Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 9, 1898.djvu/413

Rh stories of ghosts, witches, fairies, &c., exactly as they exist in popular tradition. We have many essays and articles on "Highland Superstition," but most of them have the fault of being too general, or of giving their illustrations in a form that is hardly original. The tales ought always to be taken down in the exact words of the speaker, especially as many Highlanders are excellent narrators of such stories. Not only would such collections be of great service to Celtic students, by giving genuine specimens of various dialects, but they would in time form a body of Highland folklore which might stand favourably in comparison with that of other countries, with Jón Árnason's two volumes of Icelandic tales, for instance, or E. T. Kristensen's many publications in Danish. Gaelic folklore cannot but suffer if it is only given in English forms, and half-a-dozen willing workers would not be long in covering the greater part of the ground. It is well, too, that the work should be done very soon, before printed sources have vitiated local tradition, as they have done in several districts already.

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[ has been good enough to forward the following letter addressed to him by Mrs. F. H. Griffith, of Riversvale, Ashton-under-Lyne, together with the notes appended.]

Herewith are what I promised you: all the facts relating to the immemorial custom of "Riding the Black Lad" in Ashtonunder-Lyne on the afternoon of Easter Monday, which I was able to gather in 1895 from old people, upwards of eighty years of age, who could tell me something of the practices prevailing before the outrageous proceedings connected with this rite were suppressed about 1830 or 1832. Each assured me that everybody connected with the rites was "very low," that the whole thing had been "a disgrace to the place," and some added that "the sooner such things were forgotten the better." So my informants, being all "decent folk," had never been allowed by their parents and guardians to take part in the performances.

All the answers which I could get to all my questions I have in writing; in the notes I send you the data are sifted and classified.

At the present day several Black Lads are ridden round the