Snowbird and the Water-Tiger. By Margaret Compton. (Lawrence and Bullen.)—This
book makes a new and delightful departure in fairy-tales. It is an attempt, based, as the author tells us, on "Government reports of Indian life," and " the folk-lore contained in the standard works of Schoolcraft, Copway, and Catlin," to reproduce the stories that are told to soothe American-Indian children, and which are supposed to come from Iagoo, who is " a little old man, with a face as black as the shell of the butternut, and a body like a twisted stick." To judge from these specimens, North-American Indian fairy-tales must be much the same in spirit at least as others. Take, for example, the first, which gives the title to the whole collection. There figure in it a brave hunter, " Brown Bear " by name, whose home is by the shore of the Great Lake, and his wife, " Snowbird," and his papoose, Pigeoti,"-and his wigwam, and all the rest of it. But the story
runs on familiar lines. In other words, there is a wicked fairy in the person of "Brown Bear's " mother, who makes great mischief, and very nearly succeeds in drowning " Snowbird." She is, how- ever, taken care of by the Water-Tigers, and is transformed into a gull, and is rediscovered by her child. The story runs very smoothly ; and so do all the others in this collection. " White Hawk, the lazy," is one of the best and most humorous, telling as it does how the laziest man in a tribe secures—and deserves—the title of "the Strong Man." Miss COmpton has made a most admirable and successful experiment; and it is to be hoped that she will follow it up.
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