Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 7, 1896.djvu/226

200 panied by a feast; some of the people met with are usually invited to partake of it. The boy came up with a merry face, and in a cheerful voice recited the verses his mother taught him. The men became angry and beat him again. He returned to his mother and told her of his misfortune. She said: "My boy, you ought to cry and wail." The boy went and came to a marriage feast. As soon as he approached the tables he began to cry and wail with all his force. Disturbed in their jolly occupation the feasting people beat him once more.

St. John's College, Oxford.

I trust you will insert a short account of this Institution, which has now existed for twenty-eight years at Paris. Admirable though its method is, the School is not, so far as I can judge, as well known in England as it should be. As it seems to fill a gap in our educational system, I am not without hope that more general acquaintance with it may advance the views of those who think it a disgrace that an Empire like Great Britain has no School of Anthropology.

The School is divided into five sections; but the one which is more particularly interesting in this connection is the religious section, comprising about twenty-five courses of lectures, followed by some three hundred pupils. In addition to lectures dealing more especially with a single religion or group of religions, such as that of Egypt, the Far East, and others, there is a course directed by M. Marillier on the religions of savage nations. The subjects at present under treatment are "Legends of a Deluge" and "The Rites of Marriage."

The idea of the School is "work by the pupils, directed by the lecturer." Unfortunately the pupils are not always ready to undertake work. But I may mention that, in connection with the course just mentioned, it has been proposed to pupils to write an essay on some point which would be read at the lecture, commented on by M. Marillier, and discussed at will by other pupils. And from personal experience I can add that one cannot desire a teacher