Page:The Folk-Lore Journal Volume 3 1885.djvu/22

 14 get isolated facts capable only of contributing some kind of arguments to theories advanced by the pioneers of other sciences. Here then is the raison d'être for pointing out the old errors as to what folk-lore is and what it does; and for attempting to bring about a more complete knowledge of its work and its teaching. Just for a moment look at the other view of folk-lore—as an historical science. Before being asked to contribute quotas of information to other sciences we first ask what it is itself, what it is capable of doing, what problems it is likely to formulate and solve. When all this has been ascertained, then, and not till then, students can claim its aid towards working out the problems of other sciences.

Folk-lore may, therefore, be defined as "the science which treats of the survivals of archaic beliefs and customs in modern ages."

This science, like all others, requires a proper method of research, which enters into the very essence of its life. It must always be borne in mind that a cardinal principle of the science is that it begins with the folk-lore of modern civilized countries. Each item has to be classified and docketed according to its particular value, and this is the first stage of the work. Taking, for instance, English folk-lore as our commencing stage, I have found that it can be classified into (a) archaic continuations of early life; (b) imperfect or degraded archaisms. The next stage is to ascertain its relationship to European folk-lore, ancient and modern. This will produce (a) exact parallels to the English items; (b) items which complete the imperfect archaisms; and (c) differences and variants which show ethnic influences. The third stage is to ascertain its relationship to Hindu folk-lore as the key to the Indo-European stage of civilisation. And the final stage, and the most important, is to ascertain its relationship to savage custom. The parallels between the folk-lore of Europe and savage custom establish two very important facts—first, the primitive origin of European folk-lore; and, secondly, the identity between the early stages of modern civilisation and the present stage of modern barbarism; thus proving the state of arrested progress which modern savage life presents, and leading up to one of the most important problems of anthropology, namely, the value of the evidence of savage society for the early history of man.