Current Literature
Dualist: a long residence in Iraq, Mrs. E. S. Stevens has collected at first hand many of the traditional stories of Meso- potamia, and forty-eight of these are presented in Folk Tales of Iraq (Oxford University Press, 15s.). They are translated as literally as possible from the vernacular with the happiest results. Here is a book which should appeal alike to the general reader, to children, and to the student. It is interesting to note the similarity of some of them, an almost literal similarity in some cases, to the stories of the Thousand and One Nights ; and even more so to note the oriental origin of ninny of the European fairy stories of our childhood, especially those of Grimm. And for the student one can do no better than quote Mrs. Stevens' preface : " Folk- lore is the youngest of all sciences : she is also the most modest, since she acts as useful handmaid to her elder sisters, history, anthropology, mythology, and kindred sciences, and intelligent analysis of folk-lore yields precious fragments of information which illuminate dark corners in our knowledge of the human family, its customs, beliefs and wanderings." * * * *
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