitled “Einleitung in die slavische
Literaturgeschichte.” Dr. Krauss comments on the errors of method, with
which the attempt is made to determine the original character of a race
by philological discussion, and observes: “He (Dr. Krek) is not aware
that the Slavic-speaking peoples are mixed races, which arose at the
earliest about the beginning of our era, out of populations in a state
of political dissolution, and which began to develop themselves on the
ruins of the culture of these populations.” (Page 104.)
A very beautiful and excellently executed collection of popular
Sardinian love-songs is furnished by E. Bellorini. The editor has
prefixed a bibliography, and a preface containing an account of the
forms of the verse. A literal prose Italian version is appended, while
explanatory notes treat of difficult words and printed parallels, good
indexes completing the work. The songs are divided into two classes,
dialectically called “motos” and “battorinas,” each class being arranged
in sections according to topics. The “moto” is a peculiar stanza, in
lines usually of seven syllables, containing a theme or history
(istérria), and a refrain (torrada), the latter relating, not directly
to the theme, but to the feelings of the lover. Suppose the theme to
consist of three lines, the first of these is repeated to form the first
verse of the refrain, with which the fourth line of the refrain rhymes,
while the second and third lines rhyme with the two remaining lines of
the theme; and the refrain is thrice sung, so that each line of the
“history” alternately begins a verse, while the other lines of the
refrain are altered in place, and repeated. This, at least, is one of
several ways of forming the “moto.” The “batterinas” consist of four
lines, generally of eleven syllables, of which the first and fourth
rhyme, as also the second and third. The first class of songs are
preferred by women, the second, chanted to the guitar, are usual among
men. The theme is not very closely connected with the refrain, and is
often of an obscure and mystical character. The following are examples
of the “moto:” The silver bird—Who flieth and doth not fall—with golden
wings.—The silver bird—Thou art in my heart—Though a hundred approach.
Another: On a snowy mount—An angel hath descended—To make peace in
war.—On a snowy mount.—Heaven and earth took a pledge—When they made
thee. A third: On the brink of the well—There is a stone—Inscribed with
letters of gold.—On the brink of the well.—To give thee my heart—Because
of thy desert—is my desire. The author makes just remarks on the age and
character of the songs. The language is that of the dialect, here and
there qualified by literary influences. There is nothing to prove any
great antiquity of these productions, which continue to be composed. It
is to be hoped that Mr. Bellorini may be able to continue his work, and
publish the popular Sardinian songs relating to other subjects, a task
for which he has shown himself admirably qualified.
“The Cries of London,” sixty-two in number, with wood-cuts, were printed
in 1799. Mr. A. Certeux, having come across this rare little work in
Switzerland, has reprinted it with the original illustrations,
accompanied by a French translation. A few notes give comparisons with
cries of Paris. What lends especial value to the book is a bibliography
of the principal works on the cries of Paris, containing about fifty
titles. This literature begins with the thirteenth century, Guillaume de
la Villeneuve having written at that time his “Les crieries de Paris.”
In 1887 V. Fournel published a work on the Cris de Paris, which had a
considerable success. It would be interesting to learn what information
exists concerning the streetcries of England, outside of the book here
reissued.
Under the title of “Mélanges de Traditionnisme de la Belgique,” A. Harou
offers gleanings of the beliefs and superstitions of Flanders, arranged
as referring to astronomy and meteorology, the human body, popular
medicine, animals, birds, plants, etc. A certain number of legends,
formulas, and nicknames are added. The work is in part from printed
sources, and is to be regarded as a suggestion of a more complete and
systematic collection, rather than as filling the place of an exhibition
of Belgian superstition. It goes without saying that many of the items
have parallels in English folk-lore.
The richness of Finland in the material of folk-lore is well calculated
to awaken the envy of collectors in other regions. The Swedish
population in Finland has its share in this survival, having kept with
great faithfulness its ancient character. According to the opinion set
forth by Julius Krohn, the popular Finnish poetry of the Kalevala has
adopted essential elements of Scandinavian mythology, while it has also
been argued that folk-tales and popular melodies have passed from the
Swedes to the Finns. However this may be, there is now a considerable
literature devoted to the folk-lore and dialect of the population in
question. A Society for the Study of Swedish Dialects in Finland,
founded in 1874, is now in possession of large collections of songs,
melodies, proverbs, and tales, as well as of a great mass of dialectic
words. The literature of Swedish folk-lore in Finland is the subject of
a bibliographical notice of E. Lagus, the citation of titles being
accompanied with a descriptive notice of the books. The series begins in
1892 with the work of A. I. Arvidsson (Svenska Fornsånger), and includes
about forty books or articles.
In a treatise on the subject of hieroglyphic calendars, “Les Calendriers
à Emblèmes Hiéroglyphiques,” A. Certeux describes and examines portable
calendars of the fourteenth century, a mural calendar in wood of the
fifteenth, a Breton carved calendar of the fifteenth, etc. Observations
are also made on an Aztec calendar, a Norse Runic calendar, etc. In the
course of his remarks, the writer offers observations on the different
divisions of time adopted by different races. The references are
exclusively to French sources.
In a discussion of “The Thyrsos of Dionysos and the Palm Inflorescence
of the Winged Figures of Assyrian Monuments,” read before the American
Philosophical Society, Dr. C. S. Dolley of Philadelphia, Pa., considers
that the drunken and riotous characteristics of the mysteries were
probably an addition to the original cult. The primitive use of the
thyrsus was that of a wand to be tossed about in the dance, a use to
which the stalks of the giant fennel were adapted, the festoons
representing the bindweed naturally attached to the fennel. With this
garlanded rod was combined, as he thinks, the date inflorescence found
on Eastern monuments, which was altered into the cone-like tip of the
thyrsus, and by error identified with the pine-cone.
Dr. K. Weinhold, examining the various forms of the tale of the man who
is turned into an ass, as recounted in Apuleius and in various German
and Indian märchen, comes to the conclusion that the story was
originally a novelette and not an alteration of a myth. He inclines to
believe it original in Greece or Asia Minor of antiquity, and thence to
have been diffused eastward and westward, and offers some remarks on the
theory of transformation, as often mentioned in folk-tales.
The twenty-fifth volume of the “Journal of the China Branch of the Royal
Asiatic Society” consists of a new instalment of the “Botanicum Sinicum”
by E. Bretschneider, the first or general part having appeared nearly
ten years before. The present volume deals with Chinese names of plants
occurring in the Chinese classics and other ancient Chinese works, and
their botanical identification. Plants mentioned in the dictionary “Rh
ya” (sixth century B. C.) are divided into herbaceous plants and trees,
and those mentioned in other works into cereals, vegetables, cultivated
cucurbitaceous plants, textile plants, tinctorial plants, water plants,
various herbaceous plants, fruits, and bamboos. The information from
literature, thus brought together, contains a great variety of
instruction respecting food, customs, costume, ritual, and the like.
Mention of rites seems usually provokingly inadequate, as in the
allusions to the use of rice as sacrifice for spirits, of the peach-wand
feared by demons, of the male elm pierced with an elephant’s tooth and
plunged in water as injurious to the spirits of the water, to the “shi”
divining plant, the stalks of which were used in divination, etc. In
appended general remarks, Dr. Bretschneider observes that the Chinese
have never shown any inclination for exploring nature from a love of
knowledge, nor any trace of a scientific tendency. Conspicuous is the
absence of names of plants having powerful poisonous properties.
Medicinal plants appear to have been known only to a few collectors, who
kept their information strictly secret, a concealment which led to
substitution and confusion. Appended are minutes of meetings in 1890 and
1891. These contain a brief report of a paper by Dr. J. Edkins, entitled
“China Thirty-five Centuries Ago,” in which the writer sets forth his
opinion that the true foundations of Chinese civilization were laid in
the third millennium before Christ. He considered that in the Chow
period (800 B. C.?) religious usages of a more polytheistic form were
adopted in profusion, and the people in their customs deserted the
simplicity of ancient life. This position was criticised by Dr. E.
Faber, who remarked on the want of any reliable information respecting
early Chinese civilization, and the worthlessness of Chinese chronology
and literary criticism.
In a beautifully illustrated article, contained in the publications of
the United States National Museum, Romyn Hitchcock treats of the
“Ancient Burial Mounds of Japan.” Without touching on the strictly
archæological matter, we may notice the account of the ancient practice
of burying the retainers of a prince standing upright around his grave,
an interment in which the partially buried persons seem to have been
left to perish and be devoured by wild beasts. The custom was changed,
according to Japanese records, in the first century of our era, and the
devotion of the living man succeeded by images, examples of which are
figured in the article.
In the same report, Mr. Hitchcock gives an account of Shinto mythology.
The sources being especially Basil Hall Chamberlain’s translation of the
Ko-ji-ki (A. D. 711?) and the review of E. M. Satow on the writings of
Japanese scholars. Casually, Mr. Hitchcock makes observations on the
connection of modern Japanese folk-lore with the old mythology; thus the
dance of Usume before the cave of the Sun-goddess is represented by the
pantomimic “kagura,” danced by young girls at the temple of Ise and
elsewhere. The mask of Usume is frequently seen in Japanese homes.
The interesting exhibit of New South Wales in the Columbian Exposition
displays a mass of material calculated to illustrate native customs and
life, including a set of views showing the different parts of the
initiation ceremony called the “bora.” To accompany the exhibit, the New
South Wales Commissioners have caused to be printed a handbook called
“The Aborigines,” compiled by Dr. John Fraser of Sydney. This excellent
treatise gives in conversational style a variety of information
respecting the habits, ceremonies, ideas, food, habitations, and costume
of the “black fellows,” as the race has ungracefully been called. It is
difficult to speak with patience of the absurdities and calumnies of the
numerous writers who have represented this people as raised but one
degree above the animal. It would appear, on the contrary, that the
social and moral status of the Australian does not greatly differ from
that of the wilder Africans. In spite of his cannibalism, and his low
powers of numeration, on which a very unjustifiable emphasis has been
placed, the native is yet a highly intelligent person, admirably adapted
for his own method of life. Particularly to be noted is the account
given respecting religious beliefs and observances. Dr. Fraser perceives
that the “Karabari” or corroborees, the native dances, are, in part at
least, religious usages, although Australian students of the native
tribes have not as yet fully penetrated their secrets. Without doubt
some of them will be found to be religious ceremonials, accompanied by
an elaborate mythology, in that respect resembling the dances of other
“primitive” races. It is on the practices of the “bora” that most light
has been thrown: here we have the construction of moundcircles, the
occasional erection of monoliths or carved pillars, the setting up of a
sacred pole, the participation of women not admitted to the secret
rites, the presence, as it would seem, of ancestral deities, severe
trials of constancy, the reception of a sacred name, final emblematic
painting with white, probably also a regular system of instruction in
tribal religion, mythology, and ethics. Instead of being void of
religious feeling and ideas, as many observers, including the late
traveller Lumholtz, have described him, there can be no doubt that the
Australian is a person continually influenced by religious conceptions.
It seems a pity that such names as “Hamites” and “Shemites,” with
corresponding ethnological speculations, should appear in this treatise,
in which, however, these dubious theoretical elements have no important
place.
A brief paper by Hon. Richard Hill, “Notes on the Aborigines of New
South Wales,” is somewhat superficial in character. The writer does not
understand that a belief in “evil spirits” must necessarily include a
religious faith and worship, but bears testimony to the natural chivalry
of the natives. The writer mentions that in case of a duel, or “fighting
to the death,” as it is called, each of the combatants invites the other
to strike, the orthodox challenge being “hit me first,” each at the same
time offering his head to be struck.
Rev. W. W. Gill’s observations on “The South Pacific and New Guinea,”
also printed for the Exposition, contains notes on the Hervey Islands,
South Pacific, annexed by Great Britain in 1888. The observations on
ideas and customs, although conceived in the unsympathetic spirit of the
missionary, is of great interest as indicating the rich mass of
material, and the profit to science which must ensue from a proper
record of native traditions. Baptism, marriage, death, the spirit world,
etc., are themes of comment. We hope hereafter in this Journal to find
room for extracts. The ethnographic interest of the writer may be
measured by his naïve remark that the prayers used in incantation are
“happily lost”! Of ceremonial religion the notes give no account,
although the existence of a ritual is clearly implied; but the presence
of a faith full of mysticism, and parallel to the beliefs of European
antiquity, is everywhere indicated.
The Hungarian journal, “Ethnologische Mitteilungen aus Ungarn,” directed
by A. Herrmann, after a most honorable record, was obliged to suspend
publication in its second volume. This periodical has now resumed issue,
the Archduke Joseph assuming responsibility for its continued
appearance. Dr. Herrmann will be assisted by Dr. H. von Wlislocki, Dr.
A. Katona, and others. This publication will deal with the ethnography
and folk-lore of the Magyars and connected races, and will also become
the organ of the Gypsy Folk-Lore Society, which has ceased to publish an
independent journal. An address prefixed to the new volume of the
journal, signed by C. G. Leland and D. MacRitchie, recommends the
“Ethnologische Mitteilungen” to the reception of all persons interested
in Gypsy research. Price seven francs; subscriptions may be addressed to
A. Herrmann (Budapest, 1, Szent-György utcza, 2).