Page:Ginzburg - The Legends of the Jews - Volume 5.djvu/14

 wise the student is referred to the sources for further minute study. I found it therefore advisable to give the reference to all parallel passages of the original sources, as in most cases some slight variants are not lacking. The order of the sources is the chronological one, i.e. the older source precedes the younger one, except when on account of its fullness or for some other reason the Text is based on the latter one, in which case it comes first.

I have purposely avoided references to secondary sources, and while one is frequently accustomed to be referred to Rashi, Yalkut and other mediaeval authors as sources for Jewish legend, these authors are mentioned in the Notes only when they offer either material not found in the older literature extant or some important variants.

I have also been very sparing with references to modern writers on the Haggadah or on general Folk-lore. There are a considerable number of doctoral dissertations, mostly in German, which attempt to give the lives of prominent figures of the Bible according to the Haggadah. At their best, they are correct translations of some sections of the Midrash Rabba, and there was no need to refer to translations, as the Notes are written for those who are able to make use of the original sources. For this very reason, I also refrained from giving explanations to the texts quoted if they are found in the commentaries. Explanations are given in the Notes only when the commentators fail to do so, or where I differ with their views. As I have a thorough dislike for polemics, I rarely gave my reasons for the refusal to accept the views of others.

As to the literature on general Folk-lore, I was guided by the consideration that a student of comparative Folk-lore is surely acquainted with the standard works of Bolte and Polivka, Cosquin, Child, Clouston, Hartland, Grasse, Hertz, Kéhler, Oesterley and other great masters of this field of study, and it would have been entirely superfluous to call attention to the very numerous parallels found in these works to Jewish legends. The relation of the legendary lore of the Jews to that of the other nations is of extreme interest to the student of Folk-lore, but the discussion of this relation does not fall within the scope of this work.

A folk-loristic motif often appears in a variety of legends which formally are quite distinct from one another. In cases like this, reference is made either to the Text of the related legend or to the Note pertaining thereto. The attention of the student is, however, called to the