Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 9, 1898.djvu/75

 Rh speculation and fancy its special stamp and impress. Such a manifestation is by no means necessarily conditioned by blood-kinship, by descent from a common ancestor; in modern Europe it results from community of speech and culture-traditions, it may be found, as in France and England, in countries inhabited by peoples of demonstrably different origin. In the discussion of racial elements in folklore and literature, we must first possess material which we can clearly refer to the various elements, and upon the basis of which we can sharply define them. In the case of the Aryan elements of our population, this indispensable requisite is present in however imperfect and confused a form; in the case of the assumed non-Aryan element it is altogether lacking.

Research should then, in my opinion, be directed in the first place to the analysis of folklore, which, if Aryan in no other respect, is at all events Aryan in virtue of the medium in which it has been handed down to us. Difficult as the task, insoluble as are many of the problems presented, yet much of interest and value for the true history of our people can be discovered by care and ingenuity. An excellent instrument of research is comparison between the folklore common to two sections of the same group separated sociologically from each other for an ascertained lapse of time. This is the case with the Gael of Ireland and Scotland, which have been separated for nearly three centuries. The ensuing variation in speech has been recorded and studied. The nature of folklore forbids as accurate a determination of the changes which it has suffered, but they can be noted with sufficient fulness to throw valuable light upon the development of folklore generally. In the same way, comparison between the recorded folklore of South-west Britain and of Wales may throw much needed light upon the latter. Close examination from a folklore point of view of such masses of the population as are known to have changed their speech within