Page:American Historical Review, Volume 12.djvu/945

Minor Notices 935 being, as heretofore, Professor G. M. Wrong of the chair of history, and Mr. H. H. Langton, Hbrarian, in that institution. This volume is tlie eleventh year of the Review. In its production the burden of the work has fallen, as in previous years, upon the editors. They have sought, however, where available, the co-operation of other scholars both within the Dominion and without. Of contributors, from the United States, Professor Chamberlain of Clark University has supplied the entire sec- tion on archaeology, ethnology, and folk-lore, and Professor Ganong of Smith College the reviews of several works on the voyages of Cartier ' and Champlain. Lesueur's Count Frontcnac is discussed by Professor Henry Lorin of Bordeaux, himself the author of an excellent work on the same theme; and the review of Siegfried's interesting French study of the two races of Canada is by the Beit lecturer in colonial history in the University of Oxford, Mr. W. L. Grant. Los Pastorcs. A Mexican Play of the Nativity. Memoirs of the American Folk-Lore Society, volume IX. Translation, Introduction, and Notes by M. R. Cole. (Boston and New York, Houghton, Mifflin, and Company.) The body of this work consists of the text and trans- lation of a Spanish miracle play, which in 1891 Captain John G. Bourke saw performed at Rio Grande City, Texas, and two years later at San Antonio, Texas. The play is of interest as a survival on American soil of a form of drama which we usually associate with Europe in the Middle Ages. The subject-matter, mostly the conversation of the shepherds on their way to Bethlehem and at the adoration of the Babe, is of very uneven literary merit and contains frequent inconsistencies, and an unexpected amount of humor. Appendices include a synopsis of a version different from that of the main text, but also performed at San Antonio as well as at Puebla, Mexico; the Spanish text of a third version played by sheep-herders in the sheep-raising district of San Rafael, New Mexico ; and parallel scenes from two autos of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries respectively. The introduction, notes, music of the songs, and photographs of the actors in costume add much to the value of the work. The origin of the play is unknown, but there is reason to believe that it was " an early adaptation, made by [Mexican] priests, from certain Spanish dramas which were popular at the time ". The editor points out that " the Spanish ancestors of the modern JNIexicans were pecu- liarly fond of sacred drama ", and that from the earliest times Mexican priests and missionaries used this form of theatrical performance as a means of religious propaganda. The translated text with the music and lantern-slide illustrations was presented at a meeting of the Boston Branch of the American Folk-Lore Society in 1902. Apuntcs de Libros y Follctos Impvcsos en Espaiia y el E.vfranjero que frafan e.rpresanu-ute de Cuba desde Principios del Siglo XJ'H liasta