It is fortunate that before the dying social customs and
beliefs of rural communities in various parts of the country are, quite dead and lost, some patient and scholarly writer is usually to be found who is prepared to devote a great deal of time and labour to the collection of verbal accounts, and , records of those old ways, thus setting up a monument to our . ancestors which has the added value, not common amongst monuments, of being useful and entertaining. North-East Scotland, a country rich in lore of the most interesting— even of the most sensational—kind, has hitherto had, so far as, we know, but one historian who has done it anything . like justice : that is to say, in giving a responsible and sys- tematic account of its primitive beliefs, peculiarities in the use of the black art, lares, fairies, and so forth—and that was a good many years ago. Now comes Mr. J. M. McPherson, with his Primitive Beliefs in the North-East of Scotland (Longmans, Green, 12s. 6d.), in which all the available material up to date has been collected and admirably set out. It is unlikely that much more will ever be discovered ; and on the other hand it is possible that within a generation or two numbers of the records to which Mr. McPherson has had access will have perished : certainly it will not be long before the last of those old people who remember witches and the like has vanished from the countryside. So that this book would seem to take its place as the standard work of reference on the subject from the day of publication ; though one may add that it is by no means to be thought', dull on that account. In fact, it simply bristles with alarming
and intriguing stories.
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