Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 2, 1891.djvu/554

 498 Dr. Atkinson's title for his book would suggest its association with institutional research, and in a quiet, effective way one gets to know how much folk-lore is bounded by its wrappage of village life. I have urged before now that folk-lore belongs to individuals who are now members of a parish or village institution, and that its originals belonged to individuals who were members of a social group. Dr. Atkinson's book helps towards a realisation of this view, and, apart from the freshness and reality of his narrative, this seems to me not an unimportant consideration to apply to the subject. His witch notes are particularly valuable for some details which are not generally given by explorers less careful to note scientifically than Dr. Atkinson.

Is it then, we may fairly ask, admitted that customs and institutions are within the domain of folk-lore? Because they formed a section at the recent Congress it does not entitle us to say that in future they must be reckoned with as part of folk-lore. But at least, no one will doubt my own opinion if they follow the observations I have ventured to make in the course of this report. I should like to emphasise this opinion by pointing out that the range of traditional practices and ideas is not completed without admitting customs and institutions; and that frequently in types of early society, and in savage society of to-day, one cannot get at belief and myth without approaching them through the institutions to which they are attached. Dr. Codrington's valuable researches into the folk-lore of the Melanesians, Major Ellis's books on the Tshi and Ewe people, are examples of the intimate connection between institutions and belief. In totemism we may see how the two subjects run into each other without the possibility of divorce. The belief in the power of animals, the mythic conception of animal life in general, is in some places developed into a system which acts powerfully on the social organisation. In totemism the connection is apparent. In other branches of folk-lore