54 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



There is one more very curious point in regard to the treat- 

 ment of the hunter by the woman, which has an ethical signifi- 

 cance which seems more than national. The woman, after entrap- 

 ping the hunter by her charms and depriving him of his strength 

 in the shape of the dogs, surrenders him to his enemies. 



Between the Aryan and negro races there is a very great differ- 

 ence 1 the difference between a race that has a written language 

 and one that has not. It would seem that their religions might 

 have little or nothing in common ; yet in this legend of the woman 

 and the hunter have we not a counterpart of the legend of Sam- 

 son and Delilah, in the Bible, where the woman, having deprived 

 him of his strength, gives him over to his enemies ? 



Thus we see that among all races it has been customarv to in- 

 corporate cardinal virtues and cardinal vices in legendary form, 

 and it is only too likely that Delilahs existed on the coast of 

 Africa as well as elsewhere ; and, alas ! as men daily learn, are 

 still among us. 



Such are some of the changes in an example of folk lore which 

 a century has wrought : but they are not greater than the changes 

 which the people whose folk lore it is have undergone, and which, 

 a- I think I have shown, in no uncertain manner. 



The legend, we might almost say. is the gauge of a people, 

 for it clearly shows the risings and fallings in its social and men- 

 tal condition. It is interesting to note how the one noted has re- 

 mained intact in its general outlines, in spite of the disintegration 

 of the tribe with whom it probably originated. Folk lore is one 

 of the few immortal possessions of a nation. Its greatness may 

 fade, and its name be forgotten among men, but while the world 

 exists its national legends will still remain. Thus, out of the 

 ignorance of a people, may be built their only monument of last- 

 in? fame. 



- - 



ANTHROPOLOGICAL WORK IX EUROPE. 



By Peof. FEEDEE1CK STAEB. 



A\ 



^ITH<!>UT visiting either Stockholm, Vienna, or Rome, the 

 author has recently seen many of the museums of ethnog- 

 raphy in western Europe. It has seemed to him that a sketch of 

 the workers and a description of the work in anthropology there 

 might be of interest to readers of the Monthlv. Hence this 

 article, which makes no claim to exhaustiveness, but which does 

 aim to suggest something of the intense interest now shown in 

 that science in Holland, Germany. Switzerland, Italy, France, and 

 England. Under the comprehensive word anthropology we com- 

 prise physical anthropology, ethnography, prehistoric archaeology, 

 and culture historv. 



