5 JANUARY 1889, Page 33

Fairy and Folk - Tales of the Irish Peasantry. Edited and Selected

by W. B. Yeats. Camelot Series. (Walter Scott.)—This book, made up mainly from the writings of Crofton Croker, W. Carleton, and others, was intended by its editor to be representative, as far as space would admit, of every kind of Irish folk-faith. The intention has been fairly well carried out, and, with a few excep- tions—which, though " fairy-tales " are not, in strictness, "of the Irish peasantry "—the tales are what the title-page professes them to be. They are well arranged under various descriptive headings, and several of them will be found useful by the student of comparative folk-lore. The book is good value for its price.