Etruscan-Roman Remains. By Charles Godfrey Leland. (T. Fisher Unwin.)—This is
a book which is manifestly what the author in his preface describes it as being,—the outcome of much labour. Mr. Leland's practical experience in the collection of folk-lore has given him an aptitude for acquiring this kind of knowledge. He pursued his investigations in a certain district of Northern Italy known as the Romagna Toscana, and found, not without much trouble, for the peasants did not easily give their confidence, a quite extraordinary amount of paganism surviving- under the surface of Christian belief and practice. Stregheria, otherwise called in vecchia religions (the old religion), has its pro- fessors and votaries throughout this region, and doubtless else where in Italy. It may be described as consisting of three parts,. —a belief in the old gods, commonly under their old Etruscan names, more or less modified ; a vast hierarchy of inferior spirits,—said we know that the Romans had a numberlese pantheon of deities presiding over every function of life (S. Augustine has seine very curious details on this point in the "Do Civitate Dei ") ; and thirdly, a system of medicine of charms and herbal remedies. Mr. Leland describes, not, as it seems. to us, without a certain sympathy on his own part, the intense affection which the people long cherished for the old belief. Other observers have found the same condition of things elsewhere,— notably, in Greece, where it is as vigorous as in Italy. It is possible, indeed, that in these two countries the survival makes the greater impression, because it is here more than anywhere. else that literature has preserved the details of the old belief. We cannot say that this is a particularly valuable or even attractive branch of knowledge, but it comes under the maxim,. " Nihil humani alienum," and Mr. Leland deserves thanks for his devotion in collecting it, all the more because it is disappear- ing rapidly under the influences of modern civilisation.
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