PAS member Alastair Penman has produced a popular guide to a varied body of traditional lore from SW Scotland in this short work. After an introduction to the Galloway region and the reasons for the growth and tenacity of popular beliefs, the book is split into eight chapters covering such topics as Festivals, Folk-cures, Births, Marriages and Deaths etc. There is a rich pot-pourri of customs and strange beliefs in each chapter, some of it well-known, some obscure. It is notable that in the old days in Galloway, as no doubt elsewhere, many customs were extremely localised, and folk in the neighbouring parish did things quite differently.

Alastair has not attempted much analysis of the superstitious set of mind, though he does occasionally suggest a possible origin for some beliefs. The lore is not so much laid out as heaped up. This is one of those books which one can open at any page, and find treasures, curious or amusing. A few cheerfully naive cartoons are included in the text.

The author has a habit of emphaphasising the key words on each paragraph with italics. I guess that this picturesque habit is derived from the Victorian antiquarian works listed in the bibliography, on which no doubt much ofthe present book was based.

There are two or three places where the text might be improved: I believe that Beltane is now generally reckoned to be a word of unknown meaning, and has nothing to do with Baal (14); lightning is misspelled lightening on page 46; the paragraph about throwing spilled salt over the left shoulder is unclearly written (51); italics are not continued across a change of page (54-5), and the word secular is given its exactly opposite meaning on page 55.

These minor points apart, members interested in folklore should find this an enjoyable book.

Niall M Robertson