Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 13, 1902.djvu/316

 298 Correspondence.

to advance the cause of science, than printing extracts from county histories and guide-books.

I rather doubt whether anybody can be taught how to collect. Obviously a man must not go round in a carriage and pair, and give himself airs. The collector should not discuss the subject, if he can help it, with an absolute stranger, unless he happens to hear that the stranger is interested in the subject of custom and antiquities. Many people in quite humble life, who live in villages, are interested in these things, especially the old, who love to talk of the things done in their childhood. If a man is determined to get the information, he can overcome all difficulties by perseverance. He must not go about in the expectation that the information will come to him. The collector is in the position of a man who is about to get up evidence in a pedigree case. If in such a matter he expects the plums to fall into his mouth, he will be very much mistaken. His conversation must lead up to the subject on which he desires information, and he should not begin by asking direct questions. You can begin by talking about the weather, and make the conversation lead up to anything you like. But in order to lead the conversation in the right direction, the collector must know what he wants ; in other words, he must know what evidence is worthless, and what is valuable. At the same time he should write down everything that is likely to be of the least use.

Perhaps it need hardly be said that the collector should try to get on easy and familiar terms with his informants. He should go in his oldest and plainest suit. If the informant keeps a shop, he should deal with that shop. He should give toys and little presents to the children. He should interest himself in the lives of his informants, talk as they talk, and try to think as they think. That may be rather difficult at first, but the student of folklore should be acquainted with old-fashioned ways of thinking. He should know how to project himself into habits of thought to which he is strange himself. In doing this he need not be a humbug. He need not pretend to believe, but he must show sympathy with his informants, and must not laugh at them. If they see that he is genuinely interested in old beliefs and practices, they will not be slow in the end to tell him what they know.

I always use a small note-book myself and write everything down in pencil. But I do not begin to write until I have obtained leave to do so, and until I have obtained some little acquaintance