Reviews. 339
has hardly been able to touch. It will have to be dealt with, however, in order to draw any satisfactory conclusions on the anthropological value of games.
Meanwhile, I congratulate Mrs. Gomme on the completion of her task, and commend these volumes to every student of folk- lore. Together with Mr. Newell's book on the Games and Songs 0/ American Children they present a tolerably complete and very valuable account of British traditional games.
E. Sidney Hartland.
Semitic Influences in Hellenic Mythology, with special reference to the recent mythological works of the Right Hon. Professor Max Miiller and Mr. Andrew Lang. By Robert Brown, Junior, F.S.A., M.R.A.S. London : Williams and Norgate. 1898.
Researches into the Origin of the Primitive Constella- tions OF THE Greeks, Phoenicians, and Babylonians. Same Author and Publishers. Vol. I. 1899.
These two volumes, the work of Mr. R. Brown, Junior, are a further exposition of his well-known views on the relation of the mythology of Greece to that of Babylonia. The former is in the main controversial, being an unmeasured attack on the methods of the anthropological school of folklore and on the writings of Mr. A. Lang in particular. We think that Mr. Brown has shown little discretion by intervening in the duello between Professor Max Miiller and Mr. Lang. It is true that he writes not without provocation ; but his criticism displays a lack of temper and a bitterness of tone which we had fondly supposed obsolete at the present day. In fact, he takes his versatile opponent much too seriously, and his style is ill adapted to an encounter of this kind. It decidedly lacks delicacy of touch, and much of his banter is rather dreary reading.
But it is with the serious exposition of his views on celestial mythology that w^e are now more immediately concerned. As readers of his previous works are aware, his object is to show that
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