ve review.

The purpose of the author is a lofty one. Here we see the effort to
inform the public that there is among Negroes a growing scholarship
which must be reckoned with in determining the thought of this
country. It is to convince the public that the Negro mind is
functioning along all lines of thought known to other races of
achievement. The purpose, too, is to set forth to Negroes examples of
successful men and women in this field to serve them as an incentive
to contribute to thought. Professor Brawley has, therefore, written an
interesting book which should attract all persons desiring to
understand those forces at work in the Negro mind and the manner in
which they have found expression.

C. G. WOODSON

* * * * *

_Negro Folk Songs._ By NATALIE CURTIS BURLIN. Book I. New York and
Boston, G. Schirmer. Pp. 42. Price 50 cents.

The unique features of Natalie Curtis Burlin's notation of Negro
folk-songs, collected in the South, are their complete truth to the
original folk-song, spirit and letter. The spontaneous part-singing of
groups of Negroes is a rare phenomenon in folk-music, for most simple
people sing only a unisono melody. Mrs. Curtis Burlin, unlike most
former collectors, has recorded not only the melody and words, but the
whole _choral_ folk-song, as sung in the South, with all its different
voices. To secure entire accuracy in so difficult a task, a phonograph
was used and the work was mainly accomplished in all its wealth of
octave at Hampton Institute, Virginia, under the auspices of which the
collection was undertaken and for the benefit of which the
publications are made. Not content with a by-ear approximation only of
the folk-song, Mrs. Burlin gave especial care to the notation of every
nuance of Negro singing--organic and rhythmic. The changing nuance
syncopations that give such expressive accent to the different solo
verses sung by the Negro "leader" have all been caught and put upon
paper. Doctor Talcott Williams, of the New York School of Journalism,
says that the example of this reverent and scholarly work marks a new
era in the collecting of Negro folk-music in this country.

The words of the songs--true folk-poems--have been noted in dialect
with the same truth to Negro rendering as the music. Furthermore, the
syllables stressed in the music are stressed in the written poem as
well; for in the mind of the Negro auth