Page:The Folk-Lore Journal Volume 2 1884.djvu/354

346 the result would bo merely that leechdom would come chiefly within this division. It has some science, but still more of it is either magic or faith. Division 8, Folk-speech, should certainly be excluded from folk-lore, the interests of which may be injuriously affected by too great an extension of its scope.

Let me add that the protest made by Mr. Nutt against folk-lore being confounded with comparative mythology cannot be too strongly supported.

The time has certainly arrived when the common vagueness of ideas connected with the place of folk-lore in general classification and the arrangement of its various sections should come to an end. That the time is ripe for a thorough consideration of the subject is shown by the simultaneous discussion raised by Mr. Gomme in the Folk-Lore Journal and by Mr. Cutter in the Library Journal. I am glad to see that my friend Mr. Nutt has helped the matter on considerably by his interesting letter in the last number of the Folk-Lore Journal, but whoever attempts to bring the subject under regulation is sure to lay himself open to criticism; in fact, if a basis is arrived at, it can only be arrived at after a considerable amount of discussion.

It is satisfactory to find that Mr. Nutt considers folk-lore to be a branch of Anthropology, for if we agree to this and set aside the claims of comparative mythology the ground will be considerably cleared. We must first have a definition of the main subject before we can sub-divide, and this Mr. Nutt takes care to give us before proceeding further. Every one who attempts to define knows the difficulty he undertakes, and will not be surprised that others reject his definition. Still, though rejected, it may help us towards arriving at something more likely to be accepted. Mr. Nutt says, "Folk-lore is Anthropology dealing with primitive man," This definition is too comprehensive, in that it takes in all parts of Anthropology; and not comprehensive enough, in that it deals only with primitive man; and moreover it fails to give a reason for the separate existence of folk-lore. Certainly Mr. Nutt gives a special meaning to the vague term "primitive man," but then I think that as folk-lore can actually come into existence in this nineteenth century, so it may be found among the civilized as well as among the "not civilized." Little bits of senseless