Page:The Folk-Lore Journal Volume 4 1886.djvu/377



the past year the Council have been endeavouring to prepare the way for some important work which the Society ought to undertake, and they think that if sufficient support is given this work may be satisfactorily accomplished.

The many indications that the study and collection of Folk-lore is now engaging the attention of most countries in Europe make it necessary that this Society, being the first to introduce a systematic study of Folk-lore, should as far as possible work in unison and confederation with similar organizations abroad, and should draw within its membership foreign scholars and students. The last Annual Report mentioned one or two efforts which had been made in this direction, particularly that of the appointment of Local Secretaries. The result of this action, though necessarily not very extensive at present, satisfactorily indicates that much might be hoped for in the future. Mr. Stewart Lockhart, who was appointed Local Secretary for China, has procured a valuable collection of birth, marriage, and burial ceremonies, collected from the natives of Hong Kong by Mr. Mitchell Innes, and has placed the MS. in the hands of the Society for printing. Mr. Lockhart has also translated the papers on the Science of Folk-lore which appeared in the Folk-Lore Journal for 1885 into Chinese, and has prefaced them by a few notes, for the purpose of placing them, as a kind of guide-book, in the