Aus der Volksdichtuing der Monguor, Teil 1+2, von Dominik Schröder

B O O K R E V IE W157Dominik Schroder: Aus der Volksdichtung der Monguor. 2. Teil: Inden Tagen der Urzeit. (Ein Mythus vom Licht und vom Leben).Aufgenommen und iibersetzt von Dominik Schroder. AsiatischeForschungen，Band 3 1 .OttoHarrassowitz, Wiesbaden 1970.158pages，2 photos，9 drawings.We received the above named monograph when printing of the present volume of our journal was already in an advanced stage. Dominik Schroder, for many years professor of anthropology at Nanzan University in Nagoya (Japan), had already earlier introduced himself with several publications on the Tiijeri, or Monguor，in the Ghinghai province, among whom he had done fieldwork for several years. Some bibliographical notes on Schroder5s research results will interest our readers.Einige Hochzeitslieder der Tujen. In: Folklore Studies, Supplement N o .1， pp. 306—354，Peking, 1962.Zur Religion der Tujen des Sininggebietes (Kukunor). In: Anthropos 47 (1952), pp. 1—79， 620-658， 822-870; 48 (1953)， pp. 202-249.Aus der Volksdichtung der Monguor.1 . Teil. Das weisse Gliicksschaf (Mythen, Marchen und Lieder). Asiatische Forschungen, Band 6. Wiesbaden, Otto Harrassowitz, 1959.Of this latter volume the present volume 31 of Asiatische Forschungen,dealing again with popular poetry of the Monguor, is as part 2 a continuation under the heading “In the days of the primeval time. A myth on Light and Life.” In a systematic way the author proceeds by first taking the reader through the complex of those Indian and Buddhist concepts which form the matrix into which the Monguor cosmogonic myths are embedded. Then follows the presentation of the myth in its original text with parallel literal translation and exhaustive linguistic notes, and finally a version of it in smooth German. In an appendix a treatise follows on the Monguor farmhouse in which we see religion intimately interwoven with the daily and annual life cycle, a micro­cosmos in the macrocosmos. The myth on Life and Light was sung for the author by an expert native singer, the author finds that in it the Hainuwele and the Prometheus type of mythologeme are combined. M