Page:The Folk-Lore Journal Volume 3 1885.djvu/19

 Rh ceremony, the ritual and the incantation, may belong to the general body of folk-lore, though put into use by the witch. Under witchcraft it is not the particular custom or superstition which we have to consider—these are considered in their proper places under the several divisions of our subject—but it is the priest-like office of the witch, the influence exercised by this office, the uses to which it is put, the results which flow from it, that are the proper subjects of consideration under the heading of witchcraft.

Astrology is what I have termed an academical cult. It is a cult that has had certain schools of thought specially attached to its study and to its promulgation.

4. Folk- Speech. Mr. Nutt (ante, vol. ii. p. 312) hesitates to accept language as a branch of folk-lore, and I think rightly; but if he includes his own class No. 6, and then adds only that portion of word-lore which contains some traditional knowledge on the subjects already included among the subjects of folk-lore, there need be, I think, no hesitation in accepting his useful title for the fourth radical group. When in popular nomenclature we come across a place called "witchery hole," "fairies' knoll," "toot hill," "moot hill," or any of the many significant names that meet us almost everywhere, it is only these names that enable us to recognize the last remnants of old beliefs and old customs. Mr. Grant Allen's researches into the relics of totem clans in England from a study of clan names is a most important example of this subject.

Having now run through the chief subjects which are generally included under the title folk-lore, we must first ask ourselves why these subjects are thus grouped together and given a generic name; and next, whether this grouping has a scientific or merely accidental cause.

The right to group three such apparently distinct things as traditions, customs and superstitions under one general title—a title, that is, which carries with it the significance of being one complete study—rests mainly upon the fact that traditions, customs and superstitions result from the selfsame cause. If a folk-tale is valuable because it has descended upon the lips of the people, from one generation to another from the earliest times, so for a similar reason