Revieivs. 389
Miss Broadvvood's remarks regarding the harp are peculiarly interesting. When Ossian apostrophises his harp he says, — " Thig le d' thri guthan " (Come with thy three voices). Again, when a battle was imminent, he describes it as " far an tri buail baird " (where bards strike trebly, or give triple strokes.) Does the music of the harp still survive as a living influence, keeping the chords of nature to the old key ? The notes suggest this possibility.
K. W. Grant.
La Religione Primitiva in Sardegna. By Raffaele Pettaz- ZONI. Piacenza : Societa Editrice Pontremolese, 1912. 8vo, pp. xxiii + 253.
This book is more than a very ingenious study in the archaeology of a particular region. It is at the same time a notable experi- ment in method. The author, who, to his official experience as Inspector of the Prehistoric Museum at Rome, adds a wide knowledge of anthropological literature, more especially as it bears on the history and science of religion, endeavours to set the religious beliefs and practices of the Proto-Sardinians, of whom somewhat fitful glimpses are afforded in tradition or by means of the interpretation of the monuments, against the background of primitive religion in general, as conceived by the most modern authorities. So far as ancient Sardinia is concerned, he disdains no clue, and is to be congratulated on the completeness of his documentation. It must be confessed, however, that, when all the literary sources have been consulted concerning Sardus Pater, lolaos, Norax (whose name seems to be connected with the fiuraghi), the incubatio at the tombs of heroes (presumably the tombe dei giganti), the cult of water as a therapeutic and magical power, together with its use in the ordeal, and so on ; when likewise the megaliths, the curious figurines of bronze, showing ' hyperanthropic ' effigies with four eyes, or else composite animals consisting of two foreparts joined back to back, and the repre- sentations of Sardus Pater on early Roman coins have been
