Perchta the belly‐slitter and her kin: a view of some traditional threatening figures,threats and punishments

In the contemporary folklore of Austria, Frau Perchta (active during the twelve days of Christmas) is depicted as the rewarder of the generous and the punisher of the bad. But the punishments she inflicts, such as ripping out a person's guts and replacing them with refuse, do not seem to fit the crime. This paper links Perchta's behaviour, and that of other bogeyman figures, to their historical context. Initially Perchta was the enforcer of communal taboos, hunting down those who spun on holidays or who failed to partake sufficiently in collective feasting (a propitious act designed to ensure future plenty). However, with the growing involvement of peasant women in the market economy (particularly for textiles), Perchta's role changed to the punisher of the lazy. Yet Perchta's previous roles survive, in attenuated form, in each new incarnation.     

Some Native Legends from Central Australia

LAMPS OF ANTHROPOLOGY. By JOHN MURPHY, D.Litt., D.D., Emeritus Professor of Comparative Religion in the University of Manchester. (M.U. Press, 1943, sm. oct, pp. ix + 179.) Reviewed by J. H. Hutton.

ANTHROPOMORPHISM AND MIRACLE. By ERLAND EHNMARK (Uppsala Universitets. Arsskrift 1039:2). Uppsala, A. B. Lundequistska Bokhandeln, and Leipzig, Otto Harrassowitz. Pp. vi + 230. Reviewed by H. J. R.

YORKSHIRE HOBS. By BRUCE DICKINS. Trans. Yorkshire Dialect Society, vol. 7, part 43. Pp. 9–23. 1942. Reviewed by Wilfrid Bonsor.     

Collectanea

In emphasizing equivalences with conceptions of evil eye, accounts of Ethiopian buda understate the capacity of these beings to transform into hyenas. The case study presented here highlights how this element of the buda belief reveals a social realm that extends beyond the strictly human.     

The Green Lady

La Religion des Chinois. By Marcel Granet. Paris: Gauthier-Villars &; Cie. 1922. Pp. xiii+ 202. Price 8 f. By W. Perceval Yetts.

Australian Association for the Advancement of Science—Hobart-Melbourne Meeting, January 1921. Presidential Address By Sir Baldwin Spencer, K.C.M.G., F.R.S., M.A., Litt D., D.Sc. Melbourne : Reprinted from the Report. By E. Sidney Hartland.

The Old English Herbals. By Eleanour Sinclair Rohde. With Coloured frontispiece and 17 illustrations. Longmans, Green &; Co. 1922. 8vo. xii and 243 pp. 21s. By M. Gaster.