Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 13, 1902.djvu/328

 3IO Correspondence.

him what was their name for " wild pig." He gave the Malay word. " Not that," I said : " that is Malay. I want your word." He asserted positively that they had no other word, that they always called wild pig by the Malay name (which I knew to be in the last degree unlikely), and I could get nothing more out of him than, " Don't know." A little later on, when going down river again, we met two men of the same village in a " dug-out," and began bargaining with them for a blow-pipe they had. As they were about to leave us after being paid, I said casually, " By the way, what do you call wild pig in your village ? " They gave me the word without hesitation, and expressed great surprise at having heard the chief deny its existence. I had probably been too abrupt with the old man, and had made him nervous and suspicious. But anyhow I got that pig's name !

Etiquette forbids any serious subject to be entered upon early in an interview. Often the real object for which it is sought is only disclosed on taking leave, perhaps after an ordeal that has lasted for an hour or more.

Some things, as for instance the words of incantations, are often only disclosed to the initiated. If you want to see a secret ceremony, you must procure a friend at court. In other words, you must make it worth the while of some petty chief or other influential man, to introduce you under his wing as a friend of his own. But in some cases you must be initiated first.

There is hardly any one who, if he would cultivate the necessary "sporting" spirit — would "play cricket," as the saying goes — could not collect somethtfig in the way of folklore as he goes about the country, say on his holiday excursions. But much better results would be attained, I think, if people would collect more systematically, each devoting himself to one special subject : say for instance, wedding or burial customs, any particular class of legends, local rhymes, or stories — always whatever interests him most. Cover as wide a field as possible, but specialise in a parti- cular subject ; thus by degrees you accumulate a real body of valuable information, not an ill-considered mass of scrappy details.

Walter Skeat.

From the experience gained in accompanying the Cambridge Anthropological Expedition to Torres Straits and New Guinea in 1898, I should say that methods of obtaining information vary

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