Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 11, 1900.djvu/447

 CORRESPONDENCE.

The International Congress of Folklore in Paris.

Favoured by a happy combination of cool but sunny weather, the third and last International Congress of the nineteenth century was brought to a successful termination on the 12th September, 1900. Within the grounds of the Exhibition the first meeting was held at 9 a.m., the loth of September, at the Palais du Congres, situated at the north end of the Pont de I'Alma. M. Beauquier was in the chair as President of the Con- gress. As I was the only British delegate present at the opening of the session, and represented the oldest society formed for the promotion of folklore studies, I was invited by the President to sit at his right hand. The meeting was opened by a short address from the President ; various bureaux were nominated ; the names of foreign delegates were read out by M. Se billot, the Secretary of the Congress, and then several papers were read till it was time to adjourn for lunch.

For the most part the papers were presented in an abbreviated form, and were read in French by the author, if present, or by the Secretary, or by M. Marillier. It is impossible for me to give an abstract of the more remarkable communications, for the very good reason that I was unfortunately unable to understand suffi- ciently the majority of the readers. But as in course of time all the papers will be printed in full, the members of our Society will soon have an opportunity of judging the merits of the various communications for themselves. The only paper sent in by any of our members was the first on the list, and was entitled La danse totemique en Europe, by N. W. Thomas. It was afterwards criticised by M. Marillier, who could not agree with all Mr. Thomas's conclusions.