Page:The Folk-Lore Journal Volume 7 1889.djvu/11

Rh that the societies of other countries will follow on the same lines very shortly. It will be one of the first duties of the Society to put itself in official communication with foreign societies, so that a combined effort may be made to establish an uniform method by which the scientific results of comparative Folk-Lore may best be attained.

The Council desire to place before the members some idea as to the methods of procedure in the future with a view of enlisting all the help that is available.

(1) The Bibliography of Folk-Lore was begun by the Director some few years ago, and a considerable number of titles are now in MS. A specimen of the plan pursued is given in Appendix I.

(2) The Handbook of Folk-Lore has been in preparation for the past two years, and its present stage is recorded in Appendix II. It is designed for the use of collectors in all parts of the world; but, as there is so much Folk-Lore yet uncollected in Britain, the Council hope that its publication will greatly assist members and friends living in the country to gather in much of the Folk-Lore which must perish unrecorded if not noted at once.

(3) The examination and sifting of existing collections of Folk-Lore has been only partly begun by the tabulation of Folk-Tales (see Appendix III). The incidents in Folk-Tales, Customs, and Superstitions need attention on the same lines, and the Director has prepared a scheme by which he thinks this object may be attained. This scheme has been approved by the Council, and is given in Appendix IV. The idea common to the three sections is to arrange each item of Folk-Lore under some definite and recognised title, to set forth its native variants, its foreign parallels, its geographical distribution in its native country, and in foreign lands. Gradually all that has been collected will be rearranged in this order, and all new facts coming to the Society will be printed in the new form. The