Hungarian and Vogul Mythology: By Géza Róheim. (Monographs of the American Ethnological Society, No. XXII, edited by Esther S. Goldfrank.) (New York: J. J. Augustin, 1954. Pp. x + 86. $2.75.)

This monograph is introduced by a foreword by Róheim's literary executor, Warner Muensterberger. Esther S. Goldfrank undertook the editing and bibliography of the work, completed before Róheim's death in June 1953, with the help of some eminent specialists in Hungarian, Russian, Latin, and anthropological sources.

The short work seems an excellent memorial to Róheim's painstaking method of research and his amazing erudition. This latter makes it difficult for a reviewer who is no anthropologist to do justice to his work. It makes fascinating reading, but if there is anything to criticize, it is that its pages contain so many intricate variations of the myths Róheim uses for analysis, and so many names of different tribes in exemplification of his theme, that the psycho-analyst needs a good deal of determination in order to read it right through and reach the conclusions which are of main interest to him.

Róheim begins with the question whether there is a Hungarian mythology to rescue. There are only the Hungarian Chronicles dating back mainly to the eleventh and twelfth centuries as set out in an Appendix by Prof. Dr. J. Lodz. Róheim proves that once there must have been much more, because the Hungarians are identical in origin with the Mansi or Vogul in Western Siberia who had an abundant and elaborate mythology. This fell into oblivion under the ruthless persecution of Hungarian kings newly converted to Christianity. Hungarian, Turkic, and Vogul singers used to relate their epic songs in the first person, and this custom 'projects back to the heroes of ancient times'. Róheim wonders whether the historical personages mentioned in the Chronicles were superimposed on mythical prototypes and thus could pass the censorship of Christianity; that is to say, real happenings may have been told in mythological style.

The first myth discussed is that of the Seven Magyars. They were originally the seven chiefs of the seven united tribes forming the Magyar nation. The s