BOOKS.
FOLK-LORE IN THE OLD TESTAMENT.•
lux author of The Golden Bough has turned from classical mythology to the Old Testament, and applied the comparative method to illustrate some of the " relics of ruder times " preserved " like fossils " in the Hebrew narratives. We may say at once that Sir James Frazer's new work is profoundly interesting, and that it throws a flood of light on many familiar episodes and references. The author takes all folk-lore for his province, and accumulates parallels or contrasts from the ends of the earth to bring out the full significance of the Biblical traditions. His object is to elucidate, not to demolish by sceptical criticism. Indeed, the general con- clusion at which he arrives in one case after another is that the Hebrew Scriptures embody genuine historical traditions of the infancy of the race, which the priestly authors or editors, writing probably after the return from exile in Babylon, did not always understand, but recorded, nevertheless, very much as they had received them. Thus, after a most searching examination of the problems arising out of Jacob's double marriage with his cousins, ho remarks that " the patriarch conformed to customs which are fully recognized and strictly observed by many races," and that " the historian who attributes the observance of them to Jacob had good authority for doing so, whether he described, the customs from personal observation or merely from oral tradition." " To say this," he adds, " is not to prejudice the vexed question of the historical reality of the Hebrew patriarchs, but it is to affirm that the portraiture of manners in Jacob's biography is no. mere fancy picture but drawn from the life." The importance of this pronouncement is obvious. Comparative folk-lore confirms the verdict based on many other considerations.
Sir James Frazer's comprehensive treatment of his subject makes the task of a reviewer difficult. Sir James puts before the reader all the available evidence bearing on each usage or incident and sums up very briefly when all is said. Thus this book resolves itself into a series of treatises, some very long and others short, on a number of questions that have interested him., The index alone fills eighty-six pages of close type. Sir James Frazer begins with the Creation, and, after considering the two narratives intertwined in Genesis, cites parallel legends of the creation of men out of clay from Babylon and Egypt and Greece, Australia, Polynesia, the Philippines, India, Africa, and North America. Then he points out that many savages, who know not Darwin, believe that men have been develOped out of lower forms of animal life. The Cali- fornian Indiana, for instance, think that they are descended from the coyote or prairie-wolf, while the Osage Indians traced their origin to a male snail and a female beaver. The theory of evolution, in a crude form, seems indeed to have been widely held by primitive man. Passing on to the story of the Fall, the author suggests that the idea underlying the story of the temptation of Eve was that the serpent attained the immortality which was meant for man. Many savages think that the serpent, by casting its skin annually, renews its youth and lives for ever, and it is this primitive theory which is-embedded in the Hebrew narrative. African tribes have many strange folk-tales to explain how the Divine message con- ferring immortality on men miscarried. We come next to the mark that was set upon Cain, " lest any finding him should kill • Polk-Lore in the Old Testament : Studies in Comparatire Relcigion, Legend, and Law. By Sir James "George Frazer. 3 vols. London : Macmillan aal Co. 137a. at net.) him." The author compares the Attic law imposing strict quaran tine on a homicide and a similar taboo practised by a tribe in New Guinea, and riuggests that " both the homicide and the person' with whom he came into contact were thought liable to suffer front blood-poisoning caused by contagion." But a fuller consideration of the usages of tribes in Africa, Malaysia, and elsewhere leads him to infer that the man-slayer was marked, probably with red paint, to disguise him so that the victim's ghost " would either not know him or give him a wide berth." It will be seen that the collation of savage beliefs from various parts of the earth throws an unex- pected light on a text to which modern readers, unaided, could attach no definite meaning. To the Flood Sir James Frazer devotes a very long chapter—a book in itself—in which he marshals all the flood stories current in every part of the globe. We can only note his conclusion that such stories are partly legendary, partly mythical ; while soma are based on reminiscences of actual occur- rences, others embody the speculations of later thinkers. There is no evidence that such traditions date back to vast physical changes in the earth, for, " competed with the great natural features of our planet, man is but a thing of yesterday. and his memory a dream of the night."
One of the most curious chapters in this remarkable book is sug- gested by the story of Jacob and Esau. Jacob is apparently an unamiable character, but the episode in which he cheats Esau out of his birthright may be viewed differently as an unintentional proof that " ultimogeniture " prevailed among the primitive Hebrews. " Ultimogeniture," or the youngest son's right of suc- cession as heir to his father—which was observed by David, who passed over his elder son Adonijah in favour of Solomon—is a very widespread custom. Sir James Frazer reminds us that, under the name of " Borough English," it was until lately sanctioned by English law " in Kent, Sussex, and Surrey, in a ring of manors encircling ancient London, and to a less extent in Essex and the East Anglian kingdom." The late F. W. Maitland said that in the thirteenth century " Borough English " was associated with servile tenure, and pointed out that as the serf had, strictly speaking, no inheritance to transmit, his elder sons went out into the world and the youngest was the most likely to be found at home when the father died. This is the starting-point for an exhaustive discussion of " ultimogenitttre " in other countries, in the course of which it is shown that where polygamy prevails the husband is not permitted to favour the son of the youngest wife as against the son of the eldest wife. Another problem which is examined at length is that of the marriage of cousins, with reference to Jacob. Tho modern prejudice against such unions is not shared by many primitive races, largely for economic reasons into which we cannot enter. The author deals of course with the witch of Endor, and, after relating many parallel cases, remarks caustically that " within the last seventy years there has been a recrudescence of necromancy among the civilized peoples of Western Europe and America." David's sin in numbering the people is illustrated with some curious examples of the superstition in Africa, Arabia, and even modern Scotland and Lincolnshire, where it is still thought unlucky to count lambs. Another strange chapter relates to " The Silent Widow." It is not clear that Hebrew widows wore expected to preserve silence for many days, but a custom of this kind prevails in many tribes, and is attributed to " a fear of attracting the dangerous and indeed fatal attention " of the husband's ghost. The com- parative method is applied with great effect to the commandment, " Thou shalt not seethe a kid in its mother's milk." It is found that many African peoples will not boil milk—not because, like some medical men, they think that boiling lessens the food-value of the milk, but because they fear that their cows will go dry. The milk is thought to retain a connexion with the cow, so that boiling the milk is like burning the udder. Moreover, many tribes forbid the consumption of milk and meat or milk and vegetables at the same meal lest the cows should take harm. The doctrine of sym- pathetic magic, to which the author recurs again and again,-underlies such superstitions as these, though in itself it is difficult of corn• prehension for the modern European mind. The ancient Hebrew law that a slave who refused his freedom should have his ear bored with an awl and remain in slavery is, the author thinks, a magical rite designed to give the master control of the man. LaStly, we may call attention to the chapter on " The Ox that Gored," with reference to the Pentateuchal decree that the ox which gored a man or woman should be atoned. The author has collected some whimsical cases of legal proceedings against animals, or even inani- mate objects. The Jackdaw of Reims, it would seem, was by no means the only animal to be solemnly cursed by the Church, and the lawyers amused themselves as late as the eighteenth century in requiring the ecclesiastics to deal with rats, mica, and other vermin that had been tried and convicted of wilful damage. The old English law of " deodand," under which a tree, for example, that had fallen on a man and killed him was forfeit to the Crown, was based on this primitive belief, and was not abolished till 1846. Sir James Frazer, it will be seen, illustrates not only the Old
Testament, but also many mediaeval and modern usages, in his book. The inquiries on which he starts lead him into the most diverse fields, and it is amusing and instructive to accompany him.
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