...
in.
,>99.] NOTES AND QUERIES.
339
wi h wearing the kurdaitcha shoes, which are to be
do med when the death by magic of an individual has
to )e revenged by the tribe in the death of another.
Bt ore these shoes may be used a man must submit
to a most painful ordeal. " A stone is heated to
rec ness, and then applied to the small toe of either
[or; 3 or other?] foot until, as the natives say,
tht joint is softened, when, with a sudden jerk, the toe is pulled outwards, and the joint is thus dis- loc .ted." It must be known that by the aborigine no such thing as natural death is realized. Every dec th is due to some man or woman, and exacts, sooner or later, another death.
The Intichiuma is a term applied to certain im- portant ceremonies of unknown origin and age, intanded to secure the increase of the animal or plant which gives its name to the totem. There is among the Central Australian tribes no law re- tricting a member from eating his totem. There
- e, on the other hand, conditions in which he
ust eat a portion of it, otherwise the supply will fail. Each local totemic group has its own Intichiiima ceremony, the intention in each case being the same, to induce propagation of the totem, and so increase the food supply. What is ( the nature of the ceremony, even in a single case, such as that, say, of the witchetty grub totem, must be read in the book, since to give the slightest hint of it would occupy pages. We find ourselves, indeed, compelled to neglect scores of points we had marked for notice, and to fall back upon pommonplace commendation of the work. To those Interested in the application of folk-lore, together with the conditions of primitive culture and anthro- lological questions generally, no recent work will 50 directly appeal. The book is of the more im- jortance since, as the writers confess, the period vhen trustworthy information concerning abori- inal rites will be obtainable is drawing to a close. We would that space was afforded us to show he complicated relationships connected in the Carious tribes with marriage. Among the things o be closely studied by those wishing to turn he work to most profitable account are the tables relationship in the various tribes, to which thing in our language answers. No native words rresponding to our terms cousin, uncle, aunt, phew, exist in, say, the Urabunna tribe, and, until notions conveyed by such words are abandoned, is useless to attempt to understand native terms, hat is said concerning cannibalism, infanticide, d similar matters is of inexhaustible interest, d the work is a mine of curious and valuable
- ormation. A remarkable feature consists of the
ustrations with which the volume overflows, ese are of highest value. The majority are om photographs ; others are drawings illustrative native rock paintings. There are also two maps the spots associated with the traditions of the runta natives.
are's Pericles and Apollonius of Tyre. By
Albert H. Smyth. (Philadelphia, MacCalla & Co.)
- this erudite study on comparative literature
rof. Smyth has produced a work which Shak- )earian students will hail with delight, and which ill also appeal in a scarcely less direct manner to udents of folk-lore. The ' Apollonius Saga,' from hich 'Pericles, Prince of Tyre,' is wholly drawn, is tiown to almost every language in Europe, and has ijoyed for a thousand years an extraordinary and most unrivalled popularity. The task Prof. Smyth
has set himself is that of tracing the progress of the
story, its associations, affinities, and variants, in
some such fashion as Mr. Hartland has exhibited
in connexion with the 'Legend of Perseus.' He deals
first with the origin of the story, which he regards
as a work of " sophistic rhetoric." Under the
hands of a Latin scribe it was transformed into a
Volksbuch, "which accounts for its widespread
popularity in the Middle Ages." A hundred manu-
scripts of an early Latin version are known. The
story was popular in Italy, Russia, Hungary, Bo-
hemia, Norway, and Iceland. "It is found in a
Danish ballad and a Netherland drama ; it was
sung by Provencal poets, and beyond the Pyrenees
it was borrowed from to praise the Cid ; it was
translated in Crete into modern Greek in the six-
teenth century ; it was absorbed in France into
the cycle of Charlemagne ; and it is the only romance
in Anglo-Saxon literature." To this it may be
added that it is included in the ' Gesta Romariorum '
and in Gower's 'Confessio Amantis,' the long list of
translations, Marchen, &c., ending, as Prof. Smyth
says, "in the culminating splendor of Shakespeare's
'Pericles, Prince of Tyre.'" Of the romance Prof.
Smyth gives a full history, indicating its relations to
the ' Vilkina Saga,' the poem of King Osendel, the
chanson of Jourdain de Blaivies, the Solomon-
Markolf cycle, and the ' Antheia and Habro-
komes' of Xenophon of Ephesus. Ten years have
been devoted to the task, the result being a work
of wonderful erudition of which scholars are bound
to take count. Comparatively little is said by
English editors of Shakspeare concerning the story,
though Mr. P. Z. Round gives a compendious his-
tory in his preface to ' Pericles ' in the 'Irving Shake-
speare.' Shakspeare himself is supposed to have
trusted mainly to Gower's poetical rendering in the
eighth book of the ' Confessio Amantis,' but Law-
rence Irvine's ' Patterne of Paynfull Adventures ' is
supposed to have been also consulted. We com-
mend to our readers a work of great interest and
exemplary diligence and scholarship.
Austria. By Sidney Whitman. (Fisher Unwin.) FROM other volumes of the "Story of the Nations Series" 'Austria' is distinguished by the number and excellence of the illustrations it includes. Mr. Whitman has, indeed, been specially favoured. The authorities of the Imperial Hofbibliothek of Vienna have granted him "an unprecedented privi- lege " in allowing him to select for reproduction a number of designs from the ' Oesterreichisch-Ungar- ische Monarchie in Wort und Bild ' of the late Archduke Rudolf. Hence, in addition to portraits and well - executed views of places, it has many striking designs of military costumes in various ages. The volume is readable and excellent. It is more interesting in the later chapters than the earlier, the account of the general emancipation of the land from Roman rule being almost of necessity a little blurred. From the reign of Charlemagne forward the story may be followed with pleasure as well as advantage. Of the people we see little. That is, indeed, to be expected in a compendium such as this claims to be. It is a little depressing, moreover, to read of so constant a sequence of defeat as has attended the Austrian army. Finer-looking soldiers than the Austrians were in the middle of the century we have nowhere seen. Had their success been equal to their physique or, as we believe, their prowess, the record would have been more inspiriting. Besides being pleasant to read,
