Fables and Folk - Tales from an Eastern Forest. By Walter Skeat,
MA. (Cambridge University Press. 7s. 6d.)—These tales, we are told, "were taken down from the lips of the Malay peasantry" during the Cambridge Expedition of 1899. They resemble, of course, the folk-tales gathered elsewhere, and they have their characteristic differences. The chief of these differences is the creature that is represented as, so to speak, the protagonist. Among the Malays it is the mouse-deer, which generally is figured as getting the best of its encounters with stronger creatures. Perhaps this comos from human sympathy with the weak. So the rabbit is the hero of the "Uncle Remus" stories. Reynard, in the folk-tales of the West, seems at first sight different, for he does not symbolise weakness. But the victory of craft over strength appeals in a kindred way to human sym- pathy. It is the Ulysses and Ajax legend over again. The tales are set off by some spirited illustrations from the pen of Mr. F. H. Townsend.—A. somewhat similar book is Three Christmas Gifts, by A. D. Bright (Simpkin, Marshall, and Co., 3s. net), but it is not, we think, as skilfully executed. These stories are said to be founded on Maori legends ; but they are ornamented and modernised out of all resemblance to the originals. Imagine a kanri tree conversing with "the Spirit of the Times" about the New Civilisation, and thinking "of the Roman Arms, the March of the Crusaders, the Path of the Conquerors." The "folk- lore " of each country should surely be given with as much of local, and as little of foreign, colour as can be managed. This is what Mr. Skeet has, and Mr. Bright has not, done.
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