25 OCTOBER 1890, Page 23

CURRENT LITERATURE.

GIFT-BOOKS.

Mamma's Black Nurse Stories. By M. P. Milne-Home. (Black- wood and Sons.)—Negro folk-lore, when told with the gestures and in the indescribable jargon peculiar to the descendants of African slaves, is inimitably ridiculous. The writer gives us a capital and instructive preface for students, though we fancy readers will pay more attention to the humorous tricks and incidents of the tales. The first dozen stories are in the dialect ; the second are taken from Sir George Dasent's book, and are in ordinary English. It is an amusing little book, and useful, too, if we look upon the stories as exercises in Negro-English.