Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 4, 1893.djvu/255

 Rh journey, for the entrance to which he must pay toll, and where he would lead some such life as that of earth. Thus much may be said of their predecessors of the bronze and stone ages, and of almost all other races. At Woodcuts and at Rotherley, however, there were no relics which told us thus much. And the manner in which the dead were, at those villages, often flung into rubbish-pits, and in one case thrust into the flue of a hypocaust, suggests small reverence for their remains. Little, indeed, it is that Woodyates tells us on these matters. What would we not give for more ? If we could only know what gods the diminutive folk of the south of Britain adored, what were their tribal divisions, their marriage customs, their solemn festivals, it would enable us to rewrite a page of human history that has disappeared. We cannot hope ever to win this knowledge ; but more light may yet be thrown on some of their doings, perhaps on some of their beliefs, by further excavations conducted on the truly scientific methods of General Pitt-Rivers.

The pages of are hardly the place for discussing the details of the coins, the pottery, and other material relics of art, native and imported, or the human and other bones, to all of which the most careful and impartial attention has been given. They belong rather to other departments of study, though by no means without their interest and their lessons for students of tradition. Meanwhile, it is evident that researches like those before us are complementary to the work which the Folk-lore Society is seeking to do throughout the counties. The present population is the descendant of the past ; and excavations that illustrate the former populations and their condition will help us to understand the peculiarities of the practices and beliefs of later generations. But it is of vital importance that they be conducted by trained explorers, who will both observe and record, not merely what seems important to them at the moment, but also what seems trivial and uninteresting ; for in this way only can