Page:Folklore1919.djvu/619

Rh or else to have frankly acknowledged that in this particular field there have been great pioneers like Durkheim whose interpretations of group-psychology have largely helped to raise the subject to its present position as a branch of science.





In 1899 Dr. A. H. Keane, a poor scholar, working independently under difficulties of many kinds, published the first edition of Man, Past and Present, which at once assumed the position of one of the most comprehensive and authoritative treatises on Ethnography in the English tongue. Since it was published the mass of materials accumulated by the researches of travellers and trained ethnologists, and interpreted by a band of devoted students of this branch of science, has enormously increased. Besides special work like that of Sir E. Tylor, Sir James Frazer, Dr. E. Sidney Hartland, Professor Elliot Smith, Dr. E. R. MarettR. R. Marett [sic], and many others, not to speak of articles in publications like the Encyclopedia of Religion and Ethics, a vast collection of facts lies imbedded in a body of literature, much of which is not accessible to ordinary students. The time has come when these materials need co-ordination and re-arrangement. The present edition is the result of the labours of Mrs. A. H. Quiggin and Professor A. H. Haddon, who may be heartily congratulated on the result of their arduous labours. The book has been revised page by page and almost line by line. Portions now inadequate or obsolete have been replaced by a summary of more recent evidence, exhibited in an attractive style, with full citation of numberless authorities. The book in its new form is well adapted to the needs of the student of Ethnography, and it will long remain an indispensable manual. In less competent hands it might have become a mere cento of scraps and notes, but the fresh learning has been so skilfully worked into the original pages that the book is not only thoroughly scientific but readable. It is only natural that the  Rh