Vol. 3 No. 9 July 1983

The Centre for English Cultural Tradition and Language I THE CENTRE FOR ENGLISH CULTURAL TRADITION AND LANGUAGE The Centre for English Cultural Tradition and Language is a research institution \;V hich acts as a national repositary for material on all aspects of language and cultural tradition throughout the British Isles. Located at the University of Sheffield, where it forms part ofthe Department ofEnglish Language, it has close links with the Department ofLinguistics and the Division ofContinuing Education at the University and also the Departments ofFolklore, English and Linguistics at the Memorial University ofNewfoundland. The Centre aims to stimulate interest in language and cultural tradition, encourage the collecting and recording of traditional material through individual contributors, societies and organisations, colleges and schools, and provide a forum for discussion on all aspects oflanguage and tradition. Through its Archives, the Centre co-operates with local libraries, museums, record offices, societies and organisations, to draw attention to our traditional heritage through publications, courses, lectures, displays and exhibitions. - Material gathered in the form oftaperecordings, written reports, questionnaires, manuscripts, books and printed sources, and items of material culture, is deposited in the Centre' s Archives, providing a basic resource for reference and research. The Archives include · a reference library of books, periodicals, original monographs, dissertations, pamphlets and ephemera. In addition the Audiovisual section ofthe Archive includes photograph~ , slides and illustrations as well as some 2,000 audio-tapes and over 600 films and videotapes. The Archives include detailed information on regional and social dialects, slang and colloquialism, blason populaire, occupational vocabulary, proverbs and sayings. In the area offolklore studies the Centre holds a substantial body ofdata on childlore, custom and belief, traditional narrative, music, dance and drama Special collections include: The Russell Wortley Collection (traditional dance and custom); the Edgar M Wagner Collection (European folkdance and topographial films); the Richard Blakeborough Collection (Yorkshire folklore and local history); the Geoffrey Bullough Collection (nineteenth century literature); microfilms oftheAlex H elm, Maurice M Barley andJames Maddison Carpenter collections (traditional drama and custom); copies ofthe papers ofT. Fairman Ordish (traditional drama); recordings and copies offield notebooks for the English and Welsh section ofthe Atlas L inguarum Europae; copies of the workbooks for the Survey of English D ialects. The Centre's material culture collection, housed in its Endcliffe Exhibition Hall, includes a wide variety of items representative of urban and rural traditional occupations, pastimes, arts and crafts. Special collections include basketmaking, knifegrinding, silversmithing and filecutting, in addition to handicrafts, furniture and domestic equipment. A selection of exhibitions is available for hire. In association with colleges ofeducation , schools and other interested groups and individuals throughout the British Isles, the Centre sponsors and directs numerous projects in the general field ofchildren 's language and folklore such as the role of tradition in teaching linguistic and social skills to children. In addition a systematic investigation oftraditional verbal social controls is being conducted- attention being concentrated on the verbal constraints used by adults in controlling the behaviour of children. Material is being assembled for a wide range of projects in the field of traditional drama, with special reference to geographical distribution and textual variation, context of performance and the influence of chapbook texts. A close liaison with the Traditional Drama Research Group has also been established. In the field of folklife the Centre is conducting a nationwide study of the traditional lore and language of food, and assembling a collection of English costume. The Archives continue to gather information on occupational vocabularies and traditions, calendar and social customs and the rites of passage and on various aspects of belief, traditional health systems, and the lore of cosmic phenomena, plants and animals. Local and aetiological legends, anecdotes and jokes are also well represented. Bibliographies and machine-readable files are being prepared on various aspects of English language and cultural tradition. The Centre contributes to both the postgraduate and undergraduate programmes in the Department ofEnglish Language at the University ofSheffield. The Department offers undergraduate courses in Folklore and Contemporary English, and postgraduate students may read for the degrees ofM .A., in Modern English Language and English Cultural Tradition (by examination and dissertation) and M.A., and Ph.D. in Language and/or Folklore (by dissertation). The Centre is also actively involved in the M .A. course in African Studies offered by the department ofEnglish Literature. The Centre also has responsibility for the University Certificate Course in English Cultural Tradition offered by the Division of Continuing Education. Each year a variety of conferences is sponsored by the Centre. In addition to hosting the annual Traditional Drama Conference, it has hosted conferences on Fieldw ork in Folklore and Oral H istory; Language Van.eties; Perspectives on Contemporary L egend; 13th M eeting of the European Ballad Commission.

WORKING WITH AND THROUGH CECTAL The Centre relies greatly on voluntary help at all levels. Ifyou are interested in any aspects ofthe Centre's activities you are invited to write for further information to: The Director, Centre for English Cultural Tradition and Language, The University of Sheffield, Sheffield, SlO 2TN. (Tel: 0742-78555, Ext.6296). Vol. 3 No.9 July 1983

Contents

"Amor vincit omnia" and the Prioress's Brooch Robert E Jungman 1

Travellers' Cant, Shelta, Mumpers' Talk David Birch 8 and Minklers' Thari

Love and Marriage Customs of the Venetia Newall 30 Jamaican Community in London

The Farmworker and "The Farmer's Boy" Michael Pickering 44

Towards a Linguopoetic Study of Texts Olga Akhmanova 65 & Velta Zadornova

Children's Halloween Customs in Sheffield E Beck 70

Reviews 89

The Centre for English Cultural Tradition and Language ©The Centre for Engl i sh Cultural Tradition and Language, University of Sheffield, 1 983

ISSN No. 0307- 7144

No part of this journal may be reproduced in any form or by any means without permission from the Editor. ,. Amor vine it omnia" and the Prioress's Brooch Robert E Jungman

Few scholars would disagree with Florence H Ridley when she says that Chaucer's introductory portrait of the Prioress in the "Prologue" to The Canterbury Tales is "obviously ambiguous." 1 This ambiguity, involving an incongruous combination of the ecclesiastical with the courtly, is established immediately at the beginning ofthe portrait, when Chaucer tells us that Ther was also a Nonne, a PRIORESSE, That of hir smylyng was ful symple and coy, (lines 118-19) and continues throughout the portrait, even to the last two lines, which describe the Prioress's coral rosary with its golden brooch, On which ther was first write a crowned A, And after Amor vincit omnia. (lines 161-2) The ambiguity ofthe concluding couplet is particularly striking, as John Livingston Lowes long ago pointed out when he commented, "Which of the two loves [earthly or heavenly] does 'amor' mean to the Prioress? I do not know; but I think she thought she meant love celestial."2 Later critics, of course, have not always agreed with Lowes. 3 Because the inscription on the brooch seems to offer such a good clue to the Prioress's character, many scholars have sought to explain the meaning of this inscription, without, however, paying much attention to its source. The phrase "Amor vincit omnia" has been traced to line 69 of Virgil's Tenth Eclogue: "omnia vincit Amor." That Virgil's Eclogues were known in fourteenth century England is shown by Bruce Harbert in his discussion of MS Auct. F. 1. 17 in the Bodleian Library at Oxford.4 This early fourteenth century English manuscript is typical, says Harbert, of the collections ofLatin poetry which circulated widely in the later Middle Ages. These manuscripts usually combined classical and medieval Latin poems side by side, so it comes as no surprise when we see Virgil's Eclogues and Georgics as item no. 3 in MS Auct. F. 1. 17, sandwiched between Matthew of Vendome's Tobias (twelfth century) and a collection of poems attributed to Mar bod ofRennes (also twelfth century). This collection is followed by a number of poems about or by Virgil (including the Aeneid), as well as by other classical and medieval poets. Yet we must be careful not to attribute too quickly the inscription on the brooch to Virgil's Eclogue, since as Harbert points out, the fact that so wide a range ofauthors was available to Chaucer makes it more difficult for us to identifY the sources ofhis knowledge about ancient history and mythology. Details which modern readers most

1 readily associate with a classical author may have come to Chaucer from a medieval source.5 In the case ofthe Prioress's inscription, Richard Hoffman indicates that Chaucer could have come across the motto in the Speculum Historiale ofVincent ofBeauvais.6 In particular, the phrase appears as no. 21 in a list of quotations, which Vincent calls "Flosculi Virgilii" (Spec. His., Liber Sextus, Cap. LXIII). This list is specifically referred to as being by Virgil and is preceded by a discussion of Virgil' s life and reputation.? Thus it is difficult to determine exactly where Chaucer found this phrase. But ifthe exact source of the phrase appears somewhat elusive, the reason may be that we have been looking for a particular text; instead, perhaps we should follow Hoffman's advice and try to see the source in terms of a tradition or convention rather than a specific text. 8 Although Muriel Bowden states that the phrase was employed in the medieval period in a conventional way with respect to the concept oflove,9 the particular tradition with which I would like to associate the Prioress's inscription is that of the figure ofVirgil in the Middle Ages, since it seems very likely that if Chaucer did not get the phrase directly from the Eclogues, he at least got it from some source, like Vincent of Beauvais or the Roman de la Rose (21327 -39), where the phrase was specifically related to Virgil. 10 This idea is not particularly new; as long ago as 1919 Lowes suggested that the inscription " had behind it the strange jumble of mediaeval superstitions about Virgil." 11 Nevertheless, neither Lowes nor anyone else to my knowledge seems to have explored the Virgilian connection. Virgil, as Ernst R Curti us has stated, " remained the backbone of Latin studies" throughout the Middle Ages. 12 Virgil' s poems " were studied in the schools, discussed in the cloisters, quoted by the more enlightened of the Fathers, like Augustine and Jerome, and in general may be said to have represented to the cultivated man of the Middle Ages much that. Shakespeare represents to the cultivated English-speaking person oftoday." 13 Yet it was not just his poetry that made Virgil so important for later medieval writers, but also the numerous legends and beliefs that came to be associated with him. According to Domenico Comparetti, whose Ve rgil in the M iddle A ges remains the definitive study ofVirgil's reputation in the medieval period, much ofthe legendary material about the Roman poet tends to fall into two categories: one connected with the idea that Virgil was a prophet ofChrist, the other with the belief that Virgil was a powerful and notorious magician. 14 Both views of Virgil have their roots first of all in the Roman poet's general reputation in the classical world for great learning. The latter view also had its origin in Virgil's general reputation for erudition but seems to have arisen somewhat later in Italy, probably in the twelfth century in the general legends connected with Virgil's long stay in Naples and with the celebrity of his tomb in that city. 15 From this region, the Virgil-as-Magician theme spread rapidly all over Europe, until "there was not a writer ofany sort or kind who was not

2 familiar with it." 16 Among the theme's various forms are the beliefs that Virgil's bones were responsible for certain unnatural phenomena, like storms, and that Virgil created certain machines, like a bronze horseman which turned automatically in the direction of any province plotting to revolt from Rome or a bronze figure with a trumpet in its mouth which blew back unfavourable winds. Of all this legendary material, the earliest and perhaps most widespread view of Virgil as a magician concerns his creation ofapotropaic devices; as Comparetti says, "the chiefworks ascribed to ... Virgil are talismans." 17 In particular, Virgil was said to have created magical objects which warded offplagues offlies, leeches, serpents, and so forth; it was also believed that he had made an egg which protected the fortress thence called "Castel dell'Ovo." The creation of such protective devices is part of the function ofevery conscientious magician, since "from time immemorial, any effort of man to avert evil or to procure good has been and still is likely to proceed through the use of some concrete object more or less closely resembling a talisman." 18 How widespread this view of Virgil was can be seen from the list of medieval references cited by John W Spargo. 19 Beginning with John ofSalisbury, Spargo cites author after author, many of whom are English or connected with England, like Alexander Neckam, Gervasi us of Tilbury, and the author of the Middle English "Seven Sages". More importantly, John Gower, John Lydgate, and Stephen Hawes all refer to Virgil as a magician. Incidentally, Vincent ofBeauvais, whose Speculum Historiale was mentioned earlier as a probable source for the Prioress's motto, prefaces his list ofVirgilian quotations with a discussion ofVirgil's dual nature of prophet and magician (see Liber Sextus, cap. LXI-LXII). By way of summary, therefore, we may say that Virgil is connected in medieval legend with both Christianity, in his role as a prophet of Christ, and with magic, in his role as magician. The Roman poet, consequently, is an ambiguous figure, sometimes associated with religion and sometimes with a rather questionable substitute for religion. Moreover, in his role as a magician, Virgil is often, as in the Speculum Historiale, associated specifically with the making of talismans. Interestingly enough, two earlier critics, Francis Manley and John B Friedman, have argued that the coral rosary of Chaucer's Prioress had apotropaic powers and was thus a talisman. According to Manley, "coral was a well-known charm for earthly love." 2° Friedman, on the other hand, citing lapidaries from Chaucer's period, says that coral was believed to have apotropaic power in the Middle Ages; it warded off phantasms from the dark side of man's mind and their concrete embodiment in the devil and his demons, who continually tempt mankind to the sins of the flesh. This power belonged to coral because, in its branching natural state, it took the form of Christ's cross, one of the most powerful apotropaic signs in the Middle Ages. 21 In other words, both critics suggest that the Prioress's rosary had a magical

3 function, even though its primary purpose was naturally religious, as an aid to prayer. Since magic and religious faith are two different things, it appears that the rosary is another indication of the Prioress's essential ambiguity. But although Manley and Friedman discuss the apotropaic quality of the coral beads, they have nothing to say about the inscription from Virgil on the medallion hanging from the rosary. We assume that Chaucer chose this inscription deliberately, since, as Ridley observes, "there must have been less ambiguous mottoes for a nun's brooch than the one that appears upon Eglentine's "Amor vincit omnia'."22 It is, ofcourse, not just the word "amor" that is ambiguous here, but the whole inscription, coming as it does from a writer who had connections with both Christianity and magic. Like the coral of the beads, the Virgilian inscription seems to have been chosen by Chaucer in order to strengthen the idea that the Prioress's rosary had a magical purpose additional to its religious function. 23 We find a good parallel to the dual function of the Prioress's rosary in the shield carried by Gawain in the Middle English poem Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. 24 Gawain's shield, the poet tells us, has a picture of Mary on the inside (religion) and the pentangle of Solomon on the outside (magic). Although Gawain is basically a good Christian, his fear of the supernatural causes him to resort to magic for protection, ftrst with the pentangle and later with the green girdle, with potentially disastrous consequences. It is Mary, not magic, that saves Gawain at the crucial moment (lines 1768-9), since, as St Augustine says, all magic without exception proceeds from the devil.25 It would seem, then, that both the Gawain poet and Chaucer use a reliance upon magic to suggest a spiritual deficiency on the part of their characters. The key word here is "suggest," for Chaucer in particular seems determined to preserve a certain amount of ambiguity with respect to his Prioress. This ambiguity is strengthened by the coral rosary with its inscription from the prophet­ magician Virgil, and involves not just the conflicting value systems of divine love and courtly love, or caritas and cupiditas, but those of faith and magic as well. That this ambiguity is not to the credit ofthe Prioress is obvious, since it casts doubt on the Prioress's complete commitment to her religious calling. But if her religious commitment is not quite what it should be, it is still better than it might be, as we can see from Chaucer's descriptions of other ecclesiastical figures like the Monk, the Friar, the Summoner, and the Pardoner.26 Consequently, despite her failings, Madam Eglentine remains for us, as she probably did for her companions, one ofthe most agreeable, most human of the Canterbury pilgrims. Louisiana Tech. University Footnotes 1 Florence H Ridley, The Prioress and the Critics (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1965), p.24. All references to Chaucer's poetry

4 are taken from The Works of Geoffrey Chaucer, ed. F N Robinson, 2nd edn (Boston: Houghton Miffiin, 1957). The portrait appears in lines I A 118-62. 2 John Livingston Lowes, Convention and Revolt in Poetry (Boston: Houghton Miffiin, 1919), p.66. See also Ridley, pp.24-5. 3 For example, see D W Robertson, A Preface to Chaucer (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1962), pp.244-7. Other negative criticism is cited and discussed by Ridley, pp.2-4, 23-4. 4 Bruce Harbert, "Chaucer and the Latin Classics," in Geoffrey Chaucer, ed. Derek Brewer (Athens, Ohio: Ohio University Press, 1975), pp.138-42. 5 Harbert, p.141. 6 Richard L Hoffman, "The Influence ofthe Classics on Chaucer," in Companion to Chaucer Studies, ed. Beryl Rowland, 2nd rev. edn (New York: Oxford University Press, 1979), pp.185-6. 7 Vincent ofBeauvais, Speculum Historiale, Vol. 4 ofBibliotheca mundi ... Speculum quadruplex, naturale, doctrinale, morale, historiale . . . Duaci: B Belleri, 1624. 8 Hoffman, "Influence," p.191. 9 According to Bowden, "Originally this motto in Virgil's Eclogues concerned profane love, but the Church early adopted the motto and gave it a meaning which had to do with sacred love; by the fourteenth century, the motto was again employed in its original sense." A Commentary on the General Prologue to the Canterbury Tales (London: Macmillan, 1967), p.97. See also Sister M Madeleva, A Lost Language and Other Essays on Chaucer (New York: Sheed and Ward, 1951 ), pp.43-4. 10 On Virgil's reputation in the medieval period, see Domenico Comparetti, Vergil in the Middle Ages, trans. E F M Benecke (Hamden, Conn.: Archon Books, 1966 reprint of 2nd edn of 1908); and John Webster Spargo, Virgil the Necromancer: Studies in Virgilian Legends (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1934). 11 Lowes, p.66. 12 Ernst Robert Curtius, European Literature and the Latin Middle Ages, trans. W R Trask (New York: Harper and Row, 1963), p.36. See also Henry Osborn Taylor, The Classical Heritage of the Middle Ages, 4th edn (New York: Frederick Ungar, 1957; 1st publ. 1901), pp.37-8. 13 Spargo, p.5. 14 Comparetti, Part I, Chap. VII, and Part II, Chap. I. For the combination of these two categories, see Part II, Chap. VII. 15 Comparetti, Part II, Chap. I, esp. p.253 fi

5 16 Comparetti, p.319. The progress ofthe Virgil legends is traced in detail, from writer to writer, by Spargo in Chapter One of Virgil the N ecromancer. The most influential of the early contributions to this legend seem to have been the following: John of Salisbury, Policraticus, ca. 1159 (Joannis Saresberiensis Policratici libri VIII, ed. C C J Webb, Oxford, 1909, lib. I, cap. 4--- Vol.l, p.26); Alexander Neckam, De Natun·s R erum, late twelfth century (Alexandri Neckam, De Naturis R erum hbn· duo, ed. Thomas Wright, London, 1863, in R erum Bn.tannicarum M edii Aevi Scriptores, XXXIV --- lib. II, CLXXIV); Conrad of Querfurt, Epistula to the Prior of Hildesheim, ca.1194-6 (pu bl. by G W von Leibnitz in ScnjJtores R erum Brunsvicensium, Hanover, 1710, II, pp.695-8; alsoM G H, Scnptores, XXI, Hanover, 1869, 192-6); and Gervasi us of Tilbury, Otia Impen.alia, ca.1211 (see edition by G W von Leibnitz, Scnptores R erum Brunsvicensium, Hanover, 1707-11, I, 881-1006, Emendationes, II, 751-84). 17 Comparetti, p.264, Spargo notes: " Once Virgil was reputed to have made one talisman, there is obviously no difficulty in extending his imaginary powers to other magical objects, particularly, of course, to talismans" (p.82). 18 Spargo, pp.69 and 343-4. On the general subject oftalismans, see E A Wallis Budge, Amulets and Talismans (Hyde Park, N.Y.: University books, 1961). 19 Spargo, pp.60-8. For specifically English examples, see, in addition to those references already cited above, John Gower, Confessio Amantis, Book V, 11. 2031-2234, Book VI, 11. 90-9, and Book VIII, 11. 2666-2719 (EETS, ES LXXXI-II): John Lydgate, Fall ofPn.nces, 11.4495-4501 (EETS, ES CXXI); and Stephen Hawes, Pastime of Pleasure, 11. 3626-3727 (EETS, CLXXIII). 20 Francis Manley, "Chaucer's Rosary and Donne' s Bracelet: Ambiguous Coral," MLN, 74 (1959), 388. To prove his point, Manley cites the fifteenth century Peterborough Lapidary and then concludes: " Chaucer gave his graceful lady prioress a string ofbeads as delicately ambiguous as everything else about her. Superficially, of course, a bride of Christ should want to protect herself from the ravishment of the world, and, as we have seen, a coral rosary would offer her double indemnity: the stones as well as the prayers would save her from temptation. But any such surface statement is qualified by the ambiguousAmor with which the beads are tagged." 21 John B Friedman, "The Prioress's Beads 'OfSmal Coral'," M ediumAevum, 39 (1970), 302. Friedman cites the following: Thomas of Cantimpre, De Naturis Rerum, B M Royal12 F vi f 103r, Lib. XIV xv; Vincent ofBeauvais, Speculum Naturale (Douai, 1624), Lib. VIII lvii, p.523; Bodleian MS Rawlinson D 358 f 81; Joan Evans, Magical Jewels of the M iddle Ages and the R enaissance (Oxford, 1922), Appendix D; Joan Evans and Mary S Serjeantson, English M ediaeval Lapidan·es (London, 1960), EETS, OS 190; Paul Struder and Joan Evans, Anglo-Norman Lapidan·es (Paris, 1924); Marbod ofRennesLiberde Gemmis, XX: "De Corallo," P L 171, 1753; Alexander Neckam, De Laudibus Divinae Sapientiae, ed. Thomas Wright in De Naturis R erum (London, 1863), Distinctio

6 Sexta, 11. 23 7 -8; and Bartholomaeus Anglicus, De Proprietatibus Rerum, trans. John ofTrevisa (Westminster, 1495). 22 Ridley, p.21. 23 The use ofwords or inscriptions in connection with talismans is commonplace. As Lynn Thorndike points out, "Most of the main features and varieties of magic known to us at other times and places appear somewhere in the course of Egypt's long history. For one thing, we find the ascription of magic power to words and names. The power of words, says Budge, was thought to be practically unlimited, and 'the Egyptians invoked their aid in the smallest as well as in the greatest events oftheir life.' Words might be spoken ... or they might be written, in which case the material upon which they were written might be ofimportance [like the gold medallion ofthe Prioress's rosary?] ... We have already noted the employment of pictures, models, mannikins, and other images, figures, and objects [like the crownedA?] ... amulets are found from the first, although their particular forms seem to have altered with different periods." A History of Magic and Experimental Science (New York: Columbia University Press, 1923), I, p.10. 24 On the religious/magical function of Gawain's shield, see Richard Hamilton Green, "Gawain's Shield and the Quest for Perfection," E L ~ 29 (1962), 121- 39. References to Sir Gawain and the Green Knight are to the 2nd edn ofJ R R Tolkien, E V Gordon, and Norman Davis (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1967).

25 The most emphatic statement of this position occurs in De Civ. De~ X, 9. For a good discussion of Augustine's view of magic, see Thorndike, Vol.l, Chap. 22: "Augustine on Magic and Astrology," pp.504-23; and Jeffrey Burton Russell, Witchcraft in the Middle Ages (Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press, 1972), pp.56-7, 109-10, 302, fn 16. 26 This point is well established by Richard L Hoffman in "Chaucer's Prologue to the Pilgrimage: The Two Voices," E L ~ 21 (1954), 1-16.

7 Travellers' Cant, Shelta, Mumpers' Talk and Minklers' Thari David Birch

Some time ago I got into conversation with my brother-in-law whose family (with the exception of his parents who settled in a house early in their married life) are English Gipsies (Travellers). They move between a small number of permanent caravan sites set up by local councils, restricting their travelling to the major fairs and race meetings in England. Occasionally they move farther afield for summer seasonal work, but for the most part they remain in North Nottinghamshire, Derbyshire and more rarely South Yorkshire. Apart from the fascination with which I listened to tales oftravelling life, I was particularly interested in his telling of travellers' cant, which, he told me, was used whenever travellers were trading amongst themselves in the presence of "gorgers" (people who live in houses), or trading with gorgers themselves. The aim is simple, of course: to confuse the uninitiated listener, and to couch their trading and culture in a secret code. There is nothing new about this; it has happened and will continue to happen in most groups within society. The degree to which it happens with English (and other) Gipsies is what makes it interesting, as compared, say, to the more limited use ofback-slang in the butcher trade(Upton: 1974) and the argot ofthe market trader(O'Shaughnessy: 1975), and, of course, it is certainly not restricted to English. In an 1894 article in The Indian Antiquary Pandit S M Natesa Sastri deals at some length with traders' slang in Southern India, in particular the Tamil traders in Tanjore, Trichinopoly, Madura and Tinnevelly. He opens his article with: "The traders in Southern India as everywhere, have a custom oftalking, when they meet together, in a peculiar language, which has a conventional meaning among themselves, with the object of keeping chance listeners ignorant oftheir transactions and tricks." (Sastri: 1894, 49) In an even earlier article in the 1856 Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, Captain Newbold talking about the Gipsies of Egypt says: "In their ordinary intercourse with the villagers, however, they employ the vulgar Arabic, both in conversation and in their accounts. Their own is used, and cant words employed, for purposes of concealment." (Newbold: 1856, 291) Such comments, Arabic aside, could be as easily made about many of the traders at, say, the most recent Appleby Fair, for the secrecy of cant is as true today as it was a hundred or more years ago. And indeed long before. For cant, ofany description, is a specialised vocabulary and there is little movement between it and everyday language. Professor Blake in his recent book Non-Standard Language in English Literature, talking of fashionable language in relation to the writings of P G W odehouse has this to say: 8 "Thieves' cant is a specialised language and not many elements from it enter the everyday language. It differs from the kind oflanguage spoken by Bertie Wooster, because that fashionable language is imitated by some and has a much greater currency. People want to understand it, and more ofthem are likely to have come across it through their own education. Thieves' cant remains a kind of secret language and its usefulness in literature is therefore very limited." (Blake: 1981, 180) This secrecy of course makes life difficult for the researcher, because the effectiveness of the cant is that its use is limited to a select few people. Users are not going to reveal it too easily. Sastri faced the same problem in the 1890s as 0' Shaughnessy did in the 1970s. He says: "With great difficulty I have been able to gather two groups of such conventions, to which I now give publicity in the hope that readers of this Journal will produce more. But, at the same time, I must inform them that it is no easy thing to arrive at the true signification of secret trade symbols and words, for once the desire of the enquirer to pry into their meaning becomes clear to a trader friend, that friend becomes cunning and suspicious, and then rarely, ifever, gives the true meaning. It is only by constantly comparing information from different sources that one can hope to meet with success." (Sastri: 1894,49) O'Shaughnessy says much the same thing when he remarks that "Market traders are not usually ready to divulge their language to outsiders, for obvious reasons." (O'Shaughnessy: 1975, 24). Cant, then, of any description is never going to be easy to collect, and so it is with the spirit ofrecording what you can while you can that I offer a collection of wordlists of different types of cant in this article. That such a collection is a pot-pourri of information gathered from old sources and naive informants will not, I hope, detract from its usefulness. Indeed, such a list of words may be a valuable reference in such controversies as the use of thieves' cant by Shakespeare. Some scholars (Blake:1981, 82) maintain that though Shakespeare undoubtedly knew some thieves' cant he did not use it in his plays. Others (Musgrove: 1981) not only maintain that he knew cant but that he used it in intricate and complex ways undetected by many if not all editors so far. I do not for the moment expect these lists to resolve such problems, but they should go some way towards helping the work ofboth folklinguists and literary scholars. Pandit Sastri records a story about the cant used by the Tamil traders which is well worth repeating as a piece ofcant-related folklore. By repeating it here I hope it will underscore the idea of the effectiveness of keeping cant terms secret. "The trading world of South India has a n urn ber of am using stories of the successful working of their conventions and of the great use they

9 have been to them. Here is one, which a trader related to me at Conjeeveram. Ten traders had gone to the town of Arcot from Conjeeveram to sell their goods, and were returning home with their purses full. In those days the path lay through a jungle for a certain part of the way, and, while they were passing through this, they were surprised unawares by three daring ruffians armed with scythes, while the poor traders had not even a stick between them. For trading and manliness, in the opinion of many Hindus, do not go hand in hand, and a trader must always submit to physical force without attempting to resist. True to this theory, our ten friends, as soon as they saw the three thieves, shuddered at their weapons, and, on the first demand, laid their all on the ground. Had the thieves quietly retired to the woods with the money, this story would have ended here, and there would have been no occasion for the trading world to boast ofthe usefulness oftheir conventions. But, unfor­ tunately for the thieves, the matter did not end there, for the ruffians were elated at their easy conquest. They had always met with some show of resistance in their other adventures; but in this case they had only to order, and, to their surprise, found that the traders implicitly obeyed. So they collected the purses together, and, sitting opposite their trophy, asked our trader-friends to stand in a row. Their good dresses were the thieves' next demand. These, too, were given without any objection, excepting a small bit of cloth for each to cover his nakedness; and this was only kept with the due permission of the ruffians, willingly granted, for they contemptuously pitied these poor specimens of the human race with no resistance in them. The ten traders now stood as suppliant beggars, ready to run away as soon as leave might be given. But no leave was given, as the thieves had comfortably taken their seats near the booty and the good clothes, and wanted to have a little more fun. Said the chief of the three: "Do you fools know how to dance?" "Yes, your honour," was the reply; for a denial of any kind, the traders thought, would only bring down the scythes on their necks. "Then let us witness your dance before you go away. Give us all a dance," was the order. The traders had to obey. One among them was very intelligent, and thought within himself that, as the thieves had won everything without trouble, they would entertain no suspicion of any tricks being played at them. So he commenced a trick, which, if the other traders helped, would work successfully. If not welcome to them, he could easily give it up without any harm to himself or to the others; for none but his own party would understand what he was driving at. Now there must always

10 be a song before a dance, or rather dancing must be accompanied by a song; and so he sang a song to introduce the dance, which was clothed in the language ofthe traders' convention by way ofhint to his companions as to how they were to act. The song was Namanum puli p~r Talanum tiru per Savana ta~anai Tiruvana talan sutta ' . 'Savana ta~an midi Ta tai tom tadingana.' I Which may be freely translated thus: We are puli x, They are tiru .x; If on a sii .x; Tiru x sits down, Sii X remains. Ta tai tom tadifzgana. I The hint contained in this song was that they (the traders) were puli (ten) in number, that the robbers were only tiru (three), that if on each one (sii) robber three (tiru) traders fell, one (sa) of the traders still remained to tie the hands and legs ofthe surprised robbers. The thieves, secure in their imagined success, thought that the song was merely meant for keeping time to the dance, and suspected no trick. The whole body of traders, however, caught the hint, and separated themselves into groups ofthree, leaving the business oftying the thieves' hands and legs to the starter ofthe song. When the thieves were all eyes and ears for the dance, and when tii tai tOm was at last significantly pronounced, the traders fell upon the robbers. There was a very severe struggle, no doubt, but three to one is no proportion at all in a free fight without weapons, and the thieves had already laid theirs aside in their elation, and so in the end the traders managed to tie them up, and render them helpless. Then, taking possession of their money and other valuables, the ten traders safely returned to Conjeeveram. What is it that saved them in this delicate position? Traders' convention, is the only answer of the trading world.''. (Sastri: 1894, 51-2) The point here is that the traders' cant is based on a code whereby all the words they use to represent figures in fact relate to flowers and fruit, so that a conversation (or song) using these words would sound quite innocent to an uninitiated listener. It would be very interesting to know if similar stories exist in English folklore.

11 It is not without significance that I cite an article in The Indian Antiquary of1894, for there were many amateur (and professional) philologists of the nineteenth century who were interested not only in cant but in Gipsy languages proper. English and American scholars were busy looking for the origins of the Gipsy languages they were collecting in England and America, and they were looking, for the most part, to the languages of India. Many of their articles on English Gipsy languages and varieties therefore appear in Orientalist journals, and though it is unlikely that I will run into an English Gipsy on the streets ofSingapore, I can have easy access to out­ of-the-way journals, and they are, without a doubt, a veritable goldmine of information on English folklinguistics and folklore. In an article in the April1887 issue of the Indian Notes and Quen·es, for example, the editor gives notice of the researches ofan American scholar, C G Leland, on his work with a Celtic variety of an English Gipsy language which he calls Shelta. The note cites Leland as saying: "I doubt ifever I took a walk in London, especially in the slums, without meeting men and women who spoke of 'Shelta'; and I know at this instant of two - I really cannot say promising - little boys who sell groundsel at the Marlborough Road Station who chatter in it fluently." (I.N Q.: 1887, 132) "Shelta", according to Leland is " ... a very singular Celtic language which is peculiar to tinkers, but which is extensively understood and spoken by most of the confirmed tramps and vagabonds. It is not mentioned in the Slang Dictionary;,· the English Dialect Society has ignored it; and thus far I believe that I am the only man who has collected or published a word or a vocabulary of it." (/.N Q.: 1887, 132). Leland gave some of his findings in a paper delivered to the Oriental Congress at Vienna, developed, according to a Mr H T Crofton in the May 1887 issue of the Indian Notes and Quen.es (Crofton: 1887), from Macmillan:Js Magazine (to which I have not had access), and in his book Gypsies (Triibner: 1882) which the School of Oriental and African Studies supplied to me in photocopy, from which the following extract is taken: "One summer day, in the year 1876, I was returning from a long walk in the beautiful country which lies around Bath, when, on the road near the town, I met with a man who had evidently grown up from childhood into middle age as a beggar and a tramp. I have learned by long experience that there is not a so-called 'traveler' of England or of the world, be he beggar, tinker, gypsy or hawker, from whom something cannot be learned, if one only knows how to use the test-glasses and proper reagents. Most inquirers are chiefly interested in the morals- or immorals- of these nomads. My own researches as regards them are chiefly philological. Therefore, after I had invested twopence in his prospective beer, I addressed him in Romany. Ofcourse he knew a little of it; was there ever an old 'traveler' who did not?. "But we are givin' Romanes up very fast,- all of us is," he remarked. "It

12 is a gettin' to be too blown. Everybody knows some Romanes now. But there is a jib that ain't blown," he remarked reflectively. "Back slang an' cantin' an' rhymin' is grown vulgar, and Italian always was the lowest of the lot; thieves kennick is genteel alongside of organ-grinder's lingo, you know. Do you know anythin' of Italian, sir?" "I can rakker it pretty flick" (talk it tolerably), was my reply. "Well I should never a penned (thought) sitch a swell gent as you had been down so low in the slums. Now Romanes is genteel. I heard there's actilly a book about Romanes to learn it out o( But as for this other jib, its wery hard to talk. It is most all Old Irish, and they calls it Shelter." This was all I could learn at that time ... " (Leland: 1882, 354-5) Leland then goes on to say how he and a friend were in Aberystwith a year or so later and they came across a "most miserable figure crouching in a hollow like a little cave" hiding from the rock blasting that was taking place. They got into conversation with him: "Our new acquaintance was ragged and disreputable. Yet he held in his hand a shilling copy ofHelen's Babies, in which were pressed some fern leaves. "What do you do for a living?" I asked. "She/kin gallopas just now," he replied. "And what is that?" "Selling ferns. Don't you understand? That's what we call it in Minklers Thari. That's tinkers' language. I thought as you knew Romanes you might understand it. The right name for it is Shelter or Shelta." Out came our note-books and pencils. So this was the Shelter of which I had heard. He was promptly asked to explain what sort of a language it was. "Well, gentlemen, you must know that I have no great gift for languages. I never could learn even French properly. I can conjugate the verbetre, - that is all. I'm an ignorant fellow, and very low. I've been kicked out of the lowest slums in Whitechapel because I was too much ofa blackguard for 'em. But I know rhyming slang. Do you know Lord John Russell?" "Well, I know a little of rhyming, but not that." "Why, it rhymes to bustle." I see. Bustle is to pick pockets." "Yes, or anything like it, such as ringing the changes." Here the professor (Leland's companion) was 'in his plate'. He knows

13 perfectly how to ring the changes. It is affected by going into a shop, asking for change for a sovereign, purchasing some trifling article, then, by ostensibly changing your mind as to having the change, so bewilder the shopman as to cheat him out often shillings. It is easily done by one who understands it. The professor does not practice this art for the lucre ofgain, but he understands it in detail. And of this he gave such proofs to the tramp that the latter was astonished. "A tinker would like to have a wife who knows as much ofthat as you do," he remarked. "No woman.is fit to be a tinker's wife who can't make ten shillings a day by glantherin. Glantherin or glad'her£n is the correct word in Shelter for ringing the changes. As for the language, I believe it's mostly Gaelic, but it's mixed up with Romanes and canting or thieves' lang. Once it was the common language of all the old tinkers. But oflate years the old tinkers' families are mostly broken up, and the language is perishing." (Leland: 1882, 356-7) Leland then gives a word-list of Shelta obtained from this man, tells of his travels back to America and then gives another list ofShelta collected from a tinker he came across in Philadelphia. These lists are given at the end ofthis article. They should be used, of course, with all the due caution required of glossaries obtained from naive informants, and, who knows, the enthusiasms of a Victorian philologist. The Shelta about which Leland enthuses is according to Crofton (Crofton: 1887, 151) known to some of the Gipsies ofhis acquaintance (H T Crofton co-authored with B C Smart The Dialect ofthe English Gipsies (Asher and Co. 1875) and reviewed by G A Grierson as "Gipsies in England and India", The Indian Antiquary, January 1887, 35-41), as Mumpers' talk; "mumper" being cant for tramp. This is confirmed by a Mr T W Norwood who gives a short word list of"Mumpers' talk" in the May 1887 issue of the Indian Notes and Queries (Norwood: 1887). He also suggests that it may be the same as The Germania. This is not likely as J C Hotten inA Dictionary of Modern Sian& Cant and Vulgar Words (18f,Q) as cited by Upton: 1974,31, says: "The brigands and more romantic rascals of Spain term their private tongue Germania or Robber's Language," but it may be worth investigating further. What I think is quite clear though is that there are a number ofdifferent varieties ofcant which are probably associated with the different groups of Gipsies. Given that my brother-in­ law insisted that English Gipsies were known as travellers: Irish Gipsies known as tinkers (or their descendants: witness the tinker villages around Middlesbrough) and foreign Gipsies known as Romanies, and that any ofthese groups would become very upset at being called by the name of another, it would seem that travellers' cant (used by the English Gipsy) should be seen as distinct from both Shelta (Irish Gipsy) and Romany (foreign Gipsy), though of course when we see the glossary at the end of this paper, there is obviously a lot of interplay between all three. A considerable amount of material was, of course, gathered in the sixteenth and

14 seventeenth centuries (Robert Greene, The Art of Conny- Catching; Thomas Dekker, The Bellman of London, English Villainies, The Gull's Hornbook; Thomas Harman, A Caveat or Warning for Common Cursitors; Thomas Shadwell, The Squire of Alsatia); dictionaries were put together in the late seventeenth and eighteenth (A New Dictionary of the Terms Ancient and Modern of the Canting Crew and A New Canting Dictionary) and, of course, considerable work was done in the nineteenth century Q C Rotten, A Dictionary ofModern Sian& Cant and Vulgar Words; B C Smart and H C Crofton, The Dialect ofthe English Gipsies; David Macritchie, Accounts ofthe Gipsies of India, and George Borrow, Romano Lavo-LiZ: Word Book of the Romany, or English­ Gypsy Language), but the status ofcant and Gipsy languages is still not settled in the twentieth century. I do not settle it here, but would suggest that any discussion of it should make an initial distinction between a type of cant which is a non-standard variety of a language (realised as a register mainly by relexicalisation) and a type of cant which is an anti-language. It has long been recognised that complex societies contain sub-groups and that such groups invariably evolve or create a kind of language which serves to reinforce their identity and to exclude others. (Kress and Hodge:1979, 70). Such groups can exist in opposition to societies (anti-societies) and the language they evolve to protect their identity and to exclude others has been called by M A K Halliday anti-language. He defines an anti-language as " . . . a mode of resistance which may take the form either of passive symbiosis or of active hostility and even destruction" (Halliday: 1976, 15). This makes clear, I think, that there is quite a considerable difference - linguistically, politic;ally and socially, between a secret vocabulary in a non-standard variety of a language, and in the development of a sub-culture language whose secrecy and deception is anarchical in nature. Both may be linguistic variants of a parent language, but the sociolinguistic status is quite different. Blake makes this point (though not with this in mind) when he says: "When it occurs cant is particularly associated with thieving ... thieves' cant can't help to suggest a separate culture which is in direct opposition to the standard morals of the average citizen. It was also needed for safety, and so its use is often that of the code, to keep outsiders in ignorance." (Blake: 1981, 18) Professor Blake is, of course, talking of the use of a particular variety of cant in literature, which does not, by any stretch ofthe imagination, represent the actual status of cant down the ages, though for their part, many folklinguists and literary scholars act as if it does. The legacy of sixteenth and seventeenth century literary ideas about cant is still with us very firmly today, and notions of "rogues and vagabonds" still accompany discussion of cant (literary or otherwise). The sub­ culture which cant represents, represents a threat to "normal" society. A code to keep outsiders in ignorance of a certain culture, of a set of trading transactions, is not necessarily an anti-language. The cant ofthe English Gipsy or Irish Tinker is, like the back-slang of the Birmingham butcher, or the argot of a Lincolnshire market trader, not necessarily representative of an opposing movement to the

15 norms of society, morally or politically. Though of course socially (at macro or micro level) it is. The secret code depends for its effectiveness upon the presence of an uninitiated audience; that audience may well have the same moral and political views however. The important point is that an anti-language does not require the presence of the audience at all. For the most part then, the words in the following lists belong to a Gipsy register and are used with an English grammatical framework, though, as can be seen from the final list, certain non-English inflectional and derivational morphemes recur.

Travellers' Cant The following terms were given to me by Ernest Warren, market trader ofMansfield, North Nottinghamshire. The spellings are his own: aki returned hawking selling bar-ridge one pound sterling heagent. idiot beor woman jacks water cans bory big joge shilling budaka shop juckal dog cadey hat kaningra hare caleing visiting ken house chavee child kite cheque chiv knife lacken girl choby shop lelled arrested chockers shoes luvver money cooe'e that mandy s mine con..ng fighting manging talking cosh stick manging shan swearing curry horse mass meat cusht.y-munyer good/nice mingra-muskrer policeman dick look/ see missly go divi-radged mentally insane moore kill dordy an expression of exclamation mort.-rawney lady dragmush doctor mullerd/ mullen..ng died/ dying drum road mush-rye gentleman dukering fortune telling nash-fake go fake obtain nee jace t.har-e-ing don't talk jams hands noley deaf fazam hair parney water fencing selling peen..es-plort.s feet fl.ymm five pounds sterling peever drink galloway wa horse pooey- bar two pounds sterling gammy not good puker talking gav town puv field gel/ go puvingras potatoes geret.h money raut.ee night glimmer light Romany foreign Gipsy gorgers house dwellers scold tea gry horse scran food half a bull two shillings and sixpence sherdick policeman

16 sherry go Traveller English Gipsy shushy/shushes rabbit/rabbits tugs clothes sloppy tea tuvely smoke sobiya boy vardi caravan sprat sixpence woodras bed sygh six pence wyn penny thrummer three pounds sterling yagging looking Tinker Irish Gipsy yocks eyes trashed fright yog fire yogger gun

Shelta, Mumpers' Talk or Minklers' Thari The following list is compiled from the following nineteenth century sources: Leland (1882); Crofton (1887) and Norwood (1887). I have alphabetised their original lists and indicate against each entry which source it comes from. Leland obtained his collection from two informants, one an Englishman near Bath (La) and the other an Irish Gipsy in Philadelphia (Lb). Crofton says only that a Gipsy supplied him with his list, saying nothing about the Gipsy, but adding that it was collected in June 1879, I indicate it by (C). Norwood (N) says nothing ofhis informant, but does say that he collected them when learning Romany in the 1850s. aidh butter ( Lb) cambra dog ( Lb) ainoch thing (Lb) carob to cut (Lb) ana/ken to wash (Lb) chaldrock knife (Lb) analt to sweep (Lb) charrshom a crown (La) 'attam church ( N ) cherrshom a crown (La) 'attam-day Sunday (N) cherpin a book (Lb) bar pound (N ) chimmel a stick (Lb) bear married woman ( C ) chimmes wood/ stick (Lb) bewr woman (La) chiv knife (La) binny small (Lb) chlorhin to hear ( Lb) binny soobli boy (Lb) clishpen to break by letting fall ( Lb) biyeg to steal (La) clisp to fall/let fall (Lb) biyeghin stealing (La) crab-shells shoes (N ) biyeg th'ee nik to steal the thing (La) crack a stick (La) blacky a tin vessel (N ) crimum sheep (Lb) bladhunk prison (Lb) crowder string (Lb) blatchy coal (N) cunnels potatoes (Lb) bly hunka horse (Lb) dainoch to lose ( Lb) bog to get (Lb) d'erri bread (Lb) bogh to get (Lb) dingle fakir a bell hanger (La) bonar good (C ) dinnessy cat (La) booV bul a crown (N ) dunnick/ dunny cow (C ) borers gimlets (La) dunnovans potatoes (La) boshtardy a pregnant woman (N) dun 'nux cow (N ) brogies breeches (C) durra/derra bread (La) bug talk ( La) dyukas/jukas Gorgio, gentile- one not ofthe class bulla a letter (Lb) (Lb) cab cabbage (Lb) elemnoch milk (Lb)

17 faihe/ feye meat (Lb) jilt the jigger shut the door (N) fake to play (N ) jumpers cranks (a tool) ( La) fake the boshamingy to play the fiddle ( N ) kaine/ky ni ears (Lb) ji"nmf five pounds sterling ( N ) kaldthog hen (Lb) joky people ( N ) kallar a shilling (N ) foros fair (N ) kephyl horse (N ) garjer man (C) kessig mare ( N ) gauer rain ( N ) khady ogs stones (Lb) ges'timer a magistrate or justice (N ) khoi pincers (Lb) ghestennan (ghestz) magistrate (La) kiena house (Lb) ghoi put ( Lb) kin house (C ) gh'ratha/ grata hat (Lb) kitshimer alehouse (N ) gial yellow/red ( Lb) klapper turnpike/gate (C ) ( N ) gladdher ring the changes (cheat in change) (La) koggies turnips (C ) glanthen·n (glad'herin) money (swindling) (La) kor'heh box (Lb) gloch master/policeman ( C) koris feet (Lb) glorhoch ear (Lb) krad'hyi slow (Lb) goihed to leave/lay down (Lb) kradyin to stop/stay/sit/lodge/remain (Lb) goo-ope, guop cold (Lb) krees a saddle ( N ) goppa furnace/smith (Lb) krepoch cat (Lb) gorhead/ godhed money ( Lb) kroker doctor (N) gorheid money (Lb) kuller a shilling ( N ) gothlin/ goch'thlin child (La) kurrb yer pee punch your head/face (La) gotherna/ guttema policeman (Lb) kurru a quart (N) gothm/ gachlin child (Lb) kutar/kuuer a pound (N ) goveli cow (C ) lackan girl (C) graft work ( N) lagprat fish (N) graigh hair (Lb) laprogh goose/duck/bird ( Lb) grainyog window (Lb) larkin girl (La) grannien with child (Lb) lashool nice (Lb) grannis know (Lb) leicheen girl (Lb) grannum barn ( N ) Lorch a two wheeled vehicle (Lb) granyu nail (Lb) loshun sweet (Lb) grascot waistcoat (Lb) lubran/luber to hit (Lb) gras horse (N ) lurk eye (Lb) grawder soldier (Lb) Luthrum's gothlin son of a harlot (La) gnffi"n/gruffin coat (Lb) lychyen people (Lb) gritchie dinner (Lb) lyesken cherps telling fortunes (Lb) gruppa supper (Lb) l'yogh to lose (Lb) gullemnochs shoes (Lb) made! tail (Lb) gushuk a vessel of any kind (Lb) mahs sheep (C ) guth/ gut black (Lb) mailyas arms (Lb) gyami bad (Lb) mailyen to feel hatch to remain (N ) mal-divvus Christmas (N) hatchi kootschi stop a little longer (N) manging talking (C ) hearing ear (C) matchticove cat (N ) lwrer clock (N) masheen cat (Lb) humble-bump hayrick (N) max spirits (La) ishkimmisk drunk (Lb) medthel black (Lb) jigger door (N) meilar an ass (N) jill shut (N) melthog inner shirt (Lb)

18 menoch nose (Lb) respun to steal ( Lb) merrik nose (?) (Lb) n·aglon iron (Lb) midgic a shilling (La) roglan a four wheeled vehicle (Lb) mieslz/ misli to go (Lb) rooski basket (Lb) miseli quick (Lb) rom-kain gentleman's house (N) mislain raining (Lb) rum-kin cove gentleman (fine house man) (Lb) misli coming/to come/to send (Lb) rumog egg ( Lb) misli dainoch to write a letter (Lb) sai/sy sixpence (La) misli to my bewr write to my woman (Lb) saini/ sonni see (La) mish it thorn hit it hard (Lb) salkaneoch to taste (Lb) mill-cogs shirt (N) salt arrested/taken (Lb) mitham/ mithni policeman (La) schufel f£nmf five pound note (N) molson an ass (N ) sen/ scree to write (La) monkery country (La) shaidyog policeman (Lb) morgeni/moinni good (Lb) sharag kiss (C ) morgenni y ook good man (Lb) shelkin gallopas selling ferns (La) mor'ghen rabbit (N ) shelter/ shelta Tinkers' slang (La) mort daughter (N) shliema smoking/pipe (Lb) mumper tramp (N) shoich water/blood/liquid (Lb) munches tobacco (Lb) shum to own (Lb) muogh pig (Lb) shushei rabbit (N) mush faker umbrella mender (La) skaw/er/ skawper silver (Lb) mushgraw policeman (La) skoich/ skoi button (Lb) muskro policeman (N) skoichen rain (Lb) ne jish stand back/look at (C ) skoihopa whisky (Lb) ned asken lodging (La) skipsy basket (N ) needi-mizzler tramp (La) skolaia to write (Lb) nethras bed (C ) skolaiyami a good scholar (Lb) nglou nail (Lb) slang to put or stay in a field (C ) numpa sovereign/ pound (Lb) slum good (C ) ny ock head (La) (Lb) slum the gorjer 'best' or cheat the fellow (C ) ny ock penny (La) (Lb) smuggle anvil (Lb) ny o(d) ghee pound (La) snips scissors (Lb) odd two (La) sobli sir (C ) ogles eyes (La) sobye ? ( Lb) okonneh priest (Lb) soobli/soobn· brother, man, friend (La) ( Lb) (C ) olivers stockings (N) soopen watch (N) oura town (Lb) spenton cream (N) pani water (La) spreddum butter (N) pee face (La) stall go, travel (La) plimmer stone (N) stamp-drawers stocking ( Lb) pokkonus magistrate/justice (N) stiff a warrant (La) poplars broth (N) stigger gate (N) prad horse (N) straihmed a year (Lb) prat stop/stay/lodge (La) strawn tin (Lb) rauniel/ runniel beer (La) stardas hat (Lb) rawg wagon (Lb) strepuch a harlot (La) reader a writ (La) strepuch lusk a son of a harlot (La) reesbin prison (La) stretcher a year (N) respes trousers (Lb) styemon rat (Lb)

19 sunain to see (Lb) wmgarheid big money (i.e. gold) (Lb) calosk weather (Lb) wmnumpa banknote (Lb) tanyok halfpenny ( Lb) tompart a person (N) tarryin rope (Lb) to my-deal to me (Lb) tashi shingomai to read the newspaper (Lb) torog tramp (C ) tcdhi/thedi coal/fuel (Lb) tre-moon three months: a 'drag' (Lb) teil hat (N ) tre- nyock threepence (La) terri heating iron (Lb) triporauniel a pot of beer (La) terry/ terri coal/fuel (La) (Lb) troopers breeches (N ) than· talk ( La) ( Lb) veil town/village (N ) theddy fire (Lb) vonger money (N ) th-mddusk door (Lb) wedj silver (N ) thorn violently (Lb) yack watch (La) thomyok magistrate (Lb) yewr clock (N ) tinglers onions (C) yiesk fish (Lb)

Leland (1882) also records the following; he says nothing of where they came from: hain/heen one k'hair yedh fourteen do two tal 'th chesin ogomsa that belongs to me m· three grannis to my deal it belongs to me ch'air/ k'hair four dioch man krady in in this nadas I am staying here cood five tash emilesh he is staying here she/ shay six boghin the brass cooking the food schaachc/schach' seven my deal is mislin I am going ocht eight the nidias of the kie n~ don't granny w hat we're a ayen/ nai nine tharyin the people of the house don' t know what dy'az/ djaz/ dai ten we're saying hinniadh eleven that bhoghd out yer mailya you let that fall from do yed'h twelve your hand trin yedh thirteen

Crofton (1887) includes the following interesting note on Shelta numerals: "The formation of' Shelta' by the application of 'back-slang' to Erse is cunous: do, odd two (Erse do) nai, ayen nine (Erse, naoi) dai ten (Erse, deach) hinniadh eleven (Erse, aon-deng) This raises a suspicion that the well-known slang adjective rum is 'back­ slang' for mor great. 'Shelta' also comprises 'rhyming slang' or 'head slang'. grascot waistcoat grawder soldier grupper supper " (Crofton: 1887, 151)

20 A Gipsy-English Index The following list is extracted from Mrs Grierson, "An English Gipsy Index," The Indian Antiquary Oanuary 1886 to February 1887), 14-19, 49-57, 84-116, 113-147, 178-180, 236-239, 277-8, 310-11, 340-342, (1887) 32-35, 69-73. Mrs Grierson uses the following source books to compile her very extensive glossary: Romano Lavo-LiZ: Word Book ofthe Romany, or English- Gypsy Language, by George Borrow, London: John Murray, 1874. Etudes sur les Tchinghianes ou Bohemiens de /'Empire Ottoman, par Alexandre G Paspati, D. M., Constantinople: Imprimerie Antoine Koromela,1870. Ueber die Mundarten und die Wanderungen der Zigeuner Europa's. Theil V Marchen und Lieder der Zigeuner der Bukowina. Zweiter Theil. Glossar, von Dr Franz Miklosich. Theile VII, VIII. Vergleichung der Zigeuner­ mundart Wien, in Commission bei Karl Gerold's sohn, 1875. I have extracted the English Gipsy words from her index. Readers interested in French, German, Spanish and Asiatic Gipsy words which number in the hundreds in the complete index should see the original. I reproduce below an alphabetised version (the original alphabetised the English words) and also a "half-Gipsy, half-English rhyme" originally used by Grierson to show the close links with the Indian dialect Bhoj'puri. I omit the Bhoj'puri. "The Rye he mores adrey the wesh The kaun-engro and chiricle You sovs with lrste 'drey the wesh And rigs for leste the gono. Oprey the rukh adrey the wesh Are chiricle and chiricli Tuley the rukh adrey the wesh Are pireno and pireni" (15-16) This translates as: "The squire hunts within the wood The hare and the bird You sleep with him within the wood And carries for him the sack. Above the tree within the wood Are male bird and female bird Below the tree within the wood Are lover and lady-love" I will leave it to the reader to decide whether that is original or whether it is a demonstration of a Victorian philologist's play with a strange vocabulary.

21 abri abroad/outside bikunyie undone/ alone adrey into binava to sell aladge ashamed bishemi ague aley down bitchava to send amande to me bitched/bitcheno sent anava to come/to bring bloen sister in adultery andro in bob bean angan·a compulsory labour bokkalo hungry anglo before bokkargueri shepherdess apasavelkl I believe bokkerengro shepherd apopli again bokkersikoe of or about a sheep apre up bokht fortune/luck aranya lady bokra sheep artapen forgiveness/ pardon bokra-choring sheep stealing artava/artavellava to forgive bollava to baptise asa also/likewise bollimenreskoenaes after the manner ofa Christian asarlas not at all/in no manner bolliskoedivvus Christmas astis possible bonnek hold! atchava opre to keep up bor hedge atraish afraid bori big with child av come! borobeshemeskeguero judge bal hair boro-gav London ballivas bacon bosh fiddle balormengro hairy man boshno cork bango left/sinister boshomengro fiddler bar/bas/base 1 pound sterling boshta saddle bareskey story bosno cock bark breast bostan·s bastard bas-engro shepherd bdvalo rich bashadi fiddle buddikur shop bata bee buddikur div vus shopping day bau/ baw comrade bugnes/ bugnior blisters haul snail bugones pimples baulo pig bugnes smallpox baulie mas pork bukka liver complaint bavano broken winded bul posterior bavol air buna good beano born bungskorer corks bebi aunt bungyorer corks beng-bengui devil buroder more bengako-tan hell busm/ busnior prickle/prickles bengeskoe potan sulphur bute much bengereskoe/ benglo/banglo devilish butis work ber-engro sailor buty ava to work hero ship buty ing working hero rukh most challad berro convict ship cham leather bersh year charo dish beti little charos heaven bikhinava to sell charp plate bikhnipen sale chavi girl/ daughter

22 chavo child deskoe eighteen chaw grass develiskoe divine chawhoktamengro grasshopper dieya mother/nurse chee none dikava to look chen'cle bird dikking hev window chi child dikkipen image chi no diklo sheet/shift/cloth chik dirt/ earth dinneleskoe foolish chiklo dirty dinneleskoenoes like a fool chinava to cut dinnelipenes follies chingava to fight dinnelo fool chinga-guero fighter diviou mad chingaripen war diviou ker madhouse chingrin fighting divvus day chini-mengro axe diirouskoe daily chinipen cut dori lace/thread chin"kleskey tan birdcage/aviary dosch evil chivava to cast dosta enough/plenty chofa petticoat dou give! chok shoe dovodoy yonder choka coat dovodoyskoenoes in that manner chokomengro shoemaker dovor they/those chomany something drab ( v) medicine/poison chong/chongor knee/knees drab (v)-engro aJX>thecary/poison-monger char dudi mengri thieves' lantern drav (b) ava to poison chore thief drey in choredo poor dram road choveno poor drom-lun.ng highway robbery choviness poverty dude moon chukka! dog dude-bar diamond chukni-wast whiphand dudi star chumava to kiss dui two chumba hill/bank dui tas cup and saucer chun moon dukava to bewitch chungarava to spit dukkerava to tell fortunes churi knife dukken.ng/dukkipen fortune telling churi-mengro cutler, knife-grinder dum black churomengro swordsman/ soldier dur for chute-pav i cider dur-dikki-mengn· telescope dand tooth durril berry dandava to bite durrileskie guyi gooseberry pudding daya/dieya mother/nurse duriy a/duya sea deava to give dusta enough/plenty delav a to read duvel god deliengro a kicking horse eange itch desh ten ebyok sea desh ta dui twelve eft seven desh ta eft seventeen eskunjo pin desh ta pansch fifteen ever- komi evermore desh ta star fourteen fakava to pick pockets desh ta yeck eleven fashano false 23 fashano wangustis false gold rings hindity mescre dirty fellow ferreder better hoffeno liar Jeter better hokhorniemush policeman figis rukh fig tree hokkana a lie filisen country seat hokkava to lie fino a fine hokta-mengro liar fordelava forgive hoktava to jump up ford ias forgiven hor penny /oros a city horry pennies fuzyann· fern hufa cap gad shirt hukni ringing the changes gareva to hide i it gavengro beadle/ citizen/constable i she gerava to beware/take care inna in gillie song iouzia flower giv-engro farmer zS if giv-engro ker farmhouse iv snow g£v-engro-puv farm iv-engn· snowballs gono bag jalava to go gorgio gentile java wife gorgie female gentile jib language gran wuddur bam door jibben livelihood gran wuddur chiricle barn door fowl jibava to live grestur horse jinava to know gry horse jinney-mengro philosopher gry-chon.ng horse stealing jinney-mengreskey-rokrapenes sayings of the wise gry-engro horse dealer jobis oats gry-nashing horse-racing joddakaye apron grasnakkur mare jongarava to awake grasni mare ju louse grommena thunder juckal/juggal dog grubbena thunder jukkaelesti kosht dogwood gudli cry/shout juvalo lousy gudli nose juvior lice gudlo honey/ sugar juvli girl gudlo-pishen honeybee kael/kaes cheese guen woman kaenina-jlipen plague guero man kairava mi5to to comfort/ cure guveni cow kainpen labour guveni-bugnior cow pens kakkaratchi magpie habben food kalodurril blackberry hachava to bum/light a fire kam sun hanlo landlord kamava to desire hatchipen burning kamava/kamellova to love hava to eat kama-mescro lover hekta waste kambori/kambn· pregnant heres legs kanam/kana now hetavava to plunder kanior pease hev hole kanni(s) hen(s) heviskey full of holes kappi booty hin dirt karn·ng hawking

24 kas hay koko uncle kas-kairing hay-making kokoro alone kas-stiggur haystack komi more katches/katsau scissors komorrus hall kauenengro hare kongi church kaulo black kongli comb kauloguero negro koppur blanket kaulokon· blackthorn korava to cry out/to riot kaulo mengro blacksmith koramengro rioter kauloratti gipsy blood korauni crown kaun/kan ear korredo blind kaurava to filch koring rioting kavakoiskoenoes in this manner koring lil hawking licence kava this koro pitcher kayes silk koshtipen goodness ke unto krafni bu non keir house krafni-mengro buttonmaker keir poggering housebreaking krallis king keir- ragli housemaid krapen affliction kek no krikni week kekkduvi kettle kn"or pismires kekkduviskey saster kettle iron krukey week kekkeno none kuesni basket kekkeno mushes puv a common kullur shilling kekkomi no more kurapen beating/fighting kekkushti no use kurava to fight ken house kurlo neck ken sun kurlomengri pillow kenyor ears kuroboshno fighting cock kerava to do kuromengro fighter/boxer kerey house/home kuttur piece kerrimus deed la her kettany together lachava to find kichema ale-house laki hers kiddava to pluck lang lame kil butter lav word kilava to play/dance lavengro linguist killimengro player of an instrument/dancer lav-chingaripen a dispute kinava aley to ransom leava to take kinnipen a purchase lelava kappi to make a profit kinnipen divvus Saturday lennor Spring kinjo tired levinor ale kisseh/ kissi purse levinor ker alehouse kisi how much? levinor-engri hop plant kistri-mengro rider li it kisturava to ride lil letter/book klism key lillai Summer klism-hev keyhole linnow taken/ apprehended klismengri lock lolli farthing klop gate lolliplaishta red cloak kokalor bones Zollo red/yellow 25 lollo- matcha red herring mullenimuktar coffin lollo-bengres red waistcoat mulleno-ker sepulchre/cemetery lubbenpen harlotry mulleno hev grave lubbery harlot mullo dead man lundra London mullodustiemukto coffin lurzpen robbery /booty mumli candle luvvo money mumlimengro candlestick/ chandler luvvomengroker bank (money) mushzpen lad luvvomengro moneychanger muskro constable ma not mutra-mengn· tea maas flesh najlipen sickness/liver complaint maas-engro butcher naflo sick macho fish nangipen nakedness maluno lightning nanga naked malluko fire nashava to lose/hang/destroy man I nashim escro racer mangava to beg nashimescro-tan racecourse manga-mengro beggar nashko hung mangzpen begging nastis impossible mann'kley cake nav name manush man naval thread matcheneskoe guero fisherman ne no matchko cat netavava to beat matto intoxicated nevo new mauipen drunkenness nogo one's own matto-mengro drunkard nok nose mea mile nokkipen snuff meabar milestone o he medisin bushel/ measure o the men we odoi there men neck olevas stockings menpangushi neckcloth opral above mensalli table opre above mesttpen livelihood/fortune/luck ora hour mil pa by millior miles padlo across miro mine pahamengro turnip misto-dusto very well paillos filberts moarava to grind palal behind/back again/ after mollauvis pewter pali again/back morava to share pall brother moreno killed pall of the bor hedgehog moro our pandi-pen pinfold morro bread pandlo imprisoned mort concubine pandlo-mengro tinker mormusti midwife pandlo-mengri tollgate moskey spy pani-mengro sailor mosko fly pansh fire muft.a box panno cloth muktar chest panngushi handkerchief mulengn·s grape pappins ducks

26 parno white possey-mengri pitchfork parrava to change posh half pas half posh foal pasheno halfPenny pov earth patch shameparakrowava to thank pov-engro potato pattin leaf povo-guero mole paub-tan orchard praio upper paub/pauvi apple puchava to ask pauno flour puddava to blow pawdel over pude-mengn· bellows pawnungo watery pudge bridge peava to drink pukkerava to answer pea-mengro drunkard pur belly pedloer nut pureno old pek'd roasted puro-dad grandfather pelengro gry stone horse purrum leek pen sister pus straw perava to fall pushed buried perava tuley to fall down putsi pocket perdo full putsi-lil pocketbook pesava apopli to repay puvvesti chun· plough petul horse shoe racheta goose petulengro blacksmith radiskey nightly pias fun ragimas grandeur piapen health raia gentleman pija-mengro drunkard rakava to beware pikkis breast rakli girl piko shoulder raklo boy pire feet ran rod pireni sweetheart rarde night pirry boiler radiskey kair poggering burglary pishen flea rashengro clergyman pively-guen·e widow rashi clergyman pively-guero widower rashieskey rokkn.ng tan pulpit pively-raunie widow-lady ratniken chin.cle nightingale pizzarn·s in debt ratti blood pizzarrimengro debtor rawnie lady plakta sheet retza ducks plashta cloak n·ddo dressed plastra-mengro pursuer ngava in yi to bear in mind plastrava to run nggurava to bear poggado broken n·nkeno handsome poggado bavol-engro broken-winded horse rivipen dress/frock poggra-mengro mill rokren-chiricle parrot poggrava to break rokrenguero lawyer pokiniskoe-ker Justice of the Peace's house rokunyes breeches poknies Justice of the Peace rom/ rommado husband/ married por feather romani chi gipsy lass pordo heavy romani chal Romany man por-engro penmaster romani rye Romany gentleman por-engn·-pen penmanship romipen marriage roshto angry

27 roujiou clean st£ggur gate rukeskey kosc branch stor four rup/ rupenoe silver stunny£ deer ruslo strong sub£-needlesueti people sap snake succur-g£/l£e lullaby sapnis soap ta and sar as/how calleno woollen sarla evening cardava to build sastre iron cardra-mengre hop-pickers sastres nails cas nest sastremengro ironmonger cas cup sas nestsaulokolomus oath casar/a evening sau kisi how much? tassamengri frying pan se is caui-pen heat shabava to cut away cauo hot shauv ava to get with child cawnie-yecks grandchildren shello rope tawno little sher-engr£ halter eel hold! shero head cem country sherengro headman cemno dark sherraffo converted c£kno girlchild shesu/ shocho£ rabbit c£ppoccy spiteful sh£/lero cold tobbar road sh£/l£pen a cold tororo beggar sho six cra£shava to frighten shok cabbage cn·ngrosh shilling shubley paccn£es geese tringurushengre things costing a shilling shunaben hearing cruppior stays (corset) shunava to hear trusno dry si kovar ajaw so it is cud milk sig soon tudloguen· milkmaid sikovar eternally tugno mournful sikkerava to show culey below szmen we are culzpen fat szmmery pawn cuv tobacco sz·mmery-mengres pawn-brokers vaneshu nothing sz·vava to sew vangus finger sz·va mengr£ needle vanguscn· ring siva-mengro tailor var flour skammen chair vardo cart skammen-mengro chair maker vassava bad skourd£/la platter vast hard skraunior boots vauros city skunyes pins vellin bottle slomava to follow vennor bowels smentini cream wafo another spikor skewers wafo cem foreign land spinyor carrots wafo temeskoe-mush foreigner stadj hat wafodu bad stanya stable wafodu-tan bad place/hell stardo imprisoned waffcrdivvus yesterday stanpen prison wardawa to guard

28 wardo cart wusto-mengro hurler/wrestler warder mescro cartwright/cooper yag fire waro flour yagengro fireman/ gamekeeper warcrmescro miller yag-vardo firecar VJelling pali coming back yak eye wen winter yarb-tan garden wendror bowels/inside yek one werriga chain yekoro only wesh forest yekorus once weshengro woodsman yo he weshen-juggal fox yoi she woddrus bed yokki clever wongar coal yoro egg wongar kamming-mush miner zimmen broth wuddur door zumi broth wustava to cast References Blake, N F (1981) Non-standard Language in English Literature) The Language Library ( ed. David Crystal), Andre Deutsch, London. Crofton, H T (1887) "India-Shelta-Gipsy Language," Indian Notes and Queries, May, 4/44, 151-2. Grierson, G A (1887) "Gipsies in England and in India," The Indian Antiquary) January, 35-41. Halliday, M A K (1976) "Anti-languages," University of East Anglia Working Papers in Linguistics, April, 1, 15-45. Indian Notes and Queries (1887) "India-Gipsy tongue-Shelta," Indian Notes and Queries, April, 4/43, 132-3. Kress, GRand Hodge, R V (1979) Language as Ideology) Routledge and Kegan Paul, London. Leland, C G (1882) Gypsies, Trubner, London. Musgrove, S (1981) "Thieves' Cant in King Lear;" English Studies, 62/1, 5-13. Newbold, Capt. (1856) "The Gypsies of Egypt," Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society (Great Bn.tain and Ireland)) 16, 285-312. Norwood, T W (1887) "India-Shelta-Gipsy Language," Indian Notes and Quen·es, May, 4/44, 152. O'Shaughnessy, P (1975) "A Glossary of Market-Traders' Argot," Lore and Language) 2.3, 24-30, and (1978) 2.8, 20-24. Sastri, Pandit S M Natesa (1894) "Traders' Slang in Southern India," The Indian Antiquary) February, 49-52. Upton, C S (1974) "Language Butchered: Back-Slang in the Birmingham Meat Trade," Lore and Language) 2.1, 31-35. 29 National University of Singapore love and Marriage Customs of t he Jamaica n Community in london* Venetia Newall

The West Indian island of Jamaica became independent in 1962. It had been a British possession since the signing of the Treaty of Madrid in 1670. Economic problems, overpopulation, unemployment, and a severe hurricane in August 1951 were contributory causes ofthe heavy migration to the United Kingdom during the 1950s and early 1960s. 150,000 Jamaicans arrived between 1953 and the passing of the Commonwealth Immigration Act in 1962. 1 The figures for the last census, conducted in 1971, show that 86,820 Jamaicans were living in the Greater London area but this figure can probably be roughly trebled to include Jamaicans classed as English, due to the circumstances oftheir birth in Britain. In this paper, I propose to discuss what I have learned to date of their love and marriage customs and behaviour. In any such consideration the influence of slavery and its subsequent effect on family life and structure- the traces ofwhich are still visible today- must be a major factor.2 Briefly, the Emancipation Act was passed in 1833. Prior to that date the plantation owners did not permit their slaves to marry.3 Hence the practice of common-law marriage, still, to some extent, so marked a feature of Jamaican society,4 which was aggravated by a general sense of insecurity: at any time a slave might be sold, either to another local plantation owner, or to the American colonies.5 The men, who were used, without any regard to emotional ties, to breed more children for the labour force, possessed no legal rights or duties in relation to their offspring once they were born. All this was undertaken by the slave-owner, who frequently set a bad example by co-habiting with the female slaves himself,6 and siring a number ofthe children. To be a white man' s mistress was tempting for a female slave: it meant a temporary respite from hard work, and a possible chance of freedom. In any case, as a slave, she had no choice in the matter.7 Inevitably these were all factors which weakened the family status ofthe male slave, rendering it ineffective or at best ambiguous.8 Conversely, it strengthened the position of the woman. Those who bore children were rewarded. Late eighteenth century records from Worthy Park Plantation in StJohn's Parish inform us that the mother received a Scotch rug and a silver dollar for every baby.9 Infant mortality was high, but those women who succeeded in bringing up six children oftheir own were legally relieved offurther obligation to work. 1° Family stability was manifested

*The material for this paper was collected during the period 1970-75 from middle-class girls, between the ages oftwenty one and thirty, resident in the following black-populated areas ofNorth and South London: Peckham, Brent, Nunhead and Harringay.

30 through the relationship of mother and children and today, if a couple do not stay together, the children usually remain with the mother. 11 Hence the saying, popularised by the West Indian novelist George Lamming, "my mother who fathered me." 12 Caldecott noted, as early as 1898: "There is in the negro race a nearer approach to equality between the sexes than is found in European races. The woman is almost as capable a breadwinner as the man. At any rate she can, in early and middle life, easily earn enough to keep a house for herself and 2 or 3 children."13 After Emancipation and the adoption of European ways, marriage came to be regarded as a status symbol,14 but, given the specific historical conditions,15 its connotations were materialistic rather than emotional. It became an economic rite of passage. As Katrin Fitzherbert puts it, marriage was viewed: "more as an institution associated with an elaborate ceremony, home ownership, and a high standard of living, than as a binding contract between two people regardless of a family's circumstances. Today it is still more important as a statement ofeconomic achievement and class affiliation, than as a context for a sexual relationship, a shared home, or raising children." 16 This explains the most important distinction between an English and a Jamaican­ immigrant wedding. The West Indian event will be a much more showy affair. Quiet weddings are rare, for these are the most important social events in the immigrant community. Whereas two to three bridesmaids are usual at an English wedding, Jamaicans will have six to seven, or more; their dresses will be more decorative and expensive, and more guests will be invited. This in itself creates a problem, for the ceremony is only held to be a "proper" wedding if guests are entertained with music, food and rum, in generous quantities. 17 To provide such a display involves considerable expense, so it is often postponed until the couple can afford it, and may represent the culmination of years of co-habitation.18 The children ofthe couple, or even their children by another partner, may be present at the ceremony as bridesmaids and pageboys. A compromise favoured by some is to have the wedding, and hold the reception some years later, when the couple can afford it. 19 The expression "the marrying class", meaning the affluent upper-middle class, underlines the significance of the wedding as a status-symbol: it is worth comparing the popularity ofa "church wedding" in modern England, where in fact only ten percent of the indigenous white population are regular church-goers. There is no doubt that family disorganisation - as some have described it - and instability in sexual relationships, is rooted in Jamaican history. 20 Victorian moralists, unaware of the underlying causes, were quick to condemn: "The crowds of bastard children that are brought to the churches of the Establishment for baptism, show how sadly the marriage ordinance is neglected and the multitudes that are still living in the sin of open and unblushing fornication. The prevalence of this sin we believe to be beyond all our surmises on this head."21

31 Mass weddings, described by the Jamaican dialect poet, Louise Bennett,22 were an attempt by the Church and by well-intentioned individuals to overcome the problem of wedding expenses. In England common-law marriage, a side-effect of the industrial revolution, flourished among the poor of the urban industrial slums, and the church records of London's East End at the beginning of this century illustrate the efforts of the clergy to eradicate it, by arranging mass weddings for those too poor to afford individual ceremonies. During 1944-5, following the 1938 Royal Commission Report, which referred to the "disorganisation" offamily life and "promiscuity" in Jamaica, Lady Huggins, the then Governor's wife, launched her Mass Marriage Movement: it failed, because good intentions are unfortunately no substitute for working knowledge of a folk society and its soci

32 The wedding itselffalls into three distinct parts: the church service, the Table, and the Party. Traditionally there is no honeymoon- expense, and the fact that the couple were often already living together being operative factors - though this is changing. The church service tends to be less well attended than the following two sections. The Table consists of feasting, speeches, and the cutting of the cake, centred upon an elaborately decorated table. The Party, which features dancing, is usually absent from Pentecostal "Born-Again Christian" weddings, as the Jamaicans express it. Invited guests will include all members ofthe family resident in England, any other people who may be living in the house, neighbours, friends and English people from work. 31 There will be a generous number of bridesmaids -we have already noted that six to seven is the average- because there must be "a lot ofpeople down the aisle". 32 Weddings tend to begin late because West Indian concepts oftime differ from those in England. The Rev. Clifford Hill notes that some clergy charge a fee of£2 when the wedding is arranged, and this is returnable ifthe ceremony takes place on time. One informant described a bride not dressed ten minutes before the service was due to begin. On a second occasion, when a bridesmaid failed to appear, a different girl of the same size was put into her dress. When the real bridesmaid arrived, during the service, she insisted on taking part, so the photographs show the same dress, worn by two different girls at varying stages of the ceremony. There were ten bridesmaids at a third wedding. They arrived at intervals during the service, and ran up the aisle to join the bridal party at the altar. It is important for the bridesmaids to be present at the end ofthe ceremony, when the bride is photographed with their posies laid in a circle around the hem of her dress, in the form of a garland. The church for the wedding is often selected with a deliberate eye to the attractive background which it may provide for photography.]amaicans have more latitude with regard to choice of church, since their own ministers are usually self-appointed and have no legal standing as agents of the civil authority to conduct a wedding which would be formally recognised. Hence Congregational, Baptist, or Church of England premtses are generally used to celebrate the service, usually in that order of preference. The central feature of the occasion is the feast, which stresses its social importance.33 Chairs and tables are provided for the guests to sit down and the event will last at least four to five hours, if not longer. The high table, handsomely decorated with paper ornaments and fruit, contains the main three-tier wedding cake and other smaller cakes made by the bride and by some ofthe guests. There were twelve cakes at the wedding ofMiss F ' s sister and the bridal party were seated along one side of the table, so that everyone might see them, as well as the decorations. Sometimes the main cake is unveiled - that is, the muslin cloth which covers it is removed, and the cake is cut. In older Jamaican custom an eligible bachelor and an unmarried girl would cut the first slice, holding the knife together, hand in hand. There would be a lot ofcompetition to perform this task, because it was thought that

33 the two people involved enhanced their chances ofgetting married, not necessarily to each other, in the near future. But this is changing, and Jamaican couples now cut the cake themselves in English style. Other food served at an immigrant wedding will normally include sandwiches and, invariably, curry goat and rice. Here the change in customs is more noticeable by contrast with a country than a town wedding. At a country wedding inJ amaica palm trees are chopped down to build a bower for the reception. But at any wedding in Jamaica the reception would be at home or at the house of a friend, and only in extremis would a hotel be used. The immigrants usually hire a suitable hall because their houses are too small and the English climate too risky to count on overflowing into the garden. Catered weddings are unknown in Jamaica: the food is always home-made. Immigrants, especially if the arrangements are made by younger people, may occasionally hire a caterer. The food will then, of course, be English, since English caterers are unfamiliar with Jamaican dishes like curried goat. Where custom or older people retain their influence, the food remains traditional in style. All this is vastly different from a Jamaican country-wedding feast. The family kill several animals- perhaps a pig and a goat- and cook up four dozen or so green bananas in a huge empty oil can. Blue Drawers,34 a pudding ofcorn or cassava meal boiled in bluish banana leaves, will probably be served with home-made ice-cream, home-made ginger beer, and pretty bread -large loaves in animal shapes.35 A Master of Ceremonies presides over the feast. He announces the events that will take place and generally supervises the proceedings, which include prayers and a number of formal toasts. The toasts, which last an hour or so in total, stress the importance ofhaving children and wish them to the couple, sometimes in rhym e: " May your marriage be filled with joy, May you soon have a boy; Before his hair begins to curl May you have a baby girl"36 - black babies, ofcourse , are born with straight hair. They are prestigious, providing the older generation with an opportunity to air their knowledge of the Bible. Often they proffer moral advice in the form of an exemplum, possibly representing a survival from Victorian times. Co-operation is a popular theme, sometimes illustrated by an Aesop-style fable or a wealth of semi­ humorous domestic detail. A man wanted his trousers shortened, but his wife and daughter were too busy, so he did it himself. Both ladies felt guilty, so later in the day they slipped off and did the job without telling each other. Result: the trousers were shortened by three inches instead ofone , proving the importance ofco-operation in a marriage. 37 At a Born-Again Christian wedding the amount of alcohol provided will be limited. There will be alcohol-free grape-juice and a special cake containing neither wine nor rum. The music will be carefully chosen and dancing is not permitted. This

34 restrained atmosphere would prevent the kind ofscenes witnessed by one informant at her sister's wedding in 1971. The guests arrived, bringing their gifts, and became so drunk at the reception that they took them back. If they did not much care for what they had brought themselves, they took someone else's gift instead.38 A popular song describes a wedding as "a perfect pander'' - pandemonium. It must have been a non-Christian event. Although there was coca-cola to drink, people were dancing in the bar the night before: Etty in the room a cry Mama say she must wipe her eye Papa say she no fi foolish Like she never been to school at all

(Chorus): It is no wonder It's a perfect pander While they were dancing In that bar room last night Johnson in the room afret Uncle say he must hold up him head Auntie say he no fi foolish Like a no time fi him wedding day (Chorus): It is no wonder ......

One more time for the wedding cake Plenty bottle of cola wine All the people them dress up in a white Fi go eat out Johnson wedding cake (Chorus): It is no wonder ..... For they were sweet and dandy (repeat) 39 At Jamaican weddings in England it is the custom, as it used to be inJamaica, for the wedding gifts to be brought on the actual day and deposited for display in a room specially set aside for the purpose. Miss]. was due to be married in July 1972 and her Aunt, Mrs S, was over in England from Kingston in May of the same year. This custom was referred to when the wedding plans were being discussed, and Mrs S said: "You don't still do that! In Jamaica now we send the presents in advance or have a shower." This illustrates how a practice, which has disappeared, at least among some classes, in the home country, may sometimes be continued in the immigrant situation. In Jamaica the guests bring their presents with them to the church and on to the house. Before the reception begins they go to one of the bedrooms, which has been specially set aside, the bed having a pretty bedspread, and an old woman is in charge. Usually this is someone who wants to participate in the wedding without becoming too much involved in the merrymaking. The gifts are handed over to her and she enters each one in a little book, together with the

35 name ofthe donor. Then they are opened and laid out. During the reception the guests come and look at the gifts, under her supervision. This is seldom observed in England because no-one would wish to undertake the old woman's job. Jamaican social life in England is so curtailed for a variety ofreasons- economic, climatic and demographic- that anyone taking part would want to do so wholeheartedly, and be present at the reception. It is also difficult in England for Jamaicans to keep out gate­ crashers, who might perhaps steal the gifts. Consequently anglicized young people will send their presents in advance, and they are put in some safe place until the bridal pair can open them after the wedding. 40 Jamaicans, as admonished by the proposers of the toasts, will wish to have children. West Indians, by and large, do not use contraceptives and make various excuses for this: they do not work, make the user ill, and ruin the figure. The remarks in a recent manual for immigrants, declaring that "more and more West Indians in Britain are using some form of contraception"41 are at odds with the facts. Older people believe that children are a gift from God. The irreligious younger generation oppose contraception, possibly a rationalisation ofthe older belief, on the grounds that they are a white invention, intended to decrease the numbers ofthe black population.42 There is an added factor that contraceptives in Jamaica are associated with prostitution, so "nice girls" do not use them. Love magic ofvarious kinds, on the other hand, is widely practised. Jamaicans living in London use grapefruit juice as a sexual sedative. Indeed any substance both sour and acid is thought to possess the same effect. Pepper is highly regarded as an aphrodisiac. Likewise salted peanuts soaked in rum, Irish moss, a form of seaweed, (known as "Irish mash") and rum, and coconut milk, (known as "coconut water"). In each case the association ofideas is fairly clear. The fruit ofthe paw-paw, possibly because of its resemblance to the female breasts, is said to diminish virility if a man sleeps near it. Girls rely on different forms of divination to find a mate: palmistry, cards, and egg-white broken in a glass of water.43 Involvement in the marriage ceremony is propitious in various ways. The girl who catches the bride's bouquet after the wedding when she throws it away will be the next to marry, and a piece of her cake laid under the pillow induces dreams of a future husband. People in love are supposedly identified by their "love bumps". According to one informant, lovers squeeze each other's blackheads, causing a series of small lumps to appear on the face. 44 Frustrated sex often finds expression in the practice of obeah, or black magic, and features in a number ofthe descriptions recorded from informants. Here is the story of an obeah intended to bring about a wedding. The girl who features in the account is a delinquent, with grossly anti-social character traits, and is now in prison. Miss H left London last year, following some trouble with the police, and went to Wales, where her mother lives. She telephoned a number of times to her former boyfriend M, a kindhearted young man with whom she was then on bad terms, and persuaded him to pay her a visit. On one ofthese occasions he agreed to marry her, telephoned

36 his mother, and asked for some money. M.' s mother, who dislikes the girl intensely, refused to send it, but the marriage took place anyway, much to everyone's surprise, presumably with a special licence. Immediately after, M was filled with regret, because he found his bride intolerable. He seems to have formed the opinion that H had "put" something on him, that is, an obeah or, as we would say, bewitched him, though this may have been in the light of subsequent events. They returned to London and settled in M.'s room in his mother's flat. Not long after M.'s mother, who is religious and belongs to a spiritualist sect, was leaving to attend a church service, when the girl H. said she was coming with her, so they left together. During the service a spirit appeared. It announced that H.'s mother had prepared a special obeah meal forM when he was in Wales, and this is why he had married her: the older woman had put a spell on him. The spirit explained that M.'s stepfather, who is very well-to-do and owns a big house, has no children ofhis own, and is fond of M, who would inherit all his possessions. H. had known all this, which was why she had married M . Unknown to either of the women, M. had followed them both to church and was standing at the back when the spirit made its announcement. M. believes in obeah, and has consulted obeah women on a number of occasions. When they had all returned home, M. turned his wife out of the house and would have nothing further to do with her. His cousin, who supplied the details ofthe story, accepted it at face value, but it is difficult not to conclude that the older woman deliberately played on her son's susceptibilities and manipulated the situation to protect his interests. The girl, as I pointed out earlier, is of a notoriously bad character and is now in prison. 45 Jamaican sexual attitudes are reflected in their vocabulary. The transition from girl to woman is linked with loss of virginity. The terms used are "girl", or "little girl", and " big woman" - which signifies an adult with experience of men. To a certain extent the same terminology is used for the opposite sex: thus "bwoy" and "big man" - in the sense of one who knows how to handle women. Generally speaking there is a lack of stigma attached to premarital pregnancy. It proves that the girl is fertile and can " have a child for him". Babies out of wedlock are common among non-Christian Jamaicans. They are amused that Christians will marry a girl who is not pregnant because " You don't get a puss in a bag" i.e. you don' t buy a pussy-cat without inspecting it first, a traditional saying which hinges on a play on words- pussy being a vulgar expression for the female organ. To avoid problems arising from the use of'' Mrs", an unmarried mother is addressed as " Baby Mother"; the father is " Baby Dad" . Jamaican men are often anxious to make a girl pregnant. It is a sign of their virility. 46 Informant J. boasted to his fifth girlfriend that, during the week when his common-law wife had his child, three other girls bore babies for him. But they dislike accepting responsibility for their children, unless they are living with the mother. A recent issue ofthe Jamaican Weekly Gleaner carried a cartoon of an obviously pregnant woman on a tiny desert island, confronting its only other inhabitant. He is protesting: "I tell you, it's not mine!"4 7

37 Several informants appeared to view baptism as a means of legitimising, to some extent, an irregular union. One, a Believer who does not attend church, had her children baptised, because "it's the least you can do for them."48 Another, who is not religious, had her illegitimate daughter baptised and did not attend the ceremony, although it took place quite close to her home.49 The fundamentalist sects favoured by West Indians are strongly opposed to sexual irregularities, 5° but Old Testament stories ofconcubines, as Clifford Hill points out "also play their part in influencing conduct and customs."5 1 The following is an account of an event which occurred in Jamaica this year. Brought back by a woman who had gone home for a short visit, it made a considerable impact on the immigrant community. Sister J and Brother M were popular and highly respected members of an Evangelical group known as the Brethren. After their marriage she was unable to bear a child and the doctors told her that there was no hope. Years went by. One day they looked in their Bible, at the story ofAbraham and Sarah, and found that Abraham, because of the sterility ofhis wife, had taken a hand-maiden: "And Sarai said unto Abram, Behold now, the Lord hath restrained me from bearing: I pray thee, go in unto my maid; it may be that I may obtain children by her. And Abram hearkened to the voice ofSarai."52 Having read this text, Brother M and Sister J said, "Well we will take a hand-maiden into the house, and she will bear the children for Brother M." They did take a hand-maiden, and she bore Brother M two children, which Sister J brought up. They took to going to church as a family - the three adults and two small children - and caused a great scandal. Not only is theirs a leading Brethren Church, so that other congregations look to them for an example, but Brother M was one of the church officials. The offenders were banned from attending service, and Brother M was summoned before his peers to account for his behaviour. Told that he was in error, he refused to accept this: declaring that he based his actions on the true interpretation of a biblical text, he produced his Bible and read the passage aloud. A lengthy letter on the subject, in which he denounces his church, was recently published in The Gleaner. 53 This was a fairly unusual case. The broad distinction between Christian and non­ Christian attitudes to sex and marriage is clear from the following exchange between two brothers- Paul, who is a Christian, and Wesley, who is not, and has plenty of girlfriends. Paul: "Why you don't leave other people pick' ney alone?" W esley: "Them too foolish!"- that is, if a girl is silly enough to go with a man, that's her affair, and the man bears no responsibility in the situation.54 Two jokes in The Gleaner illustrate the point. In the first, a woman admiring her friend's baby is told "of course 'im look like 'im father. Ah only ope me 'us ban' doan notice." 55 In the second, two boys are talking in a snack bar and the first says " Man why don't you go out and look for a wife?" His companion replies "Bwoy, in life ah prefer to want something ah don't have ... rather than have something ah don't want."56 Sometimes this feeling is echoed by the woman. An informant's friend, referring to the father ofher child, to whom she is not married, exclaimed: " Lord! All me want is

38 fe see him go. Him sit poor me, like a ticks under me skin!"57 Family relationships are caricatured by a popular singer, Calypso Joe: "In Jamaica there was a family With much confusion, as you will see. There was a mama, a papa, A boy who was grown; He wanted to marry, Have a wife of his own He found a young girl, She suited him nice, So he go to his papa To ask his advice. The papa say "Son, I got to say 'No' - The girl is your sister, But your mama don't know." (Chorus): Woe is me! Shame and scandal In the family!

So he go to him mama, Holding his head, To tell his mama What his papa had said. The mama she laugh, She said "Go, son, go - Your Daddy ain't your Daddy, But your Daddy don't know!" (Chorus): Woe is me! Shame and scandal In the family!"58 In fact the Jamaican attitude to incest does not parallel our own. The phenomenon is regarded with great disapproval, but not as something unspeakable. Cases arise because many Jamaican girls are living in households where the father is not the natural father, so the blood-link, such a deterrent to incest, is in fact absent. Then too, Jamaicans do not feel strongly about sexual relations between adolescent girls and much older men. From this situation a pattern ofbehaviour may tend to arise in which, more frequently than one would expect, the natural father is tempted to have relations with his own daughter. One informant refers to girls whom she dislikes as "the type who would have relations with their own father." It is meant to be rude and to express disapproval, with the underlying assumption that it is something which could actually happen. 59 However it must be stressed in this connection that

39 responsible step-fatherhood is an important element in Jamaican family patterns. Hence the saying, "If you love the cow, you must love the cal£"60 In 1971 the illegitimacy rate in Jamaica was 70%.61 Davison, who provides statistics to prove his point, states that: "There can be no doubt that the majority of Jamaicans very quickly change their attitude towards marriage when they migrate to England, and couples who would have lived together indefinitely in Jamaica without marrying, legalize their relationship quite quickly after their arrival in Britain."62 He points out that economics are a factor in the U.K situation: marriage will help a man with his income tax problems, whereas on the island the high rate of unemployment is an adverse factor. 63 Professor Rex and his colleague Robert Moore found in their research that "all the girls spoke ofgetting married early- so at the level of their expressed aspirations they had adopted an English pattern as distinct from the late marriage norms ofWest Indian society, and in spite of the fact that the majority of West Indian children in the sample would be classed as illegitimate here."64 This is in contrast to a television broadcast this spring. The West Indian schoolgirls interviewed showed a good deal of interest in love, but little in marriage- a tendency which they shared with their white classmates.

Notes 1. Article, "Jamaica", Encyclopaedia Britannica (Chicago, 1972), XII, pp.852-3. 2. ed. Robin Oakley, New Backgrounds (Oxford, 1968), p.9.Ernest Krausz, Ethnic Minorities in Britain (London, 1971), p.14. 3. John Rex and Robert Moore, Race, Community, and Conflict (London, 1967), p.105. Clifford S Hill, West Indian Migrants and the London Churches (Oxford, 1963 ), p.62. 4. ed. Lord Constantine, Living in Britain (London, 1970), pp.406-7. 5. Fernando Henriques, "West Indian Family Organization", Caribbean Quarterly (Kingdon, 1951-2), II, 17. 6. R B Davison, Black Britain (Oxford, 1966), p.31. Oakley, p.8. 7. Henriques, 17. 8. Edith Clarke, My Mother Who Fathered Me (London, 1966), p.xi. 9. Ulrich B Phillips, "AJamaica Slave Plantation", Caribbean Quarterly (Kingdon, 1948-50), I, 11. Robert Price of Penzance in the Kingdom of Great Britain, Esquire, was the owner. 10. Ibid., 7. 11. Oakley, p.9. 12. Clarke, p.11.

40 13. Alfred Caldecott, The Church in the West Indies (London, 1898), p.195. 14. Krausz, p.14. 15. Davison, p.31. 16. Oakley, p.9. 17. Henriques, 19. 18. Hill, p.60. Davison, p.31. 19. Personal informant, Miss L A, age 30 (1972). The date given in brackets, referring to the informant's age, also indicates the year in which the material was collected. Miss L A was born in April 1942. She returned to Jamaica in 1973. Prior to that date she had lived for seventeen years in the U.K, latterly in the Harringay area ofNorth London. Her mother, who died in this country, was separated from her father, who is a Health Officer in Jamaica. She is in the entertainment business and educated up to secondary level only. 20. Caldecott, p.3 7. Oakley, p.8. Henriques, 20. Judith Blake, Family Structure in Jamaica (New York, 1961), p.108. 21. Edward Underhill, The W est Indies: their Social and Religious Condition (London, 1862), pp.188-9. See also Caldecott, pp.194-5. 22. Louise Bennett, Jamaica Labrish (Kingston, 1972), pp.30-1. 23. Clarke, pp.iv-v. 24. Hill, p.61. 25. Blake, p.139. 26. Louise Bennett, Anancy Stor-ies and Dialect Verse (Kingston, 1957), pp.10-11. 27. Personal informant, Miss F.F., age 24 (1974). Born June 1949. Came to the U.K in December 1964. Her father was a professional artist in Jamaica and an Elder of the local church. Her mother came to England three years before, and her father about a year after Miss F.F. herself He continued his work for the church and obtained a job with British Rail. The family are Evangelicals. Miss F.F. interrupted her education to come to this country, but, after a period in employment as a nurse, and later as a receptionist, she decided to continue it again and to obtain both 0 and A levels. She has now obtained six 0 levels and is currently expected to obtain two A levels. Hill, p.60. 28. Various informants. Blake, p.139. 41 29. Information supplied by Miss F.F. 30. Personal informant: Miss L.A. 31. Various informants. Hill, p.60. 32. Information supplied by Miss F.F. 33. Clarke, p.76. 34. Also called Duckanoo. F G Cassidy and R B Le Page, Dictionary of Jamaican Enghsh (Cambridge, 1967), p.54. 35. Information supplied by Miss F.F. 36. Recited at the wedding of Miss J., July 29, 1972. 37. Told at the wedding of Miss V.L., a friend of Miss J., who caught her bouquet and was in fact the next in her group of friends to be married; July 1973. Miss V.L. was born in 1958. She married a young St Lucian, resident in Britain but serving with the army in Germany. She was a Christian from an Evangelical family, who became pregnant and was forcibly persuaded to marry by an older woman from her church. 38. Personal informant, Miss L. C., born May 1952. Qualified laboratory assistant of mixed Jamaican-Cuban origin. Her father, who is active in artistic circles in Jamaica, is separated from her mother, who lives in North London. She was born in England and brought up partly by white foster parents, but from her adolescence onwards moved almost exclusively in Jamaican cir cles in England. Resident in Brent, North London. 39. Sweet and Dandy, from the sound-track ofJamaica's first feature film released in England about two and a half years ago. 40. Information supplied by Miss F.F. 41. Constantine, p.408. 42. Race Today (London, July 1973), V, No.7, 209. 43. See Venetia Newall, "Black Britain: The Jamaicans and their Folklore" , Folklore (London, Spring 1975), LXXXVI, 30. 44. Information supplied by Miss F.F. 45. Personal informant: Miss L.C. 46. Race Today, V, No.7, 209. 47. The Jamaican Weekly Gleaner (London edition), March 19, 1975. 48. Personal informant: Miss LA. 49. Personal informant: Miss L.C., aged 22 (1975), in London since a small baby.

42 50. Malcolm Calley, God's People: West Indian Pentecostal Sects in England (Oxford, 1965), pp.66-8. 51. Hill, p.62. 52. Genesis, XVI, ii-iv. 53. Information supplied by Miss F.F. 54. Ibid. 55. The Jamaican W eekly Gleaner (London edition), February 28, 1973. 56. Ibid., November 6, 1974. 57. Information supplied by Miss F.F. 58. Tiger Recording SLP 001 (1/3); Kingston, 1973. The artist is Calypso Joe. 59. Information supplied by Miss L.A. 60. Oakley, p.10. 61. Krausz, p.14. 62. Davison, p. 30. 63. Davison, pp.31, 102. 64. Rex and Moore, p.256. University of London

43 The Farmworker and "The Farmer's Boy" Michael Pickering

Few so-called " folk" songs are as well known as " The Farmer's Boy" . Not only has it appeared in various nineteenth and twentieth century song collections, but it stands as an archetypal example of exactly those elements of oral tradition selectively defined as "folk" song by collectors associated with the Folk Song Society in the early years of this century. 1 The profoundly ahistorical category of " folk" song has become so commonly accepted that it seems absolutely fitting for the song to have been broadcast in an episode of the "everyday story of country folk", The A rchers. The song appears now to slide effortlessly into an ensemble of associations which go to make up the myth of the "rural way oflife" within public consciousness. As the chorus dies away we can almost seem to detect, out there in the distance of the past, the echoes of Cobbett's retrospective lament for a once­ happy and stable rural England, the cradle of yeoman virtues and harmonious social relationships. In this article I want to explore behind the song's ubiquitous presence by examining its value and significance in a particular community and a particular period. This community was composed of rural labourers and artisans in the village of Adderbury, North Oxfordshire, and the version of the song known there is part of a collection of songs made in the early years of this century by Janet Heatley Blunt (1859-1950), the lady ofthe manor in the west of the village.2 The attempt here is to reach toward an understanding ofwhat this song meant to a group of people ofwhose moral and social attitudes we have little direct knowledge, and in taking one particular " document" from what Herder referred to as " the archive of the people", I hope to show that its situated meaning and significance is by no means transparent, and must be disentangled from the deeply established complacencies of rural retrospect and the bland arcadian idyll. 3 The frrst point to note is that, within the region around Adderbury, the song seems to have enjoyed great popularity. According to Blunt, it was " a favourite in the district and much sung till lately - by several singers".4 She mentions three ofthese by name: Sam Newman, Bill Hone, and William "Binx" Walton. Sam Newman (1863-1943) worked as gardener at one ofthe big houses in the west ofthe village. He was an accomplished village singer, with wide-ranging and eclectic musical tastes. According to one of his sons, Sam "was always a great singer, used to sing anything", but although we know he sang in the choir at StMary' s Church in the village, the major surviving pieces of evidence of his musical predelictions are the songs which Janet Blunt decided to note down. Her choice - and this of course applied to the repertoires of all the other Adderbury working class villagers - was dictated by the selective criteria set out by the Folk Song Society, so the songs collected from him included pieces like "Widdicombe Fair" and "My Father's a Hedger and Ditcher". The only exception is a Victorian motto-song called

44 "Domestic Economy". William "Binx" Walton (1836-1919) was Blunt's main informant in the village. He worked all his life in Adderbury as a stonemason and jobbing builder, though at times he engaged in other work as well. He was, for example, publican in the 1880s and 90s of The Wheat sheaf, an inn by the green on a post-enclosure section of the Banbury-Oxford road, and for a while he ran a newsagents business. He was also a renowned village bellringer, along with his brother John, and was leader of the last team of Adderbury morris men. I have discussed the lives, repertoires and musical performances of Sam Newman and Binx Walton in further detail elsewhere, so shall confine myselfhere to providing information about Bill Hone, the third recorded Adderbury singer of "The Farmer's Boy".5 Hone died around the turn of the century at the age of eighty six. He had been the tenant of the West Adderbury manor Home Farm, first under Lady Paulet and then under the Blunts. Though Janet Blunt came with her father to live in Adder bury in the early 1890s, she did not begin collecting songs until around the mid-1900s. Consequently she missed the opportunity of recording the repertoire ofthis noted village singer, though she was able to collect a few ofhis songs(" Seventy Two", for example) from people like Binx Walton. Because of Hone's popularity in Adderbury, the Rev. Gepp included a small obituary in the November 1900 edition of the parish magazine, more one suspects out of a sense ofobligation than because of any real sense of loss. "He was", wrote the vicar, "rather of the odd type of character, in dress as well as in habits, but he was nonetheless respected on that account, and all regarded Father Hone with feelings almost of affection." It would be fascinating to know what lay beyond this description, the precise nature ofthese characteristics betokened by the faint damns behind Gepp's praise and his reserved, almost grudging tone. Until further detail comes to light, we can only conjecture. We can however at least find some reason for a general affection for him among the working villagers. Hone had an affable and convivial spirit. He was the leader of a brass band which often played at village functions, and on numerous occasions offered the use ofhis barn for dances and sing-songs. In these he always took a lively part. A gesture which seems to have been typical ofhim was the New Year's Day dinner at The Bell in 1879. This was organised specifically for the old people of Adder bury, all of whom were invited to attend. The cost of it was met by Hone. According to a local press report, he was "always ready to assist his poorer neighbours in whatever way is for their benefit."6 His hearty bonhomie could quickly switch, however, to a fiery temper. Among the several labourers employed on Hone' s farm was a man known as " Pudding" Slaney, and according to Harry Austin ofWest Adderbury, Slaney and Hone "used to have terrible rows, swearing at each other and carrying on." The paternalistic side of his character is thus modified by this detail suggestive of a cross-tempered disposition, and whether by chance or unconscious design we have here two stereotypical representations ofthe English farmer, though it may be that both tendencies in him can be compounded into another single stereotype: the rough diamond.

45 It is important to note these biographical residua, since these singers are specifically mentioned by Blunt, but we should also recognise that the song in Adderbury appears to have been held in common. It does not seem to have been regarded there as "belonging" to any one singer, a point which suggests performance, when occasion arose, by any recognised village singer. Added to this is the fact that the magnificent chorus was often sung elsewhere by an entire company, and the song as a whole, with its sturdy, rousing melody, often sung in parts. The likelihood is then that it was, in Adderbury, a shared song, as with " The Sweet Nightingale" and " The Everlasting circle", rather than being respected as an individual's song, such as (in Adderbury) "The Happy Man" or "Sweet Nineteen and Old Nell"- songs which unwritten convention reserved for one singer's public performance, though other village singers might have known these songs and sung them in private or outside their owner' s presence. It will have been noted, though, that the three singers named by Blunt were not themselves farm labourers- indeed, one was a farmer employing, in 1871, four men and two boys.7 This may suggest a possible disparity between, on the one hand (known) village singers ofthe song, and on the other their audience in this particular community. Not only were there important social differences between these men and ordinary agricultural labourers, but all three were noted village singers, and this would also have differentiated them from the majority of their audience on the usual occasions of song performance. But, as I shall point out in further detail later, performer-audience interaction in village culture was predicated on a generally integrated set of values and beliefs, and while I have no wish to underplay factors of individuality, conflict and stratification internal to the community, a song such as "The Farmer's Boy" has therefore to be seen as in some way informing, and being informed by, the local rural culture ofwhich it was a part. The song's general popularity within the district requires our approaching it in this way, for its repeated performance by these singers (and no doubt by others as well) implies that its value and significance for them was shared by their local audience, many of whom of course were agricultural labourers, and that this common understanding cut across specific social identities and gradations of status. 8 The version of the song collected by Blunt in January 1909 was Sam Newman's, and before going on to discuss the reasons for its social popularity and appeal, it remains to give this particular version in full. The sun went down beyond yon hills And across yon dreary moor Weary and lame a boy there came Up to a farmer's door 'Can you tell me, if any there be That will give me employ? For to plough and for to sow And to reap and to mow And to be a farmer's boy, And to be a farmer's boy. 46 'My father's dead, and mother's left With her five children small And what is worse for mother still r m the oldest of them all. But though little I be, I fear not work If you will me employ. For to plough and to sow And to reap and to mow And to be a farmer's boy, And to be a farmer's boy. 'But if that you won't me employ One favour let me ask. Will you shelter me till break of day From this cold winter's blast? And at the break of day I will trudge away Elsewhere to seek employ. For to plough and to sow And to reap and to mow And to be a farmer's boy, And to be a farmer's boy. The farmer said, "Let's try the lad And no longer let him seek." "Oh yes, dear father," the daughter cried While tears ran down her cheek. "For those that will work; it's hard for to want And to wander for employ. For to plough and to sow And to reap and to mow And to be a farmer's boy, And to be a farmer's boy. In course of time he grew a man And the good old farmer died. He left the boy the farm he had And his daughter for his bride. And the boy that was, now farmer is, And he smiles and thinks with joy Of the lucky, lucky day when he came that way To be a farmer's boy For to plough and to sow And to reap and to mow And to be a farmer's boy, And to be a farmer's boy.

47 The pastoral idealization of rural social relations presented in the song has led to speculation of an eighteenth century origin, though this is as yet unproven. In the opinion of Roy Palmer it is more likely to date from the early nineteenth century: "The farm which is providentially inherited lock, stock and barrel, suggests an early nineteenth century mentality - and landscape."9 The history of enclosure and "improvement" and its consequences for many rural cottagers, small farmers and labourers would tend to support this view, as would the evidence for the erosion and disintegration of customary, coincident use-rights and the traditional grid of communal village practices in the face of an increasing emphasis, during the eighteenth century, on formal, legalistic, rationalized forms of ownership and inheritance. 10 Yet this process did not arise directly in relation to the ideology and practice ofenclosure. As Thompson puts it, the "old communal grid had been eaten away by law and by money" long before the period of parliamentary enclosure: "eighteenth century enclosure registered the end rather than the climax of that process." 11 While this point must be acknowledged, the association of the early nineteenth century with the ascendancy ofthe gentleman farmer, and the related confirmation of the labourer in a state of landless pauperdom, has been clearly evident from Cobbett onwards. 12 Palmer's point remains hesitant and tentative, though it is strengthened by his reference to the most commonly cited tune- "Ye Sons of Albion"- dating only from the time of the Napoleonic Wars, and by his inability to unearth an earlier record of the text than an entry under the title "The Lucky Farmer's Boy" in the 1832 catalogue of Catnach. 13 These points are necessary in that they obstruct facile assumptions oflongevity, yet an effort to assign the song to a particular origin in time is only initially helpful in this analysis, since we cannot presuppose an unmodified "original" meaning, transmitted through time via localised traditions and oral dissemination across a wide geographical region, for this or any other song in tradition. While the song does smack of broadside literature, the finding of an earlier printed text would at best only locate its moment of origin within an earlier stage ofthe long process of rural expropriation, and we would still need to insist that the song's continuance within oral traditions did not remain unaffected by changes in communal values resulting from, on the one hand, generational and group encounters with tradition - with their specific social determinations - and on the other, from the effect of these encounters upon the continuing tradition itself While the outlook and understandings of each new generation are shaped by tradition, new values and meanings arise in response to changing patterns of social and economic practice, and these become composed into particular "structures of feeling" which in turn modify and enter into the body oftradition. In acknowledging this, it would seem most useful to study the song in relation to the social context of a particular cultural tradition, and to examine its place within tradition in relation to a particular historical period. We can at least then take certain safeguards against smooth generalisation. It is for this reason that I am choosing to concentrate on the Victorian and Edwardian period, and I am taking this period since it is the most immediately identifiable with the song's recorded popularity in the village. 14

48 Though we cannot know for how long the song had existed up to this period within the local oral tradition, the song was nevertheless associated with that tradition and was an inherited element ofvillage culture, one ofmany such elements derived from the past and part of the cultural stock available to villagers which in some way gave expressive form to their everyday social experience. The reference here is to the ideas, values and meanings which emerge out of a distinctive way of life, and which mediate a particular group's social and cultural existence. It is these peculiar cultural configurations that shape and distinguish a group or class, and which in turn constitute the ways in which social relations are experienced and understood. In any culture there will be aspects of it which are taken over from the past, and through which people initially negotiate their encounter with the present. We need always to examine the degree to which these are transformed, the ways in which they exert limits and constraints, and their status within the field ofconflict through which relations of domination and subordination are maintained, challenged and lived. 15 The continuing popularity of the song in village culture, and among succeeding generations (if only of the nineteenth century) up to its time of collection, suggests that it retained a value and validity for them in relation to their experience ofthe present. One ofthe stock images ofrural life is ofstability, ofsettled values and time­ honoured ways of approaching and understanding the experiences of natural and social life. As with virtually all the deeply embedded associations which rural life carries in our national culture, this particular idea ignores, glosses, and diverts attention from, the immense extent and depth of change in the countryside engendered by the rise, over the last few hundred years, of a capitalist agriculture and more recently, of an agrarian economy and agri-business crucially structured by the relations of an international market. No less important are the technological and environmental revolutions, the population shifts, and the changing patterns of power and control in the countryside. The current trend of rural nostalgia is to be firmly resisted, and that applies as much to our rural history as to our view of rural life today. It is for this reason that these profound social and economic transforma­ tions must be set against the image of an unchanging rural "folk" culture, and of village communities (or groups within local social systems) existing passively in relation to oral traditions, customs, mores and beliefs. It was this kind of way of conceiving rural life, along with an evolutionist and survivalist approach to all elements of rural cultural tradition, which led to the failure of earlier "folk" song scholars and collectors in understanding the realities of processes of cultural continuity and change. One consequence of this was an inattentive and impertinent devaluation of village singers, who were "seen as mere transmitters, or unknowing carriers of something important that they could never appreciate ... " 16 The conception of the village singer as a sort of conduit of tradition has not been effectively scotched even now. While the pace ofchange within rural traditions is often assumed to be slower than

49 that among popular urban traditions, the case still remains to be demonstrated at a general level for the history ofthe last two centuries in England, and for particular instances change in rural cultures might actually prove to have been quite rapid. We would at least, in view of this, move away from an inevitable corollary of the "carrier" interpretation of village singers, which is to position working country people as simply passive recipients of a pre-constituted system of signification. In relation to popular song within oral traditions, the possible meanings of a text were obviously to some extent anchored by its structure and content, but in communal performance a song's identity only became tangible through the activation and construction of meaning on the part of the living participants. This identity became realised collectively through performer-audience relationships, as Casey, Rosenberg and Wareham point out: "The 'good singer"', they write, "is aware of the likes and dislikes ofthe groups and individuals for whom he performs. He manipulates his repertoire in response to perceived or anticipated performances ... He is more or less sensitive to their feedback and thus quick to react in situations in which either his or their expectations are not fulfilled." 17 Performance and reception, outside of the context of commercial institutions and structures, should therefore be seen as integrated activities through which the cultural identity and meanings of the song were realised and made coherent: two complementary dimensions of a single creative activity. Yet the specific criteria involved as applied from either side on occasions of performance, were themselves conditioned by a complex set ofcultural codes and conventions, and while the meanings of a particular song can therefore only be understood in relation to the interaction ofthe people who sang and heard it, within a specific period, those meanings were themselves bred of (and through) a cultural mode of feeling and experience linking up the personal and the social. Within this framework the making of meaning was always an act of interpretation. In pointing this out we should not submit to the notion of a cultural enclave. The local formation within which meanings were collectively created and realised was structured by a complex ofhistorical conditions characterising a much wider social organisation and development. The process ofconstructing meaning was accordingly active but at the same time occurred within the parameters defining an individual's and a social group's place in society. It is in this sense that I think the term "communal re-creation" should properly be regarded, for the process of interpretation to which I am referring involved not only textual modification over time, but more importantly, a situated act of remaking ­ and remarking- meaning. Wherever textual changes were made and agreed upon within local social contexts (and these of course were, when passed on to other localised singing traditions, transmitted in the adapted form), then such changes were a symptom ofthis interpretative process, and they remain among the surviving evidence as part of its residual traces. As already mentioned, the process of making meaning must be understood in relation to the ideological structures characterising particular groups. Yet we need also to clarifY an extended but more fundamental sense of ideology, not simply as the ideas, beliefs and values of a particular social 50 group or class, but as referring to a central system of ideas and beliefs which naturalise and legitimate a particular pattern ofsocial organization. The thought of dominated classes is therefore characterised by a series ofconflicts and contradictions between, on the one hand, the "good sense" expressive of their own class interests, and on the other, the" common sense" oflived cultures profoundly infiltrated by the categories of the dominant ideology and an eternalized status quo. Ideology and ideological domination thus refer here to those ideas, values and beliefs which repress the historical nature ofexisting social relations and which are inadequate in relation to the conduct of class struggle. The whole understanding of how ideology works must be grounded in the analysis ofthe way subordinate classes are culturally and intellectually equipped to understand their own position within the social class structure, and the way this affects their ability to challenge and change that position. It is important to emphasise this idea of dominant beliefs and meanings diffUsed throughout society because of the fact that the song we are dealing with contains certain images and ideas concerning the nature and organisation ofsocial life. These images and ideas within the song naturally influenced its meanings and significance for the working villagers among whom it was popular. Yet those villagers were also socially and historically situated, and their active construction of meaning was made within a particular place and time. In order to begin to see how this might in turn have shaped and directed the song's identity and value for the participants, we need to remember that the social structure of this area of the country was characterised by a great divide between farm and allied workers, and some small farmers, on the one hand, and large farmers, clergy, gentry and landlords on the other. After the ascendancy of the gentleman farmer in the early nineteenth century, the social distance between master and labourer which then opened up remained, throughout the century, a constant feature of rural social relations in Oxford shire. Indeed, during the heyday ofagrarian capitalism between the repeal of the Corn Laws and the so-called Great Depression, the gulf widened even more. The maintenance of farmer and gentry power and privilege, over and against a proletarianized labour force, had to be actively sought through the fostering of stability, the quest for which, as Howard Newby points out, "is the key to understanding the nature ofrural class relationships in the nineteenth century (and in many respects remains so today)." 18 It is in the context ofthis quest that we must understand the cultural hegemony evinced in the values legitimising the power of the rural ruling class, in the conferral of status and prestige on members of that class, in an evocation of tradition, localism and "community" interests, in the emphasis on "mutual feelings of generosity and confidence" between farmers and labourers,19 and in their consequence, the ideological practice ofpaternalism. It is in this context as well that we must place the lack, for rural labourers, of any real alternatives to the existing social order: any incipient moves towards the formulation of such alternatives were, before long, stunted and deformed. This structural delimiting of the horizons of consciousness of agricultural workers leads us, in a

51 consideration of this song, to two major problems: first, the extent to which it endorsed the social dominance of the ruling triumvirate of farmers, clergy and gentry, however indirectly; and second, the subjective meanings and significance of the song for farmworkers in relation to the actual conditions in which they laboured and lived. In order to examine these questions it may be useful to look briefly at what the Oxfordshire farmer's boys had in reality to endure, and to indicate as well the actual opportunities for upward mobility within farm work which were available to them, once they had grown adult. At the time of the 1867 Royal Commission on the employment of children, young persons and women in agriculture, boys under ten were as a rule only irregularly employed on farms in Oxfordshire; after that age they were very generally employed. A meeting of the Banbury Board of Guardians with the assistant commissioner in the 1860s resulted in the resolution: "That in the opinion ofthis board legislative interference is not required in the education ofchildren employed in agriculture."20 At the time of this pronouncement, boys in Adderbury from nine to ten years of age were employed as plough boys. At nearby Deddington in the 1860s ploughboys began work at seven years of age, starting at six in the morning; those under nine were paid one shilling per week, and at the age of nine their wages were generally raised to two shillings per week. 21 The youngest children employed were usually required to lead the team, but boys ofbetween nine and twelve ("bits of halfling boys" as one labourer put it to George Culley, the assistant commissioner) seem to have been put behind the plough-tail quite regularly, for wages between two and four shillings each per week. There, according to the same witness, "the shake ofthe plough nearly knocks them over."22 Hours for Oxfordshire farm boys who were not carters' or shepherds' boys were the same as those for ordinary daymen: ten hours (exclusive of time for meals) in summer, and as many hours (not exceeding ten) as light allowed in winter. Some boys worked a ten and a halfhour day. Carters' boys worked eleven to twelve hours per day (less fifteen to twenty minutes for bavour)23 depending on whether they were in the stables at four or five in the morning. "As the carter usually has charge oftwo teams, these hours apply to nearly one-half of the boys (who are not old enough to hold a plough) employed on farms where ploughboys are used."24 The carter boy's health often suffered as a result ofthese long hours, and where he was hired by the year he was often subject to rough usage. 25 During the last quarter ofthe nineteenth century, child labour in agriculture had declined from earlier levels, mainly due to legislative restrictions in connection with education, but also because ofan increased use offarm machinery and a conversion ofland from labour-intensive arable to pastoral farming. 26 The Gangs Act of1867 had also served to protect children from heavy drudgery in agricultural labour. 27 Nevertheless, opposition from farmers wanting cheap labour remained an obstacle to reform, legislation was evaded, and boys continued to leave school for farmwork at an early age. 28 As one of my informants in Adderbury put it, "boys were men at

52 thirteen." Many children as well were absent from school at various times during the year, and casual child labour continued to be a common practice well into this century. This included haymaking and harvesting, crop-picking, stone-picking, bird scaring, leazing and so on. 29 Land wages for young lads remained low. Ted Humphris, born 1901 in Aynho, an adjacent village, left school at thirteen and started work as a farmer's boy, earning sixpence a day working from seven a.m. to five p.m.30 On top of this as well was the prevalent public scorn for the farmworker, and the demoralising caricature to which he (or she) was subject - "Hodge", "clodhopper", "bumpkin", "chawbacon", "Billy Turniptop" and so on. As Howard Newby puts it, the underlying comparison has been "with contented cows - happiness abetted by a bovine intelligence."3 1 In view of these conditions, many village lads in the later nineteenth and early twentieth centuries eschewed a life on the land, moving away to work for the railways, post office or police force, or migrating to work in the industrialized towns. Frank Dormer, the schoolmaster at Great Rollright in the 1900s, told Rider Haggard "that three quarters of the young men and all the young women left the village at nineteen or twenty years of age, only the dullest staying at home. Occasionally they returned to see their parents, and many of them said they would gladly come back ifthey could earn more money." 32 This situation was frequently lamented, and the regret had much validity, though other variables such as family ties and conservative values should be recognised. This extensive drift from the land was a serious and debilitating drain on the social and cultural vitality of rural life. Individual social mobility in the farm structure was severely limited: a male farmworker's ambition could not realistically stretch beyond head carter, or farm bailiff, unless he left for another calling. Very few were able to rise from the position of labourer to that of farmer, and most were destined to remain as day labourers. Just prior to the First World War, Arthur Ashby found that the opportunity for farm labourers in Oxfordshire to rise to the level of bailiff or foreman was slight, the possibilities of attaini1.1g to a position of trust and responsibility being fewer there than was general 33 How do we then understand these social relations and expectations - and I have only sketched certain aspects of them here - in terms of traditional rural culture? The impulse generating this analysis is a need to begin interpreting (however provisionally) the discrepancies as well as correspondences between, on the one hand, the narratives and imagery of orally transmitted village songs, and on the other, the objective conditions of existence to which rural labourers in the nineteenth century were subject. There is no way such relationships can be divorced from the other social, cultural and religious institutions ofthe Victorian countryside - including the ideology of" community" - without subsequent loss of explanatory power, for all of these provided potential sources of meaning, value, judgement and belief What is important to understand is the extent to which they facilitated or restricted awareness of real possibilities, and encouraged or bridled an

53 ability to question the legitimated relations of authority and deference. Evidence of the past way of life of working villagers as subjectively lived can be found in rural song, but not in any direct or undistorted way. Much the same can be said of all evidence of a recorded, documented popular culture. The past is always a mediated past, and this must be allowed for in all historical analysis. But the problem is compounded by the fact that the consciousness of nineteenth century farmworkers is not there to be read, in any openly accessible way, through their songs and ballads. If we are to begin to understand their meanings and significance in rural life then it seems to be crucial that we study them in relation to their localised cultures, to a wider cultural nexus- the fairs, wakes, travellers, wars, labour migrations and so on - and to the economic, social and political order in which village cultures were situated, and through which they were interrelated. We need not insist on doing this for every song or snatch ever uttered by country singers, and we should avoid the tendency towards reductionism to which a commitment to comprehending the historical process in terms ofa being-consciousness dialectic is at times easily prone. But where the images and narratives of rural song and ballad in some way represent or relate to the historical world, then it is in the context of that historical world that they must be understood. It is in this respect that the complex ways in which the songs of agricultural life and labour were articulated to relations of domination and subordination is a particularly significant problem, for while the songs of rural protest and unionization do leave us with vital traces of an expressed class antagonism and resistance, these are relatively exceptional and in many cases represent only "partial penetrations" .34 Other songs containing images ofsocial life seem to connote meanings and values supportive of the existing order, rather than alternative or oppositional meanings and values. The very widely sung "We're All Jolly Fellows that Follow the Plough", for instance, glorified manual farm labour, skill and physical achievement, but did it perhaps at the same time also facilitate, along with a host of other cultural elements and practices, the insertion of landless labourers into a system of exploitation of the very labour power the song exalts? Similar questions need to be asked ofthe majority of rural (and urban) "folk" songs, so that we begin to examine the extent to which they displaced attention and promoted misrecognitions, the extent to which they created blocks and limitations upon perception and understanding. Though we cannot recover much sense of the subjective responses made by rural labourers to their social and material experience, exploration ofthe cultural residue left by these responses can at least fruitfully begin along these lines. The question of the degree to which this song's idealized general account of the attractiveness ofrural life, and of the opportunities open to farmworkers during this period, was subjectively affirmed by working class villagers, is of course central to this analysis. There is a sense in which local cultural experience pales into relative insignificance alongside the structural conditions of inequality, disadvantage and exploitation in which it was situated, and my own study of village life and labour in

54 Victorian Adderbury has provided ample evidence that the working people there were as locked into existing structural relations- and as subject to conditions of poverty and deprivation - as people elsewhere in the south and midlands countryside.35 Yet the village poor, the farm labourers and their families shackled to a subsistence wage, lived these relations and experienced these material deficiencies in the light cast upon them by a specific local culture, itself a variant of a wider configuration ofpopular forms and expressions, conceptions and values. We need to know how things stood in that light. It is interesting to note, in relation to the question of subjective response to "The Farmer's Boy", within the region around Adderbury, a specific example of how the song could gain concrete shape and substance. Bartholomew Callow (1881-1964), a hay-tier and general farmworker of Clifton, a hamlet near Deddington, included this song in his apparently large repertoire, and one of his daughters, Fanny, on her own initiative took it to be specifically about a farmer who lived nearby. This was a Master Spencer, a man " with big white sideburns, white whiskers and hair" who had been taken on as a boy by a Clifton farmer, William Elston. Spencer married Elston's daughter and in that way came to inherit the farm. This particular case therefore provided a locally verifiable basis for the song, and would in that respect have strengthened its ideological "effect". But we cannot assume that any such cases of good fortune were not generally recognised as exceptional. This brings us to the hub of the problem which a contextualised reading of this particular song raises. The text alone can be seen as supporting certain ideological values such as enduring loyalty to the one master, and correlations between these possible consequences on the one hand, and social judgements and expectations among the dominant groups in rural society on the other, can be established without much difficulty: even a casual acquaintance with the social history of agricultural labour would be sufficient for that purpose. 36 We cannot, however, on this basis, make pronouncements on the wholesale acceptance ofthe ideological structure and content of the song. The song must be understood as having a concrete existence in the context of the social relations of agrarian production, and as having a particular connection to those relations. The song contains an image of the character of the farmer as a social type, and suggests that, through the application ofhard work and fidelity to one's employer, a labourer' s rewards will, in the end, be great on earth. Ifwe set this against the prevailing nature of productive relations and the structural features of farmer-labourer interaction, then the song can be interpreted as having mystified the ways in which these class phenomena actually existed in a capitalist agriculture: Some years previously Disraeli pronounced an encomium at an agricultural show on an agricultural labourer who had spent his life on one farm, handed him the money prize, and pinned a rosette on his breast, predicting that in course of time he would die honoured and respected by all the community. This

55 ancient worthy I found in a local workhouse; he produced the rosette, and his prayer was for the love of God I would give him a bit of bacca.37 The song may also be seen to have contributed, through the glow cast by its aura of tradition, to the " principle of inherited authority" which still served to legitimate the local power of large farmers in rural society, and to have promoted acceptance of the "natural order" oflandlord, tenant and labourer.38 We can point as well to the song's validating connections with the ideology of paternalism, even in the face of the actively maintained subordination of the farm worker, that the song's partial negation of the historical real world was commonly and comprehensively accepted by its participants; nor can we simply link song and position of subordination and suggest that it therefore represents the inarticulate consciousness of the participants in its performance and transmission. We could, for instance, see the song implicitly supporting the self-help/paternalist ideological relation at the same time as also invoking the Christian injunction to a genuine, unselfinterested charity. But we must then understand the presence or possibility of contradictory meanings and values. In the context of the existing social structure, there would seem little doubt that this popular song did carry through or create certain general ideological "effects"- masking antagonisms, for instance, and splintering vision ofthe social whole- but we should beware ofbroad statements ofthe extent ofthese effects. Another important reason for such caution is the existence of rural songs (mentioned earlier) critical of the poverty and social subordination endured by the nineteenth century agricultural labourer and his family, many of which flourished during the heyday of unionism in the early 1870s. The lack of such songs in many of the field collections implies much about singer­ collector relationships.39 There are to my knowledge no known recorded references to particular examples of such songs in Adderbury or its immediate environs. They were, however, widely sung. For example, the pamphlet " Songs for Singing at Agricultural Labourers' Meetings" is reputed to have sold at least 80,000 copies, a fairly reasonable indication of its popularity.40 Discussion of these songs in relation to other, more pastoral songs of rural life is outside the scope ofthe present article, and would require taking into consideration a much wider context ofsocio-cultural exchange and communication than that focused upon here. Suffice it to say that the particular song under consideration, and its popularity among subordinate groups in village society, cannot be divorced from the context of particular manifestations of rural class struggle, such as local involvement in the National Agricultural Labourers' Union ofthe 1870s, and- in the face ofconsiderable opposition from the gentry and local farmers- the attempt to gain allotment land in Adderbury during the subsequent two decades.4 1 Both these campaigns were expressions ofa profound social discontent, as in certain other ways were the accelerating waves of migration and emigration during this period.42 An Adderbury labouring man wrote to the Banbury Guardian in late 1878 to

56 advance his suggestions for helping to improve the farmworker's lot in times of depression: Another thing farmers and tradesmen of every class must do in bad times, reduce their own personal and household expenses. Leave off hunting and shooting, keep fewer horses, less servants, sell the piano, drink less spirits, wine and ale; be kind to their men, let them have fair wages, a good garden or a bit ofland to cultivate, and a better state ofthings would soon be apparent.43 It is the reasonableness of tone, and the narrow practicality ofhis solutions, which are immediately striking. There were of course the covert forms of resistance alongside this public voice, but we are granted a glimpse here into a moral community for which detail is usually very sparse. The ideological shift after the mid-century, and its influence on unionism in the country, has often been noted. Unrest was not ofcourse the everyday condition of rural life during the period with which we are dealing. This cannot be explained as simply due to the labourers' lack of education or political knowledge. For all the disadvantages to which they were victim, for all their social conditioning by clergyman, gentry, teacher, farmer and '; squire, the idea of an easily won compliance needs calling into serious question; furthermore, to characterise rural labourers as "ponderously ignorant" and "dull­ witted" - as Mingay would have it- is to perpetuate a myth as class-rooted as the concept of cultural deprivation.44 Recognition of their situation for some was very clear. "We have been a downtrodden class of men that all other classes are depending on for their bread, and yet we have not been treated with respect ... " 45 Opposition and protest ofwhatever kind from the subordinate classes in rural social life represented a need and a desire for independence and a better life. That need and desire was expressed as well in and through rural song, transposed there "to an imaginative plane ... " 46 The Victorian countryside can, as Dunbabin puts it, "be painted both black and white", yet "neither picture is wholly correct ... " 47 The history of post-Swing rural society should be approached in terms of a dialectic of control and resistance, the many complex manifestations ofwhich should then be analysed in the context of the whole process of social life, rather than particular aspects of it such as the labourer's demoralised condition and deferential habits. A final point needs to be made in this connection. For all its romantic idealization, the song is a celebration of agricultural work, and the value of this for farmworkers at the time must be understood in relation to such factors as the low position in which they were held in public esteem; their general social invisibility; the denial of skilled status; their consistently low wage; their subjection to a capitalist Poor Law, a demoralising system of charity and socially expected rituals of servility; and last but not least, their desire and struggle for land. Though the song may now be associated with a mythical retrospective view ofcountry life and labour, it would be folly to believe that it had acquired quite this rosy ambience for labourers themselves during this period. It is in fact much more likely that the song functioned

57 for them - at least temporarily- as a means of collectively restoring morale and a sense of pride in themselves. Blunt does not mention the particular occasions on which it was performed, but in view of the fact that the song has often been accompanied by a gusty rendering of the chorus by all assembled, it is probable that it was sung at communal gatherings such as club dinners, harvest suppers, barn dances, smoking concerts and the like. 48 It is in fact particularly suited to social occasions rather than to being sung solo and in private. This quality of the song would have enhanced the shared realisation and recognition of its meaning and value among all participants in its performance and reception. An element of wish-fulfilment is of course undeniable- given the hunger for land, for instance, and the acceptance ofarguments for the establishment ofa rural social ladder that could feasibly be scaled from the bottom- and certainly there have been other songs within English song traditions which contain such an element.49 But what I have been trying to establish is that the song's popularity was multi-faceted, and cannot be explained in terms of some discrete motivation or specific and unchanging source of appeal. I think we have to distinguish between the immediate and explicit roles of and gratifications derived from such songs, and their deeper and more intricate meanings and cultural significance. Clearly, it must be acknowledged as well that this particular song functioned as part of a tradition of self and mutual entertainment within village culture. But we need to dig beneath its appeal simply as entertainment and as diversion. The attraction ofpopular song is often explained in terms of wishful thinking, or sentimental appeal to the past, and while these are certainly aspects of the appeal of much popular song, we need to avoid those senses of such explanation derived from the critique of mass culture, and then begin to challenge the explanatory sufficiency of such terms. How adequate is it simply to say that a song (such as this) was sung simply for nostalgic reasons (e.g. its association with old singers, old times)? That may well have been one aspect of the pleasure taken in its performance. But there are difficulties. The term " nostalgia" is usually employed as an ascription ofoth er people's motives and gratifications vis-a vis cultural artefacts descending from or associated with the past, rather than one' s own, and in vernacular usage it has pejorative overtones which are unhelpful when carried across into cultural analysis. Furthermore, it is not, in my view, feasible to separate nostalgia from contemporary perceptions and responses to the present. In making such points we are again, from another direction, recognising the need to develop a contextualised account, however tentative, of what the song signified for labouring villagers. The reception of any cultural text is associated with " the social conditions in which it occurs and ... the ethos which essentially characterises a social group . . . " 5° Cultural reception, in other words, always involves an act of interpretation made with reference to the situated meaning system characterising a social group. Connotatively any cultural text is subject to varying inflections of meaning, to negotiated understandings, and such aspects of cultural process are

58 always in some way related to the historical conditions upon which all social relations are based. It is not enough, however, to equate a text's lack ofhistoricity or lack of recognition of the contingency of historical conditions with its ideological functioning, and leave it at that. This is not to deny the ideological force and "effect" of such popular song as the one which forms the focus ofthis article, but to suggest instead that analysis would be incomplete if offered in that realm alone. If we confine analysis to the text and the farmworker's general social and economic subordination, then we might appear to be confronted with a cut-and-dried case of ideological legitimation- in the sense ofits supporting ideas and values contrary to the real interests ofthe farmworking class, \-Vhich remained concealed. We need to go further than this. We need also to understand the song's performance, reception 1 and abiding appeal in a broader context ofpoverty, conflict and resistance. 5 Ifwe do not we may end up with a sense ofworking people more or less totally encapsulated in a "false consciousness", and that for me would be as disabling and as insulting as the derogatory stereotypes of rural idiocy so entrenched in our public culture.

Notes I should like to thank George Deacon and Alun Hawkins for reading through an earlier draft of this article. Any remaining errors, omissions and inadequacies are of course my own responsibility. 1. Useful bibliographies ofversions ofthe song in printed collections can be found in M Dean-Smith, A guide to English Folk Song Collections, 1822-1852, Liverpool, 1954, p.66, and P Kennedy, ed., Folksongs of Britain and Ireland, London, 1975, p.579 (and see p.555). 2. For a study of many of the other songs in the Blunt manuscripts, see M Pickering, Village Song and Culture, London, Croom Helm, 1982. This study is an attempt to relate these songs to a particular social and historical context, to examine the occasions on which they were performed and to explore the meanings they had for local labouring villagers during the Victorian period. For a short biographical sketch ofJanet Blunt, seeM Pickering, "Janet Blunt: Folk Song Collector and Lady of the Manor", Folk Music Journa~ vol.3, no.2, 1976, 114-149. The term "community" should be used circumspectly, and due note made of its prescriptive as well as descriptive meaning. For many nineteenth century rural labourers, the sense ofcommunity had both positive and negative effects, depending on whose interests were involved and what was meant by the term in particular contexts. The term cannot therefore be used now without reference to its immense legitimating power. See, for instance, R Plant, Community and Ideology, London, 1974, ch. 2; C Bell and H Newby, Community Studies, London, 1971, ch. 2; C Bell and H Newby, eds., The Sociology of Community, London, 1974, part one, and "A Critique of'Community Studies' and its Role in Social Thought", C.C.C.S. Occasional Paper no.44, Birmingham, 1976.

59 3. For a masterly study ofthe myth of the rural idyll in English literature, seeR Williams, The Country and the City, St Albans, 1973. See also his article, "Literature and Rural Society", The Listener, 16.11.1967. 4. Blunt mss., Vaughan Williams Memorial Library. 5. For Newman and Walton, seeM Pickering, 1982. Binx Walton provided Blunt with more material than any other village singer: twenty nine songs as opposed to the nine from Sam Newman, the next major contributor to the manuscript collection. This pattern, the majority of singers providing only a few songs, and a minority providing many, is common in "folk" song collections. 6. Banbury Guardian, 16.6.1879. 7. Census of England and Wales, 1871. 8. Clearly Hone presents the greatest difficulty here, because ofhis position as a tenant farmer. It should be noted though that while many other farmers in Adderbury were regarded as gentry, Bill Hone was not, and though enjoying the status of farmer, he does not seem, from what one can tell, to have dissociated himself from the farm-working community in order to live a life apart. He contrasts very much, for instance, with gentleman farmers like Richard Gardner, a local guardian, overseer of the poor and member of the school board of governors in Adderbury, who farmed 112 acres and employed seven men, four boys and two domestic servants. The kind of behaviour exhibited by Slaney would not have been tolerated in a labourer by farmers such as Gardner, but seen as "sauce" and summarily checked. An Adderbury cattle dealer, Benjohn Corbett, was in fact summoned in 1883 for using "foul and abusive language" to Master Gardner. Corbett said in his defence: "I should not have insulted him if he had kept his son from insulting my wife. I only said before his face what other people say behind his back." (Banbury Guardian, 16.6.1879.) For further discussion of sociocultural differences between singers such as Newman and Walton, and other labouring villagers, see M Pickering, 1982. 9. R Palmer, ed., Everyman's Book of English Country Songs, London, 1979, p.43. 10. See E P Thompson, The Making of the English Working Class, Harmondsworth, 1970 edn., ch. 7; E P Thompson, "The Grid of Inheritance: a comment" in J Goody, et. al., eds., Family and lnhen.tance in Western Europe, 1200-1800, Cambridge, 1976, 328-360; and R W Malcolmson, Lzfe and Labour in England, 1700-1780, London, 1981, pp.23-35, 134-5. 11. E P Thompson, 1876, p.347. 12. Necessary reservations have to be made when ctttng William Cobbett in evidence, and his social reportage and commentary - for all its brilliance - understood in its historical context. See, on this, E P Thompson, 1970, pp.820-

60 37; R Williams, 1973, ch. 11; and R Williams, Culture and Society, Harmonds­ worth, 1977 edn., pp.23-39. 13. R Palmer, p.43. For Catnach, see C Hindley, The History of the Catnach Press, London, 1886. It should perhaps be pointed out that the fact Catnach had this song in his catalogue does not necessarily mean it originated with his own activities in the broadside trade. Palmer's conjecture of an early nineteenth century origin for the song is further supported, however, by contemporary recastings ofthe song such as "The Factory Boy" and "The Workhouse Boy". (For the latter see The Miner's Advocate, 13.1.1844.) "The Farmer's Boy" is also in the Madden Collection, no.11 in the Fordyce catalogue; Wand T Fordyce of Newcastle and Hull were printing between 1838 and 1865. (I am indebted to George Deacon for these references.) It is interesting to note that Randolph Caldecott published illustrated versions of songs and rhymes out of oral tradition in his picture book series, 1878-84, but while the version of"Three Jolly Huntsmen" used in the second book of this series is close to versions collected from rural singers, the song entitled "The Farmer's Boy" in this book is not the song commonly known by that title. Its chorus is in fact that associated with "Old MacDonald Had A Farm". (SeeR Caldecott's Picture Book, No.2, London, n .d., and on Edmund Evans, who engraved Caldecott's illustrations for "The Farmer's Boy", see P Gilmour, The Mechanised Image, Arts Council, 1978, pp.72-3. 14. For more comprehensive contextual detail concerning North Oxfordshire during this period than it is possible to provide here, I would refer the interested reader to my own study of Adderbury, cited above, and to the appropriate references included there in the select bibliography. 15. It is of course possible that the song may not have belonged to local oral tradition for any considerable period of time, but entered (or re-entered) it as a result ofbroadside reprints at a comparatively recent time prior to its collection by Blunt. It was however resonant of the whole style and flavour of many songs within the local oral song tradition, as opposed to other contemporary songs within the musical culture of the place, and would therefore have been associated with orally transmitted song material and, more broadly, with a traditional village culture, whatever its actual date of entry into the repertoires of local singers. 16. A Howkins, " The Voice of the People: the Social Meaning and Context of Country Song", Oral History, vo1.3 , no.1, 51. 17. G J Casey, NV Rosenberg and W W Wareham, "Repertoire Categorization and Performer-Audience Relationships: Some Newfoundland Examples", Ethno­ musicology, XVI, 1972, 397-403. It may be noted that in the historical annals of musical performance the female gender is not entirely unknown. On the question of performer-audience relationships, c£ G Dunn, The Fellowship of

61 Song, London, 1980, and I Russell, "Traditional Singing in West Sheffield, 1970-72", 3 vols., unpublished PhD thesis, University of Leeds, 1977. 18. H Newby, The Deferential Worker, London, 1977, p.48. 19. FE Green, History ofthe English Agricultural Labourer, 1870-1920, London, 1970. The phrase was the Duke of Marlborough's, who was an ardent opponent of unionism in Oxfordshire. 20. Royal Commission on the Employment of Children, Young Persons and Women in Agriculture, 1867, XLLI, Appendix 12, p.89. 21. Ibid., p.341. 22. Ibid., p.340. 23. Bavour: lunch. Oxon dialect. 24. Royal Commission, 1867, XIII, p.83. 25. See for example, Banbury Guardian, 17.7.1873, and 19.10.1876. 26. P Horn, The Victorian Country Child, Kineton, 1971, p.71. After 1880 the average school-leaving age was raised to between twelve and thirteen years. In Oxfordshire, the wheat acreage fell from 64000 in 1868, to 48000 in 1885 and 23000 in 1895, while the area under permanent pasturage increased by 41%. The number of cattle in the country increased from 4. 7 million in the early 1870s, to 5.8 million in 1906-10. As these figures indicate, Oxfordshire was much marked by the up horn, down corn transition. See J Orr, Agriculture in Oxfordshir~ Oxford, 1916, pp.232-6. 27. C Orwin and E Whetham, History of British Agriculture 1846-1914, Newton Abbot, 1964, pp.207-8; "Agricultural Gangs", Quarterly Review, vol.123, 1867, 173-90. The 1867 Act however did not particularly affect Oxfordshire children since such gangs were uncommon in the country; they were in fact to be found mainly in East Anglia. 28. Prejudice in the county against education for the working class, and the early entrance of working class village children into full time manual labour, remained common, in fact, right to the end ofthe period dealt with here. (SeeM Pickering, "Schooling Village Children in Edwardian England", Cake and Cockhors~ vol.8, no.8, Spring 1982, 232-40; see 237-8. 29. Leazing: gleaning. Children in the village were paid "a copper or two a bucket" for stone-picking. Sometimes families took on a whole field and were paid according to how many loads they collected in a special stone cart, which was kept alongside the muck cart, hay wagons and trollies. Picking was usually done "after a ploughing and a good rain." (Information from Ern Hitchman, formerly of East Adderbury.) 30. T Humphris, Garden Glory, London, 1969, pp.23, 34.

62 31. H Newby, 1977, p.ll. For a more detailed portrayal of child labour in the county than I have space to give here, see P Horn, "The Employment of Children in Victorian Oxfordshire", Midland History, Vol.4, No.1, Spring 1977, 61-74. 32. H Rider Haggard, Rural England, 2 vols., London, 1906, II, p.114. 33. A W Ashby, Allotments and Smallholdings in Oxfordshire, Oxford, 1917, pp.7-8. 34. This phrase is borrowed (and adapted) from P Willis, Learning to Labour, Farnborough, 1979. Dominant and subordinate forces can be understood here to refer to inequalities ofboth class and gender. It may be objected that many traditional rural songs were not concerned with power and deference, and that ofcourse is true. The analysis here though is directed at those songs which do in some way present a picture of social process and social structure. "The Farmer's Boy" naturally falls within this category. 35. SeeM Pickering, "The Passing of a Community and its Songs", unpublished PhD thesis, University of Leeds, 1978, 2 vols. 36. See for example, J Land B Hammond, The Village Labourer, London, 1966 edn.; R Samuel, ed., Village Life and Labour, London, 1975; P Horn, Labouring Lzfe in the Victorian Countryside, Dublin, 1976; G E Mingay, Rural Lzfe in Victorian England, London, 1977; and G E Min gay, ed., The Victorian Countryside, 2 vols., London, 1981. The two best local background texts for North Oxfords hire working class life in the Victorian period remain F Thompson, Lark Rise to Candleford, London, 1971 edn., and M K Ashby, Joseph Ashby of Tysoe, 1859- 1919, London, 1979 edn., but see also the useful section on the depression years in AM Taylor, Gilletts, Bankers at Banbury and Oxford, Oxford, 1964, ch. 10. 37. J W Robertson Scott, The Dying Peasant, London, 1926, p.98, my emphasis. 38. F M L Thompson, English Landed Society in the Nineteenth Century, London, 1971, p.184, cited in H Newby, 1977, p.49. 39. Two of the best recent studies of collector mediation are V Gammon, "Folk Song Collecting in Sussex and Surrey, 1843-1914", History Workshop Journal, no.lO, Autumn, 1980, 61-89, and D Harker, "Cecil Sharp in Somerset- Some Conclusions", Folk MusicJourna~ Vol.2, No.3, 1972, 220-40. See also the latter's "Francis James Child and the 'Ballad Consensus', Folk Music Journa~ Vol.4, No.2, 1981, 146-64. 40. F Clifford, The Agricultural Lock-Out of 1874, Edinburgh and London, 1875, p.360. 41. An article dealing with the struggle for allotment land in Adderbury is in the course of preparation. For the Adderbury branch of the N .A.L. U., see M Pickering, 1978, vol.l, pp.342-44; and for Oxfordshire as a whole, P Horn,­ " Agricultural Trade Unionism in Oxford shire", in J P D Dunbabin, Rural

63 Discontent in Nineteenth Century Britain, London, 1974, pp.85-129, and Oxford­ shire Record Society, XLVIII, 1974. 42. See J Saville, Rural Depopulation in England and Wales, 1851-1951, London, 1957, and P A Graham, The Rural Exodus, London, 1892. As Richard Heath put it, in writing about Oxfordshire: "What the Union chiefly has done has been to help the general discontent to express itself ..." (R Heath, The English Peasant, London, 1893, p.223.) 43. Banbury Guardia14 26.12.1878. 44. G E Mingay, 1977, pp.28, 98. 45. Banbury Guardia14 30.1.1873. 46. A L Lloyd, Folk Song in England, London,1967, p.184. 47. J P D Dunbabin, p.12. 48. It should perhaps be noted that to say the song was sung at communal gatherings is not the same as saying that it was sung communally. 49. Songs wherein the narrative culminates in the conferment of a providential gift were common in oral and printed tradition (e.g. "The Nobleman and the Thresher", or "The Banks ofSweet Dundee"; two quite distinct versions ofthe latter song were collected in Adderbury by Blunt, one from Sam Newman in January 1907, and the other from John Venville, a farm labourer, in December 1931 ). The providential gift element was also found in the older ballad tradition (e.g. "King Edward the Fourth and a Tanner of Tamworth", Child 273). 50. Jean-Claude Passeron, "Introduction to the French edition of The Uses of Literacy'~ Working Papers in Cultural Studies, No.1, Spring 1971, 128. 51. It is appropriate to note here that the song was sung as a farmworkers' anthem at meetings called in the 1890s by George Edwards in an attempt to revive the labourers' union. The suggested function of the song on these occasions was to establish a sense of dignity, fellow-feeling and pride of calling among farm workers in the face oftheir own exploitation and class subordination. (See G Edwards, From Crow-Scaring to Westminster, London, 1922, p.59.) Sunderland Polytechnic

64 Tovvards a Linguopoetic Study of Texts Olga Akhmanova and Yalta Zadornova

In the course of the nineteenth and early parts of the twentieth century the study of language was part of comparative philology. Later the term "philology" fell into disuse and the term "linguistics" was introduced to cover different varieties of linguistic study- logical-mathematical, aprioristic-deductive, etc. Today the most widely used modern innovation is "Textlinguistik". In contrast to "textology" as "a branch of philology concerned with authenticating the original texts ofliterary and historical documents" 1 the concept of"Textlinguistik" remains vague and elusive.2 The basic term itself- "text" -has never been adequately defined. All we know is that it refers to speech events ofany length, from one sentence up to a complete work of verbal art. The matter is further complicated by the fact that "discourse" is used along with "text" in practically the same sense, nobody having so far explained the difference between "Textlinguistik" and "discourse analysis". Whatever the term, it stands to reason that there still exists a considerable number ofpeople who describe themselves as Russian, English, German, etc. "philologists". They understand " philology" as "the general term used to describe, jointly, all the disciplines which study the language, the literature and the culture ofa given nation mainly through the medium of verbal art" .3 When this undifferentiated mass of material is investigated the natural desire of the human mind is to arrive at generalizations. It has already been established that language exists in a variety of functional styles characterized by peculiar features of their own. The almost endless variety of registers can be reduced to the basic dichotomy: intellective communication, the primary aim of which is to convey information (it is naturally associated with the intellective or referential function oflanguage), and verbal art, based predominantly on the function of impact. This does not mean to say that the two members of the dichotomy should be kept strictly apart since there is constant interchange and interpenetration between them.4 It is the predominance ofthe one or the other of the two registers that enables us to decide what kind of text we are dealing with in each particular case. We shall now assume that various problems connected with intellective communi­ cation have already been clarified. 5 Thus it may be posited that intellective communication is a scientifically regulated process based on the speaker's ability to manipulate ready-made material. The "creativity" of the speaker consists in the choice of this or that combination ofwords and constructions from among already existing ones. It follows that what we are primarily concerned with in the present paper is the second member of the dichotomy, that is, the creative use oflanguage, the scrcalled verbal art. Philology has always been concerned with the understanding and

65 interpretation of imaginative writing. To understand the essence of this creative activity, to know on what "verbal creativity" depends, is probably the most important problem of philology. But how do we know that a given text belongs to verbal art? Where do we draw a line between works ofverbal art and all the other kinds of writing? Are there any objective criteria to rely upon? A very important difference between verbal art and intellective communication consists in the fact that the latter is basically semiotic. It is well known that for a message to be operative both the sender and the receiver must share the knowledge of the same code and therefore be able to correlate a given expression with its corresponding content, this being the very essence of semiosis. It should be added that although a sign has long been assumed to consist of the two functives (content and expression) it can function as a sign if there is also the third component- the convention of the two communicating parties according to which the particular instance of unity of the two planes is apprehended as a sign. In verbal art, more often than not, this basic semiotic condition is disregarded. The attention of the sender of the message is focused not on its content but on the way it is arranged or shaped. This results in metasemiosis when a "sign" (a linguistic unit in our case) functions on the meta-level. The con tent and expression ofa linguistic unit are not in this case aimed at conveying straightforward information, but both together serve as expression for a new meta-content. Thus with no one-to-one correspondence between content and expression in verbal art there can be no agreement between the sender and the receiver to enable them to apprehend the "sign" in its established, or conventional, sense. It follows that in the case ofan intellective text every word and word-combination is directly decodable by both the sender and the receiver of the message, for their intercourse is based on the same set ofunits. In contrast to intellective communica­ tion, verbal art is not based on a shared semiotic system. The recipient ofthe message is not provided in advance with a sample of the mutual "code". The "code" is every time the writer's own and the reader is supposed to be able to "crack" it anew every time he is confronted with a hitherto unknown piece of imaginative writing. The "cracking'' of the codes or, more immediately, the decoding of the texts is effected by means of lingua-stylistic analysis which comprises the semantic (or semiotic) and the metasemiotic levels.6 On the semantic level linguistic units are part of the ernie system oflanguage. They are apprehended in terms oftheir general linguistic content (or the so-called nominative, "direct" meanings). This is however only the first step from which to pass on to the metasemiotic, or stylistic analysis. On the metasemiotic level a content ofthe second order (or metacontent) is created. Otherwise stated, on the metasemiotic level it is the connotations linguistic units acquire in a given context which come first. The method oflinguostylistic analysis is universal in the sense that it can be applied

66 to all kinds of texts, irrespective of register. Even scientific texts (whose purport consists in passing on intellective information in accordance with established usage) may contain a certain proportion of metasemiotic utterances which are therefore analysable in terms of both levels. The following examples will help further to clarifY the point. We begin our analysis with an intellective text: "Investigating the interrelation between linguistics and semiotics is ofthe greatest theoretical and practical significance, because this, probably, is the only way to achieve if not a complete understanding, then, at least, a sufficiently clear explanation of the actual state of affairs in this controversial domain of human knowledge." The very first step in this direction should probably consist of casting a critical glance at the still prevalent tendency to approach semiotics in the spirit of"word­ fetishism". Although this may not be acceptable to everybody, we have nevertheless sufficient grounds to assume that to most of the more sophisticated students of the Humanities, especially the younger ones, semiotics is, first ofall, a new, modern and highly commendable key to all humanistic problems. They apprehend its content, its significance, its definition as something that has long been generally accepted and recognized, and therefore think that there is no room for doubts of any kind.? Here the lexis is used in accordance with what has been described above as the "shared code". Expressions like "to be ofgreat theoretical and practical significance", "to achieve a complete understanding", "the actual state of affairs", "human knowledge", "to cast a critical glance", "to have sufficient grounds to assume" etc. re both "coded" and "decoded" in a rapid give-and-take, without any ambivalence. Every expression is immediately correlated with a corresponding content. Adherent connotation is discernible only in phrases like "the more sophisticated students of the Humanities" and "a new, modern and highly commendable key to all problems". They nevertheless remain within the bounds ofthe "shared code". With a work of verbal art one begins with metasemiosis. Even with well known extracts and passages the reader often fails to "decode" the author's " poetic message" (in Roman Jakobson's terms).8 What do phrases like, for example, "to shuffle off this mortal coil", "the law's delay", "whips and scorns of time", "the native hue of resolution", "the pale cast of thought"9 etc. really mean? The intrinsic difficulties inherent in imaginative writing stand out. They become immediately apparent when the original text is compared with its translation. There exist, for instance, at least a dozen Russian versions of each of the above Shakespearian phrases: "when we have shuffled off this mortal coil" - kogda mjatez'nuju my svergnem brennost'; kogda burja zizni proletit; kogda strjaxnem my suetu zemnuju; kogda my sovleC'em s sebja polry~ku ploti; kogda strjaxnem zemnuju obolocku; kogda my sbrosim etot brennyj sum; kogda pokrov zemnogo

67 cuvstva snjat etc., "the law's delay"- zakonov slabost'/medlennost'/bezdejstvie/ tsceta; bessil"e prava; medlitel 'nost' sudov; provo locka v sud ax etc.; "whips and scorns of time" - zloba sveta; izdevki sovremennosti; bic i posmejan'e veka; nevzgody mnogix let; bi~evan"e i nasme~ki ljudskoj tolpy; sud'by nasmeski i obidy; pleti i glumlen'e veka; vremeni udary, glum; bici i nasme~ki zizni etc.* On p.64 above, the term "linguostylistics" was introduced as the first step in the study ofliterary discourse. It was also explained that we need go no further if what we are after is discrimination between the two main registers in terms of"shared" versus "non-shared" codes. But is it the whole story? Probably not, for it is generally assumed that there is something peculiar about a work offiction which distinguishes it from an intellective text. This "something" has variously been described as the "theme", the "literary message", the "global purport" etc. Whatever the term, a text ("proizvedenie reci") is a piece of"creative verbal art'' ("slovesn~xudo~estvennoe tvort'estvo") if it contains something that requires a different, a "higher", a more sophisticated form of analysis - the linguopoetic one. 10 In contrast to what we have described as "linguostylistic" analysis (which concentrates on the text of a work of verbal art) linguopoetic analysis envisages a work of literary art as a global whole. Linguopoetic analysis implies the analyst's ability to take into account the historical-cultural background ofa piece ofliterature as well as the place it occupies among other works by the same author, for the analyst's aim now is the nature of the aesthetic impact, the specific "chemistry" of the imaginative text. The difference between the two kinds of analysis can also be explained in purely pragmatic terms. The linguostylistic method is generally accessible, for its simple, step-by-step techniques are within reach of every undergraduate. For linguopoetic analysis no reliable methods have so far been worked out. It is still not clear how to teach the students to understand and appreciate the way a piece ofbelles-lettres is organized as a global work of art. One even wonders if it is not too subtle to be taught and learnt as part of a curriculum. Without that, however, understanding a literary text (and ability to enjoy it fully) is seriously impaired.

Take, for example, Mark Anthony's famous monologue (Julius Caesa~ act Ill, scene 2). Does it suffice (1 )to understand the meaning and connotations ofall the words and (2) the unique interplay ofcolligation and collocation?11 Or must one take a broader standpoint, study the material in the context of the whole play, against its historical­ political background? Ought we not to take into account the political situation in Rome in the first century B.C., the attitude of the masses and that of the aristocracy towards Caesar? Last but not least the fact that they used different languages­ Latin and Greek- and the way this linguistic situation is reflected in Brutus' and Mark Antony's addresses? We have already spoken ofthe "global" approach. LinguopoeticallyAntony's poetic monologue should be carefully compared with what Brutus actually said - the

68 words he used, the prose of his speech. Shakespeare may have chosen prose for Brutus- as against Mark Antony's poetry - to bring about the difference between Latin (?) and Greek (?) or, maybe, the different styles of the vernacular. It follows that although all work in the field begins with a step-by-step linguostylistic analysis - with special reference to the poetic structure of each particular text - the ultimate aim cannot be reached without a broad philological interpretation and an overall, global appraisal of the whole.

*Editor's note: I am indebted to Dr P J Mayo for transliteration of the original Cyrillic.

Notes 1. 0 S Akhmanova, Slovar' lingvisticeskix terminov, Moscow, 1966, p.471. 2. See, for example, R A Budagov, 'V kakoj mere "lingvistika teksta" javljaetsja lirigvistikoj?', Filologiceskie nauki, Moscow, 1979, No.2. 3. Akhmanova, op.cit., p.492. y 4. See, for example, M S Cakovskaj a, Funkczja vozdejstvija i/unkcija soobscenzja kak tekstologiceskaja problema, MGU, Moscow, 1977. 5. One can be referred among other sources to the journal "Fachsprache" published in Vienna which deals with various problems of "Language for Special Purposes". See also: Olga Akhmanova, R F Idzelis, "What is the English We Use?, MGU, Moscow, 1978. 6. The method oflinguostylistic analysis is explained in detail in: Olga Akhmanova, Velta Zadornova, "On Linguopoetic Stratification ofLiterary Texts", Poetica, Tokyo, 1977, No.7; Velta Zadornova, "Concerning the Didactics of Lingua­ poetic analysis", CIEFL Bulletin, Hyderabad, XV, No.2, 1979. 7. Olga Akhmanova, R F Idzelis, "Linguistics and Semiotics", MGU, Moscow, 1979, pp.4-5. 8. R J akobson, "Linguistics and Poetics", in: Style in Language, ed. Th.A. Sebeok, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1960. 9. These phrases come from Hamlet's soliloquy "To Be or Not to Be" (Hamlet, m. 1). 10. See Olga Akhmanova, Velta Zadornova, op.cit.; Velta Zadornova, op.cit.; S K Gasparj an, "Dialekticeskoe edinstvo lingvostilisticeskogo i lingvopoeticeskogo izucenija xudozestvennoj literatury" in Dialektika edinicnogo, osobennogo i vseobscego v nauke o jazyke, ed. 0 S Akhmanova, N B Gvi~iani, MG U, Moscow, 1980. 11. See especially the unrivalled Roman Jakobson's structural analysis of Mark Antony's monologue (R Jakobson, op.cit.). English Department, Faculty of Philology, Moscow State University

69 Children's Halloween Customs 1n Sheffield E Beck

In troduct ion Autumn can be a busy time indeed for the English child immersed in traditional ways. Beginning in late October, he can gather wood for a bonfire, prepare a disguise and turnip lantern for Halloween, frighten passers-by, play pranks on his neighbours, go from house to house for gifts, sing and chant seasonal rhymes, eat seasonal foods, prepare a Guy Fawkes figure, collect money with his guy, play more pranks on neighbours and then, on November 5th, watch a huge bonfire consume rubbish and guy in a glorious blaze that marks the end of one season and the beginning of another. Fortunately, the English school calendar sometimes grants a week's holiday at the very time when the children's calendar of folk activities reaches its most festive point. Although this rich complex of childlore beckons the folklorist, most discussions of English calendar customs do not do it justice. Many writers, particularly in the Batsford county folklore series, continue to be mainly concerned with earlier customs, making only vague, general references to current practices. Two examples will suffice. About Halloween practices current in Orkney and Shetland, Ernest W Marwick says only this: The celebration ofHallowe' en is practically universal in Britain, and in the northern isles children light their turnip lanterns and put on fantastic masks, just as children do everywhere. 1 And about Guy Fawkes in today' s Somerset, Kingsley Palmer says only: November 5 is a festival as popular as ever today but it is not restricted to Somerset, nor does the county offer any particular details lacking elsewhere. So it is enough to note the custom as an example of living folklore. 2 These writers are typical ofothers in assuming that everybody does things the same way and that everybody knows what everybody else does. Even writers who try harder to describe contemporary practices do so on the basis of impressionistic observation, rather than carefully assembled data. Only after much more documen­ ted evidence has been gathered will we have satisfactory descriptions of current practices which will, in turn, support helpful generalisations about the nature and meaning of these days for their child celebrants. The obvious exception in this situation, ofcourse , is the fine work published in 1959 by Iona and Peter Opie. Based on material from informants from all over Great Britain, their seventeen page discussion of Halloween, Mischief Night, and Guy Fawkes Day offers the only well researched index to recent practices.3 Their work is

70 particularly valuable for its coverage of children's games and rhymes and for its abilty, in a brief space, to evoke the actual practice of children in farflung areas of Britain. It is less helpful, though, in exploring the social context of the lore it presents, in giving a clear sense of the actual practice ofany one area, in generalising about the degree of participation by children in the varied activities, and in identifying new trends in the observation of Halloween and Guy Fawkes Day. Indeed, one of the main theses of the Opies is that childlore is quite consistent from place to place and similar from time to time. Yet the recent introduction into England of Halloween trick-or-treat and the growing importance of city-sponsored Guy Fawkes bonfires are just two examples ofchange that affect the Opies' data and that emphasise further the need for studies that describe contemporary practice in more detail than has hitherto been done. The paper that follows, along with three companion pieces to be published later,4 will attempt to describe in detail the celebration ofHalloween and Guy Fawkes Day in the north-western part of the Metropolitan District of Sheffield in South Yorkshire. Evidence upon which the essays are based comes from a five page questionnaire administered to 649 schoolchildren from seven to sixteen years old in seven schools in the Sheffield school system. The schools and the ages of their children included in the survey are as follows: Wisewood Comprehensive (11-16 yrs) and WisewoodJunior and Infant(7-10 yrs) Schools, located in the Hillsborough area, a community of mainly skilled workers; Hallam Middle School (8-11 yrs ), located in the Fulwood area, a community ofprimarily managerial and professional families; Tapton Comprehensive (12-14 yrs), which receives some of its students from Hallam but has a more diverse student body, located in the middle class area of Ranmoor; Bradfield Comprehensive (11-16 yrs), located in Worrall but serving a semi-rural population in the villages ofStannington, Loxley, Dungworth, Oughti­ bridge, Bradfield and Wharncliffe Side; Bolsterstone Church ofEnglandJunior and Infant (7-10 yrs), the northernmost school, serving the small village ofBolsterstone and the nearby town ofStocksbridge; and St Catherine's Roman Catholic Junior and Infant (10 yrs), located in a community of mainly council housing estates in Pitsmoor, on the near north-east side of the city.5 Since Hallam children attend Tapton for secondary education, and since Wisewood J and I children go on to Wisewood Comprehensive, these schools are referred to as "Hallam-Tapton" and "Wisewood-Wisewood" whenever generalisations are made about a span ofages within a certain community. Although Bolsterstone children go to Stocks bridge for secondary school, they are sometimes cited along with Bradfield schoolchildren, as "Bolsters tone-Bradfield", since both schools represent rural communities on the fringes of Sheffield proper. Oversimplified in socio-economic terms, the Hallam-Tapton students tend to come from middle class families; the Wisewood-Wisewood children from lower middle or working class families; the St Catherine's children from working class families; and the Bolsterstone-Bradfield children from urban villages or farm families of varied socio-economic levels. 71 Few statiStics will be supplied in the essays because of the nature of the questionnaire and the population sampled. Composed ofseventy two mainly short­ answer questions, the questionnaire was too difficult for some of the younger children, who lacked the experience and/or time to flll it out in detail. The percentages supplied summarise only the broad patterns of activity that can be accurately and fully measured. In addition to the data generated by the questionnaire, the study includes information elicited in interviews with more than thirty of the respondents, most of them being children who were especially active in Halloween and Guy ·Fawkes activities in 1981. A number of adults who grew up in Sheffield were also interviewed, in order to add some historical perspecive. However, the emphasis of the present study is on current practice, rather than current practice seen in the light ofthe past, which would require much more historical reconstruction than has been possible here. Critics will easily notice that this is not a "scientific" study in terms of sampling techniques. Not all schools within the designated area have been surveyed, one school (St Catherine's) outside the area has been included, and the range of ages , sampled within schools is not always consistent. The study cannot be used to make generalisations about the whole city ofSheffield, let alone all ofEngland. Even for north-western Sheffield the study is most accurate in documenting the variety ofpractice rather than the practice that is generally true of any one neighbourhood. Yet despite the armchair fieldwork and the irregular sampling, the study represents the only such attempt to document current practices, and until it is supplemented or superseded by similar studies from other geographic areas and by detailed studies ofparticular features of the celebrations, it will offer the best guide available to what some English children do nowadays to celebrate Halloween and Guy Fawkes Day. For convenience' sake, the report will cluster observations around the two separate days of October 31st and November 5th, as have previous discussions of calendar customs. However, as will be made clear by the unfolding discussions, the single most important insight resulting from the study is that many children tend to regard the days as part of a coherent, single week of activity. The final task, then, will be to analyse the meaning present for children in the course of this sustained autumn festival. As a preliminary indication of the importance and unity ofthe festival, one should first of all notice the high, overall participation by children in this cluster ofautumn traditions. About ninety percent did something special for Halloween and/ or Bonfrre Night in 1981. Many of the ten percent who were inactive were gone from Sheffield on holiday. Inactivity among fifteen- and sixteen-year-olds was highest (thirty one percent and forty five percent respectively), often because they had too

72 much homework to "be bothered". However, even those who did not go Halloweening, make a guy, or attend a bonfire party tended nevertheless to join two seasonal activities: they ate traditional seasonal foods, such as parkin, flapjack, bonfire toffee, toffee apples and jacket potatoes,6 and they also lit or enjoyed someone else's fireworks. Food and fireworks therefore emerge as the irreducible elements ofthe days under consideration, and they are often enjoyed throughout the week, not just on the single days of October 31st and November 5th. They become perhaps the most important of many elements that unite the single days into a rather homogenous season of events.?

Halloween Customs Evidence from the questionnaire suggests that Sheffield children engage in a wide range of Halloween activities, ranging from rather passive observances at home and at parties to the rather aggressive outdoor activities of frightening passers-by, playing tricks on neighbours, and going from house to house while "caking" or "trick-or treating". Because ofthe wide variety of possible activities and the varied days on which they may occur, and also because most communities are experiencing a transition from one kind ofobservance to another, it is very difficult to generalise about Halloween practices at the present time. It seems safe to say, however, that activities associated with "Caking Night" (traditional in some areas on November 1st) and with "Mischief Night" (traditional in some areas on November 4th) are appearing on Halloween (October 31st) in the form ofthe new convention, "Trick or Treat", which is emerging in parts of the city where neither caking nor mischief was earlier practised. As a consequence of children's interest in this new convention, Halloween, which in earlier years had little character or significance for any Sheffield children, is becoming increasingly colourful and important. One major task of this essay will be to account for the origins and nature of trick-or-treat in Sheffield and to analyse the appeal that it has for children, as well as the opposition it arouses in adults unused to the caking tradition. About one third of all children surveyed participated in some kind of special Halloween activity. Only about nine percent attended some kind of Halloween party and about twenty nine percent engaged in some kind of outdoor activity, usually trick-or-treat. Eleven-year-olds, with fifty eight percent involved, showed the most activity; sixteen-year-olds, with only five percent involved, showed the least. Halloween activity was most intense among Hallam nine- and ten-year-olds, but was virtually missing in their counterparts at St Catherine's school. Of those children who observed Halloween indoors, a significant few remained at home, enjoying seasonal activities- usually traditional, child-directed ones- with other family members. For instance, Jessica, aged nine, and her brother celebrated "All Hallow's Eve" by playing "bob-apple" and dressing up- Jessica in a witch's costume. Dressed in ghost costumes, Caroline, aged twelve, and her brother and his

73 friend sat at the end of their drive with a lantern. Claire, aged nine, " played at witches" with her cousin. The most popular stay-at-home activity for Halloween was the making oflanterns out of turnips or pumpkins and then playing with them. This making oflanterns is, of course, a traditional seasonal activity in England, but the use of pumpkins is relatively new. Although some children regard a turnip lantern as a " pumpkin", most know the difference and some now make pumpkin lanterns instead. Since the pumpkin has been an exotic vegetable in England, one assumes that the making of pumpkin lanterns is an imported custom, apparently from the United States, where pumpkin "jack-o-lanterns" have long been made by children at Halloween. Even so, in 1981 turnips outnumbered pumpkins among the Sheffield children surveyed by about four to one, a ratio that may shrink if more English parents imitate the example set by the father of Andrew, aged twelve. This year, for the first time, he grew a crop of pumpkins in his garden, one of which Andrew used to make his Halloween lantern. 8 The more typical Halloween parties held away from home tended to be adult­ directed and to feature elements drawn from popular culture rather than folk traditions. Children went to churches, private clubs, ice skating rinks, the homes of friends, or Brownies' or Scouts' meeting places. None reported attending parties at schools, although Bradfield has, in past years, sponsored Halloween disco parties in response to schoolchildren's requests. On an informal level, Jason, aged ten, gave a party for fifteen friends in his garage, during which they also went trick-or-treating. At her church party, Susan, aged thirteen, and her friends sat at lantern-lit tables and " played beetles"-probably the card game Beetle Drive. Karen, aged eight, and her friends were asked by the adults in charge to compose poems about Halloween. The formal parties typically offered disco-dancing as their main entertainment, required fancy dress, and gave prizes for the best costumes.9 The fancy dress reported at parties overwhelmingly favours disguise as a witch, which complements many younger children's feelings that Halloween is truly " Witches Night" . Ghost costumes run a close second in popularity, derived perhaps from the traditional feeling that spirits are active during the nights associated with All Saints Day (November 1st) and All Souls Day (November 2nd). Not many children venture beyond these two conventional disguises, although there are instances ofchildren in cat, Dracula, pirate, clown, wizard, monster, zombie, devil, Wolfman, werewolf and "punk rocker" costumes. Costuming seems to be more varied and elaborate at Halloween parties than during caking or trick-or-treat. Halloween party-going tends to introduce new traditions in foods into the season. Most children who reported eating special foods at the end of October ate such things as parkin, bonfrre toffee, flapjack, toffee apples, jacket potatoes and turnips. Party buffets usually ignore these traditional foods in favour of" party" foods that sometimes verge on the exotic in attempting to capture the Halloween theme. In

74 addition to pop, crisps and cakes, party-goers were frequently treated to such things as "ghost cake" and "Halloween biscuits", washed down with "Witches' brew", a blackcurrant drink reported from several schools, or "tomato sauce blood", made of tomato sauce and potatoes. Such tendencies in food also rna tch the special party gear illustrated by the "Halloween hat" and "streamers" given to people at some of the parties. It is probably no coincidence that party attendance was highest among nine- and ten-year-olds at Hallam Middle School, which is located in the Fulwood area, where, according to one adult, Halloween parties are of a longstanding tradition. Party attendance is lowest at the Bolsterstone and Bradfield schools, in communities where the outdoor activities of caking and mischief have been traditional. Among the twenty nine percent of the children who go "Halloweening" outdoors, eleven-year-olds again are the most active (fifty percent participation) and fifteen­ and sixteen-year-olds are least active (six percent and five percent). " Halloweening" is a term used for three sometimes discretely different kinds of activity: frightening people, playing pranks, and trick-or-treating. The smallest number ofchild ren limit their activity to frightening people; the largest number "go trick-or-treating" or " do trick-or-treat" or "play trick-or-treat". Since trick-or-treat, in effect, inclu des the earlier customs of mischief and caking, it will be instructive to consider those two traditions and their vestigial survivals before describing trick-or-treat. The Sheffield area has had a long tradition of children playing pranks, or doing " mischief", on a certain night of the year known as "MischiefNight". In his glossary for Sheffield (1888) S 0 Addy associates MischiefNight with April 30th, the night before May Day. " On the evening ofthis day", says Addy, "gates are pulled off their hinges and hung up in trees, and many other acts of wanton mischief committed." This date for MischiefNight is apparently no longer observed in the areas his work covered - the parishes of Sheffield, Ecclesfield, Bradfield and Handsworth. 10 A second local tradition associates Mischief Night with November 4th, the evening before Guy Fawkes Day. Alexander Howard discusses it especially in regard to York, the home ofFawkes, and speaks of its "extensive" observance there prior to World War 11. 11 The third local tradition associates MischiefNight with October 31st, or Halloween, as in Mary AJ agger's discussion ofYorkshire traditions in 1914.12 Sheffield custom of about forty years ago illustrates a blend or mixture of these last two dates, October 31st and November 4th. Middle-aged informants recall the observance of November 4th as Mischief Night on the south-east and northern fringes of Sheffield- e.g. Woodhouse in the south-east, Stocksbridge in the north­ although not in the main part of the city itsel£ In Pitsmoor, children went outdoors to frighten people not only on November 4th, but also through the preceding week, and did not use the term" MischiefNight". In the Nether Edge area, MischiefNight was synonymous with Halloween, as it also was in Stannington. To complicate the situation, November 1st was Mischief Night for some children in Loxley.

75 Current practice also shows a mixture of dates for Mischief Night, with different patterns emerging even within the same neighbourhood. Although October 31st is now, in effect, Mischief Night in north-western Sheffield, relatively few children­ especially those who do trick-or-treat- use this terminology. Only at Bradfield is October 31st often called Mischief Night instead of Halloween. Only three schoolchildren at Wisewood and three at Bradfield (from Loxley and Stannington) called November 4th Mischief Night and also observed it as such; one other at Wisewood and two others at Bradfield observed Mischief Night on November 4th but did not so name it. Some children played tricks, they say, every night from October 31st to November 4th, thereby observing almost a week of mischief And one twelve-year-old boy even claimed that he goes sneaking through people' s gardens "almost every night" of the year! As mentioned above, some Sheffield children restrict their Halloween activity to roaming around outdoors, frightening the people they meet. This behaviour is most prevalent among Bolsterstone and Wisewood children and rare among those at Tapton, Hallam and St Catherine's. Adrian, aged eleven, says he goes out "scaring people up". Annette, also eleven, went out " to scare all the bad spirits away". One appropriate costume for this activity is black, or at least dark, clothes, to enable the frightener to blend with the night. Alternatively, he/she may wear a mask and/or costume of a witch or ghost to enhance his/her frightening appearance. Frequently he/she carries a turnip or pumpkin lantern, which he/she conceals and then flashes when someone approaches. Often the frightener lurks in parks, churchyards, or behind walls and privets, ready to startle or " spook" passers-by. Most of today's frights seem less severe than the throwing of firecrackers, or " hangers", at unsuspecting passers-by that was the common scare two generations ago. Only scattered instances of that ruse are heard of today. One child walked around with green foam coming from his mouth, the effect oftablets bought at a joke shop. Another child threw a trick spider at his victim. One saw someone with a plank surrounding his head, giving the effect of a severed head resting on a table. Another one saw turnip lanterns suspended in the air, hanging on canes over hedges. Mark, aged nine, held a turnip lantern up to a window. Darren, aged ten, went down the street making owl hoots and ghost noises. Carl, thirteen, even taperecorded ghost noises from his father's sound effects record, knocked on doors, and played that scary sound when people opened the door. Such experiences in creating fear may affect the frightener more than his victim s. Such is the case, at least, with one fourteen-year-old boy who went out " scaring" on Halloween in the company of his friends, wearing his regular clothes and a mask and making ghost-like noises. Ofthe effect of the experience on him, he says: " You could be walking down a . .. long street and it's pitch black and you' re acting like a ghost or something creepy and you give yourself creeps. You' re waiting for something to jump out at you, or something like that." Here the Halloween 76 experience becomes a self-induced initiation into fear, disciplined by the conven­ tionalised activity of which it is a part and tempered by the comforting presence of other friends engaged in the same activity. The larger number of children who go "mischieving'' or "tormenting" mix the scaring of unsuspecting passers-by with tricks that evoke smiles, create petty nuisances, or deface or harm property. Usually children direct these tricks toward unseen house- or property-owners, rather than people in the street. No masks or costumes are needed, but are sometimes worn anyway. Ordinary clothing will do for these tricksters' guise, although they often wear dark or black clothes to help them blend into their surroundings in case the property-owner suddenly appears. Some tricks are so well known and so often repeated that they have acquired names. The most popular trick is knocking on someone' s door and then running away before the householder can open it. Only occasionally does the trickster remain at the door to scare the answerer by jumping at him. Known by many as "knock and run" or "ring and run", this trick is so common that some children refer to the entire evening's activity as "knocking and running". It is also known, more imaginatively, as "thunder and lightning'', which, according to Robert, aged ten, refers to the fact that they "knock like thunder and run like lightning" .13 In a variant of this trick, called "Tom and Jerry'' by Andrew, twelve, one person knocks on the window while another one knocks simultaneously on the door. In yet another, but unnamed, variant, two children knock on adjacent bay windows, duck down and then enjoy watching householders come to the windows and look out at each other. The second most often reported trick is called "catwalking'', "catcrawling", "catcreeping'' or "hedgehopping". This refers to jumping over privet hedges and walls and walking through people's gardens, undetected, sometimes on hands and knees. "We crawled round people's backs and sneaked about," said Matthew, aged twelve. Although the nuisance value ofthis trick arises only if the property owner knows someone has violated his private space, the fear-inducing experience for the trickster is again very evident. "Howling bomb" refers to paper put in a drainpipe and set ablaze, with a resultant roar. To "bolt it" is to tie two large nails together with a long string, wedge one nail in a crack above a door, suspend the other in front ofthe door, and then- from a long distance- tug on the string to make the nail tap on the door. The same thing can also be done with a button on a window.14 An inventory of other tricks mentioned in the survey can be organised according to various degrees ofseverity. The categories in the following list are suggestive, rather than definitive, since - depending on variation or severity of each application of each trick- an item might better fit in one of the earlier or later categories.

Visual jokes Turn parked cars around; put onions in envelopes and insert them in letter boxes; exchange signs; attach the sign "To be demolished" to something; put a "For Sale" 77 sign on a parked car; put this sign on empty milk bottles: "Having a party, 16 pints please".

Frights Throw firecrackers at doors; put firecrackers through letter boxes; shout through letter boxes; rattle letter boxes; burn paper in letter boxes; tie milk bottles to door handles; shoot a pea-shooter against windows; throw wet toilet rolls against windows; put a turnip lantern on a porch, ring the bell, run away; stuffweeds up the exhaust pipes of vehicles; pretend to smash windows. 15

Nuisances Remove garden or school gates; put sellotape or gum over door-bells; tie adjacent gates or doors together; remove dustbin lids; pull door knockers from long distances by means of strings; tie door handles to dustbins, cause draughts; tie back doors to front doors; exchange doorbell cases; put bubbly-gum or vaseline on doorknobs; tie doorknobs to posts; put milk bottles on doorsteps or window-sills; fill keyholes with tape.

Defacement Put dog turds on the front doorstep; wrap dog turds in newspaper on the front doorstep; 16 throw rotten eggs or tomatoes at the windows ofhouses and buses; spray doors; throw water at people; smear windows with lard; strew toilet paper around outdoors; put chalk marks on doors; light stink bombs; put washable ink on someone's clothing; spray stringy stuff from an aerosol can; empty rubbish on driveways.

Petty vandalism Put a rope across steps in order to trip passers-by; cut down washing lines; let out air from car or caravan tyres; burn other people's Guy Fawkes bonfire piles; paint letter boxes. Most of these tricks are, of course, innocuous; at their worst, they result in minor destruction of property. The worst trick reported in 1981 may have been the removal of a gate, which was then thrown into a wood and not found until several days later. Or maybe it was the one reported by a seventeen-year-old whose sole contribution to Halloween was "lighting little kids' bonfires". The contemporary tricks seem less malicious than those reported as typical two generations ago: stealing people's gates in order to burn them on Bonfire Night and throwing firecrackers at unsuspecting people. Indeed, a representative ofthe South Yorkshire Police reports that the autumn mischief season brings no noticeable increase in incidents of vandalism. The situation is such that they can turn a blind eye to the tricks that are performed and not need to prosecute people even for the occasional "borrowed" gate. Ifmischief marks the dark, sinister side of the Halloween season, then the tradition 78 of caking (or "kaking'' as it is spelled in Stannington) embodies its bright, sociable side. In its early form, of course, caking consisted of families in house-to-house visitation, undisguised, singing the caking or "souling'' song and then expecting gifts offood or money from home-owners. "Soul cakes" were given to the visitors for their promising, in turn, to say prayers for the souls of the dead, as commemorated by the church on All Souls Day, November 2nd. Caking occurred either on November 2nd or during the evening ofNovember 1st. In later years, the tradition was taken over by children, who sometimes donned disguise or went around in blackface. 17 Although this tradition was apparently not typical of most of Sheffield forty years ago, it was present in some villages to the north and north-west of the city, such as Stocksbridge, Bolsterstone, Stannington, Dungworth and Loxley. Some children there still follow the custom and go caking or "kay-kaying"18 Three examples will indicate the present form of caking among children from different villages. Joanne, aged eleven, went caking in Stannington with a friend on October 30th. Dressed as clowns, they knocked on about twenty doors along her road, said the traditional caking rhyme ("Cake, cake, copper, copper"), and received about ten pence from each householder. She learned the rhyme from her mother and father and does not know what "cake" or "caking" refers to. "We just say it," she says. Michelle, eleven, ofWharncliffe Side, near Oughtibridge, went caking (she calls it " singing" ) with fifteen friends, also on October 30th. She was not disguised, but a few ofher friends wore masks and costumes. They sang the song, "Build a Bonfire" , and received about ten pence from each house. Dressed in his ordinary clothes, Carl, twelve, went with some friends to about fifteen houses in Loxley on October 30th, sang no songs, said, "Can we have some money, please?" and received about five pounds in total. He does not know what "caking" means either; he "just adopted it" from his parents. This is the tradition, then, that, combined with the mischieftradition , resembles the trick-or-treat now dominating the Halloween activities of the children sampled. The combination, of course, actually creates a new convention that differs in some important ways from its two prototypes. Most children would join Shrooti, aged twelve, in saying that in trick-or-treat: "You go and knock on people's houses, on our road, you see. And you say, 'Trick or treat'. And if they say 'Treat' they give you something. If they say 'Trick' then you play a trick on them." To this summary should be added a few other details. Children usually travel in groups oftwo or three, although groups ofup to fifteen children are also reported. They usually visit only the houses on their road or in their own neighbourhood, although one twelve-year-old boy said he visited between 100 and 200 houses. They often carry turnip or pumpkin lanterns with them. Frequently they alter their appearance by means of costumes, masks, or heavy make-up, including blackface19• And they frequently sing a song before the door is opened.

79 The song is normally not the traditional caking song; rather, it is usually some song about witches, frequently "Ttte Witches ofHalloween". Although they are likely to receive from two to ten pence at each house, they are almost as likely to receive sweets instead of, or in addition to, the money. In anticipation of such gifts they carry a tin or bag to put the handouts in. Sometimes a part ofthe fun includes the host's having to guess the identity of the disguised children. Although trick-or-treat, taken literally, extorts money on the basis ofthreatened harm if no gift is forthcoming, the trickery associated with the new convention appears to be even more benign than that in the separate tradition ofMischief Night. It may be that the child finds it considerably more risky to play a trick with impunity after he has been scrutinised by a killjoy adult who refuses to join the festivity. In actual practice, of course, adults seldom refuse to treat their visitors. For Darren, ten, a trick may be simply a joke that he tells to the householder. This year he used: " A man goes into a barber shop and says, 'Give me a haircut.' And he says, 'Which one?' " For Victoria, eleven, the reverse is true; the householder has to think of a joke. This year she was posed the riddle: "What has twenty two people and it's a team?" The answer is a football team. One householder entered into the trick-or­ treat spirit by playing her own trick on her visitors. She threw eggshells at them. Fortunately, she is a nice lady, says Sally, aged eight. Ofcourse, many children play tricks in greater earnest than these examples suggest. All of the tricks listed earlier may follow as punishment for slighting child visitors. One twelve-year-old girl- unnamed here because her parents do not know she does mischief at Halloween - always plays tricks at houses where there is no response to her knocking. Similarly, the earlier tradition at Loxley was to go caking one night and mischieving the next, in order to wreak revenge upon tight-fisted householders from the first night. Some children in the Bradfield area still follow that sequence. For various reasons, Halloween trick-or-treat has aroused bewildered opposition from adults in most of the communities surveyed, even though, in most respects, it actually differs little from children's autumnal traditions with a long history of acceptance in England. For adults in communities where caking has not been customary, trick-or-treat is a distasteful convention because it sanctions begging­ like behaviour in children. For adults in communities where caking and mischief have been traditional, Halloween trick-or-treat adds yet one more convention to a season already full of children' s nocturnal adventure. And, finally, for all adults, trick-or-treat is not only something new, which automatically makes it suspect, but is apparently also borrowed from America, which makes it even worse. These problematic aspects oftrick-or-treat are important enough to warrant discussion, one by one. The feeling that trick-or-treat is really begging is illustrated by the fact that, among children who do not go trick-or-treating, the main reason given is that they, or their parents, regard it as begging. As Alison, ten, said: " It puts a bad influence on your

80 parents" (i.e. it gives the parents of trick-or-treaters a bad reputation among other adults). Elizabeth, eight, agrees, saying that trick-or-treat is "bribery" and disturbs her neighbours. Some children are openly rejected by people who open the door; others are given only as much time and money as it takes to get rid of them. An occasional solution for this problem is for the children to tell their hosts that they will give all money received to charity. So, Alison gave her £2.50 to the Loxley band; Darren, ten, gave his £3 to the R.S.P.C.A.; and Joanne, eleven, gave her money to the Year ofthe Disabled, having contributed last year's proceeds to the N.S.P.C.C. No child reported collecting for UNICEF, which is common in the United States. New trick-or-treat and the enhanced status of Halloween have caused the most bewildered confusion for adults living in some villages served by Bradfield School, particularly Stannington and Dungworth, communities used to October 31st as MischiefNight and November 1st as caking night. The situation there is especially awkward for children because, since World War II, adults have developed their own passive tradition of caking night in local pubs, notably the Crown and Glove in Stannington and the Royal Hotel in Dungworth. Adult patrons of the pubs appear in fancy dress masquerade and vie for the prizes designated by a set of judges appointed for the occasion. This adult caking night is November 1st, the date to which participating adults had grown accustomed as children. When November 1st falls on a Sunday, as it did in 1981, adult caking is postponed until Monday, November 2nd.2o This rather rigid expectation by adults regarding the "correct" date for caking now conflicts with the developing patterns of children. Although in 1981 a few children went caking or mischieving in Stannington on November 1st or 2nd, children almost invariably went out on October 30th and/or 31st, which indicates the strong pull that Halloween (October 31st) now has over activities that earlier were more closely associated with All Souls Day (November 2nd). Although it is clear that, if November 1st had not been Sunday, more children from Stannington and Loxley would have gone caking on November 1st instead of October 30th-31st, many Stannington and Loxley students insist that November 1st is definitely not caking night and that October 31st definitely is. Such transition from one set of assumptions to another brought double doses of mischief and solicitation to some of the Bradfield communities in 1981. For instance, girls from Wharncliffe Side went singing on October 30th and trick-or­ treating on October 31st. A girl from Stannington reported doing mischief on October 30th and going to a Halloween party on October 31st; her brother went caking on November 1st and 2nd. An eleven-year-old girl from Stannington went caking on October 30th, mischieving on October 31st, and had a friend who went mischieving again on November 1st. In Loxley, Matthew, twelve, went trick-or­ treating on October 31st and mischieving on November 4th. And Carl, thirteen, also ofLoxley, went caking on October 30th, trick-or-treating on October 31st, and mischieving on November 4th.

81 One can generalise confidently about the dates of current Halloween activities only in regard to neighbourhoods without a caking tradition. In the Hallam-Tapton area, children tend to go to Halloween parties or out trick-or-treating on October 31st. The same is true for Wisewood schoolchildren, although many go mischieving instead of trick-or-treating and their mischief may continue beyond October 31st. The situation is very mixed at Bolsterstone-Bradfield, which includes the villages used to the caking tradition. The only sweeping generalisation one can make is that childr~n there tend not to go to Halloween parties. Worrall children tend to be inactive at Halloween. Bolsterstone children go caking or mischieving on October 31st. Oughtibridge children go mischieving on October 31st- one boy saying that he did a little mischief on October 31st, more on November 1st, and even more on November 2nd. In addition to mischief on October 31st, Wharncliffe Side children tend to go caking on October 30th and trick-or-treating on October 31st. Although there is a lingering respect at Stannington and Loxley for mischief on October 31st and caking on November 1st, the practice is so varied in those villages that it is safest to agree with Joanne, eleven, of Stannington, who said, "They all do it different times".21 Ten years hence it will be interesting to see whether it becomes simplified through its own inevitable workings or through the fiat of community officials.22 The relative newness of trick-or-treat in Sheffield is proved by the fact that most of the children interviewed did not grow . up knowing automatically about the tradition; that is, they did not learn it from other members of their families. Most of them learned about it from friends at school within the past recallable number of years. Some heard about it for the first time this year; a few others had not heard of the phrase at all. Grown-ups are even less aware of the tradition. Two headmasters said they had to ask their children about three years ago to explain the meaning of trick-or-treat. A policeman who walked the beat in Sheffield in the 1960s knew ofno trick-or-treat then; he senses that it has been on the increase especially since about 1978. Even folklorists have not kept up with its adoption. Both the Opies in 1959 (p.293) and Ralph Whitlock in 197823 found it necessary to name and describe trick­ or-treat in America, with no reference at all to its presence in Great Britain. And none of the Batsford county surveys - all published before 1978 - refers to the convention. It is possible, though, to date the introduction of trick-or-treat into Sheffield earlier than the approximation of 1978 suggested by the impressionistic data cited above. The convention of playing a prank if no gift is forthcoming was used as early as October 1968 in the Nether Edge area ofSheffield, when children dressed as witches and carrying turnip lanterns knocked on doors and told those who answered: Pay us or feed us Or we'll haunt you all night. Similarly, in 1975 a Wisewood Comprehensive School student reported the use of

82 the following threatening rhyme on November 4th while children were "standing on someone' s door": Mischievous Day, Mischievous Day, Give me a penny or here I stay. Even more to the point, in March of 1971, a fifteen-year-old girl could say about Hillsborough (i.e., Wisewood) Halloween customs: . . . one Halloween we went to the houses saying "Trick or Treat" and the people had to give us something or we played a trick on them. We don't do this now as we consider ourselves too old but the younger ones still do. The distance she places between herself in 1971 and the year she went trick-or­ treating suggests 1969 as a very conservative estimate for the earliest introduction of the trick-or-treat convention into the area ofSheffield covered by this survey.24 One sure sign that trick-or-treat has already become a part of British culture nationwide is that The (London) Times could exploit the phrase allusively twice within ten days in 1981 in major headlines: "Treat does the trick" and "Tricks and treats" . Both headlines cover articles dealing with topics other than children's autumn traditions - the first with recent cinema, the second with Christmas presents that men could buy for women.25 Both uses assume that the Halloween convention is so well known that its meaning and connotations can be easily transferred to other realms of experience. Adults' suspicion that the new trick-or-treat convention is another cultural pattern borrowed by England from the United States is probably correct, since trick-or­ treat has been a longstanding children's Halloween custom in both the United States and Canada. How the convention moved to England from America can only be guessed at, although probably many media are involved. Least important may be actual contact with the American custom, although two children interviewed had gone trick-or-treating while they were in the United States, and it may also be signifi cant that trick-or-treat has apparently taken firmest hold in middle class communities where travel to the United States and Canada is not uncommon. Nor does trick-or-treat seem to be the result of active promotion by commercial interests, eager to introduce a new line of seasonal products. For example, the only products that Sheffield's Woolworth stores carry specifically for Halloween are British-made witches' masks and hats, which they do not actively promote but which they have stocked in ever-larger quantities at Halloween during the past two or three years. Although one head teacher recalled first hearing about trick-or-treat in books about ten years ago, television programmes are probably the most important channel for the importation of trick-or-treat into Britain. One child recalled seeing a television documentary account of American trick-or-treat in 1979; an adult informant also recalled a documentary on trick-or-treat as practised by children at the U.S. Air

83 Force Base at Woodbridge in Suffolk. Some children say they first learned about trick-or-treat from television, particularly "The Beachcombers" and "It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown". Other children have learned Halloween witches' songs from children's television programmes such as "Words and Pictures", both through viewing such programmes at home and also as videotapes in classrooms in Sheffield schools. Teachers who use such songs, discuss Halloween with their children, and decorate classrooms accordingly do their part to enhance the status ofthat day, even if they are not literally teaching them how to do trick-or-treat. One possibility, of course, is that the traditions of caking and mischief somehow coalesced in England and began migrating into adjacent neighbourhoods. Some of that may indeed have happened, once the impetus arrived from abroad. But some linguistic facts militate against that as the fullest explanation of the origin of trick­ or-treat in England. First of all, children who adopted the new tradition did not adopt the folk terminology of caking or mischieving. However, some children in caking and mischieving territory did borrow the trick-or-treat terminology and/or convention. Although only a few Bradfield schoolchildren use "trick-or-treat" to describe what they do, most of those in Bradfield seem to know what trick-or-treat refers to. Such evidence suggests that convention and language came to them, rather than that their convention and language were passed on to others. If one were to construct a scenario for the coming of trick-or-treat to Sheffield, it might go something like this: It all began with settlers from Northern England and Scotland26 taking mischief and caking traditions with them to the New World. In America, the newly named convention flourished especially in the Midland and Northern speech areas, where settlers from Scotland and Northern England were particularly influential.27 Enthusiastically embraced by American children, trick­ or-treat awaited the opportune time to return to its true home in the British Isles. That time developed following World War II, when the genteel English Halloween traditions of apple-bobbing and divination lost their lustre and only the making of turnip lanterns (and, in some places, mischief) remained vital. 28 The celebration of Halloween, by then a holiday without an identity, was maintained mainly by classroom teachers, whose decorations and tales and songs about witches sustained children's interest even when activities outside the classroom were meagre. By 1969 trick-or-treat had mysteriously made its way to Hillsborough. But the charismatic moment really arrived on February 26th, 1976, when the BBC first broadcast the Charlie Brown programme. Sheffield Janet and John, eyes glued to the telly, saw Linus wait in vain for the Great Pumpkin while his friends Charlie Brown (dressed as a ghost) and Lucy (dressed as a witch) went trick-or-treating. No matter that Charlie received only stones for his efforts! Aroused by the fun and profit it promised and knowing vaguely about what other children in Stannington, Loxley, and Hillsborough had been doing, Janet and John next Halloween gave up television for trick-or-treat. By 1981 they had made it as far south as Dore.

84 r------~ ~

Like all borrowed traditions, however, trick-or-treat has not been adopted unchanged from America. English- or at least Sheffield - trick-or-treat bears distinct marks of native English traditions. English children are given money, not candy and cookies (i.e. sweets and biscuits) exclusively, as in America. English children tend to sing a song at the same time as they ask for a treat, which duplicates the native caking tradition but not American trick-or-treat. English children frequently go trick-or-treating bare-faced and without costume, whereas the disguise and subsequent guessing of identity is almost obligatory in America. English costumes tend to be restricted to witches and ghosts; American costumes tend to be more varied, with a correspondingly smaller emphasis on Halloween as witches' night. And, finally, English trickery is relatively innocuous, whereas American trick-or-treat is often associated with some degree ofvandalism29 • In a sense, trick-or-treat can be seen as an inevitable outcome of native British custom. As we have noted, the customs ofcaking and mischiefhave long co-existed in some areas in relatively contiguous days ofthe year. And as we have also seen, the adjacent events were even given a logical connection in Loxley, where children went caking the first night and then the next night played tricks on people who had not given them treats the night before. Halloween trick-or-treat conveniently fixes both customary events on a single day ofthe year and integrates them logically by making the one depend on the other: "Trick or treat!". At its very best, Halloween trick-or-treat may even be a good thing for England since it may offer a new lease oflife for the caking tradition. The original reason for caking - exchanging prayers for cakes - has long since been a dead custom, as witnessed in this study by children ignorant of the meaning of the conventional words they use. Even the use of the traditional caking song, which resorts to poetic convention in asking for " a penny for the old man's hat", has declined. In its lowest form, caking has indeed been reduced to near-begging, as in the bald request cited above: "Can we have some money, please?" Trick-or-treat at least offers a reason for a handout - the promise of a trick if a treat is not given. The choice between tolerating extortion or beggary in children may be an awkward one, but ifthe threat is whimsically made it at least disguises the begging with a convention, and does not embarrass child or host with the flat-out request for money. Regardless ofhow one analyses or justifies the new convention, it seems destined to stay and probably also to spread and increase in popularity in Sheffield and England. Children' s caking may even disappear, as a consequence, although mischief separate from October 31st may persist simply because of the powerful vitality of the Guy Fawkes tradition. English parents, annoyed by the convention that their children have newly adopted, will have to find solace by remembering that this is not the first time that English tradition and language have (apparently) been taken to North America, altered, and then reborrowed creatively by the folk back home. 85 Notes 1. The Folklore of Orkney and Shetland (London: Bats ford, 1975), p.115. 2. The Folklore of Somerset (London: Batsford, 1976), p.107. 3. Iona and Peter Opie, The Lore and Language of Schoolchildren (1959; rpt. St. Albans: Paladin, 1977), pp.290-306. In addition, Chapter 18, pp.404-19, deals with "Pranks". 4. "Children's Guy Fawkes Traditions in Sheffield" to be published in Folklore; "Rhymes and Songs for Halloween and Bonfire Night", to be published in Lore and Language; "Trickster on the Threshold: An Interpretation of Children's Autumn Traditions", to be published in Folklore. 5. I am indebted to the many students, teachers, and administrators who helped with the survey. Those who made special contributions oftime and energy were Mr Eric Ashton, Mr Eric Fenton, Mr John Salway, Mr ] ohn Holmes, Mrs Eileen Gledhill, Miss Ann Dennis, and Miss Norma Pears. The study was carried out under the auspices of the Centre for English Cultural Tradition and Language (henceforth, "C.E.C.T.A.L.") at the University ofSheffield and was supported by the Lilly Endowment Faculty Open Fellowship. 6. "] acket'' is the local name for potatoes baked with their skins left on. Parkin, flapjack, and bonfire toffee are treacle-based foods, with bonfire toffee sometimes called "treacle" toffee. Parkin and flapjack are cakes, flapjack having a more syrupy texture. For a recently published recipe for parkin, see Maggie Black, "Saints & Soul-caking", History Today, 31 (November 1981), 60. In Once a Year: Some Traditional British Customs, Homer Sykes mistakenly equates parkin with bonfire toffee (London: Gordon Fraser, 1977, p.130). 7. Fireworks are the most accessible, and traditional foods are the most esoteric elements for outsiders who want to join the fun. Asian and West Indian children, for instance, joined the 1981 autumn activities most easily through the bonfire event, particularly the park bonfires, where fireworks are the most obvious feature. But non-native English children seldom reported eating the foods that are taken for granted at that time of year by English families. Here, the adoption ofnew food ways follows by a considerable distance the adoption of other customs. This finding, ofcourse , complements the fact that ethnic groups tend to preserve foodways long after they have abandoned other markers of their traditional culture. (See Barre Toelken, The Dynamics of Folklore (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1979), p.73). 8. One thirteen-year-old girl also reported making an " apple lantern with two candles in it". 9. These children's activities match the adult caking in Dungworth and Stanning­ ton, to be discussed later in the essay. It is interesting to notice that in communities where adult masquerade parties are common, children tend not

86 to have them, and in communities where children have masquerade parties, adults tend not to have them. 10. A Glossary of Words Used in the Neighbourhood of Sheffield (London: Teubner & Co.). 11. Endless Cavalcade: A Diary of British Festivals and Customs (London: Arthur Barker, 1964), p.236. According to the Opies, November 4th is MischiefNight for " most ofYorkshire" (p.299); it moved to that date from April 30th only in the last decades of the nineteenth century, or more recently (p.300, n. 1). 12. In A R Wright and T E Lones, British Calendar Customs, England, Vol. III: Fixed Festivals, Publications of the Folk-Lore Society, CVI (London: William Glaisher Ltd., 1940), p.109. According to the Opies, Mischief Night is New Year's Eve in Golspie, Scotland (pp.293-94, n. 1). In the Sheffield survey, one twelve-year-old boy from Loxley said that he and his friends also observe Easter Saturday night as Mischief Night. A Bolsterstone girl associated what she did on Mischief Night with what she also does on April 1st. 13. This trick, given the same names, is discussed extensively by the Opies (pp.405- 9), as are some of the others that follow. 14. Sometimes called "nick-nacking" or "tip-tapping" (C. E. C . T.A.L. archives). The Opies discuss "Window Tapping" (pp.416-417). 15. Apparently this refers to simultaneously tapping on a window and smashing a milk bottle, which gives the effect ofa window pane being broken. (Opies, 417.) 16. In a variant ofthis trick, the newspaper is also set afire, causing the householder to stamp on it, thereby befouling himself with dog muck. (C.E.C.T.A.L. archives). 17. Wright, pp.137-45. 18. This variant of the word derives from "Kay, kay", the first words of some people's version of the traditional caking song- "Kay, kay" being folk speech for "Cake, cake". The words for this song and all other songs referred to in this essay will be printed and discussed in the essay mentioned in n. 4. 19. The persistence ofblackface in English folk disguise is illustrated best in this survey by a nine-year-old girl who went Halloweening in a white ghost's costume but painted her face black. 20. For a photograph and brief discussion of adult caking in the Dungworth pub, see Sykes, pp.130-31. Adult caking has also become customary on Halloween at the Cock Inn and Pheasant Inn in Oughtibridge. 21. Unfortunately, not enough children from Dungworth and Bradfield village participated in the survey in order to generalise much about practices there. Of the six Dungworth children who filled in the questionnaire, one went mischieving and one went to a disco party on October 31st, although she regards

87 October 31st as caking night. About forty children - probably from the DungworthJunior and Infant School, not included in this survey- appeared at the Royal Hotel on November 2nd for the early evening children's caking competition. 22. Many American communities now regulate trick-or-treat by officially declaring the day and hours when children are to go on house-to-house visitation. 23 . A Calendar of Country Customs (London: Batsford), p.l51. 24. All three quotations are from the C.E.C.T.A.L. archives. 25. The first headline is from "The Times Preview" for December 11th-17th; the second from the December 20th issue. 26. As the Opies' material indicates, all of the elements composing trick-or-treat­ disguise, house visitation, threat, gift- are present in the Halloween practices of some Scottish children (pp.292-93). Direct influences from Scotland, of course, cannot be ruled out; indeed, one of the children in the survey participated in these Scottish traditions when she visited there. 27. Catherine Harris Ainsworth did not find trick-or-treat in Alabama or Florida, both located in the Southern speech area. ("Halloween", New York Folklore Quarterly 29 (1973), 164.) 28. Apple-bobbing games and the divination of one's future mate are the main ingredients of early Halloween observations reported by John Brand, Observa­ tions on Popular Antiquities, Vol. I, enlarged by Henry Ellis (London: Henry G Bohn, 1853), pp.377-96; William Hone, The Every-Day Book; or Guide to the Year, I (1825; rpt. London: Hunte and Clarke, 1826), pp.704-8; R Chambers, The Book of Days, A Miscellany of Popular Antiquities ... , II (London: W & R Chambers Ltd., 1869), pp.519-22. 29. For a good description ofAmerican Halloween customs, see Ainsworth's essay, cited in n. 27.

88 Reviews

ALEXANDER, Marc, British Folklore, Myths and Legends, London, Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1982, 224pp., 90 black and white, and 24 colour plates, £10.95. Legends, customs and belief are examined in this well-illustrated book, in a manner which folklore scholars refer to as "popular". Many of the folklore items are accompanied by literary quotations- usually anathema to serious students of folklore. The survival oflegends and customs such as the mock-Viking ship funeral in the Orkneys and the beliefs of the fertility trees ofCornwall are shown with an aura of enchantment about them. The book can be recommended to the traveller in Britain who is interested in the customs as they are shown for descriptive entertainment, but the devotee of folklore scholarship will be disappointed by the author's creative approach. The illustrations are excellent, and "Mr and Mrs Smith" will enjoy the "journey through an enchanted landscape peopled by ancient gods and heroes, dragons and fairies, megaliths which were once dancers and dancers inspired by pre-historic ceremonies", which the foreword envisages. Mrs Bennett found the journey rather tiresome, though the production is handsome and attractively designed. W Bennett

ALEXANDER, Michael, Old English Literature, London, Macmillan, 1983, 248pp., 19 plates, £14 hardcover, £3.95 paper; all examples translated This introduction to Old English Literature is intended as one volume in a series (Macmillan History ofLiterature), which explores various aspects ofliterature from different periods and different cultures. Each volume is concerned to place written language in the context ofthe time and environment in which it was composed, so that texts are viewed as products of a particular set ofhistorical and political circumstances. This is the fifth contribution to have been published, and seven more are forthcoming. The approach works excellently for the Anglo-Saxon period, and Michael Alexander's book is a model of judicious and well-written scholarship. He describes the political climate ofthe time from the fall of Rome to the arrival of the Norman conquerors; the effect of separate waves of invaders; the role of the Church; and relates these historical factors to the language and literature of the time. The influence of Latin on everyday life and on the language of literature is considered, as well as the evidence given by Beowulf, the Wisdom Poetry, and Christian prose, for a recognisably Anglo-Saxon Weltanschauung. Throughout the book literature is seen as the expression of society. There are occasional irritations, especially at the ends of sections where comparisons are sometimes made or remarks offered which are unhelpful: for example, on p.41, "Heroic society was last seen in Britain in the Scottish Highlands, and is still strong in parts ofAfrica today"; and on p.49, (referring to work on narrative structure), " ... the structures ofthe stories themselves have all been listed and categorised. At this point the modern student of literature suspects that such an approach has become so abstract, dry and arbitrary as to exclude the interest and response proper to literature." Similarly, the use of"Englishing"­ "In Englishing the story ofCreation" (p.51)- is equally inelegant. But these quibbles apart, the book is a welcome addition to Old English studies. G Cawthra

89 ALGEO, John, Problems in the Origins and Development ofthe English Language, 3rd edn, New York and London, Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1982, 288pp., £11.65 cloth, £7.75 paper. Intended as a supplement for courses in the history ofthe English language, and specifically designed to accompany the third edition of Origins and Development of the English Language, This manual can also be used with other textbooks to illustrate the historical development of English. The material here consists ofa series of exercises which the student can analyse and draw conclusions from- some intended for class discussion and others designed to be worked out independently, with the answers to be written in a form that permits easy checking. This third edition, like the earlier ones, assumes that one can gain a good knowledge of any language in its historical development by working with samples of the language in its various historical stages. Thus there are chapters dealing with the Old English, the Middle English and the Modern English periods. Recent British and American English, and Sounds and Spelling of Current English constitute further sources of material which can be used in a variety of ways to demonstrate the structure of the language at various periods in its history. An excellent manual with much innovative treatment ofthe problems in English language, yet which, through its rational treatment, still manages to remain basically conservative. W Bennett

BAILEY, R W, ed., Early Modern English: Additions and Antedatings to the R ecord of English Vocabulary 1475-1700, Hildesheim and New York, Olms, 1978, xv, 367pp., DM58 .. The Early Modern English period, 1475 to 1700, is generally regarded as central to the growth of the modern English lexicon, supporting the new perception that English was a language for use in the most respected institutions in the language community- the courts of law, the universities and the church. Early Modern English has been the focus of scholarly attention since Samuel Johnson termed its works " the wells of English undefiled, the pure sources of genuine diction." Cultural history and modern philology have derived great strength from the scholarship devoted to this period ofthe language, and this book is designed to draw together important but scattered contributions to the understanding of new words and new senses in Early Modern English. The excerpts gathered in this work form an addition to the citations already published as part of Michigan Early Modern English Materials, generally following the editorial conventions of that work. Various preliminary studies have been carried out using the citation files and other resources of the Early Modern collections of which the present compilation is one example. Some 4,400 citations are gathered in this volume, not as a defmitive or complete listing of antedatings and additions to the OED but as a provisional collection whose coherence can be of general use to scholarship. A most welcome addition to Early Modern English studies with an editor who appreciates comments, corrections, and additional material, this volume bridges the linguistic gap which stretches between Middle English and Contemporary English. W Bennett

BALDINGER, Kurt, S emantic Theory: Tow ards a Modern S emantics, trans. William C Brown, ed Roger Wright, Oxford, Blackwell, 1980, 320pp, £16 hardback, £6.50 paper. This is an excellent introduction to recent developments in semantic theory. It explores the shift of conceptual framework from the Reality-Concept-Word triangle ofUllmann (refining Ogden and Richards' model in The M eaning of M eaning, 1923), to the much more sophisticated analysis implicit in Heger' s trapezium. There is extensive quotation from

90 and reference to the work of other scholars researching into many very different languages; and valuable presentation of material in diagrammatic and formulaic form as well as in verbal discussion. Despite the frequent complexity of the material, the text is consistently clear and interesting to read. Much of the book is concerned with the distinction between " onomasiology" and "semasiology", that is, between the linguistic realisation of concepts, and polysemy. Onomasiology studies all levels of language - since an ending, for example, can alter the meaning of a word - and corresponds to the situation of the speaker, who has to express his thoughts through the structured repertoire ofthe language. Semasiology corresponds to the situation of the listener, who perceives the selected forms and has to determine the significations in question from a range of possible meanings. This fundamental bipolarity of the linguistic sign is both treated theoretically, using the models oftriangle and trapezium, and practically, through analysis of the synchronic meanings of " remember" in modern French, and of the diachronic meanings of "work" in Old French. Thus the book offers helpful interpretations of language in fact as well as of language as theory. Perhaps the most fascinating aspect ofBaldinger's work is his consideration ofhow we define a word. He uses legal language to underline the difficulty inherent in giving a precise meaning to any word, and concludes that the need to define is an attribute ofthe human brain rather than something that is a part of actual reality. Nature is indifferent to the many degrees which separate broad day from pitch dark, and yet man feels unhappy at the merging and seeks to delimit the edges as well as the centres ofthe words that mean night and day. Baldinger suggests that meanings, or concepts, come before the words which express them; and he also quotes from von Humboldt, writing in 1836 about the language and concepts and the place of grammar in formulating W eltanschauung. What he does not do, and what surely needs to be done in any full investigation of the history of semantic theory, is to relate the work done in the nineteenth century to that which came after. Saussure is mentioned as the linguist who equated language with structure, but surely the intellectual basis of onomasiology lies in the researches ofscholars like Mansel, Sayee, Max Muller, and Stout, on the origin of language and language families, the role of roots in ancient language and thought, and on the relation oflanguage to thought. Until such an examination is carried out, the history of semantics cannot be complete. But as an introduction to recent developments this book could scarcely be improved on. Its only defect is that it lacks a bibliography. G Cawthra

BARON, Dennis, Going Native: The Regeneration of Saxon English, Alabama, University of Alabama Press for the American Dialect Society, 1981, 63pp., $5.25 paper. This is a disappointing book. The subject is fascinating, and admirably worthy of examination, but Mr Baron has done scant justice to the wealth of material available, and even less to the thought which lies behind it. The writing is rather awkward and the connecting ideas are not always clearly expressed, so that the text tends to read as a catalogue of examples of the vocabularies compiled by the various scholars mentioned. Infelicities abound: for example, Mr Baron concedes that he had to be told that the name "Jessie" belonged to a lady and not a gentleman; and his quotation of extended examples of" Saxon" English is very much clearer and easy to understand than he seems to find. He never defines what he means by "Saxon English", or how his friend, Joseph B Trahern, J r, may be called a "native speaker of West Saxon".

91 It would be fascinating to follow the course ofconcern over the entry of " foreign" words into " English" from the beginnings of doubt on the subject to the current anxiety over the infiltration of American words and expressions into modern standard English, and to question why there is felt to be a "pure" form ofthe language which can be "defiled" by intrusion. But the subject requires very much more thought and a more extended and detailed examination than Mr Baron has felt able to give it. G Cawthra

BAUMAN, Richard and Roger D ABRAHAMS, eds, ''And Other Neighborly Nam es '~ Austin and London, Texas University Press, 1981, 321pp., £18.75. "And Other N eighborly Names" gets its title from a study by Americo Paredes of the names, complimentary and otherwise, exchanged across cultural boundaries by Anglos and Mexicans, and comprises a collection of essays devoted to various aspects of folk tradition in Texas. The editors and other essayists-John Holmes McDowell, Joe Graham, Alicia Maria Gonzalez, Beverly J Stoeltje, Archie Green, Jose E Limon, Thomas A Green, Rosan A Jordan, Patrick B Mullen and Manuel H Pena- examine conjunto music, the corrido, Gulf fishermen's stories, rodeo traditions, Mexican bakers' lore, Austin's " cosmic cowboy" scene, and many other fascinating aspects offolklore in Texas. ''And Other N eighborly Names" makes a valuable contribution to the social process and cultural image ofTexas folklore - and one no less worthy to the discipline as a whole. W Bennett

BETKEN, William T, ed., The Other Shakespeare - The Two G entlemen of Verona, New York, Valentine Publishing and Drama, 1982, ix, 284pp., $13.95 hardcover, $7.95 paper. This unexpurgated edition of The Two Gentlemen of Verona is written by a " lover of Shakespeare". This wording in the prologue gives some indication to the reader that this gentleman will refute the interpretation ofthe play previously offered by eminent scholars, replacing the misinterpretation with something that the writer believes is far closer to the play's original Elizabethan meaning. Every refutation and every new meaning proposed here is based on reference to the accepted literature ofthe past few centuries, and for the sake of scholastic validity the reference notes are copious. These notes form one of four separate sections of this work, the others consisting of parts named " Original", " Comments" and " Modern" . The second section, called " Original", is the main section of the play itself in its original form other than the usual modernising of punctuation, spelling, and verse-prose alignment. The third section has been designed expressly for the general reader, and, as its title suggests, offers comments on the direction of the play. The final section appears parallel with the Original, and is a line by line rendering of the original from Elizabethan English to modern American English. The unwieldy juxtaposition of the Original section and the Modern section is a process that I found to be confusing. Scattered within these confusing elements were sundry notes and comments to further complicate the text. The end result is untidy and not easy to follow for the general reader. The " Induction" finishes: " Shakespeare is nothing ifhe is not plain and straightforward. Plain and straightforward is what this book, in its own way, hopes to be." In this sentiment, it falls far short of its aim; semantic considerations have been enlarged upon too extensively at the cost of that sacred cow of the writers' art - lucid expression and presentation. W Bennett

92 BLISS, A J , A D ictionary of Foreign W ords and Phrases in Current English, rpt edn, London, Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1983, 389pp., £4.95. Whoever wishes to study or check on foreign borrowings currently in English usage has long been recommended to consult this basic work of reference. First published in 1966, reprinted no less than six times since then, it is especially welcome in this seventh reprint in inexpensive paperback. Perhaps surprisingly, the entries have not yet become dated, though some borrowings have of course entered the language since 1966, as evidence from the OED Second Supplement and the S econd Barnhart Dictionary of N ew English clearly attest. Nonetheless, Professor Bliss' s excellent compendium stands alone in this specialised field, and the sixty page Introduction is itself a classic, indispensable to the student of contemporary English. J D A Widdowson

BLUMENSON, John J G, ldentz/y ing A merican Architecture, 2nd edn, Nashville, American Association for State and Local History, 1982, 120pp. This pictorial guide to styles and terms, 1600-1945, is the revised and enlarged second edition. It will enable the reader to detrmine styles and identify architectural terms by comparison of the real buildings with the book' s many illustrations. Shown in detail are roofs, porches, windows and wall surfaces, with all terms indexed in the extensive sixteen­ page index. Having no Gothic or Renaissance styles of architecture, the American story begins with the Spanish Colonial on the West Coast and the English Colonial ofNew England and the East Coast. These are followed by the Mission Style, the Pueblo Style, and the Spanish Colonial Revival - all three being regarded as revivals of the original Spanish Colonial. All styles are ~venly shown and well balanced when analysed in their motifs. Value judgements have been avoided, and this handbook will be an excellent guide for the tourist with its well­ photographed identification of American architectural styles and terms. W Bennett

BURKERT, Walter, Structure and History in Greek M y thology and Ritua~ Berkeley and Los Angeles, University of California Press, 1979, 226 pages, 12 black and white photographs, $7.95 paper. These chapters originated as Burkert' s contribution to the series ofSather Classical Lectures given at Berkeley in the spring of1977. They retain the basic format ofthe lectures in that the material is wide-ranging and its presentation discursive. Anecdotes and examples from many different cultures help to make the discussion ofGreek practice easier and more interesting for a listener to comprehend. Photographs and a bibliography have been added to the book, as well as sixty fi ve pages of exhaustive and detailed notes to the main text. Thus Burkert's work is scholarly and thorough as well as being clearly and entertainingly expressed. The earlier chapters explore the relation of mythology and ritual to structuralism, linguistics, and ethology. The last discipline provides an explanation both for herms, found at boundaries, crossroads, and other important places, in the practices of certain species of monkeys, whose males act as guards by sitting at the outposts of the group facing outside and presenting their erect genital organ to any possible intruder; and for the ritual of libation, again at territorial markers, in the practice of dogs. Linguistics suggests that narrative structure may be reduced to a series of imperatives, particularly ofthe verb "get", with its implication of quest, difficulty, and return despite all obstacles. Burkert finds structuralism

93 on the whole less helpful, but nevertheless considers the contributions ofPropp and Levi­ Strauss in some detail. The remainder of the book takes myth to be "a traditional tale with secondary, partial reference to something of collective importance", and ritual to be one aspect of this "traditional tale applied". Several different groups of stories are examined; variants in cultures other than pre-Athenian Greece are noted; and earlier forms, the evolution of one tale rather than another, sought in the prehistoric, even prehuman, preoccupations of man. There are few misprints and the book is well presented, but quotation from Greek, although translated, is additionally unhelpfully transliterated, often with the stress mark placed on an unlikely syllable; and quotation from German (in the Notes) is not translated. These cavils and confusions apart, however, Burkert's lectures are a pleasure to read and a valuable addition to the debate on the nature of mythology and ritual. G Cawthra

CASETrA, Anna, HAND, Wayland D, THIEDERMAN, Sondra B, Popular Beliefs and Superst£t£ons, Cleveland, The John G White Department of the Cleveland Public Library, 1981, 3 vols, vol.1, lviii, 784pp., vol.2, xiii, 748pp, vol.3, 297pp, $110. This compendium of American folklore comprises Newbell Niles Puckett's monumental collection of Popular Behefs and Superst£t£ons from Oh£o within a corpus of material boasting over 70,000 entries. Folk beliefs and superstitions are found among people all over the world, each man representing a combination of cultural conditioning and natural instincts. In tracing the antecedents of American popular beliefs and superstitions, the quest leads to medieval times, the Dark Ages in Europe, the early Near East and finally to the cradle of Indo-European civilization. It can be stated that folk beliefs and superstitions are still a universal human phenomenon which give pleasure to, or amuse, people in all countries and cultures. In editing the Puckett Ohio Collection, the integrity of the individual entries has been maintained; only obvious misspellings have been changed and the colourful speech meticulously reproduced. Unclear meanings have been improved but editorial markings are used to indicate what had been done. Because ofa heavy duplication ofa few items and for the purpose ofgetting a manuscript copy with which to work, the corpus was reduced by almost forty eight percent. Due to lack of space, only the tapes which Professor Puckett himself transcribed from the material have been put into this publication, but this is compensated for by the inclusion ofa considerable number ofmagical and amuletic items plus many diagrams of other things. Ten years were spent preparing the Puckett Collection for publication, resulting in this notable three volume collection from Ohio which will prove to be eminently useful to all students of American popular beliefs and superstitions, and a fascinating foil and/or complement to the equally monumental Frank C Brown Collection from North Carolina. W Bennett

CAVE, Kathryn, ed., The D£ary ofJoseph Fanngton, New Haven and London, Yale University Press, 1982, vols 7 and 8, £40, vols 9 and 10, £45. Joseph Farington (1747-1821) was a professional topographical artist with extensive involvement in affairs ofthe Royal Academy. He lived most ofhis life in London, touching the lives of many people of his time. This diary, which Farington kept from 1793 until his

94 death, provides a detailed record of his actions and observations - thus constituting a stimulating record of this period's social, political and literary developments. The seventh and eighth volumes of the diaries run from January, 1805, to the end of December, 1807, a troubled time for the Royal Academy. Farington chronicles the disputes that led Benjamin West to give up in December, 1805, his increasingly untenable position as President, and records the diarist's own involvement in the negotiations that led eventually to the establishment ofthe British Institution. Also recorded are issues of wider importance such as the battle of Trafalgar and the death of William Pitt and Charles Fox. The ninth and tenth volumes of the diary cover the years from January, 1808, up to December, 1810. The public events preoccupying Joseph Farington at this time included wars in Europe and South America, fighting for prominence with the sensational scandal that came to light in 1809 over the Duke of York's association with Mary Anne Clarke. Within the Royal Academy, Farington is occupied at the end of1810 with assessing Robert Smirke's prospects at the coming election of academicians, while fellow artists Thomas Lawrence and John Constable continued to seek Farington's advice on both professional and practical affairs. Much praise is due to Kathryn Cave for her meticulous editing ofthese later volumes of the Diary, which she undertook after it was discovered that there were minor mistranscriptions in the first six volumes due to too much reliance being placed on the accuracy ofthe Windsor typescript. Her painstaking attention to detail has resulted in a fascinating record ofthe life and times of Joseph Farington. This is strictly for the connoisseur! W Bennett

CHANG, K C, Food in Chinese Culture, New Haven and London, Yale University Press, 1977, 429pp, £.8.50 Chinese food can be used as a test case in the development of "food-in-culture" studies essentially because of its long documented history, but also because of its infinite variety. This book serves three purposes. It is a cas·e study in which students offood-in-culture can observe the ways in which ten oftheir colleagues have analysed and interpreted their data. It is a descriptive history of food habits in China both trivial and profound- when the Chinese first used chopsticks and the adoption into Chinese food culture of American food plants such as sweet potato and maize. Finally, this book makes a significant contribution to Chinese cultural history, in which food and food habits played multifarious roles. This is an excellent series of erudite essays by ten leading historians and anthropologists which relates food to the history and culture of China from ancient to modern times. It should prove a book ofpleasure for the general reader, and a monograph ofsome importance for social historians and sinologists. The change-within-tradition pattern ofChinese cultural history has a continuity which stresses the total alignment ofits society, and its importance in the past as a stratified "man-eats man" society. The great Chinese cuisine is based upon complicated and exacting food etiquette evolving from the wisdom of ages. W Bennett

COLE, Peter, ed., Syntax and Semantics, vol.9, Pragmatics, New York, Academic Press, 1978, xii, 340pp., £12.05. There was a time when linguists were not much interested in meaning, but recently semantics and pragmatics have both become increasingly popular. Whereas the former

95 concentrates on what expressions mean, the latter deals rather with what the speaker means when using linguistic expressions. It is an area in which philosophers and linguists have come together, and so it is hardly surprising that this volume of essays should be written by linguists and philosophers. The majority ofthem come from the University oflllinois or the University of California, and many have been influenced by the work of the American philosopher Grice, who also contributes a paper. The papers deal with conversational implicature, negation, and assertion. They are certainly not for beginners. They delve further into the problems of meaning and grammar and come forward with new or variant solutions. The whole book makes a useful contribution to the subject. N F Blake

COLLARD, Eileen, Early Clothing in Southern Ontario:~ 1969, (rpt. 1979), 27pp, $4.25; Clothing in English Canada, circa 1867-1907:~ 1975, 71pp, $15; From Toddlers to Teen~ an outline of children's clothin& circa 1780-1930, 1973 (2nd impression 1977), 58pp, $9.50; Victorian Gothic, circa 1840-66, 1978, 26pp, $9.50; The Rise and Fall of the Bustle, circa 1867-98, 1979, 86pp, $14.50; Guide to Dressmaking and Fancywork, rpt. of Canadian work first published in 1870s by J S Robertson and Bros., Whitby, Ontario. Additional material by Eileen Collard, 1977, 45 pp, $11.50, all published by Eileen Collard, P.O.Box 622, Burlington, Ontario, Canada L7R 3Y5. This collection ofsix highly informative books by Eileen Collard coveFs the period from 1784 to 1930 and provides a detailed and readable account of clothing worn by both adults and children, from underclothing to overcoats. In addition, Ms Collard adds plentiful comments on social history which help to put the fashion scene nicely into perspective. Early Clothing in Southern Ontario is not merely a catalogue of garments but rather a social history of the early settlers in this area. It traces the lifestyles ofthese people from America, Europe and the British Isles, who in coming to a land ofextreme climate had to learn to adapt their mode of dress accordingly. The book covers years 1784-1867 and the contrast between fashions at the beginning and end of this period is an interesting reflection on the fortunes of the settlers. Initially, when primitive conditions prevailed, their main concern had to be for practical durable clothing. A great deal oftime was dedicated to preparing skins and weaving rough cloth which could be made into hard-wearing clothing for the whole family. As communities became more established and prosperous the interest in fashion began to re­ emerge. Ideas were eagerly copied from English and American women's journals and visitors from abroad and by the end of the eighteenth century ready-made clothing was being imported from America and Europe. The main body of the book concentrates on the changing fashions ofthe nineteenth century and comments on the influence ofthe sewing­ machine invented in the 1840s. The written text is supplemented by eight plates containing over fifty six figures, redrawn from original sources.

The relatively short period covered in Clothing in English Canad~ circa 1867-1907:1 allows the author to go into greater detail over the construction of clothing and also the practical reasons, moral attitudes and social niceties which frequently governed its choice. For women in particular, this period saw many changes. Inventions such as the typewriter and bicycle meant that women had greater freedom than ever before and needed to adopt a different style of dress to accommodate these changes. By this time many more women owned sewing­ machines- new designs could now be made easily in the home, so fashions changed more quickly and dramatically from this period onward. In addition to an extensive section on women's clothing and underclothing, the book also contains shorter chapters on men's

96 clothing. It is extensively illustrated with photographs and drawings, including detailed patterns which combine to give a very accurate picture of this period of development and transition. The third book in the series, From Toddlers to Teens, covers 150 years, from 1780 to 1930. Again, by necessity, a considerable amount ofsocial history is included, as a family's position in the social strata largely governed the type of clothes a child was likely to wear. The book comments on the attitudes of parents towards children. For a long time children were regarded as undeveloped adults, and were dressed accordingly. Not until the end of the eighteenth century did their clothing begin to differ from that of adults, although the degree to which it did so depended on current attitudes towards the child at any given period. As in the other books there is a wealth of technical detail about the construction of the clothing and the fabrics used. Extensive quotations from contemporary sources give added depth to this informative work. The eighteen plates and six pattern diagrams, all redrawn from originals, illustrate a wide range of styles, becoming noticeably simpler and more informal by 1930, and the book as a whole provides an interesting comparison with those dealing exclusively with adult fashions. Victon.an Gothic (1840-66) and The Rise and Fall of the Bustle (1867-98) are best looked at together as in both books the emphasis is on identifying a particular period through the manner in which styles were designed, cut and constructed. The text in the two works dwells on detailed descriptions of fashionable clothing, covering the changes in necklines, sleeve shapes, bodice and skirt styles as well as commenting on details such as trimmings, accessories and fabrics. Victorian Gothic, as the title suggests, concentrates on the rather flamboyant and often impractical style ofwomen's clothing characteristic ofthis era. Reproductions of advertise­ ments from the 1860s, such as those for "Douglas and Sherwood's New Expansion Skirt" and "New Patent Duplex Elliptic Spring Skirt", contain descriptions and vocabulary which might now seem more appropriate to surgical appliances than fashion accessories. The Rise and Fall of the Bustle covers a thirty-year period when the struggle for emancipation was certainly not reflected in the clothing worn by women. The dome-shaped skirt of the early 1860s was replaced by the bustle, which threw all the weight and fullness to the back of the skirt. The book follows the fall ofthe bustle in the 1870s, its return in the 1880s and its final demise in the 1890s, when it gave way to a much less restrictive style which was to reflect the broader Edwardian outlook. The wealth ofquotations and illustrations from coinemporary sources, combined with Ms Collard's own detailed notes, make these highly authoritative and entertaining reference books. The Guide to Dressmaking and Fancy Work was frrst published in the 1870s by J S Robertson and Bros., Whitby, Ontario. The text on dressmaking has been reprinted here in its entirety, with an introduction and additional material by Eileen Collard. The introduction comments on the invention of the sewing machine and the effect this had on fashion, as its use became more widespread. This is followed by a brief outline of the main fashion styles, fabrics and colours which were popular at this time. The main text is a detailed study of all the processes involved in dressmaking, from taking measurements and cutting out to the actual seams and stitches needed to make up the garment. In addition, there are useful sections on fabrics, trimmings and underclothing, and an extremely comprehensive glossary ofFrench terms used in dressmaking. Ms Collard has

97 improved on the original publication by dividing the work into sixteen headings, listed on a page of contents. The book is well illustrated with fashion plates and pattern diagrams and would be invaluable to anyone wishing to reproduce period costumes, as well as ofinterest to the general reader. 1 Simpson

COOK V 1, English/or Lz/t; vo11: People and Places, Oxford, Pergamon Press, 1981, 133pp,£1; Teacher's Guide, 57pp, £1. English/or Lzfe is a series of four books for teaching English as a foreign language, starting with complete beginners. Rather than simply marking each stage through which the student has to progress, each book has goals which are individually constructed. Each book has two goals; one reflects the learners' need to use English outside the classroom, the other the need to use it adequately inside the classroom. This teaching method is based upon the requirement of a vehicle for communication, so placing great emphasis on the students using the language as they will have to in the "real" world. Techniques require the student to take part in simulations of the world outside the classroom as well as contributing his own ideas and opinions. The student will be encouraged to work out things for himself, rather than just being a passive recipient. The four books in the series are: 1. People and Places, which enables students to use English to conduct simple conversations with fellow-students; 2. M eeting People, which enables students to converse with strangers in social situations; 3. Living with Peoplt; which teaches students the language needed for living in an English-speaking country; 4 . Working with People, in which learners are introduced to English for the purposes of study. Important aspects of the course are a separate teachers' guide, and its availability in both international and local editions. Cassette recordings and visuals are also available to accompany the book, and British and American varieties ofEnglish are presented against the background ofan English town. V 1 Cook is Lecturer in Applied Linguistics at the University ofEssex, and an experienced author ofcourse and supplementary materials for EFL. English for Lzfe is the culmination ofhis vast practical experience and his many years ofresearch. Both adolescent and adult learners will derive great benefit from this series, acquiring skills at each level which be ofuse to them even ifthey do not pursue their study ofEnglish any further. W Bennett

CRYSTAL, David, Linguistic Controversies: Essays in Linguistic Theory and Practice in Honour of F R Palmer, London, Edward Amold, 1982, 257pp., £18.50. This book contains a series of essays by friends, colleagues and former students of Professor Palmer to honour his sixtieth birthday. The editor wanted to get away from the normal haphazard collection of essays which make up a festschrift, and so he hit on the happy idea of asking the contributors to focus on a particular topic which has been the subject of controversy or which has been rather neglected in recent linguistic work. The book is divided into five parts: general issues; phonetics; phonology, grammar and semantics; psycholinguistics, sociolinguistics and dialectology; and language teaching and pathology. The range is therefore extensive and cannot be covered in a short review. The tone ofthe essays is moderate and level-headed. The general approach is to review the state ofthe art and to consider where we as linguists have gone wrong rather than to attempt new theoretical propositions. Indeed, much ofrecent linguistic inquiry is shown to be passing

98 fashion rather than tangible gain. Not all the articles deal with controversy, for some aim to redirect attention to forgotten or neglected areas. Professor Lepschy reminds us how much there is to be done in the field ofhistorical linguistics, and Alan Thomas explains the study that he and his colleagues are making into language death and decay. Most interesting in this volume is the re-emergence ofhistorical considerations in linguistic studies. The scuttling of diachronic approaches which were so fashionable until recently is now seen to be wrong. In an area like dialectology K Petyt reveals a new understanding of the historical work of the traditionalists. It is much to be hoped that this reappraisal will continue so that the unnecessay divorce of synchronic and diachronic work is abandoned. This is an excellent book through which to understand some current problems and approaches in linguistics and the style is generally of a higher standard than one meets in such volumes. Its impact on linguistics in general can only be salutary. N F Blake

DIXON, R M W, and Barry J BLAKE, eds, Handbook ofAustralian Languages, Amsterdam, John Benjamins B V., vols 1 and 2, 1979 and 1981, xviii, 390; xxiv, 427pp., $41 per vol. The proposal that a Handbook of Australian Languages be produced was particularly well­ timed by the editors who were seeking to provide an avenue of publication for grammars of dying languages and sketch grammars ofliving languages, for it is often the case that linguists are involved in studies which stretch over a decade or so when studying a living language in depth. A good deal ofthe work that has been done over the past decade has been salvage work on languages with, in most cases, fewer than half a dozen speakers. This kind ofstudy often results in a grammar that is too brieffor publication as a monograph but too large for most journals. This handbook is intended to provide a conventional and convenient outlet for the authors of salvage grammars and facilitate quick reference for the reader. By encouraging linguists to produce a brief grammar for the handbook, the basic facts of the language are made available earlier than would otherwise have been the case. Each short grammatical sketch of Australian languages is written in a standard format, following guidelines provided by the editors, and includes a sample text and vocabulary list. The first volume includes one account of a living language- Guugu Yimidhirr, which is still spoken by some hundreds of people. The other three sketches deal with dying (or dead) languages. Volume 2 includes a full linguistic assessment of the material on Tasmanian, and its possible relationship to mainland Australian languages, by Crowley and Dixon. Other areas covered in the second volume are the Mpakwithi dialect of Anguthimri, Wargamay, Watjarri, and Margany and Gunya. Included in further volumes will be Bagandji, Antikirinya (a Western Desert dialect), Yukulta and Gugu-Dhayban. This handbook will interest all professional linguists, especially those involved in Australian linguistics, and specialists in other fields such as anthropology and ethnomusicology. Anyone with one year' s linguistic reading should have no difficulty in following the terminology, as technicalities have been reduced to a level which ensures full responsive participation. W Bennett

DUNDES, Alan, The Evil Eye: A Folklore Casebook, New York and London, Garland Publishing, 1981, 312pp., $30. This volume, the second in the Folklore Casebook series which has for its goal the upgrading of the quality offolklore research, introduces the reader to the universal folk beliefcomplex of the evil eye. The voluminous bibliography ofevil eye studies includes writings by folklorists,

99 anthropologists, biblical scholars, missionaries, psychiatrists, sociologists and ophthalmologists, among others. The majority of discussions about the evil eye represent anecdotal reportings of the phenomenon in a single cultural context, often without any reference to the occurrence of the same or similar phenomena elsewhere. In this volume, an attempt has been consciously made to select essays representing a variety of approaches. Essays have been taken from sources as diverse as Ophthalmology for 1908, Sudan Notes and Records for 1919 and the International Review ofMissions for 1935. Most of the essays in the initial part of the casebook tend to be reportorial in nature, with the final essays more specifically aimed toward the interpretation of facts. The reader of this casebook will not have to take some purported authority's word for the assertion that the evil eye exists in cultures A orB, but can see for himselfwhat the evidence is from these particular cultures. The student should not be dismayed by the variety of interpretations offered in this volume, for learning about the diversity of theoretical arguments is just as important as learning about the diversity offolklore itself. This casebook on the evil eye achieves its aim of not just providing source material on a single widespread folk belief complex but also giving some insight into the nature of the inquiry which will enable scholars to examine the data and assess the scholarship already produced on the evil eye belief. W Bennett

DYER, Gillian, Advertising as Communicatio~ London and New York, Methuen, 1982, 230pp., illus., £8.95 hardback, £3.95 paper. Recent years have seen rapid developments in communications and the media, yet at no time has there been a form of communication that constantly impinges on our daily lives as advertising does. Gillian Dyer has provided some basic ideas, concepts and other material for the study of advertising, thus carving out the groundwork for readers to pursue some of the issues raised in .more depth. Starting with a broad historical and cultural perspective, the author goes on to show how the economic aspects of our contemporary society interact with social and cultural meanings in advertising. She shows how words are affected by feelings; the advertising copywriter is well aware ofthis, and Miss Dyer lists some words from which the advertiser selects in order to sell a product to a large person: obese, /at, chubby, well-built; and thinks the customer would probably prefer the last adjective. With a figure which fits into the category that the advertisers would be aiming at, I prefer none ofthe adjectives listed, but basked happily in the "Big is Beautiful" campaign. Discussion on the concepts and methods of semiology and structuralism draws in the economic aspects of our society to bring this book to a satisfactory close. The theme throughout has stressed the ubiquitous forms of communication and ideology in society, and the need to "decode" the principles of advertising as a communicative level. This book provides an introduction to the study of the other world portrayed by advertising, and the suggestions for further work, illustrations, appendices and bibliography will be a most valuable aid to teachers and students. Teachers will be able to communicate their views to the students, and students should be able to write better essays, produce better projects and pass more exams (hopefully) as a result of reading this book. The general interest reader will gain a new insight into how communication can shape our social life in an industrial

100 society. Advertising as communication should not be taken for granted, and this book sets the trend which should restore the balance of power. W Bennett

ELLIOT, AlisonJ, Child Language, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1981, 194pp., £4.50. The study ofchild language has its own intrinsic fascination, and the way children learn their native tongue has been the subject of intense investigation in the last few decades. The subject has been stimulated by the advances made in linguistic theory and the behavioural sciences, which for the student has meant a bewildering number of research reports often differing in their views of theoretical and methodological approaches. Child Language puts these into perspective within the contexts of contributions made by Chomsky, Piaget and others. The author believes that little justification can be found for the view that language has an independent existence for the young child, and his linguistic achievements are studied within the context of his development in general. Dr Elliot's book provides the student with a clear and concise survey of the most important recent research work in child language. This research survey, though primarily concerning English-speaking children, includes studies of children whose first language is not English, and also bilingual children. Claims about the autonomy oflanguage can be tested by looking at the development of the child, and the issue about the continuity of development can be debated. This book queries the main point ofcontention in this debate- where does language come from? Does it appear from nowhere, or does it have roots in the child's early, prelinguistic experience that could perhaps explain its emergence and development? What use does the child make ofhis discoveries about language to help his general cognitive and social development? With regard to learning- to what extent does the child simply soak up language from what he hears around him? Such is the theoretical background against which Dr Elliot sets her survey and, although this comprehensive textbook is written primarily for students of psychology and linguistics, it is accessible to anyone who can profess a serious interest in the study of child language. W Bennett

ENDICOTT, K M,An Analysis ofMala y Magic, 2nd imp. Kuala Lumpur, Oxford University Press, 1981, 188pp., £6.75 This investigation into the traditional non-Moslem religion of the Malays of the Malay Peninsula examines the basic beliefs and their interrelationships which arise wlien cultural traditions are mixed. The Malay folk religion has extreme complexity, even bordering on chaos, due to the heterogeneity of the Malay population in the Peninsula and the large number of religious traditions that have influenced the area of western Indonesia. Other factors complicating the data are the succession of religious influences on modern Malay which must take account of the region as a whole rather than restrict itself to the Malay Peninsula. Most important in this connection are the islands ofSumatra and Java, which are the immediate source of most ofthe Malays presently in Malaya. This second impression ofa 1970 publication also has to recognise the status of a multicultural conglomeration now called Malaysia which needs application to related cultures on a more peripheral level. A massive task has been attempted here to bring out the logic behind a multitude of" magical" practices, and to reveal a system which has coherence in its variant beliefs. The challenge thrown out has been accepted, and a careful examination has shed a great deal oflight on the

101 beliefs themselves and the position they occupy in the giant jigsaw that constitutes Malay magic. This study manages to find some form of order in the magical beliefs and practices of the Malays of the Malay Peninsula, while providing general interest to international folklorists through its establishment as a pattern of mixed cultural traditions. W Bennett

EVANS, Hilary and Mary, Picture R esearcher's Handbook, 2nd edn, London, Saturday Ventures, 1979, £15.80, available only from Samuel Smiles House, 11, Granville Park, London SE13 7DY. This second edition of a practical guide which indicates picture sources from the personal experience of working researchers, editors and writers has many changes in its arrangement. Simplicity is the keyword here with the essential information more clearly set out and more cross-referencing for easy access to picture sources. The subject index is more comprehensive, and all the information is as dependable as the compilers could make it. lfthe information supplied is not up to the highest standard of accuracy, then such entries are marked with an asterisk. Ifa picture source is not listed here, it may be because it came into existence since the questionnaires went out, and the compilers of this handbook would be glad to hear of other picture sources for possible inclusion in the next edition. Also welcome are comments and suggestions on improvements which could be introduced, although it is stressed that some things are impossible for technical or economic reasons. Invaluable to researchers, the sources listed here are amazingly varied and although the compilers do not claim to have achieved perfection, they have achieved a most satisfactory compromtse - a useful international guide to picture sources and how to use them. W Bennett

FINUCANE, R C, Appearances of the D ead: A Cultural History of Ghosts, London, Junction Books, 1982, 232pp. Let me be frank: I do not like this book. My first complaint is its lack ofseriousness. Whatever one's personal opinion on the existence of ghosts might be, the seeing of" ghosts" has been and will probably continue to be quite a commonplace human experience. These experiences ought to be treated with respect. In the first place you cannot understand what you ridicule, and secondly the experiences themselves lie close to people' s hearts and therefore deserve to be treated sensitively. A jokey, tongue-in-cheek tone seems to be a universal stylistic requisite for literature about ghosts, but, if this book is as Finucane says it is intended to be ­ an "attempt to investigate a topic of perennial - even eternal- human concern", then why begin: In Homer's day, ghosts deserting the mangled remains ofwarriors on the plains of Troy flitted and squeaked like crazed bats all the way down to Hades, where they spent eternity meekly standing about murmuring to each other in hollow tones"? One may not believe in ghosts (one would guess that Finucane does not), but one must believe in the cultural fact of ghosts, and this is not a promising beginning. I despair, too, of the lack of discussion and comment that usually goes with the tongue-in­ cheek style in popular literature on this subject. That unfortunately is a characteristic of this book too. Typically each chapter begins with a couple of pages in which the contemporary ghost stereotype is set in its historical context. M omentarily the heart cheers up. Before long,

102 however, the poor reader is plunged into a succession of familiar stories retold with only the barest of interpretive discussion. The heart sinks again into the usual irritable boredom that accompanies the reading of books about ghosts. Thirdly, and most seriously, the book suffers badly from its reliance on literary sources. This is not a matter one can complain about in chapters on classical, and early mdieval sources, for very few alternatives are available, but it leads to bias (and I think misrepresentation) in chapters dealing with later periods. Here there are folkloristic, or at least antiquarian, sources which can give some guide to popular ideas ofthe supernatural. Finucane, however, keeps firmly to clerical texts ofthe sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, and, for the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, to reports given to the Society for Psychical Research. It is in dealing with these periods that he goes most askew. The texts he relies on for his chapter on post-Reformation ghosts ( Lavater, le Loyer, Taillepied) were in the forefront of religious arguments about the existence of purgatory. Now, though these arguments and the relationship to them ofthe concept ofthe ghost are quite well dealt with, they were clerical arguments: they do not necessarily represent the popular culture ofghosts. With care the reader can retrieve from the pages ofthese texts a fair idea ofwhat the enduring popular beliefs of the period must have been, but Finucane does not attempt to do so. He makes no distinction between the folklore of the people and the interpretations the clergy put on it. Again, in his discussion ofseventeenth century ghost beliefs Finucane relies for the most part on collections of stories made by Glanvil, Bovet and Sinclair. These are indeed the most widely available texts for the period, but they do not reliably represent contemporary opinion. Glanvil, Bovet and Sinclair were simple propagandists fighting a rearguard action against scepticism and "atheism" and as such necessarily unrepresentative. Finucane, of course, recognises their status as polemical writers but he still uses them as sources. That is regrettable, to say the least, when good antiquarian texts ofthe period exist and are available. These are rarely mentioned - three pages are given to popular narratives from Aubrey's Miscellanies (though no distinction is drawn between the aims and methods of Aubrey and those of Finucane's other sources); no reference at all is made to Kirk. Finucane's treatment ofthe eighteenth century makes it even plainer that it is the history of educated opinion about ghosts that is being discussed in this book. Calmet,Johnson, Hobbes, Locke and Newton are the most quoted names. Bourne is quoted primarily to show that enlightened opinon deplored belief in ghosts, not to point out what the ghost beliefs were which enlightened opinion deplored. Defoe, surprisingly close to fashions in public opinion in this as in other matters, is disposed of in a page. Finucane's treatment of nineteenth and twentieth century ghosts is evt;n worse from a folklorist's point ofview. Documentation of nineteenth century beliefs is concerned almost exclusively with the rise of spiritualism and the literature it spawned. The great regional folklore collections of the period are never mentioned once, though they supply a vastly better indication of the state of supernatural beliefamong the populace as a whole. Similarly, his chapter on the twentieth century relies on the :Journal of the Society for Psychical Research and on Green and McCreery's Apparitions. Not surprisingly, he concludes that "there is no essential difference between twentieth century apparitions and their nineteenth century prototypes", thus succeeding in being misleading about two centuries at once. It seems strange to me that anyone writing a cultural history ofghosts should not have done a

103 simple bit of fieldwork when preparing a chapter on the twentieth century. Ifhe had done so he would surely not have found a preponderance of"pointless, unknown spirits" or claim that "ever since [the eighteenth century] percipients in England, and presumably much of Western Europe, have attributed to the dead an ever-diminishing social role." He would have found, as I did, that lost relatives and friends do not cease to be important to survivors simply because they are dead. The concept of the ever-present, watchful dead, active for good in the mundane world is as vital as ever it was. Finucane's history is therefore not really a cultural history. At best it is a history of educated (often clerical) opinion, padded out with stories culled from educated writing. These stories, originally quoted with varying degrees of seriousness, for many different reasons, and gathered from many different sources, have been told and retold so very often that it is impossible to make coherent any account which uses them as illustration. Personally I am sick ofthe wraiths ofJohn Donne's wife, Lord Lyttleton and George Villiers; sick of the poltergeists of Spraighton, Tedworth and Woodstock, sick of Pliny's account of the ghost who appeared to the philosopher Athenodorus. I am considering giving a prize to anyone who can write about ghosts without a single reference to these tired old literary relics. Meanwhile .... GBennett

FRASER, Capt. S, ed., The Airs and Melodies Peculiar to the Highlands of Scotland and the Isles} Sydney, Nova Scotia, Simon Fraser Collection, 1982, 114pp., $12.95. This new edition of Captain Fraser's work, better known as the Simon Fraser Collection, includes all of the revised 1874 edition with a few selections at the end from the original1816 edition. Captain Fraser compiled the 230 tunes largely from his own father's repertoire while residing in the Scottish Highlands, and a large number of the tunes were originally transmitted from his paternal grandfather whose business took him throughout the Highlands. The collection's tunes and airs are noted down from an early eighteenth century oral tradition, showing a closeness to the centre of Gaelic song and instrumental music. All of the tunes have Gaelic titles with a strong emphasis on vocal airs which along with the fiddle tunes will be familiar to Cape Breton Gaels. Each item is supplied with end-notes, most of them listing Fraser's source or the composer ofthe song or tune. These notes give fascinating glimpses into other areas as diverse as old dances and Highland history, with the whole Simon Fraser Collection constituting a veritable landmark in Highland traditional culture. For those enthusiasts who wish to hear the melodies, there is a cassette tape in preparation featuring Cape Breton musicians illustrating the music from the Collection. W Bennett

FREEDMAN, Robert L, comp. Human Food Uses} Connecticut and London, Greenwood Press, 1981, 562pp., £55.95. This cross-cultural, comprehensive annotated bibliography has been developed for scholars and scientists requiring data on various aspects of food in human culture. The present selection continues work begun in the National Research Council Bulletin of 1945, Rossi and Gottlieb (1958), Gottlieb and Rossi (1961), Mead (1964), Wilson (1973) as well as the comprehensive, unpublished bibliographic data compiled by Professor Louis Evan Grivetti at the University of California. Key concepts have been entered in this bibliography in the useful index, so that the theme of any entry, as well as the title, can be represented under as many logical headings as possible. A wide range of sources is cited enabling the student to

104 readily find the material through college and university libraries, as well as major public library collections. The scientist will be well served when his enquiry requires data on various aspects of food in diverse cultures. Professionals in the areas of health care, physicians, nurses, dietitians and social welfare personnel are frequently called upon to make decisions which directly or indirectly affect the diets of individuals from a wide range of socioeconomic and ethnic contexts; these diets can be examined, and the decisions can be more effectively taken when the decision-maker understands more clearly the roles and meanings of food in human societies. W Bennett

FREEMAN, J W, Discovering Surnames, Aylesbury, Shire Publications, 1983, 72pp., £1.25. Having reviewed and discovered the meaning ofmy forename in the Shire booklet Discovering Christian Names, I was eager to discover the meaning of my surname in this book. Another gentle definition of "blessed" to accompany the "friend of peace" prompts me to give this booklet my blessing. Slim and handy for the pocket, attractive cover, with information on a thousand surnames, the modest price does not do justice to the informative material in this easy-to-read volume. You will be fascinated as you track down your identification symbol, for as the introduction to the book states: "You had not your name for nothing". W Bennett

GEORGES, Robert A, and Stephen STERN, comps., American and Canadian Immigrant and Ethnic Folklore, New York and London, Garland Publishing, 1982, 484pp., $75. This annotated bibliography of the folklore of European and Asian immigrants and their American- and Canadian-born descendants focuses upon examples and analyses of traditional expressive forms and behaviour patterns observed among, recorded from, and concerned with members of the immigrant generations and their New World progeny. It documents Old World folklore remembered or perpetuated by the immigrants, folklore generated as a result of the experiences of immigrating and adapting to New World environments. The entries, nearly 2000 of them and many of which are multiple listings, cover a time period from 1888 through to 1980. Many contain data in other languages (some with, and some without, English translations), and a few are summaries or translations of works written in languages other than English. Most of the essays included appear in folklore periodicals, and most of the books listed are written by folklorists or contain information about the kinds oftraditional expressive forms and behaviours that folklorists discuss. The entries vary from cross-cultural and comparative works which describe or discuss selected phenomena such as customs, beliefs, tales and songs, to those which examine traditional behaviours and forms in terms ofgroup dynamics or individual life-history contexts. Entries are annnotated and arranged alphabetically by nationality group, and multiple indexes arranged by topic, geographical location, genre, and authors. All entries combine to make this bibliography a valuable reference tool for humanists and social scientists in general, as well as folklorists. W Bennett

INGE, M Thomas, ed., Handbook of American Popular Culture, Westport, Connecticut and London, Greenwood Press, 1978, 3 vols, 1383pp., £96.85 the set. Popular culture reflects society and the peoples' attitudes, morals and mores through a mirror which is usually grasped in the clutching hands ofthe mass media. Do the mass media, however, really reflect what society wants or influence it to want what the media provide?

105 The serious study of popular culture is a fairly recent phenomenon, although sociologists found out long ago that the materials with which Americans amuse themselves are fascinating for what they reflect about the people and their attitudes. American halls ofstudy are now forging ahead with courses in film, television, radio, science fiction, popular music, the detective novel or comic art, and this handbook is the first organised effort to assemble in one place the basic bibliographic data needed to begin the study of several ofthe major areas of popular culture. Each chapter, prepared by an authority on the subject, gives a brief chronological survey of the development of the medium, thus providing in essay form a critical guide to the standard bibliographies, reference works, histories, critical studies, and journals. Supplementing this basic material is a description ofthe existing research centres, collections ofprimary and secondary source documentation, and a checklist of works cited in the text. This handbook provides the student, librarian or general reader with the information, or where further information can be located, which will complete successfully a research paper or project, answer a question, add to a basic library or stimulate a discussion about a topic or personality purely as a matter of interest. Not presented as comprehensive, these three volumes will be supplemented by future editions which will remedy any oversights and add to the numerous areas of popular culture which are crying out for coverage. These volumes are indeed an excellent contribution to this burgeoning field. W Bennett

INGRAM, Arthur, Shepherding Tools and Customs, Aylesbury, Shire Publications, 1983, 32pp., illus., 95p. First published in 1977, this first reprint ofNo. 23 in the Shire Albums is a worthy member of this collection of informative booklets. The shepherd was, and is, a highly regarded member of rural society, an artisan employing methods and implements personally suited to his calling. This book describes the typical life ofsuch a man, the tools that would be used and the customs practised as the shepherd tended his flocks. The well-documented sections with their detailed illustrations will delight traditionalists and progressives alike. W Bennett

JABBOUR, Alan, comp., Ethnic Recordings in A merica: A N eglected H eritage, Washington, Library of Congress, 1982, 269pp., $13. In January of 1977, the American Folklife Center convened a meeting at the Library of Congress on the subject Ethnic Recordings in A merica: A Neglected Heritage. This book is not a transcription of the proceedings of the conference, nor does it represent the papers, talks, roundtable discussions and audience contributions that made up the meeting, yet in certain ways it carries on the spirit ofthe conference: scholars, record producers and dealers, shop­ owners, collectors and recording artists all attended, producing a warm and lively discussion period ofshared experiences. Three ofthe contributors to this volume have devoted esays to an exploration ofthe subject in all its broad outlines: Pekka Gronow's " Ethnic Recordings, An Introduction", Richard K Spottswood's "Commercial Ethnic Recordings in the United States", and Joseph C Hickerson's "Early Field Recordings ofEthnic Music" . Three more contributions examine specific examples in greater depth: Mick Maloney' s " Irish Ethnic Recordings and the Irish-American Imagination" which looks at a single ethnic group's recording activities, and "La Alondra de la Frontera", an essay in autobiography prefaced by James S Griffith's remarks about Lydia Mendoza as a Mexican-American artist. In the third

106 instance, "The Sajewski Story", Richard K Spottswood reflects on the crucial role of a producer and distributor of recordings and music publications in an American ethnic community. The Director ofthe American Folklife Center acknowledges the debt that the centre owes to all the contributors whose essays comprise this book, and this reviewer can only second this with an acknowledgement to the American Folklife Center for its contribution, through a communicative and cultural medium, to the consciousness of a receptive audience. This book should assume its proper place in the annals of a nation's heritage. W Bennett

JARVIS, S M, Discovering Christian Names, Aylesbury, Shire Publications, 1979, 64pp., £1.25. An alphabetical list ofover 1200 forenames used in Britain today for either sex, with language of origin, particulars of derivation, and, whenever possible, their true meaning in English has been compiled in this handy booklet. The list is fairly exhaustive for such a slim volume, and should be a valuable source of reference to parents-to-be and anyone interested in his own or friends' and relatives' names. As a "friend of peace", I recommend this book as one to browse through and meditate upon: you may be surprised at the meaning of your own name! W Bennett

JEFFREYS, John, Book of Songs, Aylesbury, Roberton Publications, 1983, 148pp., £12. John Jeffreys was born on the Isle of Thanet in 1927, distinguishing himself as a talented musician early in life and going on to win acclaim as a composer and research worker ofsome notability. Since 1949 poetry and songs, together with a continuing research project on Philip Rosseter, have formed Jeffreys' main preoccupation, with his ability to write both poetry and music adding an interesting and telling perspective to his approach to songwriting. By 1970 the songs composed by Jeffrey numbered nearly 300, but by 1980 only some ftfty settings for voice with piano, together with three early songs with bassoon and ftve with string quartet, survive. These, together with the early violin concerto, six unaccompanied choral works, and the very recent Exeter Fantasia for double string orchestra, leave but a small proportion of Jeffreys' work extant. Leaving aside this self-censorship, we are offered a rich variety ofsongs within this cover ranging from the light and lilting melody of " The Milkmaid" to the brooding anger of"Requiem". One can be startled by the arresting tone of" Who is at my window?" and experience a rare poignancy at the lyrical sadness of " I was young and foolish". This is a Book of Songs to suit all moods by a composer possessing a creative art that suits all tastes. W Bennett

KILBY, K, The Village Cooper, Aylesbury, Shire Publications, 1983, 32pp., ill us., 95 p. Coopers were once numerous, employed by breweries and as independent craftsmen in most towns and many villages, but very few are now in business. Metal containers have displaced the wooden barrels in the breweries, and the village cooper is practically non-existent. This book, No. 28 in the Shire Albums, helps to preserve the memory ofthe special skills needed for coopering by tracing the history ofthe craft and describing and illustrating how a barrel was made. Authoritative because it is written by a man who was apprenticed to his father, the head cooper at J W Green's brewery, Luton, the interest in this book also lies in its 'readability'. An extract from the first chapter on the history of coopering has the cooper's traditional verse, containing the traditional craftsman's promise: "I make and mend both tub and cask,/ And make 'em strong, to make them last". What a fttting tribute to any craftsman

107 - and to the writer of The Village Cooper/ This book will last a very long time because it has strength through craftsmanship and conviction. W Bennett

KRIS, Ernst and Otto KURZ, Legen~ Myth, and Mag£c in the Image of the Artist, New Haven and London, Yale University Press, 1979, 159pp., £5.95. This historical experiment has produced an unusual book based on Die Legende vom Kunstler: Ein historischer Versuch, published in 1934 (Vienna: Krystall Verlag) using the utmost economy of means without curbing the bold speculation or variety of evidence in its translation and presentation. This is the first English translation of a work which examines the links between the legend ofthe artist, in all cultures, and aspects ofpsychology, art history and history, aesthetics, biography, myth and magic. This study is stimulating, provoking much thought, and will appeal widely to an audience interested in artistic creation and the psychology of aesthetics. The "enigma ofthe artist", the mystery surrounding him, and the magic emanating from his personality is a sociological phenomenon which begs an inquiry. This study constitutes the preliminary work needed for any future research into the sociology of the artist. W Bennett

LABARGE, M W,A Baronial Household of the Thirteenth Century, Brighton, Harvester Press, 1980, 235pp., £5.95. This reprinted edition, first published in 1965, reiterates and confirms this oldest private account ofthe day to day life of an English noble family as a well-established classic. Based mainly on the household roll of Eleanor de Montfort (sister of Henry III and Countess of Leicester) in the fateful year 1265, this book has special interest because these families were members ofthe small elite which ruled England. An English earl ofthe thirteenth century was a prominent member of a military and social aristocracy, wielding considerable political power. However, this study of daily life is not concerned with Earl Simon's political position, but looks at features of his household through entries on the household roll. Thirteenth century treatises on etiquette describe social customs and general outlook of the time, providing a satisfactory, unromanticised portrait of baronial domestic life invaluable to students of social history. W Bennett

LANG, A, Yellow Fairy Boo~ Harmondsworth, Penguin Books, 1980, 330pp., £6.50. LANG, A, Pink Fairy Book, Harmondsworth, Penguin Books, 1982, 332pp., £7 .50. For some inexplicable reason Lang's collection offolk and fairy tales do not have quite the reputation of Grimms' or Anderson's, despite each volume being an interesting and varied collection and in some cases the only generally available source for a particular tale. A new edition ofone of Lang's coloured fairy books is thus always welcome, and these two (part of a continuing series) with new illustrations by Colin McNaughton and Erik Blegvad are particularly attractive. As these are primarily intended for children the editor has unfortunately omitted one or two tales whose flavour he feels inappropriate, so they do not form the best scholarly editions. Nevertheless anyone interested in the fairy tale will be pleased to add these to their collection. N Williams

108 LANHAM, L W, and C A MACDONALD, The Standard in South African English and its Social History, Heidelberg, Julius Groos Verlag, 1979, 96pp. The series Varieties of English Around the World is produced with the commendable and formidable aim of providing scholarly accounts ofthe forms and functions ofEnglish, region by region, including English-based pidgins and creoles. The present volume, the first in the General Series (General Editor Manfred Gorlach), is the result of a study largely based, in common with many contemporary investigations oflinguistic variation, on the conceptual framework and methodology established by William Labov for his 1966 New York investigation. Not a great deal of material is available on South African English; this is therefore a welcome addition to the rapidly expanding volume ofliterature on the manifold varieties ofEnglish. Beginning with a brief account on the historical, political and social history of South African English, the authors go on to give a conventionally Labovian account of the relationship between variation- essentially phonological, and the extra-linguistic parameters of region, class, ethnic origins, age, associations with Britain, and sex, into which the notion of formality of context is integrated. Statistical analyses of the data are presented in a series of easily read tables, and social analyses are dealt with discursively in the final chapters. The usefulness of the volume particularly to students of overseas English varieties is enhanced by the final chapter which presents a comparison with Australia. K Reah

LEECH, Geoffrey N and Michael H SHORT, Style in Fictio~ London/New York, Longmans, 1981,402pp., £6.95. This volume is the thirteenth in the Longmans English Language series and is designed as a follow-up to Leech's earlier A Linguistic Guide to English Poetry (number 4 in that series). Basically it is a reader-cum-workbook for students of stylistics and literature, which carries the linguistic approach to texts into the wide domain of narrative art. Beginning with an introductory section that not only explains and justifies the stylistic approach but discusses with admirable clarity the main schools ofthought and the techniques available to the analyst, it goes on to examine aspects ofthe writer's craft such as methods ofpresenting dialogue and thought, and ends with a selection of passages for individual or group study and an admirable bibliography.

It is a first class book for its purposes. Lucidly written with a minimum of jargon~ it requires no previous expertise in linguistics. The authors' claim that readers need only be familiar with "some basic concepts and traditional terms" is borne out in the text, yet there is never any attempt to talk down to the reader nor are the authors apparently even once hampered by this self-imposed limitation. The overall design is excellent too, each topic capable ofbeing read in isolation and yet the whole building up to a unified approach to text. At each stage the analysis is supported by illustrations which are not only relevant to the argument but interesting in themselves. Nor is this only a good book for the student ofliterature and stylistics; one can imagine that it would be very useful for the sixth-form teacher struggling to explain basic literary concepts to pupils who have not learnt to think of novels as artefacts, and for the general reader with an interest in the craft offiction. Again, though it is designed with reference to written literature, any of the techniques are very adaptable to the study of oral storytelling. In particular, the

109 authors' "checklist oflinguistic and stylistic categories" (chapter 3, pp. 75-80) would provide an excellent way into difficult oral texts such as those collected in informal contexts. By actually listing various factors that are worth looking at when studying a text, it encourages close reading and a sensitive response to the storyteller's art. I found this an eminently readable and informative book, and I shall go out and buy myself one when eventually I have to relinquish my review copy! G Bennett

LINDELL, Kristina, Jan-Ojvind SWAHN and Damrong TAYANIN, A Kammu Story­ Listener's Tales, Lund, Curzon Press, 1977, 114pp., £4. This volume, No. 33 in the Scandinavian Institute of Asian Studies Monograph series, is a collection of nearly 350 folktales from Kammu storytellers living in different parts of Laos and Thailand. The stories have been transcribed from taperecordings, translated and commented upon by the authors who collected the folktales during several periods of fieldwork. One complete repertoire has been selected for this volume, consisting of eighteen stories supplemented by folklore annotations, parallels, etc., together with a useful discussion of the Kammu people and their literature. Two different reasons are given for the selection of these particular stories. First, because the narrator does not specialise in a particular genre, the range of tale-types is sufficiently wide to serve as a preliminary survey of Kammu literature. Secondly, this is the only repertoire where every single tale has been discussed regarding language, meaning and implications at improvised " seminars" attended by several storytellers and their friends. The abilities ofboth narrators and transcribers are shown to the utmost effect in this volume, for no attempt has been made to re-tell the stories in a more consistent form than they have in the recordings. The translations are as direct as the foreign medium permits, and the editors are to be congratulated upon their aims to present a " true" transcription. The book is well­ researched, its material methodically presented, and the whole constituting a worthwhile project. W Bennett

Living in Two Cultures, Aldershot, Gower/ Unesco, 1982, xv, 325pp., £12.50. This volume contains studies on migrant workers in Europe selected for publication by the specialists who attended a symposium at the University ofHeidelberg organised by Unesco in 1978. The experts were expected to offer recommendations, on the basis ofthe research results, for improving the situation of such workers. The study was conducted during 1979- 80 on the sociocultural situation of migrants in the USA, and although not intended to present a definitive ethnographic picture of the sociocultural situation of the workers and their families, it does raise questions and point the way to useful areas of policy and further research. The first part of the book is concerned with the conditions, nature and effects of official language training programmes for migrant workers, with contributing writers focusing on the various social practices, strategies and barriers that ensure the relative failures of the migrants participating in these programmes. The end result sees a steady flow of cheap labour for the land and factories ofWestern Europe. The second part ofthe book addresses the particular problems faced by female migrants and how the mores of the old culture affect their adaptation to the requirements of the new.

110 This collection of studies poses fundamental questions which deserve the attention both of the general public and policy makers in the various countries ofin-migration, the countries of origin, and the migrants themselves - how is everyday life in the countries of employment being managed by migrant workers and what are the peculiar problems of adaptation posed by having to live in or between two cultures? The publication of this volume, with the analytical and substantive issues it raises, will be a step forward in both the scientific consideration of the sociocultural situation of migrant workers, and the formulation of suitable strategies of action at the national and international levels which could function in their favour. W Bennett

LYONS, John, Language, Meaning and Context, London, Fontana, 1981, 256pp., £2.95. Professor Lyons published a magisterial two-volume book on semantics in 1977 and so one might have thought this book would be merely an abridgement of the larger work. It is rather more than that, for he has used a different plan and approach. This volume will provide students with an excellent introduction to the subject and a springboard from which to tackle the larger book. In this book Lyons starts with words and phrases and gradually works through to ever larger units of utterance. Each step is explained carefully and each chapter concludes with a summary so that it is easy to refer back to previous stages ofthe discussion. The book pays particular attention to the interaction of linguistics and philosophy, for the author takes a broad view of what semantics is about. Although this means using some basic logic and other philosophical terms, the style is readable and technical language is avoided where this seems appropriate. Professor Lyons approaches his subject with a robust commonsense, and he is not afraid to describe theories as nonsensical if they merit that description. This book will be invaluable for those who want to know something about the meaning of meaning. N F Blake

MACDONALD, Keith Norman, The Sky e Collection, Sydney, Nova Scotia, Skye Collection, 1980, 195pp., $14.95. Reproduced from original editions by PaulS Cranford, the musician-lighthousekeeper, the recent reissue of this important collection will be welcome to all Scottish violinists everywhere. They will have access to over 600 tunes from the Highland musical tradition through accurate renditions based on traditional settings. The Skye Collection was compiled by Keith Norman MacDonald of Skye, a noted collector of Gaelic music, in 1887, the compiler's awareness ofthe affiliation between Gaelic music and song being apparent from the inclusion of a Gaelic index listing the Gaelic names for many of the tunes in the collection. This is an anthology of the best tunes available at that time, complete with piano arrangements. A list ofthe published sources ofthe violin tunes, covering nearly all ofthe major collections and some minor collections from the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries includes works ofthe more famous composers such as the Gows, Marshall, Macintosh, and Skinner. There are also a number of pipe tunes, noted down as played in Skye. Of the 400- plus tunes, most are strathspeys and reels, with a smaller number ofslow airs ("solos"), and a very few jigs. To true lovers ofScottish music, this volume will appeal to all the enthusiasts who have felt the need for a work which has all the fire and fervour of their national music concentrated in one attractively-bound book. The Skye Collection presents Highland music in a variety and

111 depth of expression which will delight all who are concerned with the musical aspects of a remarkable culture. W Bennett

MALINOWSKI, Bronislaw, Magic, Science and Religion and other essay~ London, Condor, 1982, 255pp., £4.95. This is a welcome reprint in a single volume of three influential essays. Those who are already admirers ofMalinowski's work will be pleased to have the~e essays so readily to hand for reference: those who are unfamiliar with his work will find this an ideal introduction. More than any other single scholar perhaps, Malinowski launched the integrative approach to the study of social custom and belie( His work is based exclusively on fieldwork and the aproach is broadly the ethnographic one of seeking to reach the general through the particular. Written in his beautifully lucid, elegant style, these papers in particular attempt to explain and describe recurring kinds ofhuman social behaviour and to analyse the ways in which they maintain social cohesion. The title essay, first published in 1925, first gives a critical overview of anthropological theory to the date of writing, then goes on to disabuse readers' minds of several popular misconceptions- for example that "primitive" man is a creature ofunreflecting emotion and that he has no science. The essay also includes a spirited defence oftotemism, showing it as adaptive- a reasonable (and successful) response to environmental conditions. Perhaps the only aspects ofthe essay which will jar upon the nerves of the reader today are the persistent use ofthe terms "natives", "savages" and "primitives", and Malinowski's unbounded faith in science. However, his tolerant humanity and commonsense wisdom soon charm away such irritations, and the persuasive readability of the essay shines through to make it still a classic of anthropological literature. The other two pieces included in this volume are the influential but long unavailable little book, Myth in Primitive Society (first published in 1926 and designed as a tribute to Sir James Frazer), and Baloma: the spirits of the Dead in the Trobriand Islands, which is a full scale examination of Trobriand ghost beliefs. Myth in Primitive Society principally sets out to correct the inbuilt bias of text-oriented studies of myth, by showing individual myths operating in their proper cultural context. It begins with a witty attack on solar mythology and on scholars such as Lang who saw myth as a type of primitive explanatory science, and goes on to demonstrate that myth is functional, not decorative or metaphorical - a hardworking cultural, social and moral force: "The function of myth is to strengthen tradition, and endow it with a greater value and prestige by tracing it back to higher, better, more supernatural reality of initial events," he argues. Myth codifies belief, enforces moral standards, justifies ritual and serves as a practical guide to daily behaviour. The third essay, Baloma: the Spirits of the Dead in the Trobriand Islands (1916) covers ground which is discussed more briefly in the later Coral Gardens and their Magic (1935). In many ways this is the most informative and readable ofthe three essays. Here he uses detailed description and discussion once more to forge links between behaviour, belief and society. For many people, however, it will be the nature ofthe Baloma themselves rather than the theoretical superstructure that most engages the attention. Those interested in the present day folklore ofthe supernatural will find astonishing parallels between the Baloma and the

112 purposeless ghost of modern Western society. Accounts of encounters with Baloma would not be very out of place in the Journal of the Society for Psy chical R esearch Like modern, urban ghosts, Baloma are thought to return to their usual haunts from a specific place (the island of Tuma) to which they go after death. They are left a good deal to themselves, do not inspire fear, and are a part of unofficial, secular belief systems, not organised religion. They are glimpsed rather than seen just flitting quietly into the dusk; they are heard as familiar voices in the air, often calling "Goodbye", or they are apprehended in dreams and visions. There are Trobrianders who can "visit" the Baloma, or who can mediate between them and the living, or bring news from Tu rna. The introduction to this volume of essays describes them as " trail-blazers in their day [which] today still retain their power to move." This is an apt tribute to the essays in this volume: it is good to see them thus reprinted together. G Bennett

MALONE, Bill C, Southern Music, A merican Music, Lexington, Kentucky, University Press of Kentucky, 1979, 203pp., $18. Music is society's most spontaneous and distinctive form of artistic expression. The themes of music for dancing, music for praising the Lord, music for all forms of communication and the dozens ofother themes are not themselves peculiar to the South, but Mr Malone makes it clear that the music of the South is an outgrowth of regional experience, and because this experience has been exceptionally dramatic, poignant, colourful and elemental, southern music has irresistible appeal. Mr Malone explores many varieties of southern music such as minstrelsy, ragtime, blues, jazz and hillbilly tunes which have, in the instance of the latter especially, evolved into today' s " country" and " folk" music. His analysis ofthe influence of radio and the recording industry is particularly revealing, with great attention being given to individual songwriters and performers. The lively style of the informed appreciation of the music and musicians described gives added interest to a book which will delight all those who care for the distinctive sounds of southern music. W Bennett

MAURER, David W, Language of the Underworld, Lexington, University Press ofKentucky, 1981, xi, 417pp., $30. The many cultural groups which make up American society have scarcely been recognised in formal scholarship, bu t this has been partly resolved by the innovative and pioneering linguistic studies ofDavid W Maurer. Beginning among the fishermen ofthe North Atlantic, he has gone on to learn the language of moonshiners, drug addicts,confidence men, pickpockets and prostitutes. Professor Maurer's research brought to light a wide variety of argots and specialised language patterns which proved to be a major resource for etymologists, lexicographers and linguists. Collected here are twenty essays, selected by editors Allan W Futrell and Charles B Wordell from more than two hundred books, articles and papers published over Professor Maurer's long career. His net is cast widely, and the waters oflinguistics are shown to be deeper than we imagined. W Bennett

113 McCOSH, Sandra, Children's Humour, St Albans, Granada Publishing, 1976, 336pp., £1.50. WOLFENSTEIN, Martha, Children's Humor, Indiana, Indiana University Press, 1978, 224pp., £7.70. These two books tackle the subject of children's humour from totally different but not incompatible perspectives. Sandra McCosh's book is essentially the now familiar collection ofplayground lore in the style ofthe Opies' famous collections. The jokes have been collected in an unsystematic way from disparate sources using different methodologies, i.e. McCosh uses a standard folklorist's methodology. Most ofthe collection comes from schools in Leeds, but others are from London, San Francisco and San Diego. Fortunately each joke in the collection is given a code recording location and date of collection, together with the sex and age of the informant, but the method of collecting each item is not recorded. The book is supported with 120 pages ofintroduction and preface, covering such topics as the history of childlore, origin and transmission of jokes and prevalent themes. Although the book is reasonably scholarly in approach one might wish for a more thorough theoretical account and less actual collection. The attempt to strike a balance between scholarliness and a popular audience does not really succeed, as scholars are likely to dislike much that results from a necessarily brief treatment, whilst an audience interested in the jokes themselves would regard half the book as uninteresting. Martha Wolfenstein's book represents the other extreme. It is a serious and sustained attempt to understand the nature of the humour of children, primarily relying on psychological explanations. As one might expect, the underlying concerns are those already identified by commentators such as Bettelheim - sex, loss of parents, anxiety in other forms, stupidity and so on. Its faults are not major, though of the order such texts generally entail. The account of data collection is sparse. One feels that, as the main method of study was actually interviewing children, some account of the difficulties is needed to establish the validity of the consequent observations. There is a tendency to over-pontificate. Freudian symbolism is the easiest thing to find in language, not merely jokes, so Martha Wolfenstein's conclusions drawn from symbolic interpretations of her texts need careful reading. However, even with these provisos this is a text ofa kind sorely needed, and should be read as a counterbalance to the collectophilia (fun though it is) represented by Sandra McCosh's work. N Williams

McDOWELL, John Holmes, Children's Riddling, Bloomington and London, Indiana University Press, 272pp., $17.50. In this serious contribution to the study of sociolinguistics, developmental psychology and linguistic folklore, John McDowell examines the true nature of children's riddling. He demonstrates that verbal play is essential for the child's acquisition oflinguistic and cultural competence. The findings in this study are based on approximately one thousand riddling and riddlelike acts collected from working-class chicano and middle-class anglo children, aged four to eleven, in Austin, Texas. Professor McDowell investigates the form and content of riddles, riddling as a social process, the development of riddling skills, the social and cultural functions of children's riddling, and the reflexivity of riddling. This is a richly documented and meticulous piece of work, having serious import yet

114 bubbling over with diverse linguistic expression. For example, the preface states: "Like the tokens of quotidia corralled in interrogative ludic routines, these adumbrations are themselves greatly transformed ... ", but the continuous use of the term "the riddlee", especially with its connection with children, kept intruding into my intellect in a ridiculous manner. This apart, no reader can fail to be impressed by Professor McDowell's achievement, and this book will have a significant impact on the study of conversational genres in folklore. W Bennett

MELVILLE, Annette, Special Collections in the Library of Congress: A S elective Guide) Washington, United States Government, 1980, xv, 464pp., $21.25. This guide comprises special collections of thematically related groups of material maintained as separate units within the general holdings ofthe Library ofCongress. These were either acquired as a unit or specifically assembled by the Library, but they all share the important trait of bringing together individual items that grow in research value by their association with the other material in the collection. This volume seeks to guide the researcher to resources that might otherwise be overlooked, and though limited to 269 of the Library's many special collections, has an approach that can be applied for the effective use of similar resources within the Library. This is a reference work compiled as a research aid and not as a substitute for reading. The Collections Development Office welcomes suggestions from users, which will serve as a basis for any future revisions. W Bennett

METCALFE, Leon, Discovering Ghosts, Aylesbury, Shire Publications, 1983, 64pp., illus., £1.25. This is No. 147 in the popular Discovering series published by Shire, being a reprint of a 1972 edition. Ghosts are "big business" now, and almost every neighbourhood in Britain lays claim to having a ghost. Locations have played a large part in the selection of stories for this volume, and many a tragic tale can be seen behind many of the hauntings. This book will introduce the reader to Henry VIII, Dick Turpin, Nell Gwynne, as well as cavaliers slain in battle, ill-starred lovers and victims of savage murders and their killers. The stouthearted reader will go out and track down the ghosts for himself, and the more timid will just enjoy the reading of the tales. W Bennett

MIDDLETON, Richard and David HORN, Popular Music) Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1981, 222pp., Vol. 1. What is popular music? One section ofsociety sees it as the music ofthe mass ofthe people as against that ofan elite, while another point ofview will see popular music as a socio-economic situational product spawned by a society undergoing industrialisation. In some leftist circles "popular" has acquired the connotations formerly attached to "folk", exploiting the commercial aspects, and the frrst two articles in this volume offer possible (although differing) "solutions" to this problem. John Blacking and Janos Marothy address the traditional folk-popular demarcation with full frontal candour, thus paving the way for the remaining articles in the book to establish how little the simple folk-popular dichotomy measures up to the problematic specificity of real musical practice. The subjects follow a roughly chronological order, from Dave Harker's study of the music of an English region in the throes of industrialisation to Wilfrid Mellers' discussion of the most recent songs of

115 Bob Dylan. Geographically, they come from a wide area, covering parts ofEurope, America, Asia and Africa, and all looking at developments within that sphere which would conventionally be thought of as the folk-popular interface. This first volume asks if this multiplicity ofmusical experiences can be subsumed under even one term, that of" popular music", leading on to the next issue which will ask: " Can suitable methods of study be proposed, appropriate for all the manifestations?" The aim of Popular Music is to provide a more extensive reviewing service in the area.ofpopular music than can be found at present in any one publication. That aim is well on the way toward fruition with the publication of this first volume. W Bennett

MIEDER, Wolfgang, International Proverb Scholarship, New York and London, Garland Publishing, 1982, 613pp., $60. This book is one of the Garland Folklore Bibliographies which are intended to provide ready access to the folklore scholarship of a particular country or area or to the scholarship devoted to a specific folklore genre or theme. Paremiology, the study of proverbs, is undoubtedly related to general folklore theory and methodology having its own unique character of language and history. Professor Mieder has devoted the greater part of his time and intellectual vitality on research into the proverb, and we have reason to be grateful for an opportunity to share his unmatched bibliographical expertise in this work. In this bibliography, Professor Mieder has unearthed important books and articles from a brilliant variety of sources, and provided fair and substantive annotations. His materials are meticulously indexed enabling the student oflegal proverbs, proverbs ofa national character, proverbs with literary connections, psychological testing by proverb utilisation, and many, many more disciplinary investigators to find the references essential for the issue he wishes to investigate. Proverb students will find this bibliography an indispensable reference source and authority not only at the present time, but for many decades to come. W Bennett

MOSER, Thomas, Windsor Chairmaking, New York, Sterling Publishing Co., 1982, 192pp., £10.95. The paucity of material on chairmaking has long been a source of irritation to the private woodworker, so this book will go some way in redressing the balance as the author welcomes all woodworkers to join him in the rewarding discipline of chairmaking. By applying the patience and diligence which Mr Moser has given to the creating of this book, any woodworker with a modicum of commonsense can make a modern Windsor chair - not only a most useful object but also a thing ofbeauty. The book is written in four parts, each quite independent ofthe others. The first part is for those who are interested in how these designs came to pass, whilst the second section deals with mass production and the wooden chair industry. Part III attempts to answer the question: " Why do you make this chair look like this?" Finally, Part IV offers a detailed account ofhow to construct a variety of chairs, most of which share the technology that was developed in the author's workshop in Maine, USA. The purpose of this book is to give those interested in designing and building a fine wooden chair the benefit of a craftsman's sucesses and failures, and Mr Moser convinces us that the richness of the past is worth knowing, preserving and building upon. W Bennett

116 MOSS, Michael and John HUME, Old Photographs from Scottish Country Houses, Nelson, Lancashire, Hendon Publishing, 1980, 88 black and white plates, £2.50. This interesting collection of reproduced photographs from the Scottish country houses has been compiled by an archivist and a lecturer in history, who have given us a fascinating glimpse into the homes and lives of former aristocrats and royal personages such as Queen Victoria who spent considerable time in her Scottish country home. During the long reign of this queen, the country house came to have a special place in the lives and affections ofthe nobility and well-to-do, aided, no doubt, by the queen's obvious enjoyment ofher Balmoral estate purchased in 1852. In the later years ofVictoria's reign Scottish country houses of the newly rich and the old landed families became fashionable social centres with frequent house parties, and the country house was also the administrative centre for the estate; thus pleasure was often combined with business, which provided an awareness in the Scottish aristocracy of the value ofthe new invention ofphotography. From the 1850s portrait photographs made delightful keepsakes for those at home and abroad, and it was a short step from taking portraits and groups to photographing other events in the life of the country house. This skilfully reproduced and well selected compilation of photographs, which owes much to the kindness oftoday' s aristocracy and Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II for its publishing, is a worthy contribution to the annals of social history. W Bennett

O'NEIL, Sunny, The Gift of Christmas Past, Nashville, The American Association for State and Local History, 1981, 143pp. Written by an author with the name of Sunny, how can one not warm to this, her first book, which is the culmination ofyears ofresearch into the traditional decorations and celebrations ofthe Victorians. This unique handbook tells the crafts enthusiast how to make gifts, deck the halls (an expression which Americans have claimed as their own), trim the tree and prepare the feast. Instructions for the easy-to-make crafts and decorations are simple and fully illustrated, the whole being a delightful account ofthe Christmas festivities and their elaborate preparations; this gives us a rare glimpse of the day-to-day life in Victorian America. The Gift of Christmas Past depicts a return to Victorian traditions with a warmth and charm that captivate the reader. W Bennett

OPIE, James, Toy Soldiers, Aylesbury, Shire Publications, 1983, 32pp., illus., 95p. There is a magic associated with the military splendour expressed in brightly painted toy soldiers, not only for children but adults too, and what can be more interesting than to read a book written by a collector who has been engrossed in this leisure interest since 1948. No. 102 ofthe Shire albums examines the types oftoy soldiers made worldwide, pausing to look in more detail at what has been on the market in Britain over the past century. Mr Opie gives useful advice about the identification, repairs, storage and valuation, accompanied by some excellent illustrations ofsome ofthe most distinctive terms that have become current among toy soldier collectors. The text is illustrated throughout with pictures from the author's collection, and the whole is a fascinating booklet slim enough to carry in the pocket and keep stealing a glance at. Wonderful value! W Bennett

117 ORSO, Ethelyn G, Modern Greek Humor, Bloomington and London, Indiana University Press, 1979, 262pp., $14.95. At the core ofany culture is its humour, and nowhere is this more apparent than in the Greek culture. From the age of the "Attic Salt's" influence to the present time of the Sokin "shocking" joke, the humour has illustrated the traditional attitudes towards sex, women and the double standard which have pervaded Greek culture. This is an unexpurgated collection of jokes and tales told by today's Greeks, containing ethnic slurs, political jokes (many ofwhich are directed against the repressive Papadopoulos regime), " clever Greek" stories, and humour told at the expense of the clergy and the Orthodox Church. The authentic Greek jokes were researched in Greece by the editor, who tried to preserve some ofthe characteristics of spoken folklore in his translation ofthe material into English; thus chapters three and four, which deal respectively with esoteric and exoteric Greek humour, are examples ofthe learned concerns proposed by William Hugh Jansen (1965). These concerns are concomitant with the inclusion in this book ofAppendix A (Index ofT ale Types), and Appendix B (Index ofMotifs , Stith Thompson, 1955-58) which must have Motif Number X681 (Blason Populaire) wherever the ethnic slur exists. A glossary and suggested readings contribute to a corpus of annotated texts which put Greek humour into a modern cultural context that is most pleasing. W Bennett

PACE, David, Claude Levi-Strauss: The B earer of Ashes, Boston, Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1983, 263pp., £14.95. The dust jacket ofthis book promises that it "provides a fascinating insight into [Levi-Strauss's] character through a careful reading of the more speculative passages of his books and interviews." Dr Pace' s analyses of certain excerpts from Tristes Tropiques are indeed thoughtful, and his chapter on "The semantics of ethnocentrism" is interesting and succinctly argued. And yet the book as a whole is unsatisfactory and does not do justice to " one of the intellectual giants of the twentieth century". Part of the failure of standard comes from too many misprints and insufficiently clear presentation. Three different dates are given for the publication ofTylor' s Primitive Culture - 1981 (p.80), 1883 (p.218), and 1874 (p.227) - the two volumes were in fact published in London by John Murray in 1871. There is another date misprint on p.82 ("as early as the 1980s ... "); an inverted comma on p.62 which is not completed by a second; and faulty grammatical agreement on, for example, p.213 ("when this disjecta membra are reassembled"). American spelling is followed on the whole - skeptical, traveler, etc. - but not always - centre. Some words and phrases are used to excess- c ritiqu e~ crucia~ all of, outside of- and some others - characterological~ for example- should not have been used at all. No mention is made of whether quotations were originally in English, and ifthey were not, ofwho translated them. These oversights do not reflect the methodological rigour of their subject. More seriously, there seems to be a basic confusion in the mind ofthe author about the nature of the ideas explored by Levi-Strauss. Dr Pace' s understanding of Marxism, for example, seems at best tenuous; and his remarks on Levi-Strauss's analogy ofthe role of women with the role of words within a sentence (p.157) are inept. His supposition that " a word is only a word and does nothing but signifY" is contradicted by the language scholars ofthe nineteenth century and by Wittgenstein and others in the twentieth, and his failure to recognise this idealistic role of language nullifies his attempts to understand Levi-Strauss's use of it to explain his anthropological work.

118 Most disturbing of all, however, is Dr Pace's approach to the subject ofhis study. What does this book set out to do? It is not a biography, for we are told almost nothing ofthe physical development ofLevi-Strauss's life. Neither is it an intellectual biography, for his work is not discussed chronologically or in depth. As the character study promised on the dust-jacket it is also incomplete: the psychological snippets extracted from Tristes Tropiques scarcely delineate any readily recognisable person. The confusion of approach is echoed by the author's confusion of attitude towards his subject. At the opening of the book he seems to like Levi­ Strauss and to sympathise with his work and his adopted role in the world: by the end, it is as though he has had quite enough of him and has lost patience with his ideas. The B earer of Ashes leaves the "very private and isolated figure, who has been reticent about himself', as private and reticent as before. G Cawthra

PADDOCK, Harold], ed, Languages in Newfoundland and Labrado~ 2nd version, StJohn's, Newfoundland, Department of Linguistics, Memorial University, 1982, 278pp., £5. The study of linguistic contact in one particular region can be a worthwhile guide to that region' s inherited culture. The extensive support given to linguistic research at the Memorial University ofN ewfoundland recognises the distinct linguistic diversity ofapproximately half a million people in the Province. This is the second version of a reader produced in 1977 for a linguistics course on the languages and dialects ofNewfoundland and Labrador, its present format reflecting evolutionary changes in M. U.N.'s Department of Linguistics. Only seven articles remain unchanged from the first version of the book. These are (1 ) Hewson' s on Micmac hieroglyphics, (2) Peacock's on Inuktitut (Eskimo), (3) Foster's on Irish Gaelic, (4) Thomas' s on Port-au-Port French, (5) Story's on Newfoundland English, (6) Hiscock' s on Lowell' s novel, and (7) Hollett's on allegro speech. Two articles have been revised; these are Hewson' s on Beothuk and Paddock's on Newfoundland dialects ofEnglish. The remaining six articles are new additions to this volume; these are: (1 ) Hewson' s on the fundamentals of Micmac, (2) MacKenzie' s on Montagnais and Naskapi, (3 ) Jeddor's on Inuttut (Eskimo), (4) Foster' s on Scottish Gaelic, (5) Clarke's on language attitudes, and (6) Kirwin' s on folk etymology. It was pleasant to study again Professor Story's article on Newfoundland English which reiterated the richness of the word-store in Newfoundland speech. Equally rich is the expressive phrase and proverb such as "the heel ofthe day (sunset)" , and the delightful " as busy as a one-armed nailer in a gale of wind". Recent investigations have confirmed the existence ofdistinct dialect areas inN ewfoundland which are still active at the present time. Work on the Linguistic Atlas of Newfoundland launched by W ] Kirwin in 1957, distinguished four main dialect areas on the Avalon Peninsula, and H Paddock (1966) followed this by a detailed study of the speech of Carbonear. Investigation of some of the dialects outside the Avalon has already begun with J D A Widdowson's studies of Bishop's Falls (1964) and Fortune Harbour (1965). It should not be assumed that there will always be an exact correlation between ethnic origin and dialect, as other variables have frequently modified, or even changed, the original speech patterns. Centralisation of population, the growth of the media and other factors have all had a levelling effect on the dialects, and what seems to be happening is that several varieties ofNewfoundland speech (new "dialects") are emerging from the direct contact of different varieties of dialect speech. The linguistic base remains the same in the "different" speech patterns among the younger generation of Newfoundlanders. This article is a most worthy retention from the first version of this volume.

119 Part II ofLanguages in Newfoundland and Labrador deals with North American languages. The reversal of sections in this second edition was to accommodate Marguerite MacKenzie's article on Montagnais and N askapi language in Labrador. Beginning with the history and culture, and proceeding to vocabulary, grammatical, sound and dialectal features of Labrador, the article is a masterpiece of detailed research and rich data. This book is recommended (and its modest price will be appreciated) to both linguistic scholars and interdisciplinary students of social and anthropological subjects. One does not have to be a devoted enthusiast of the languages in Newfoundland and Labrador to appreciate the research within these pages, for as the foreword quotes from Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, in The Phenomenon ofMan: " ... there is less difference than people think between research and adoration". W Bennett

PAIVIO, Allen and Ian BEGG, Psychology of Language, New Jersey, Prentice-Hall, 1981, 417pp., £16.45. Human language is a complex phenomenon with many meanings in everyday usage, and about the only thing that the expressions have in common is that each has something to do with communication. The aims ofthis book are to provide a comprehensive introduction to the psychology of language which will emphasise general theoretical and historical perspectives, and seek to reach a scientific understanding ofthe nature oflanguage and its use by intelligent beings. By their reading of language research over the last few decades, the authors of this book believe that several distinct perspectives have guided the work ofpsychologists and linguists. They describe the theoretical perspectives and use them as frameworks to understand the facts of language behaviour - and why certain questions about that behaviour are of particular interest. Thus the reader can encounter contemporary issues in an historical context that reveals why the issues are interesting and, where those issues are controversial, what the argument is all about. The emphasis on the historical perspectives may also help the student to avoid being trapped by the latest theoretical and methodological fads. What was a research fashion in the 1950s became outdated in the 1960s, and one long yawn in the 1970s. An historical perspective is needed to consider seriously the legacy ofproblems, variables and theoretical ideas that each decade leaves in its wake. Allen Paivio and Ian Begg have managed to emphasise some enduring contributions which will be useful guides to all students embarking on the exhilarating journey into the psychology of language. This book was designed for university students with some background in psychology, but not necessarily linguistics. Ideally suited to the needs of final-year undergraduates, as well as those of the graduate in psychology, linguistics and allied areas, theoretical accounts that most other books do not consider (such as Skinner's account) are examined in detail. It is believed that these older approaches establish an historical continuity, so presenting a background against which some of the concepts of more current interest are well defined. This is a textbook with a broad approach that leans toward historical and interdisciplinary concerns with an emphasis offacts and issues which should prove to be invaluable to psychologists, linguists, and all students of language. W Bennett

120 PARTRIDGE, A C, A Companion to Old and Middle English Studies, The Language Library, London, Andre Deutsch, 1982, 462pp., £12.95. The "Studies" ofthis book's title may mislead some, for the volume is a companion to Old and Middle English Literature. It is divided into two parts, dealing respectively with Old English and Middle English. It tends to focus on history, literature and language. The history is more political than social, and it is not always clear why the author has chosen to spend so much time on it. The language is more concerned with sounds and spelling than with syntax, though the latter is not entirely neglected. The literature deals in the Old English period with prosody and manuscripts together with a brief review of each ofthe major poems. In Middle English there is considerable attention devoted to prose, though the prosody also receives consideration. Some authors are treated to brief critical appreciations, though Chaucer gets less space than one might have expected. The book is intended as an introduction and guide to the literary culture of the period. It is old-fashioned in its approach and treatment of subjects, and the bibliography is rather out of date. There is no reference to Bruce Mitchell's work on Old English language or to some recent books on Middle English grammar, including the translation of Jordan's handbook. The comments on language are rather philological in their orientation and they are not set within any system which might make it easy for a beginner in the subject to understand the link between scattered facts about the development of sounds and the literature. Nevertheless, there is a lot of information in this book which will help to illuminate some aspects ofthe literature. Readers should not however believe that it represents the latest word on the subject. N F Blake

PLUMMER, Ken, Documents of Lzfe, London, Allen and Unwin, 1983, 175pp., £12.95 hardback, £5.95 paper. This introduction to the problems and literature ofa humanistic method is the seventh in the series ofContemporary Social Research which is intended to provide concise introductions to significant methodological topics. "Human documents" have always been used by social scientists, though rarely has their use been discussed as a distinctive social research method; Dr Plummer redeems this situation by providing the first comprehensive introduction to this field. Students are introduced to the problems of oral histories and life histories, the text extending the definition of" human documents" to include letters, diaries, photographs, film, the "non-fiction" novel and "guerilla journalism". By focusing on the ambiguity of idiosyncratic human lives (which often gets ignored in favour of a more objective "scientific" approach) the author argues that social science has a significant corpus of humanistic research in this area Chapters are devoted to the technical, theoretical and ethical problems of a method which has affinity to symbolic interactionism, providing an inventory of issues involved in the conduct of research into those problems. Although this book is primarily intended for sociologists, psychologists, anthropologists and historians concerned with qualitative methods, students in the humanities will also benefit from its argument that social science is as much an art as a science. Used as a standard reference point for researchers in the field ofhuman documents, it can be read as a critique of grander tendencies- thus offering a counterbalance to the quantifiers and social theorists who too often lose sight of the joys and sufferings of social human beings. Documents of Lzfe depicts and discusses human experience with an understanding which can only come from close contact with the subject under enquiry. W Bennett

121 POWIS, David, The Signs of Crime: A Field Manual for Police, London, McGraw-Hill, 1977, 236pp., £4.50. At a time when the status and reputation of the police in this country have come increasingly under critical scrutiny, it is particularly fascinating to have access to a manual of their procedures and practices. This book is written by a Senior Deputy Commissioner of the "Met" and is intended not only for ambitious police officers up to and including the rank of inspector but also, as Sir Robert Mark suggests in his foreword, for the public generally. There are fifteen chapters devoted to different kinds of crimes and those who commit them, and they provide an insight into how the ideal policeman observes, thinks and behaves to his fellow citizens. There is enormous stress on vigilance: each chapter contains groups ofitems under the heading " Watch for", which puts one somewhat in mind of Baden-Powell's Scouting for Boys. Unfortunately when dealing with what to watch for in terms of fellow citizens there is fairly heavy reliance on stereotyping. I advise all women: ifyou are given to dressing in " ... slacks and inside out Afghanistan sheepskin coats, with perhaps a medallion on a chain", you are likely to be taken for a trendy Marxist out to baulk the capitalist system by helping yourself to its goodies. Altogether this is a potentially useful book, both for the conscientious law-abiding citizen and, for what I believe is known in the trade as " the villain" . Apart from the insights into police methods there is an invaluable section, illustrated, on tools used for breaking and entering both cars and houses. The glossary provides at the back of the book is interesting to the observer oflanguage and will help to make more intelligible meaning of the well-known TV police series. This is a clearly written, well-produced book, illustrated sparsely, though relevantly, with clear photographs and drawings. K Reah

PRESTON, Michael J, and Jean D PFLEIDERER, A KWIC C oncordance to the Play s of the Wakeji.eld Master, New York and London, Garland Publishing, 1982, 472pp., $100. This concordance is based on the six complete Middle English plays of the so-called Wakefield Master, as edited by A C <;::awley.. To offset the Wakefield Master's tendency to use many run-on lines, in addition to extremely short lines, the editors have provided approximately one hundred contexts of character for each word; these always contain the entire verse line as well as much ofthe preceding and following lines. Contexts are referenced not only by play and line number but also by the speaker of the particular line. A useful addition is the alphabetical classification of the contexts beyond the concorded word, so that identical and similar phrases fall together; this has a further effectiveness through a general separation of the different functions of homographs. One of the benefits of the extended KWIC format is that similar and identical lines and phrases are aligned so that the reader's eye falls upon them at once. This computer-generated concordance will introduce the Middle English archives of traditional drama to those with specific interests in this area. Because ofits heuristic nature, this volume should stimulate among medievalists an interest in customised research aids, engendering a programme of systematic textual study. This is the first concordance in the Key-Word-in-Context format ever made generally available for a Middle English verse text, and as such will be a worthy pioneer in the field of computer-assisted research. W Bennett

122 ROBERTS, Matt T, and Don ETHERINGTON, Bookbinding and the Conservation of Books, Washington, Library ofCongress, 1982, x, 296pp., $33.75. This dictionary of descriptive terminology will prove a boon to those concerned with bookbinding and the conservation of archival materials, not least for its approach to the subject. By examining the meaning and usage of the many terms and nomenclature of bookbinding, its offshoots and recent progeny, this volume fills a gap in the literature of conservation. Those concerned with archival work, whether as binders, technicians, collectors or simply laymen, will find the answers to most oftheir questions in this book which answers, among others, the questions most frequently asked by private collectors: "How can I best treat the leather bindings in my personal library?" Margaret R Brown has contributed some fine drawings, and the dictionary' s compilers speak accurately and helpfully to all who will listen. W Bennett

ROSENBLOOM, Joseph, Monster Madness, illus. Joyce Behr, New York, Sterling Pub., 1982, 127pp., £1.95. Riddles, jokes and fun on the theme of horror- but do not be misled! These jokes will not distress anyone. From quick one-liners such as: "Where does an Indian ghost sleep - In a creepy tepee?" to the longer joke offormulaic significance: "Dracula: Knock, knock. Victim: Who' s there? Dracula: A-1. Victim: A-1 what? Dracula: A-1 to drink your blood". Many of the jokes are directed toward American readers, which render them banal fare for the exoteric cultures with different responses to that humour, but generally a harmless bundle of fun. Straightforward drawings by Joyce Behr, simple riddles and tongue-twisters all add up to a lighthearted joke book handy for the pocket. W Bennett

SCAT'TERGOOD, M J, and J W SHERBORNE, eds, English Court Culture in the Later M iddle A ges, London, Duckworth, 1983, x, 220pp., £18. Resulting from a seminar conducted recently by the Colston Research Society in Bristol, this book sees ten leading mediaevialists adducing a rich body ofmaterial from the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries to settle such questions as: "Were kings like Richard II great patrons ofthe arts, as has often been assumed? To what extent was the culture oflate mediaeval England a product of the court, or was the culture more diffUse?" Topics discussed range from architecture, painting, literature and music through to education, patronage and crusades. Although the conclusion reached is that the kings were not lavish patrons on the scale of those of France, there is good evidence of creative activity in many other centres, which is well documented and illustrated in this book. There are critical materials here for a true assessment of the flowering of culture during the crucial middle ages of English history. W Bennett

SCHLERETH, Thomas J, Artifacts and the American Past, Nashville, The American Association for State and Local History, 1981, 294pp., $13.95. In ten original essays, the author presents ways to explore and teach history outside the traditional classroom orientation - by the study of historic photographs, mail-order catalogues, cartography, historic house museums and villages, the 1876 Centennial, plants and natural material culture and regional studies. Dr Schlereth, a leading proponent of historical inquiry into the man-made environment, shares his philosophies and methods of

123 teaching history by examination and interpretation of artefacts with us, thus providing a sampler of teaching and research techniques that he has tried, revised, and tried again over the past half decade. This book is recommended as an eclectic volume that reflects a multiplicity of perspectives and techniques, and consequently proves itself to be a thoughtful miscellany of experiments in history teaching and research. Students of all ages will become involved in the discovery, identification, and classification of material culture evidence - perhaps leading on to the students' own analysis and interpretation of such artefacts in the broad context of American cultural history. An interesting book by a talented historian has resulted in a remarkable example ofwhat vitality there can be in "the history outside the history classroom". W Bennett

SEBEOK, Thomas A, ed, Sight, Sound and Sense:> Bloomington and London, Indiana University Press, 1978, ix, 2 89pp., £12.25. This collection of thirteen essays is the outcome of a pilot programme in Semiotics in the Humanities held at Indiana University during the 1975-76 academic year. Here are the lectures produced in revised form, and falling under four headings: historiography, with two articles, one on the origins of semiotics and the other on Peirce's theory of signs; methodology, which includes an article by Umberto Eco discussing the question "Semiotics: A Discipline or an Interdisciplinary Method?" and considering the relation between social communication and semiosis; nonverbal communication, explored among animals and in man, with a focus on sign language in general; and the section on application examines clinical practice, religion, cultural theory, text analysis and translation. Semiotics can be informally defined as a science that studies all known varieties of signs, the rules governing their generation and production, transmission and exchange, and reception and interpretation. Semiotics has two complementary, interdependent aspects: communica­ tion and signification; the influence of the semiotic method has variously encompassed or influenced all subjects called "the humanities" and although no single collection can claim to present a complete panoramic vista of so complex an area of human concern, this collection of papers does give a fairly comprehensive view of current semiotic theory and practice. When read with its companion volume A Perfusion of Signs (Indiana University Press, 1977), this book will supply suitable reading in semiotics courses, both at introductory and advanced levels. It will be of interest to all readers interested in communication, linguistic theory, literary criticism and anthropology, and stimulate discussion concerning the main trends in semiotic theory and praxis. W Bennett

SEYFRIT, Michael, camp., Musical Instruments in the Dayton C. Miller Flute Collection at the Library of Congress, Washington, Library of Congress, 1982, 349pp., $18.75. The collection of flutes and other woodwind instruments which Dayton C Miller left to the Library of Congress in 1941 is probably the largest collection in the world dealing with one type ofinstrument. Ofthe 1,653 items inventoried in this volume, approximately 1,600 are associated with the general classification flute. Although the Miller collection has been utilised by performers, musicians, instrument makers and other researchers during its forty year tenure at the Library, this is the first documentation of the collection to be made for the public. The first volume in a proposed set ofseven which will offer a fuller listing ofthe Miller collection and other musical instrument collections at the Library, this catalogue is drawn

124 from several sources and will prove most helpful to those wishing to study this rich collection. W Bennett

FOLK SONGS WITHOUT SIN SHULDAM-SHAW, Patrick and Emily B LYLE, eds., The Grieg-Duncan Folk Song Collectio~ Aberdeen, Aberdeen University Press, 562pp., £25. Perusal of a folk-song collection provides the reader with a series of options: stand up with hands in pockets and gustily sight-sing the pieces imbued with a personal interpretation of authenticity; remain seated and correlate sources and versions with scholarly detachment; crouch forward, listen to the music your eyes give you and enjoy the sensual effect of interplay between word and sound. Those who wanted could even sit or stand, gesticulating as they adopt the revolutionary stance which proclaims the imaginative power of the proletariat manifest in the balladry of the common people, although this particular option is of little help to folk-music itself The Grieg-Duncan collection is such that any ofthese approaches can be taken (depending on the amount of activity with which you wish to burden your body). Written texts are supported (in as many cases as possible) by a transcription ofthe basic air. Here a caveat could be introduced in relation to the failure to provide variations in air along with variations in text; after all, it might be supposed that ifyou go to the trouble ofcollecting different lexical versions of a song then transcription of musical settings would be equally relevant. This (slight) inconsistency may be explained by the very basic notations ofthe airs to the songs. No characteristic vocal ornamentations are included or remarked upon in the collection and such an omission puts a distance between the text and its animation in the reader's mind. It has long been a practice in song collections to include ornamental variations on traditional (as opposed to folk,- oh pedantic quibble!) songs in the way which O'Riada or Breathnach did for their transcriptions ofSean Nos songs from the Irish-speaking areas ofireland. It is a bit like constructing the phonology of a dialect without including some recognition of prosody in the analysis. Various airs for the same basic song do appear, Greenland and Greenland Fishery being examples, but the skeletal notation is never embellished. Shuldam-Shaw makes note of Duncan's admission to only rudimentary knowledge of musical theory which may account for the lack of stylistic analysis in the work. The General Introduction to the collection is illuminating and constructed with neat clarity. Reading through Shuldam-Shaw's comments on the history of the archive provides an insight into Grieg and Duncan's bowdleresque approach to the folksong tradition. Relics ofthe Victorian ethos appear to have influenced these otherwise diligent and enthusiastic collectors into creating a world in which their mythical folksinger did not allow sex to rear its ugly head. Had they been able to take a trip to any traditional festival from Donegal to Dusseldorfthey would have seen their myth quickly dispelled! Apart from this exclusiveness though, the volumes of the work provide an immensely valuable and sizeable body of material from which those interested may glean some appreciable gems. The selection of Jacobite military songs is particularly good, with songs like C ulloden Moor and Cam ye o'er /rae France providing excellent examples of the genre. Emily Lyle's construction of the volume is extremely clear and helpful. Her editorial introduction is a concise guide to the nature of the work she has undertaken and the glossary

125 of recurrent Scots words is invaluable for translating the lines ofverse into the reader's own dialect. Occasional references placed alongside the songs further aid understanding and help to maintain the impetus ofthe pieces without the disruptive influence oftoo much flicking back and forward to the glossary. This approach is sympathetic to the reader and makes the experience of delving into the Scottish folksong tradition all the more enjoyable. In fact, this Aberdeen University Press edition ofthe Grieg-Duncan collection deserves much credit for being a work capable ofsatisfying both scholarly research and singer's appetite (as long as the singer is not searching for a bawdy pub ballad). It might even spur the most ardent academic into strident vocalisation of the written language. So, apart from the quibble about very little being sacred in traditional music and the need for collections of that music to reflect the social patterns evinced by folksongs, the Grieg­ Duncan compilation must be recognised as an important source for those interested in vernacular culture. Shuldam-Shaw and Lyle's edition of volume one in the archive is ofsuch high quality that it can only enhance the prominence of the collector's work. Collections of the Grieg-Duncan kind ensure that old and not so old songs are given a chance to continue being sung as proofof the dynamism which motivates folk culture. The entire collection must be assured of a place amongst the foremost sources for song hunters, even if they do have to forego the added curiosity value of a little sex and violence! B Gunn

SILVERMAN, David, and Brian TO RODE, The Material Word: Some theories of language and its limits, London, Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1980, 354pp., £9.50 cloth, £5.95 paper. This is throughout a deeply puzzling book. Its title is enigmatic and may well be brilliant, but its meaning and its relevance to the book as a whole are not explained, and so the stroke of genius is easily missed. The subtitle, too, is, on its own, immediately appealing, and yet closer consideration brings bafflement rather than insight. The same may be said ofthe whole text. Taken in isolation, each chapter appears thoughtful and scholarly, but feelings of admiration are soon replaced by disquiet and unease as no overall unity emerges. Silverman and Torode are both sociologists, and they state that their book aims "to treat text and talk as the site of specific practices which sustain or· subvert particular relations between appearance and reality." Their treatment is, however, consistently difficult to read, and it is equally hard to see the drift of their argument, or why these particular theorists have been chosen and why some theories are used to examine external texts, while others are used to examine the texts which state the theories themselves. Thus, for example, Wittgenstein, Husser! and Kafka may have been chosen to illuminate each other because they are roughly contemporary with each other; but such a logic breaks down with the inclusion of, at one extreme, Locke, and at the other, Derrida and Barthes. Similarly, each theory may have been chosen for its ability to comment usefully on a particular language context; but no two theories are applied to the same situation. Classroom conversation and Kafka's short stories represent very different demands upon linguistic resources, and to include studies of both, and other instances of language use, as well as several widely different and complicated theories of language use, seems to blur the argument ofthe book to the point where the drift ofits ideas is almost lost. It would have been better to concentrate more coherently on a much more restricted aspect of either language theory or language use or a less ambitious survey of one relation between them. G Cawthra

126 SIPES, Richard Grey, Population Growth, Society~ and Cultur~ Newhaven, Connecticut, HRAF Press, 1981, 126pp., $14.50 cloth, $7 paper. This inventory of cross-culturally tested causal hypotheses is concerned with the demo­ graphic behaviour of human groups and its interrelationships with other behaviour and other circumstances. It reports on the empirical testing ofcausal hypotheses gathered from a review of literature on demography and population-tests done by the cross-cultural correlation or hologeistic method. The hypotheses are all concerned with the effects of sociocultural traits on the growth of population, and an exhaustive inventory has investigated the statements and implications contained within this area. Richard Grey Sipes is a pioneer in the testing ofhypotheses of sociocultural variables, providing social scientists with a talking-point of considerable importance. Although some of the tests proved to be ambiguous in outcome, the knowledge gained from a testing of the hypotheses will be invaluable to future researchers. Sipes has produced a theory, model and strategy which will satisfY all who believe that the dynamics of population control needs a policy of greater theoretical understanding. He has taken the frrst step toward a paradigm of conceptual structure which can adapt itself to the ambient situation of the sociocultural system. W Bennett

SLOBIN, Mark, ed, Old Jewish Folk Music, Philadelphia, American Folklore Society, University of Pennsylvania Press, 1982, 577pp., $14.95. This volume speaks to two audiences; One is composed of ethnomusicologists, folklorists, and specialists in Jewish studies, and the other of nonspecialists who, it is hoped, will make practical use of the patrimony of songs and tunes included in the book. These are the collections and writings of Moshe Beregovski, edited and translated by Mark Slobin, with essays on Ukrainian musical influences, klezmer music, and characteristic scale patterns. Also included are Beregovski's anthologies ofhundreds offolksongs with full Yiddish and English song texts. Each song is carefully notated exactly as it was sung, and the whole is a cultural record, not only for Jewish people, but for all folklorists and scholars. W Bennett

SMILES, Julie A., Christmas~ A Select Bibl£ography~ Stevenage, Clover Publications, 1977, 73pp. This bibliography is intended as a guide to books and articles on subjects, mainly connected with the practical side ofChristmas, which are likely to be of interest to a family arranging their Christmas festivities. It does not claim to be comprehensive, with the compiler telling us in the introduction that this is her first attempt at a publication ofthis kind, and perhaps it should be considered as a "housewife's guide". This introduction heralds a bibliography listing publications which will appeal to the sentimental among us, but whose sparse Christmas customs and traditions publication listing reveals gaps in its folklore selection. A welcome addition to the bibliography, for example, would have been such items as C hristmas Greetings by Paul and Georgina Smith, but nevertheless, this select bibliography of Christmas will enable the homemaker to trace the material in her own stock or that of libraries. Any entries which cannot be found in libraries can be borrowed from the file and tearsheets of articles held by Clover Publications. Details are given in the book's introductory remarks. W Bennett

127 SPARKES, Ivan G., Old Horseshoes, Aylesbury, Shire Publications, 1983, 32pp., illus., 95p. No.19 ofthe popular Shire Albums, this is the second reprint ofthe book first published in 1976. Interest in horseshoes has grown as the opportunity offinding them diminishes, and the collector will enthuse about the many different types illustrated in this handy book, with some dating back to pre-Norman times. Different types of shoes were needed for different circumstances, such as the farrier's for the working horse and the veterinary surgeon's for the horse's ailment in the hoo( The avid collector is well cared for in this booklet by the introduction of a number of specialist horseshoes that add to the fun. W Bennett

STORY, G M, W 1 KIRWIN, and 1 D A WIDDOWSON, eds., Dictionary of Newfoundland English, Toronto/Buffalo/London, University ofToronto Press, 1982, 625pp., illus. with 1 map and 3 figs, $45. How does one review a work of such magnitude as the Dictionary of Newfoundland English? Sidestep the issue and interview the makers as one Newfoundland reviewer did? Not when one is so addicted to dictionaries as I am! One squares one's shoulders and faces up to the daunting task of commenting upon a compilation containing over two decades of detailed work completed by three dedicated persons. The result was well worth waiting for, in that this regional lexicon of Newfoundland and coastal Labrador differs from, and surpasses, other comparable regional works of lexicography in three distinct areas of reference - sources, phonetic record, and contextual and cultural expression. One of the most important aspects of differentiation between the DNE and other regional dictionaries of English lies in the high percentage of its sources (fifty eight per cent) drawn from the oral tradition, as against forty two per cent from printed sources. This was made possible by the existence of the Memorial University of Newfoundland Folklore and Language Archive with its large collection of cards and manuscripts contributed by Memorial University students, the responses to students' questionnaires from older people in their home communities, and the magnificent corpus oforal data offered on many hundreds offield taperecordings of interviews with Newfoundlanders from all over the Province. The editors praise the archive's responsible policy of accessioning, cataloguing and transcription skill that has turned this material "into documents which can be examined, verified, collated and used (like printed data) critically and precisely." What the editors do not say, is that they were involved in the construction of several of the questionnaires and that all of them did fieldwork of various kinds, checking on different problems. Painstaking examination and excerpting of material from the archive contributed greatly to the compilation of the dictionary, and it is worthy of note that the third editor was the largest single contributor of field tapes to the archive. The considerable historical depth of the DNE is derived from extensive coverage of centuries of the printed record, with the comprehensive bibliography showing that its sources range from The Cabot Voyages (c.1497-1522) to Ray Guy in 1981. All folklorists will take pleasure from the use made by the DNE of song collections, including locally-composed songs, frequently quoted in the citations. The DNE differs from many general commercial dictionaries in that it does not present phonetics, or respelling, for all the words which have been treated. The dictionary is selective in that where certain words differ from pronunciations recorded in the principal English and North American dictionaries, where the word exhibits some unusual or interesting features, or where the spelling is an ambiguous or misleading guide to the local pronunciations or

128 stress patterns, phonetic transcriptions may be given. A great number of words and phrases have been transcribed from over four hundred taperecordings in the MUN Folklore and Language Archive concerned with folklore topics, reminiscences, occupations and other aspects ofN ewfoundland cultural tradition, making it impossible to rank variants in order of frequency. The range of phonetic evidence has been displayed in as neutral a manner as possible, to allow the variants to convey a collective impression of current pronunciations typical of regional usage in parent cultures such as English and Irish, and later French and Scots immigrants. Taperecorded evidence has the advantage of immediate vividness, and although some of this is inevitably lost in transcribing the features of the spoken register into the formal conventions of print, the DNE can boast a natural context offree conversations which illustrate the rhythmic speech-patterns of the language of Newfoundland with its distinctive oral tradition. A considerable proportion of some two thousand tapes, a substantial number of which were recorded in the field by Herbert Halpert and John Widdowson working in most ofthe areas ofNewfoundland, have been presented in theDNE in running transcriptions which can be scanned, the lexical items marked as phonetically transcribed from the tape itself, and given context sentences and exact reference to collector, informant, date and community. Information on some words in the alphabet of the International Phonetic Association transcriptions is useful for pronunciation, as is the use of recorded variants for dialectologists. The faithful recording of speakers' linguistic patterns has contributed greatly to an invaluable insight into Newfoundland's folklore and language, amply demonstrated, for example, in the dictionary's record of Christmas mumming in Newfoundland. Perhaps the area in which the DNE differs most from other dictionaries is that of contextual and cultural expression. Almost overwhelming is the great variety ofwords and phrases that impress upon the reader's mind a contextual picture ofNewfoundland's cultural environment. Weather and ice conditions, sealing and fishing terminology reflect physical conditions which affect every native of the Province, and the natural history of Newfoundland and Labrador is reflected in the folk names given for sea creatures besides the cod; in the folk names for birds, especially sea birds; in the nomenclature for vegetation and trees. The folklorist will be delighted with the descriptions of customs and citations of traditional beliefs, and will find in the keywords or in the citations the terminology and description of many children's games. Children indulging in play of a boisterous nature are told to stop their "whizgigging" or "they'll be crying the once". Students of folk cookery can appreciate the descriptions of many foods such as Methodist or Wesleyan bread, a special bread baked for Christmas, and learn much on how, when and why certain foods are used. Most ofthe aspects ofNewfoundland's culture, in their natural contexts, are reflected in the vocabulary of this unique dictionary. This 4,000-entry work has further dimensions to its credit. Beautifully bound and a pleasure to hold in the hand, it is enclosed within an intriguing dustjacket resplendent in colours of yellow and turquoise. The DNE is published by the University ofToronto Press, who helped this international triumvirate of scholars through its Publications Fund, and the three editors pay tribute to all their assistants, with a special thankyou to the Canadian Federation of the Humanities and Memorial University. This dictionary is going to teach people what dictionaries can be like- not just a list ofwords, spellings and definitions, but also a record of the contexts in which people use particular words and expressions. Scholarly and monumental it certainly is, but also entertaining and

129 interesting. What or who can be "drinking the rum offNelson's corpse" ? Its value as an index to regional culture is unsurpassed. I will not recommend the Dictionary of Newfoundland English to any particular section of the community or to any particular scholars of a discipline. I will cast my net multifariously, and recommend it to all who are interested in Newfoundland, its language and its cultural tradition. W Bennett

STREETER, Donald, Professional Smithin& London, John Murray, 1980, 133pp., £7.95. This manual is unique in that it is the only one in the field that is written by a practising professional smith with many years' experience in crafting and marketing ironwork. In the preface, Mr Streeter stresses the importance of the products of past crafts and their preservation, and reiterates the traditionalist' s understanding of " culture". " Culture includes not merely the collection and admiration of artifacts, but also their making. In this sense, culture is more meaningful as a verb than as a noun. For to culture means to nourish, cherish, encourage, improve. This means life, not death." The author presents traditional smithing techniques in clear, step-by-step text and photographs, which are supplemented by his own drawings - making this book a one-man work of great integrity. Detailed descriptions for the interested reader and the apprentice smith cover work-areas, specialised tools and work techniques. Not only demonstrating how things are done but how they can best be done by others, the author includes detailed descriptions of decorative ironwork, whitesmithing, hardware, toolmaking and locksmithing which would enable the reader-craftsman to produce high quality, hand-forged small ironwork. This book is the culmination of many years' experience spent by a master-craftsman in his forge at Franklinville, New Jersey, and should interest both students and professional smiths. Artistry and the teaching ability of craftsmen such as Donald Streeter has produced a case book which, by recording the way one smith carries out the work which passes through his shop, has given us a manual, not only practical, but with beauty too. W Bennett

TAYLOR, Pat Ellis, Border Heal£ng Woman., Austin and London, University ofTexas Press, 1981, 134pp., $5.95. This story of Jewel Babb, as told to Pat Ellis Taylor, is that of an eighty-year-old Anglo woman who was born in South Texas and lived in the Texas-Mexico border area all her life. Many of the community of Anglo counterculture living in this area are interested in natural healing, herbs and psychic phenomena. Jewel Babb is the local faith healer, a strong individualistic woman, who not only offers cures for various maladies but also teaches others her methods of using hot springs, massage, and natural healing techniques. This story ofMrs Babb's life has been edited only when necessary with a great deal of the material being transcribed orally. Pat Ellis Taylor has striven to preserve Mrs Babb's unique " voice", writing her own narrative as background for the faith healer's autobiography. The whole constitutes a fascinating glimpse of folk medicine in general and the Anglo healing tradition in particular. Many readers will enjoy this joint writing project put together by Pat Ellis Taylor and Mrs Babb, feeling, perhaps, that the informative element is an additional bonus. W Bennett

130 TRUDGILL, P, On Dialect: Social and Geographical Perspectives, Oxford, Blackwell, 1983, vii~ 240pp., £15. Ofthese studies in linguistic variation, two are published here for the first time, and two others are in a substantially revised form, so as to facilitate continuous reading ofthe book. Chapter 1 investigates the validity of polylectal grammars. On the basis of empirical investigations which show that native speakers are not very successful in comprehending grammatical forms from other dialects out of context, it is argued that a grammar of rules is probably not an appropriate way in which to model a native speaker' s passive competence. Chapter 2 discusses the relationship between sociolinguistics and dialectology and the ways in which each can benefit from the other. Chapter 3, on linguistic change and diffusion, seeks to specify techniques which would enable us to describe in greater detail, and also explain, the distribution oflinguistic features and the diffusion of linguistic innovations. Chapter 4, on the sociolinguistics and geolinguistics ofvowel mergers, is concerned with dialect contact in East Anglia. Vowel mergers are discussed in terms of transfer and approximation. It was discovered that middle-class speakers from the north ofthe region used approximation and that working-class speakers from the south of the region used transfer. Chapter 5 looks briefly at creoloids, whilst chapter 6 deals with aspects oflanguage contact in Greece, namely reduction and simplification in the Albanian dialects of Attica and Biotia. Chapter 7 examines why Arvanites are not Albanians, and Chapter 8, on the sociolinguistics . of British pop-song pronunciation, treats of questions of conflicting identity. Singers u se forms when singing which they do not use when speaking. Chapter 9 is devoted to the subject of social identity and linguistic sex differentiation, and examines explanations and pseudo­ explanations for differences between women's and men's speech. Sociolinguistic studies show that women on average use forms closer to the standard language, or which have higher prestige, than those used by men. This article asks why. Chapter 10 is about sex and covert prestige. In the urban dialect ofNorwich, prestige attaches to working-class speech forms­ not only for some male speakers, but for some younger female speakers as well. The fact that working-class speech forms can have covert prestige in England but not in America is a striking difference between the two societies. Chapter 11 discusses attitudes and policies in respect of standard and nonstandard dialects of English in the United Kingdom. It asks what problems confront children who do not speak Standard English within the educational system, and asks further whether or not Standard English should be taught in schools. The author concludes that "there is probably, in fact, only one legitimate reason for the teaching of Standard English to British children who do not normally use it. This is that in many circumstances it is socially, and economically, advantageous to be able to employ this variety." (p.197). Obviously, the discussion includes the notion of"correctness" which attaches to the standard language, and the final chapter on sociolinguistics and linguistic value judgements follows on from this with a further examination of the notion of correctness, and a discussion of the notions of adequacy and aesthetics. As Trudgill correctly observes, it is important for educational reasons that linguists should make known their view on these matters. I think that Trudgill underestimates the number ofgrammatical differences between dialects of British English (p.20), and that he overestimates the rate of decline of traditional vernacular, particularly in some urbanised areas. I have, however, raised these points in detail elsewhere, and will not go into them again here. They do not detract from the overall usefulness of this collection of studies, which is required reading for all students of

131 dialectology and sociolinguistics. A wide range of important issues is treated here. G Shorrocks

WATKINS, Michael, The English, The Countryside and Its People, London, Elm Tree, 1981, 255pp., illus., £9.95. Michael Watkins' view of folklife study firmly belongs to the old school. In this work, ostensibly to find alternatives to the now prevalent "Age of Self", his technique is, in each chapter, to concentrate on a rural community, drawing in conversation from many ofthose born and bred in that community. He then concentrates especially on one person in some way essential to village life (for example a thatcher, a gamekeeper, a shepherdess and so on). Each informant tells of themselves, their past history, their parents, their trade, and their perception ofthe environment in which they live. As a general rule, the informants are united by a mistrust of the outsider, and an awareness of the threat posed by a future which brings new technology and challenges the insular bonds of village life. This is an unashamedly biased, fiercely conservative book, ofwhich by far the least appealing aspect is Mr Watkins' own flowery prose which breaks up the dialogue ofhis informants. For instance, of Sarah, one of the children at a village school, the author sighs "How fair offace is Monday's child, for no other day would have done for Sarah, destined to break so many hearts in 1992." Again, an old boy from Buckinghamshire is, we are told," still spitting venom from yellow fangs." And these two examples are by no means exceptional. Peter Pugh-Cook's photographs (many in colour) are generally impressive, if in places a little too reminiscent of chocolate box lids. Informants are presented in grizzled close-up as if to reinforce the sagacity of their words. It should be said that the book does provide fairly undemanding entertainment for the casual reader, but this view of a traditional way oflife existing only in a deeply rural context might well give the urban folklorist one or two sleepless nights. P Taylor

WEPSIEC, Jan, Sociology: An International Bibliography of Serial Literature 1880-1980, London, Mansell Publishing, 1983, xii, 183pp., £27. The selection of publications included in this bibliography is based on both compromise and consensus, with ten general rules marking the boundaries thus: 1. Publications devoted entirely to sociology. 2. More comprehensive publications in social psychology that deal with social interaction and socialisation. 3. Serial publications in the general social and behavioural sciences. 4. Social science publications. 5. Publications in the social sciences and philosophy. 6. Interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary publications containing studies on the social aspects ofsome social institutions. 7. Publications on population. 8. Publications on eugenics, social psychiatry and social biology. 9. Publications that occasionally contain studies but are primarily collections ofraw data. 10. Secondary information serials such as abstracts, indexes, bibliographies, review journals and survey journals. The arrangement of the entries has alphabetical, letter-by-letter ease of access, which is continued in the two short supplements arranged in running numerical sequence. The search for subfields, perspectives or aspects is facilitated by a useful subject index, adding a further dimension to the scope ofthis bibliography which will ably serve research workers, historians and teachers involved in group studies concerned with the application of sociology. W Bennett

132 WHITE, Burton L, Barbara T KABAN, Jane S ATTANUCCI, The Origins of Human Competence: The Final Report of the Harvard Preschool Project, Lexington, Massachusetts/ Toronto, Lexington Books, 1979, 436pp., £12.75. LOMAX, Elizabeth M R, Science and Patterns of Child Care, San Francisco, W H Freeman, 1978, 247pp., £8.10 hardcover, £3.70 softcover. I do not know when the frrst child-rearing manual was written- when it was decided that mothers in advanced societies needed books to tell them how to do what mothers in less exalted societies are assumed to do naturally. I suspect that not too many decades ago parents brought up children largely by following traditional practices inherited from their own parents- or, if they were rich enough they paid someone else to take the whole burdensome responsibility off their shoulders. However that may be, over the decades since the second world war manuals on child-rearing seem regularly to have reached the ranks of the best sellers - suggesting that there is something about life in twentieth century consumer society which has undermined parents' confidence in their ability to do what nature presumably intended and equipped them to do. Furthermore, this anxiety has not been solely the prerogative of parents; it has manifestly been- and is- shared by states. Governments have displayed much concern that education systems and their values have made little impact on vast numbers of children, who have apparently steadfastly resisted its most determined endeavours to turn them into good productive citizens. The blame has usually been placed squarely upon the home circumstances- upon the feckless ineptitude of those charged with the upbringing offuture generations. Much research has been initiated by concerned authorities, and the first book under review here is an account of one project carried out, as the acknowledgements declare" ... in part pursuant to contract OE 5-10-39 with the United States Office of Education, under the provisions of the Co-operative Research Program as a project of the Harvard University Center for Research and Development on Educational Differences, the Carnegie Corporation ofNew York, and the Office ofEconomic Opportunity, Head Start Division, and the U.S. Office ofChild Development Grant No. OCD-CB-193, 1972-1974 ... " ... firmly, it would seem, under the auspices of some massively influential institutions in the United States of America. At the time of publication, the Preschool Project constituting the core of the research had been in existence for thirteen years, with the intention of scrutinising the child-rearing practices of families "likely to do an outstandingly good job of rearing their children and ... families likely to do less well than average." Means of monitoring and measuring the efficacy of child-rearing practices and of evaluating them were to be developed. Hypotheses about effective child-rearing were then to be evolved, and these were later to be converted into "a fea_sible training programme suitable for families." In a pilot scheme involving bi-monthly visits to eleven families, the investigators " ... sampled the behaviour of the mothers involved in the study to see the degree to which they actually emulated childrearing practices that we believed most desirable and the degree to which they avoided non-beneficial childrearing practices" (the emphasis is mine). The findings were used to shape a training programme for parents in which fifteen families were involved. Their progress during the programme was checked against evidence from the control groups.

133 As might be expected of such a study, the detailed results are incorporated in tables and graphs; there are very many ofthese. In addition, more than halfofthe book is taken up with appendices giving details of such matters as scores for Bayley Scales of Infant Development, the Stanford Binet and Weschler tests, the Preschool Project Language Abstract Abilities and Dissonance tests. The behaviour of children is analysed into categories- 'To please', 'To gain approval', 'To annoy', and so forth; the reponse of parents is examined in terms of 'Timing and direction of response', 'Perception of child's need', 'Provision of related ideas'. All presumably carefully noted by an investigator with a clipboard and stopwatch; duly assessed and evaluated; everything measurable measured. No doubt the reader interested enough in the field will acquire the book and peruse the statistics for himself However, there are other matters arising from the project which are worth discussing. In their account of their findings, the authors make the following statement: "There are some who argue that society should not interfere with family life." They present no discussion of this statement, but simply offer a facile counter: "In our experience, those voicing such concern over 'interference' with family prerogatives, are rarely young couples expecting their first child." It seems to me that the relationship between family life and society is inescapable and necessary since the form of the family is dependent on the practices, beliefs and values ofthe society, or the subgroup of the society in which it is situated. The authors seem to have missed the irony ofthe conditions by which a society, through the requirement it places upon the individual to seek preferment and be mobile has made the supportive extended family an impossibility and has forced us instead to live amid the tensions ofthat attenuated, vestigial grouping we call the nuclear family. Having, as it were, extracted some vital natural essence from the situation in which children are reared, it seeks to replace it with Stanford Binet and Bayley Scales of Infant Development. It is sliced white bread with added vitimins. The question is, "Who controls the additives?" The authors refer to " ... childrearing practices that we believed most desirable ... ". But what claim to omniscience have "we"? and " most desirable" for what? For reproducing the society of mobile consumers whose problems seemed to justifY intervention in the first place? The authors write: "To get to the heart of the matter, it appears that a first rate educational experience during the first 3 years of life is required if a person is to develop to his or her full potential". Potential for what? It is obvious that the authors would reply in terms of a strictly normative, orthodox set ofvalues. It appears that what is being assessed in investigations of this kind is the suitability of child­ rearing practices for adapting children to the needs of the state-instituted education system, its practices, its assumptions, its values and the life expectations it purveys. Thus it is not so much a danger ofsociety, but rather ofthe power establishment interfering in family life. I am bound to admit that the idea that people should be adapted to fit the state has proved generally more feasible than that the state should be adapted to fit the people; the latter proposition seems never to have found much favour with those in power. We are only too familiar through the cultural deficit/ difference arguments of recent years with the state's predisposition to attribute the cancer of social failure and disruption to the family and the individual, rather than to the institutions ofthe state itself It is understandable then, that when it comes to child-rearing, it should seem expedient to get in on the ground floor. The normative view does not value minority cultures, yet frequently it is among these that social cohesion is strongest and where the collective experience is most likely to be invoked in facing the exigencies oflife. But dissent from orthodox values, especially when necessarily

134 defensive and backed by feelings of solidarity, is seen as a threat to the established order. All must either be brought into the fold or effectively neutralized. Suburban fragmentation with its family neuroses must after all seem safer to the state. In the living conditions consumer society favours, there are no elders to contribute their wisdom and support in bringing up children. Intervention by the state may in such conditions be made to seem acceptable- even desirable - even necessary. Significantly, the study finds that mothers cope more successfully with first children; the greatest difficulty is experienced when there are two or more close together in age. Clearly many mothers live in subtopian isolation divorced from the support of the family which many less "advanced" people and many ethnic minorities take for granted, while their elders bingo their lives away in geriatric ghettoes. That the diminished family typical ofso-called advanced societies is a less than ideal unit of social organisation is demonstrated by its instability and the frequency with which it disintegrates. The frightening incidence of mental illness, suicide, violence and crime may have nothing to do with this ... but one wonders. However, we may take heart from the authors of this book, for they at least are" ... basically optimistic about the future because parents (and grandparents) want the best for each new child, and now that their childrearing needs are more clearly understood and acknowledged, it seems inevitable that this society, at least, will respond appropriately." Well, yes," ... there is now a new profession coming into its own, the parent educator." ... no doubt with clipboard, stopwatch and batch ofstandard tests, in pursuit ofthe standard parent and standard child, obedient consumers all. It is interesting then to consider this book in relation to one somewhat more remote from the workface, so to speak. Elizabeth Lomax's book is a fairly brief, but extremely readable account of the development ofideas about child-rearing and their fluctuations in response to innovative thought over the last century and a half She writes: "The major purpose ofthis book is to show the important role of empirical research in ensuring that hypotheses do not lead to inflexible practices in the rearing of children." To this end, beginning from "Reflections on 19th Century Conceptions ofChildhood", she examines some ofthe first empirical studies, before going on to consider Freud and his influence, the American tradition of behaviourism stemming from the work of Watson, coming up to date with accounts of Social Learning Theory, Early Stimulation and Critical Period Hypotheses. It is abundantly clear that the Harvard Preschool project and all other such intervention programmes are based upon the conviction that what happens in the first three or four years of a child's life will crucially determine what that child will become. But one theme which strongly emerges from Lomax's book is that such presumptions are not convincingly supported by empirical research. As Jerome Kagan says in the foreword: "The results of longitudinal studies that began in the early 1930s in California and Ohio, only recently published, fail to demonstrate dramatic predictive relations between the quality of early infant experience and adolescent or adult personalities." And Jean MacFarlane, a researcher on one such longuitudinal study, states that "Many ofour most mature and competent adults had severely troubled and confusing childhoods and adolescences ... We have been forced to the conclusion from our long study that the only way one grows up, matures, learns to accept, to be comfortable with one's self and to approach one's potential is by having maturing experiences along the whole lifespan."

135 For my part, I can only consider it reassuring that no matter what adults do to children in their most helpless years it will not necessarily mould them for life. But I remain deeply suspicious of those who seem to make the attempt. K Reah WHITTINGTON, Jennifer, camp. Literary Recordings, Washington, Library of Congress, 1981, 299pp., $10.65. This checklist ofthe Archive ofRecorded Poetry and Literature in the Library ofCongress in Washington, USA, is an inventory, revised through May 1975, ofthe growing collection of literary recordings in the Library. Developing under the general direction of past Consultants in Poetry there, this archive now contains recordings of nearly a thousand poets reading their own work. It includes recordings of poetry readings and other literary events held in the Library's Coolidge Auditorium or the Whittal Pavilion, tapes of poets reading their poems in the Recording Laboratory or elsewhere for the archive, and recordings received by the Library through occasional gifts, exchanges, or purchases. The index of entries gives descriptions of tape contents based on listening to the recordings, and whenever possible the poem titles were verified by comparing them with the published works. Long­ playing literary discs are described separately at the end ofthe checklist which is arranged alphabetically by the name ofthe person or event recorded, and chronologically thereunder. This volume should prove extremely useful to the educator or scholar following an educational or cultural programme, enabling him/her to check the availability of much ofthe greatest recorded poetry and literature in existence. W Bennett WILMETH, Don B, The Language ofAmerican Popular Entertainment, Westport and London, Greenwood Press, 1981, xxi, 305pp., £22.25. This glossary of argot, slang and terminology currently found in the language of American popular entertainment was conceived to reflect the growing interest in popular culture as an acceptable area of scholarly inquiry. Compilation of the glossary was helped by the numerous authorities and fans of popular entertainment who contributed biographies, surveys of historical data, fictional accounts and other material. As with all glossaries and dictionaries, the list is not exhaustive and the compiler will be happy to learn of any notable exclusions for future use. Like all identifiable social groups, show people over the years have developed their own unique slang and argot, a vocabulary devised for both private communication and special transference of information. Frequently designed as a function of blason populaire, to confuse and keep out the "outsiders", few examples of true cant belong in this vocabulary. The words and phrases, however, do produce an individualised jargon when combined with one another. This is especially true of the examples from the carnival and the circus. The language ofthe carnival is made more complex by what is called by Dadswell "Z-Latin" or as "Carnie". The addition ofZ-Latin to carnival slang obscures the comprehension of carnival language. Much ofthis glossary is dominated by pitchmen's slang, depicting a group that was once on the fringes of society and involved with various entertainment forms, in particular the circus, carnival, medicine show, and amusement park. Other forms represented are theatre and amusement park expressions, providing a glossary which is comprehensively compiled. Being a compulsive addict of all glossaries and dictionaries, I felt no detraction of pleasure towards this particuiar glossary. It was immensely enjoyable to read, and its fascination is available to all. W Bennett

136 WILSON, Anne, Magical Thought in C reative Wn.ting, Stroud, Thimble Press, 1983, 156pp., £10.95. Is there a more accurate definition of " fantasy" than that currently in use? Dr Wilson believes so, and sets out to prove that fantasy can be primitive, magical thinking in the creation of fiction - and a separate entity from imaginative art where rational faculties are at work. Through detailed examination of plot structures, the author shows how magical thinking uses cyclical repetitions and other devices such as magic words, ritual punishment and exorcism in its attempts to bring about solutions to inner conflicts. This book includes studies of a variety of works: Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings, Jane Ey re, Chaucer' s Wzfe of Bath's Tale, various treatments of Gaw ain and the Green Knigh~ and a special consideration of Hamlet, together with the sources likely to have been used by Shakespeare. Coleridge described " imagination" as having to do with perception and the conscious will, and as being a power which "dissolves, diffUses, dissipates, in order to re-create" . Anne Wilson describes " fantasy" as a " magical" character, because it is free from the laws and realities of the external world. This book will be of interest to all those interested in the " other-than-rational" elements in the study of literature and practice of criticism. W Bennett

WILSON, William A, Folklore and Nationalism in Modern Finland, Bloomington and London, Indiana University Press, 1976, 272pp., $10. The relationship between nationalism and folklore studies has been an issue of some importance in Finland, with its investigation by a small group of Finnish scholar-patriots leading to the creation of a national culture built upon models reconstructed from the prehistoric period of the nation's past independence. This book is the story of the battle waged by the political right and the political left, and how they used folklore in their struggle for independence. Professor Wilson begins by tracing the development of Finnish national awareness during the periods of Swedish and Russian rule, focusing on the growing interdependence of folklore studies and nationalism. The culmination of these folkloristic-nationalistic pursuits in the tense decades between the winning ofFinnish independence and the end ofWorld War II is shown in the medial section of the book. The final section traces the collapse of militarist­ expansionist sentiment accompanying the post-war reassessment ofFinnish folklore, with the Viking fighter-hero of traditional interpretation transformed into a wise shaman. In this book the author raises important questions about the proper use of folklore - and indeed of all the humanities, and shows how respected folklore scholars can allow themselves to be swayed by political issues. The forces of nationalism and ideology have influenced folklore scholarship in no small degree. This book will be of great interest to those scholars using folklore for historical reconstruction, seeking models to shape a record ofthe national spirit in modern Finland. W Bennett

137

CENTRE FOR ENGLISH CULTURAL TRADITION AND LANGUAGE PUBLICATIONS

LORE AND lANGUAGE The journal of the Centre for English Cultural Tradition and Language was established in 1969 and is published twice a year. It includes articles on all aspects offolklore and language, notes and queries, book and record reviews and many other items of concern to all who share an interest in language and traditions etc. Each Part 10 has a volume index. Volume 1 Nos. 1 - 10 Quly 1969 to Jan 1974) each number £0.50 Volume 2 Nos. 1 ·- 10 Quly 1974 to Jan. 1979) each number £1.00 Volume 3 Nos. 1 - 5 Quly 1979 to July 1981) each number £1.00 6- 10 Qan. 1982 onwards) each number £2.00

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