Folklore from Kansas: Customs, Beliefs, and Superstitions by William E. Koch (review)

226 Western American Literature between 1889 and 1929. But Merk lets pass without comment the fact that the two maps use different units of measurement, and one is left wondering whether the increase was really as dramatic as Merk seems to think. One wonders, too, regarding the maps in chapter 16, how the supposedly democ­ ratizing effects of the New York frontier could turn somber New England Congregationalists into wild-eyed Mormons and Millenialists without turn­ ing them at the same time from Federalists and Whigs into Democrats. There is practically nothing in this book of direct usefulness to students of western literature. It is a pity, though, that so few literary scholars will be likely to read it, for it is the best treatment in print of some of the central problems in the history of the region with which we are concerned, and any students of the West who do read it will reap handsome dividends in developing the maturity of their own insights. GARY TOPPING, Utah State Historical Society Folklore from Kansas: Customs, Beliefs, and Superstitions. By William E. Koch. (Lawrence: The Regents Press of Kansas, 1980. xviii + 467 pages.) This is an old-fashioned folklore collection of a now generally discredited kind — thousands of “texts” (concise statements) are presented with only the barest background provided about their human sources, and none at all on context, function, attitude, or dozens of other concerns modern folklorists have. There are 5,162 items gathered (mostly by college students) from some 2,800 Kansans living in all 105 counties of the state; the disparate items are subjected to detailed statistical analysis in an appendix, but this does not overcome the numbing effect of hundreds of pages of examples like this: 1180 Sugar and kerosene is good for hoarseness. (M, 1962) It is not shown which male on the list of contributors living in which county of Kansas provided this item, let alone whether he believed or practiced it, and in what manner, in 1962 or earlier. The only value of such books for research lies in simply reporting the occurrence of individual folk belief items. The model for these collections is Wayland D. Hand’s carefully annotated and classified two volumes in the Frank C. Brown collection North Carolina Folklore. The difficulty with Koch’s book (in common with many other collections) is that the material is not arranged precisely in the North Carolina format, specific names and residences of informants for items are not given, there is no comparative annotation, and no subject index. Thus, while some valuable data undoubt­ edly exist in Koch’s “twelve cases of 3x5 cards,” some of it did not get Reviews 227 into his book, and what is here must be dug out with great effort. For example, sugar and kerosene are also given as Kansas remedies for coughs and for sore throat, but one discovers this only by paging through the whole section on folk medicine; whether there is any real distinction in the Kansas folkmind between these ailments, and why such remedies often are composed of a combination of sweet and unpalatable substances, are unexplored subjects. Certainly there are numerous fascinating bits of folklore here, ranging from “If you bump heads, you are supposed to sleep together” (#164) to “Never stir gunpowder and alcohol together” (#4957). One deduces that the former is probably a whimsical “artistic superstition” (preserved for its amusement value rather than because of firm belief), and the latter is really an injunction against drinking while handling firearms. In fact, “belief” is an ambiguous term for a considerable portion of the collection consisting of well-known proverbs, stereotyped expressions (i.e. “Gentlemen prefer blondes”), and even such bizarre items as “When fingers have worn off old gloves, sew the gloves together. They will make unusual table covers” (#2373). Not surprisingly, many of the items in Folklore from Kansas reflect a rural and small-town environment, although a specific western American slant is not discernible. True, there are numerous items about horses, cows, deer, antelope, coyotes, etc., but the beliefs are not distinctively western, and cats seem to be mentioned more often than any of these critters. While there is...