Page:Folklore1919.djvu/338

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326
Reviews.

resuscitation as the new year. And he quotes from an account by Catullus of a Roman ritual in support of his interpretation.

In another chapter he discusses the meaning of the puzzling exclamation Anguilmineuf, and the New Year celebrations to which it is applied. He prefers among the various etymologies proposed for the expression that from a Celtic root, e.g., signifying force, young shoot, germ, explaining the whole ceremony to which it is applied as the survival of a magical ritual to assist fecundity.

The whole book (it is quite short) may be read with profit by students of these rituals, in spite of the want of e.xact references. A little research will find most of their sources in the French collections of traditional verse.



Books for Review should be addressed to
The Editor of Folk-Lore,
c/o Messrs. Sidgwick & Jackson, Ltd.
Adam St., Adelphi, London, W.C. 2