Australian Legendary Tales. Collected by Mrs. K. Langloh Parker. With
Introduction by Andrew Lang. (D. Nutt.)— These legends, which Mrs. Langloh has here collected, belong to one tribe, the Noongahburrahs, which, as we gather from the date of the preface, belongs to the colony of New South Wales. Only a small remnant is left, their king, Peter Hippi by name, being in the service of Mrs. Langloh and her husband. She very gratefully dedicates the book to the old man, and expresses a hope, in which we cordially join, that it will enable her to augment her customary Christmas gifts to this potentate and his subjects. He will at least go down to the future in the pages of the white stranger's book. The folk-lore is largely of the metamorphose kind. We can hardly call them variants of the well-known myths of the Old World. Yet they recall them. Here is one. Wurrunhah, after various adventures, comes to a camp where he finds seven girls. He steals two of them for wives. After a while he bids them cut pine-bark. They tell him it must not be, but he insists. Each one sticks her tool into a pine-tree. Immediately the trees carry them up to the sky. From the sky the other five sisters look out, and stretching out their hands draw the two to themselves. The seven are the Pleiades. This is more romantic than the Hyades (Latina, " Suculae ") or " piglings." The story of the " Fire-makers " bears a curious resemblance to the Greek myth, so far as it represents fire as a precious thing, which the possessor will not willingly impart to others. The book will certainly amuse children, and interest in another way older readers.
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