Page:Legends of gods and ghosts (Hawaiian mythology).djvu/309

Press Notices (continued). W. D. Westervelt has produced a book of permanent and world-wide interest in collecting and translating the legends of old Honolulu which embody all that the vanishing race knows of their origin and their life before the white man came to civilize and decimate them. The legends are given their proper setting by means of descriptive interludes and explana- tions of native customs and a key to the language and its pronunciation. No ethnologist, student of comparative relig- ion, or mythologist can afford to be ignorant of the material collected by Mr. Westervelt and embodied in this well printed and finely illustrated little volume. Published by Geo. H. Ellis Co., Boston, Mass. Express, Portland, Me., Sept. 4, 1915. Mr. Westervelt has long been an active investigator of the aboriginal conditions of Hawaiian life, and the stories he has discovered have added not a little to our knowledge of the Polynesian race as it was before the dawn of history. The ancient Hawaiians were of an imaginative turn of mind, and their traditions abound in tales of gods and goblins. Some of the stories, now centuries old, are closely related to the legends that are known to exist in New Zealand and other islands of the Pacific, and many of them bear active resemblances to the fairy-tales of our own country. They are interesting enough in themselves, and have an added attraction for the student of comparative folk-lore. The present volume contains excellent illustrations of the scenery of Honolulu, some of them taken from photographs by the author. Scotsman, Great Britain, Sept. 13, 1915. Mr. Westervelt, who gives us these legends of Polynesia, has lived for many years in Honolulu, and has made a special study of the history and traditions of the people of the islands. He writes as one well versed in his subject, and some of the legends which he presents to us are of great beauty, showing a fine and delicate imagination in their authors. The character of the legends varies. One or two, and these perhaps the most interesting, are Creation myths. It is evident here and there that the original web is crossed with later strands which have obviously been introduced by Christian missionary teaching, and it is not always easy to disentangle them. One, that has as primitive and antique a savour as any,