The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 66, July 1962 - April, 1963 Page: 319

                                
Book Reviews

gance and defiance or open rebellion, from triumph through
trickery to triumph through strength and will. "Don Juan Zurum-
bete," by Riley Aiken, is a Mexican tale of a worthless drunk
who became a national hero and the king's son-in-law through a
misunderstanding, the courage of a horse, cunning, and a lucky
accident.
In "From Flygap to Whybark" John Q. Anderson writes about
some unusual Texas place names, tracing the development of
"coonskin" phraseology into Victorian propriety and revealing
much about folkways of early Texans. His article has considerable
historical value. In "Joe Sap, Wit and Storyteller" A. L. Bennett
reminisces about Joe Sappington, reviews his collection of tales
(1o908), and retells his story of Old Gray Bess, a horse that could
trail Indians. She saved her master by leading him away from an
Indian ambush.
Mody Boatright continues his study of the folklore of the oil
fields in "The Petroleum Geologist: A Folk Image," explaining
the tardy recognition of geology in the discovery of oil and its
increasing prestige. Elizabeth Brandon has collected the super-
stitions of French and African origin in Vermilion Parish in the
southwestern part of Louisiana. The superstitutions, based on
fear and horror, involve witchcraft, ghosts, conjuration, black
magic, good luck charms, gris-gris, and fetishes.
Lois Brock's "Tarantula Lore" traces to its sources the "unmer-
ited reputation" of the tarantula, almost universally considered
"fierce and deadly," but in reality "docile, amiable." Except in the
case of people very sensitive to animal poisons, the bite of the
tarantula, she believes, is nearly harmless. This is a fascinating
study. Theodore B. Brunner has collected and classified as to type
thirteen delightful tales from the Piney Woods of East Texas.
Some are interesting variations of old favorites.
Rosalinda Gonzalez brings to life the old days on a self-sufficient
ranch in the Lower Rio Grande Valley, with its nearly endless
work as well as its games, riddles, songs, and sayings. In "Cuentos
de Susto" Baldemar A. Jim6nez tells ghost stories which he heard
in Spanish in San Antonio when he was a boy.
On the highway between Carrizo Springs and Eagle Pass are
"five unidentified graves, neatly grouped." In "The Mystery of

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