Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 13, 1902.djvu/97

 Corresponde?ice. 85

lengthy notice in the Classical Revieiv, vol. xvi., No. i), brings forward numerous and strongly-urged objections against his inter- pretation of the archaeological evidence involved. And I cannot refrain from commenting upon Mr. Rouse's statement that " Pro- fessor Ridgeway deduces his theory from archaeological and ethno- logical evidence, and then points to the remarkable fact that the traditions agree in the main with the evidence." Undoubtedly Professor Ridgeway believes that this is so, and undoubtedly Mr. Rouse is led by his brilliant and ingenious argumentation to believe so likewise. But would it not be nearer the mark to say that as a rule Professor Ridge way's interpretation of the traditions agrees with his interpretation of the archjeological evidence ? and is it not the case that th-is agreement is produced by entirely ignoring other traditions ? I have no doubt Professor Ridgeway has good reasons for so doing ; but as a reader desirous of forming an opinion upon his hypothesis, I want to know those reasons. I repeat my criticism, a criticism, be it noted, of principle and method: throughout the book the implicit criterion of the validity of a tradition is whether or no it lends support to the interpre- tation of certain arch^ological facts. I hold that that is not sufficient.

Mr. Rouse makes a couple of statements which induce me to return to the illustration, the significance of which I unhappily failed to make clear to him. " Genealogical legends," he says, " were of supreme importance to the Greeks." Granted, but certainly not more so than to the Celts of Britain and Ireland. Even when we first meet with Greek society, it had passed out of and beyond that archaic tribal organisation which is revealed to us by the native laws of the Irish Goidels and the Welsh Brythons. Number- less traces of it survive no doubt ; amongst them the importance of the " genealogical legend." But status as determined by the family and tribal genealogists was, if I mistake not, of less im- portance as a still active legal factor to the Greek of 800 b.c. than to the Irish or Welsh tribesman of 800 a.d. The Celts had thus every reason for keeping their genealogies with as much care as, in the absence of an elaborate system of written record, they pro- bably could be kept. As a matter of fact, when we can test the immense mass of extant Irish and Welsh genealogical material it is found to be of surprising accuracy. And yet (this is my point), the paramount importance of accurate genealogies and the exist-