riginal story.

A LEGEND OF LAPLAND.

"Two servants were in Wanna Issi's pay;
A blazing torch their care;
Each morning Koit must light it till its ray
Flamed through the air;

"And every evening Aemmarik's fair hand
Must quench the waning light;
Then over all the weary, waiting land
Fell the still night.

"So passed the time; then Wanna Issi said,
"For faithful service done,
Lo, here reward! To-morrow shall ye wed,
And so be one."

" 'Not so,' said Koit; 'for sweeter far to me
The joy that neareth still;
Then grant us ever fast betrothed to be."
They had their will.

"And now the blazing lustre to transfer
Himself, is all his claim;
Warm from her lover's hand it comes to her,
To quench the flame.

"Only for four times seven lengthening days,
At midnight, do they stand
Together, while Koit gives the dying blaze
To Aemmarik's hand.

"O wonder then! She lets it not expire,
But lights it with her breath--
The breath of love, that, warm with quickening fire,
Wakes life from death.

"Then hands stretch out, and touch, and clasp on high,
Then lip to lip is pressed,
And Aemmarik's blushes tinge the midnight sky
From east to west."

ANNA C. BRACKETT.

If people cannot bring themselves to believe in solar and celestial myths
among the Hindus and Greeks, let them study the folk-lore of the Semitic
and Turanian races. I know there is, on the part of some of our most
distinguished scholars, the same objection against comparing Aryan to
non-Aryan myths, as there is against any attempt to explain the features
of Sanskrit or Greek by a reference to Finnish or Bask. In one sense that
objection is well founded, for nothing would create greater confusion than
to ignore the genealogical principle as the only safe one in a scientific
classification of languages, of myths, and even of customs. We must first
classify our myths and legends, as we classify our languages and dialects.
We must first of all endeavor to explain what wants explanation in one
member of a family by a reference to other members of the same family,
before we allow ourselves to glance beyond. But there is in a comparative
study of languages and myths not only a philological, but also a
philosophical, and, more particularly, a psychological interest, and
though even in this more