Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 15, 1904.djvu/508

476 leading on lastly to practices of various kinds. It needs but a slight examination to show that in the hands of M. Sébillot the plan adopted for the book, which in less exact or experienced hands would have been perilous, has been eminently successful. He knows the comparative value of the various collections of which he has availed himself; and he occasionally offers useful remarks upon them. Where writers of fiction, poetry, or other forms of literature have manifestly been drawing upon folklore, he does not hesitate to cite them. Exact references to all citations are given in the footnotes, so that the reader may check every statement. Information obtained by the author's own inquiries, and not previously published in any of his numerous works, and information resting on the authority of informants, but not previously published, are also indicated. It is promised that the final volume shall contain a full index, and a bibliographical list of the works consulted.

From this slight sketch of the plan of the work and enumeration of the contents of the instalment before us, it will be be seen how valuable a contribution it is to the record of European folk-lore. Alike as a criticism and a collection it will be indispensable to the library of every real student, who will earnestly hope that the distinguished author may have health and leisure to complete his task. I ought to add that although the main object is to present the folklore of France as it is to-day, or has been in the immediate past, the references to writers who have recorded that of earlier centuries are numerous and important. M. Sébillot has wisely avoided travelling outside French-speaking peoples, except where some very pertinent illustration could be given.