Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 5, 1894.djvu/237

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The water when received was bright and clear, a very pale green in colour, and contained no suspended matter. When boiled and concentrated it did not deepen in colour or smell offensive. The residue, when ignited, slightly blackened, but did not smell offensive.

(Signed) John F. (Public Analyst).

The Handbook of Folk-lore, published a few years ago by your Society, led me to attempt a classification of the proverbs and sayings of the Isle of Man. In the chapter upon proverbs they are said to constitute a vast and almost unexplored field of folk-lore inquiry, and to have an important bearing upon philology, ethnology, history, and archaeology, but before any scientific deductions can be drawn from them they must be "classified in groups".

Classification is never an easy matter, and I soon found that the arrangement specified in the handbook, which is given on the authority of the Rev. J. Long, although excellent in its main features, required some extension to permit a thorough and complete analysis of the Manx proverbs to be made. I have therefore introduced several additional heads of classification. Under "Anthropological" no provision had been made for man physically considered, viz., the body, food, and clothing. Under "Physical" further heads seemed to be desirable, in order to include marine and celestial bodies, and the ancient "elements" of fire and water. Besides these, many sub-heads were necessary so as to properly take in all the Manx proverbs with which I have dealt. I quite anticipate that in the case of larger collections than the present it will be necessary to still further extend the number of sub-heads. The Isle of Man constituting a "little nation" of itself, its proverbs, when complete, may be regarded as