Western Folktales in MelanesiaAuthor(s): Jan KnappertSource: Folklore, Vol. 100, No. 1 (1989), p. 120Published by: Taylor & Francis, Ltd. on behalf of Folklore Enterprises, Ltd.Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1260008 .

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Folklore vol. 100:i, 1989 120

Notes and Comments

LYSAGHT'S 'THE BANSHEE' HILDA ELLIS DAVIDSON

I have never up to now felt constrained to comment on a review in Folklore, but I feel I must do so now, after reading that on Patricia Lysaght's book The Banshee, which appeared in the journal in 1988 (99, p. 261).

Boredom is after all a largely subjective reaction. When the reviewer states with much emphasis that 'the presentation of the information is frankly dull' I feel it is only fair to put on record that my own experience of the book was completely different. I find as I grow older that I easily become bored by badly presented or pedantic academic work, but this book I found totally engrossing. The subject is absorbing, the argument is clear, and a good balance is struck between the evidence of early literature and findings from recent records and interviews. No credit has been given for the rare combination of a scholarly knowledge and appreciation of early Irish texts (among the most complex and difficult to be found among early literatures of the British Isles), and considerable experience in fieldwork. Incidentally it is misleading to declare that the material is 'almost without exception' documentary rather than oral; there are a number of quotations from recorded interviews.

I hope this letter may appear as an example of a different reaction to this important book, in case readers of the review are put off by the tone of it: 'scholarly, well yes-but appallingly dull and badly presented' seems to be the patronising conclusion: could anything be more damning? For one reader at least this seems both sadly misleading and bad judgement.

WESTERN FOLKTALES IN MELANESIA

JAN KNAPPERT

In this very interesting article on the apparent penetration of western motifs in Melanesia (Folklore 99, pp 204-20), may I mention two points?

The spirit of the dead man who helped the young man who had ransomed his body to win the princess is evidently the tale of the Rejsekammeraten by Hans Christian Andersen. The Travelling Companion (or is the translation Fellow Traveller?) has always been a favourite story with missionaries' audiences in what we now call the Third World. Thirty years ago, when I was studying Shangane in what is now called Gazankulu, I found myself listening to the story of Dick Whittington in African form. An Islamic version of the Travelling Companion will be found in my Myths and Legends of the Swahili (Nairobi, Heinemann 19863) p. 107-8.

The story of the Two Brothers is reminiscent of the ancient Egyptian tale of that title; see Herodotus, The Histories, tr. Aubrey de Selincourt, Penguin 1985, p. 175-6. A Swahili proverb on stealing from a blind (read: not wary enough) man can be found in my Proverbs from the Lamu Archipelago and the Kenya Coast, Barlin 1986, nr 619.

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