SHORT NOTICES.
Czech Folk-Tales.
Czech Folk-Tales, selected and translated by Dr. Josef Baudis. London, George Allen & Unwin. 1917.
In this little volume Dr. Baudis provides an interesting collection of Czech tales, from sources unfamiliar to English readers. He remarks that “it is often supposed that Protestantism is very unfavourable to the development and preservation of folk-tales; but those of Bohemia are certainly an exception to the rule. The Czech nation was the first to adopt the Protestant faith, and even to-day is still Protestant at heart, though the Hapsburgs forced it back into the Catholic fold.” The leading characteristics of the stories are their strong ethical tendency and the natural tendency to satire which appears among the Czechs.