Page:The Folk-Lore Journal Volume 1 1883.djvu/50

42 &c. in which folk-tales may be found, may have been omitted. Members may be able to supply what is wanting in this respect.

The titles are not given fully, but sufficiently to identify the book by. The dates are those of the last editions, or of the editions more generally used. The dates in brackets are those of the first editions. The figures in square brackets give the number of stories in each collection. Frequently an approximate number is given, in such cases c. (for circa) being printed before the figures. The collection is in the language of the title. Nothing is said about the merit of the collections, except a word of warning here and there when a collection has secured unmerited recognition. The third volume of Grimm's K. and H.M. has been referred to whenever it was thought abstracters might find the information there given of assistance.

As to the principles which have guided the Committee in drawing up this list, it may be pointed out that existing schemes of classification have been concerned almost entirely with "märchen," or folk-tales of, ex hypothesi, mythical origin. It is obvious that these alone are susceptible of classification in the true sense of the word, and it is with these that the Committee will have chiefly to deal. But it is only, or almost only, within this century that "märchen" have been noted down tels quels from the mouths of the people, and it is the collections published in this century that the Committee must attack first. Of previous European collections those only of Straparola, Basile, and Perrault are really deserving of attention, and these have played too large a part in the history of folk- tale literature to be disregarded. It will be important likewise to note what influence these literary versions have had upon living tradition. The same remark applies to the Indian and other Eastern collections. These consist to a very large extent more of apologues and jest tales than of "märchen" proper. It is, however, not always easy to distinguish between the classes, and bearing in mind the immense influence exerted by the Indian collections upon mediaeval and renaissance literature it will be well to ascertain precisely how far that influence has extended to living tradition. This must be the Committee's excuse for touching tales which, though popular in their origin, are at present purely literary in form.

It is well known that the motifs and incidents of "marchen" appear, in a different form of course, in the mythology (using the word in the