140
NOTES AND QUERIES. [12 s. m. FEB. 17, 1917.
'"is the table of contents, which gives the number of
the tale in the original Jataka, and also a summary
indicating to what type it belongs, and sufficient
to recall the whole to the reader's memory.
Another is the illustrations, which are photographs
of the highest interest, taken expressly for this
work from the Bharhut stupa, where scenes
from a number of Jataka tales are to be found
carved in relief. Apart from their archaeological
merits several of these are delightful particu-
larly, we thought, King Mahadera finding his
grey hair.
The topics which the book opens up are too numerous and extensive to be dealt with in a brief review. One of the most attractive is the problem of the connexion of these stories with similar folk-tales in Greece, Persia, or Palestine, or with their appearance in modern literatures. The best opinion on the subject seems the same as that which has been recommended in regard to "the descent of man and apes ; the spread of these types is not in general to be accounted for by direct transmission from one country to another, but by independent inheritance from a common and hidden source. We would, however, put in a plea as we have done before for a somewhat larger faith than the scientific folk-lorist is wont to allow himself in the transmission not of tales, but of the power and readiness to invent tales, from one generation to another.
The characteristics of Indian beast stories hardly need discussion, but a word remains to be said as to the verses which occur in all these tales. They, we are told, are alone canonical, the story to which they are fitted, and which they more or less resume, being, from the point of view of Scripture, supplement or commentary. They vary much in design: some are gnomic, some narrative, some (in the Jatakas of the later divisions, where they become more and more numerous) dialogues, or a kind of ballad with a refrain. If the tales were less fantastic, less of the nature of fable, one might compare the effect of the verses a little distantly with that of the chorus in a Greek play. The translator has succeeded rather well in investing them with a quaint wiseacreliness if we may use the word which, while it never reaches poetry, does some- times arrive at solemnity, and once or twice at weirdness. This book is by no means one of the least of the good things for which, even during these unprecedented days, we have to thank the energy of the Cambridge University Press.
The Oxford University Press General Catalogue,
November, 1916. (Oxford, Clarendon Press.) THIS may be described as a very good piece of bibliographical work, and we confess that we have spent more than one pleasant quarter of
. an hour looking through it. It consists of a Subject Catalogue in six sections, pp. 1-480, and an alphabetical list of authors and subjects. In the former not only are books described in considerable detail, but the more important collective works and series have their members fully set out, and a few notes have been inserted on books about which popular errors are rife and require to be corrected. The Catalogue marks a departure, and should be kept for reference by readers who are likely to want one or other of
'the products of the Oxford University Press
during the next few years.
THE February Burlington devotes its first
columns to Mr. Bernard Rackham's article on
' The Literature of Chinese Pottery.' This is
very good, and should be of real use to any one
beginning to take up a fascinating subject. We
do not put forward Lafcadio Hearn's name as
strictly an authority in this study, but we think
his marvellous knack of rendering in words the
true and subtle inwardness of the multitudinous
types of Oriental porcelain might here have
received a word of recognition. Mr, F. M. Kelly
on ' Things ' in Shakespearian dress is also very
good the said " things " including sword-
hangers, colour, economy in clothes, and notes on
headgear and boots. Mr. Archibald G. B. Russell,
Rouge Croix, has a most attractive account of
Alexander Cozens, and contributes to the bio-
graphy of that too little known artist a tiny fact
which seems to have been overlooked viz., that
he was nominated to the office of Rouge Croix in
1751, his father-in-law, the engraver John Pine,
being Bluemantle Pursuivant at the College of
Arms. Mr. Lionel Cust, in his ' Notes on the
Royal Collections,' has come to the Gobelins
Tapestries, and we have here the second instalment
of his discussion of them concerned with the
period after the reopening of the factory in 1697.
He relates the strange tale of the tapestry of
'Jason and Medea ' having been sent to adorn
the pavilion where Marie Antoinette, on her way
to her marriage, changed all her Austrian clothes
for French ones. Dr. Tancred Borenius describe.-
unpublished works by Solario and Gaudenx.K
Ferrar ; and Miss Edith E. Coulson James gives
us an article which is one of the most interesting
in the whole number. She believes herself to have
established the fact that a picture formerly in the
Abdy Collection is the portrait of the "painter
Francia by his own hand, and sets out the reasons
for her attribution. She has expended much
industry and enthusiasm over the details of the
evidence, and these seem worth careful weighing,
though the editors of The Burlington do not see
their way to endorse her conclusion.
The Athenaeum now appearing monthly, arrange-
ments have been made whereby advertisements of
posts vacant and wanted, which it is desired to
publish weekly, may appear in the intervening
weeks in ' N. & Q.'
to (Eomspontonts.
WE cannot undertake to answer queries privately,
nor can we advise correspondents as to the value
of old books and other objects or as to the means ot
disposing of them.
EDITORIAL, communications should be addressed to "The Editor of ' Notes and Queries'" Adver- tisements and Business Letters to " The Pub- lishers "at the Office, Bream's Buildings, Chancery Lane, E.G.
BARONESS ROEMEK. Forwarded.
Box 3204 (Boston, Mass.). Forwarded to Mr, F. P. Barnard,
ST. STEPHEN'S CLUB. Forwarded to Mr. Pitman.
WELLINGTON, SOM. Forwarded to Mr. Pierpoint.
MR. ALBERT MATTHEWS. Many thanks for note and for contribution kindly proposed to us.
