and told Murnane all he saw. "Wisha," says Murnane, "I hear them every night in the week and take no notice of them." It was but half past one then, so it must be only about twelve when he went out to save the hay. Many and many a time before he died I heard him tell about it, and there is sons of his, and Murnane's, in the village that can prove it. The Lord be good to his soul! many a drink my father and he had together. -Told by R. WALSH, Caherconlish, Co. Limerick.

OBITUARY.

DR. H. B. WHEATLEY.

WE regret to announce the death on 30th April, 1917, at Hampstead, of Dr. Henry Benjamin Wheatley, D.C.L., F.S.A., who joined the Folk-Lore Society in 1883. He was in his 79th year, served as clerk to the Royal Society from 1861 to 1879, and as assistant secretary to the Society of Arts from 1879 to 1908. He was long associated with the Early English Text Society; he had been president of the Samuel Pepys Club, the Prior and Johnson Clubs, the Sette of Odd Volumes, and the Bibliographical Society. His chief work was the edition of Pepys's Diary reprinted from a new collation of the original text, and illustrated by a series of admirable notes and a valuable volume of Pepysiana. His knowledge of London, particularly during the Stuart period, was remarkable, and his revised and largely extended edition of Peter Cunningham's Handbook, under the title of London Past and Present, published in 1891, remains the best account of the literary and historical associations of the Metropolis. He served for many years on the Council of the Folk-Lore Society, and as chairman of the committee appointed to collect materials for a new edition of Brand's Observations on Popular Antiquities, he did valuable service. The last paper from his pen, "The Folk-Lore of Shakespeare," appeared in Folk-Lore, 1916, vol. xxvii.

W. CROOKE.

REVIEWS.

THE DRAMA OF SAVAGE PEOPLES.

haven: Yale University Press.

By L. HAVEMEYER. New1916. 7s. 6d. net.

THE author endeavours to show that savage drama is the "lineal antecedent of all modern forms." He finds that there are practically no races so low in the scale of civilization as not to have some kind of drama. He apparently seeks to reduce the development of drama to three main stages, namely, dramatic narrative, religious ceremonial, and the "pleasure play." "Evidence," he says, "seems to prove that the first practical use to which the savage put imitation (for it was then too simple to come under the head of drama) was to convey to his friends ideas and thoughts for which his inadequate spoken language had no words. This may be called dramatic narrative." In the second stage a religious element has come in, and the purpose of the ceremony is to enable the people to communicate with powerful and mysterious beings, and to gain their favour. A further development results in the decline of the religious element, while the function of the performance, be it dance or play, is merely to amuse.

That the third of these stages tends to supervene on the second, in other words that a purely aesthetic interest develops out of the religious, may be allowed. It is far more open to question, however, whether he is right about his preliminary stage. He seems to think that the magico-religious ritual may be resolved into a sort of gesture-language addressed to a divinity. Thus he states that "in Australia man exerts no efforts as far as agriculture is concerned, but still the gods are asked to send an abundance of rain." Surely this is apt to convey an utterly false impression in regard to the nature and function of the so-called Intichiuma

ceremonies. The performers evidently believe that they themselves bring about the increase of the food supply; or at any rate that they set free a mystic power inherent in the rite as such. There are no signs of any appeal to a god. The ceremonies are not only mimetic, but in a sense directly "productive." The members of the witchetty grub totem, for instance, go through the actions representing the growth and development of the grub, and believe that in this way a plentiful supply is obtained. Should the result be unsatisfactory this is attributed to some omission in the ceremony-some fault in the actors. The purport of the rainmaking ceremonies, though somewhat more obscure, is evidently the same in principle. Compare the explanation given by Sir James Frazer in The Golden Bough (3rd ed. i. 261).

Altogether, one is inclined to suspect that Dr. Havemeyer has not given much study to the psychology of the drama. It is significant that he makes no mention of The Origins of Art, by Yrjo Hirn, in which the psychological aspect of art is so well treated. On the other hand, he seems to lay stress on the euhemeristic origin of some forms of drama, and in this way approximates to the standpoint of Professor Ridgeway. It is true that he does not refer to Professor Ridgeway's latest book on the subject, Dramas and Dramatic Dances, although he would probably agree with some of the views expressed there. But it is possible that Dr. Havemeyer's book was already in the press when Professor Ridgeway's work appeared.

C. JENKINSON.

Folk-Lore.

TRANSACTIONS OF THE FOLK-LORE SOCIETY.

VOL. XXVIII.]

SEPTEMBER, 1917.

[No. III.

WEDNESDAY, MAY 16th, 1917.

THE PRESIDENT (DR. R. R. MARETT) IN THE CHAIR.

THE minutes of the last meeting were read and confirmed. The Chairman referred to the death of Dr. H. B. Wheatley, who had been a distinguished member of the Society from its early days, and it was resolved that a letter be written to his family expressing the sympathy of the Society with them in their bereavement.

A paper entitled "The Bird Cult and Glyphs of Easter Island" was read by Mrs. Scoresby Routledge, and in the discussion which followed, Mr. Skinner, Mr. H. Balfour, and the Chairman took part. The paper was profusely illustrated by lantern slides: and a slide was also shown by Mr. Skinner.

The meeting terminated with a hearty vote of thanks to Mrs. Scoresby Routledge for her paper.