C URRENT LITERAT U RE.
GIFT-BOOKS.
We have not encountered a better collection of fairy-stories for many a year than the Zuni Folk-Tales, recorded and translated by F. H. Cushing (G. P. Putnam's Sons, 15s.) Both in style and substance they bear the mark of authenticity, and being authentic they display on every page the simple philosophy and the pro- found truth which distinguish the spoken literature of savage tribes. We know not which to admire the most,—the tact of narrative, the fertility of invention, or the grave humour which give a charm to these folk-tales. Such animal-stories as "How the Coyote Joined the Dance of the Burrowing Owls " or " How the Coyote Danced " display that exquisite faith in Nature, that frank acceptance of its mysteries, which elude civilised man. Of course Mr. Cushing's book presents the same problems to the student of folk-lore as other books of stories gathered else- where. We find the Zunis cherishing the same beliefs, and impressing them in the same parables, as were familiar to the ancient Greeks, and are to-day common about the inhabitants of remote islands in the Southern Sea. But we are not profoundly interested in the collection of facts which prove the obvious proposi- tion that the human brain delights in the same inventions all the world over. We are content to take these Zuni Folk-Tales on their merits, and to read them for the sake of the pleasure which they
afford us. Not the least entertaining story in the book is called "The Cock and the Mouse," and it is a version of an Italian story told to the Zuiiis by Mr. Cushing, and repeated by one of them a year later. Nothing can give a clearer view of the Indian method of making folk-tales than a comparison of these two.
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