Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 2, 1891.djvu/111

 Rh mythology and other learned works which he enumerates, but which are, unfortunately, written in languages unknown to the author of the Zhamaite and Wendish myths. Dr. Veckenstedt boasts that he has unveiled to science more than a hundred figures, before unknown, of Zhamaite mythology and tradition; but an acquaintance with the works referred to would have relieved him from the necessity of so large a creation, for he would there have found more than forty mythical figures undoubtedly known to the modern Lithuanians, and more or less exactly described by different authors.

If it should be asked, how could a man, wholly ignorant of the language of the people whose traditions he professes to have gathered, invent these traditions? M. Carlowicz has his theory ready. He quotes the Abbe Bielenstein, a member of the Society of Lettish Literature at Mitau, to the effect that Dr. Veckenstedt's assistants in the work were his scholars at the Gymnasium at Libau, who themselves were very often not proficient in the Lithuanian tongue, and certainly had not sufficient experience; whence too often, without any ill intent, they furnished suspicious materials. It was even said, we are told, that some of these pupils made up the "popular traditions" for their master in the class itself, and during the lesson; and it is positively asserted that Dr. Veckenstedt fixed the number of tales, traditions, etc., which was required by every scholar when he went away for his holidays. If the youth was unable to collect the number allotted to him, he furnished the rest out of his own head. This allegation is supported by extracts from letters from former pupils and others, testifying to Dr. Veckenstedt's ignorance of Lithuanian, and to the fact that the stories were the inventions of his pupils, "especially", says one letter, "of the Jews, who did it to be received into his good graces"; while another letter states that he caused his pupils to relate Lithuanian stories, which he "verified" by comparing them with the writings of Strijkowski and of Narbutt, which were translated for him.