Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 13, 1902.djvu/99

Rh even later writers; if we further question their sources, we find ourselves in contact with local traditional records kept chiefly by the priestly class. In Greece, as in mediæval Europe or ancient Egypt, the priest was the chief recorder of past events. Next to the priests, we have the families, hereditary as a rule, of tribal minstrels and genealogists, generally attached to the chieftain, the head of the tribe. In what may be called non-barbaric mediæval Europe, that portion of Europe which was specially influenced by Christian-Classic culture, the importance of this last class was greatly diminished, whilst that of the priestly class was enhanced in a corresponding degree. In barbaric Europe on the other hand, (Celtdom and Northern Teutondom) the reverse process may be observed; the Christian priest fights shy of the pre-Christian traditions, and the part played by the minstrel-genealogist is increased; a state of things which has a natural tendency to magnify the romantic, and restrict the record element in the traditions. But differing from each other as did the two divisions of mediæval Europe, and differing as both did in the respect indicated from pre-fifth century Greece, I cannot see that as regards the practice of writing there was any vital difference in the conditions under which the three sets of tradition have been handed down to us.

I had hoped that some notice would be taken of my request for information about, or discussion of, "historic myth." I would again ask to be referred to any well-vouched example of historic myth; of myth, that is, summing up concretely the actual historical relations of groups of men in the form of stories about individual men and women. The historico-mythopœic process is still at work in a rudimentary form, and results in such personifications as John Bull, Uncle Sam, der deutsche Michel. Did it ever go any further? A priori, there is no reason why it should not have gone further. But did it go further when the mythopœic function was still fully active among all races, the advanced as well as the backward? or does it now go further among those backward races with whom alone the function is still active? I may say that I do not wish to be referred to the Romulus and Remus story, to that of the Hebrew Exodus, or to such modern examples as Dame Europa's School.