Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 5, 1894.djvu/58

 50 indicates that one language has conquered other languages, and that the people who differentiated this all-powerful speech perhaps lived somewhere in Asia, but most probably in northern Europe, and, at all events, do not live now. If we say they were non-Aryans, then we are intruding into realms that belong to the people who measure skulls, and who believe that skulls when measured will tell us everything. If we say simply that they differ in the original race ancestry from the modern population, we are told that folk-lore cannot settle such important problems, but that it must confine itself to the eternal work of comparison, and never step aside to sum up results.

Now all this is very unsatisfactory, and it leads me to a very important subject, upon which I consider that our Society, as the prime mover in the most important step which has been taken for years with reference to the prehistoric races of this country, is much to be congratulated. It was at our instance that the Society of Antiquaries and the Anthropological Institute were invited to co-operate with us in bringing about an ethnological survey of Britain. It was at a meeting held in our rooms, under my presidency, that the good work was begun. It was a member of our Council, Mr. E. W. Brabrook, who brought the matter before the British Association, gained the adherence of that body, and afterwards acted, first as Secretary, and now as Chairman, of the Committee which has the conduct of the work. All this indicates the activity and the practical usefulness attained by our science under the guidance of the Society in the past few years, during which we have lifted the veil a little and seen, amidst much confusion of ideas, much unclassified material, many blank spaces in the accumulation, howsoever large they may be—seen that all this chaos has a bearing, and an important one, upon our own race history, if we will but tackle the investigation. If, therefore, I proceed to ask a few questions, and to put together a few thoughts on the relation of folk-lore to anthropology, I hope it will not be considered too much of