In Further Ardenne. By the Rev. T. H. Passmore. (J.
H. Dent and Co. 7s. fid. net.)—" Further Ardenne" is practically the "Grand Duchy of Luxembourg." This is a region which has had very remarkable experiences. For centuries it was a battle- field for hostile Powers, and as such has probably suffered as much as any country in the world. Even now its future is not assured. There is no heir-apparent to the dukedom, which must go in the male line, and the heir-presumptive is not definitely marked out. The claimants are not, however, likely to fight for it. Mr. Passmore is both historical and descriptive, and in both characters shows much energy. Among the many curious things that he has to tell us, nothing is more strange than "Echternach and its Dance." This is a kind of ritual which now survives only in Abyssinia and at Echternach. Whence it came no one exactly knows, but it is one of the unnumbered 'accommodations of Christianity to the beliefs and practices whieh it either coil- quered or incorporated. It is part, therefore, of a history which is scarcely edifying, but has to be considered, nevertheless. It is the eternal naturam expellas furca fatness usque recurret over again. Luxembourg was never touched, as Mr. Passmore records with manifest delight, by what he is pleased to call "dull Lutheran respectability,", and is, therefore, just the place where such a survival might naturally be found. Mr. Passmore's style is somewhat restless, so to speak; he is not content with describing what he sees, or expressing what he thinks, in plain language. But he has certainly given us here an entertaining, and in a way instructive, volume. We must say that he pleases us least when he is writing on matters which have a religious aspect.
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