Page:The Grateful Dead.djvu/199

3 fanciful explanations offered by any particular section of the community. Thus, in addition to the traditional belief or custom, there is the acquired belief or custom arising from a mythic interpretation of known historical or natural events.

From these potent influences in the uncultured life of a people—traditional sanctity and pre-scientific mental activity—and from the many modifications produced by their active continuance, it is seen that the subjects which constitute Folklore principally consist of the relics of an unrecorded past in man's mental and social history.

Thus it will be seen that the subjects dealt with by the Folklorist are very wide in range and of absorbing interest. Customs, beliefs, folk-tales, institutions, and whatever has been kept alive by the acts of the Folk are Folklore. Other studies which illustrate Folklore, whether it be archaeology, geology, or anthropology, must be brought to bear upon it, so that no item may be left without some attempt to determine its place in man's history.

Work of the Society.

The work of the Society is divided into two branches. First, there is the collection of the remains of Folklore still extant. Much remains to be done in our country, especially in the outlying parts of England and Scotland, the mountains of Wales, and the rural parts of Ireland, and the publications of the Society bear witness to the fact that in all parts of our land the mine has abundant rich ore remaining unworked. In European countries for the most part there are native workers who are busy upon the collection of Folklore; but in India and in other states under English dominion, besides savage lands not politically attached to this country, there is an enormous field where the labourers are few. No one who has opportunities of knowing the folk in his own neighbourhood should be deterred from recording the lore gathered from them by the fear that his information may not be worth it. What is an everyday occurrence, seemingly of no import, in one's own neighbourhood, may be a revelation to the student seeking for links to complete his investigations. And should the same item have been already noted elsewhere, the addition of a hitherto unrecorded habitat will have a definite value, when accompanied by particulars of the date when the custom was observed, the occasion on which the superstitious notion was revealed, the person by whom the story was related.

Secondly, there is the very important duty of classifying and comparing the various items of Folklore as they are gathered from the people and put permanently on record.

Ancillary tasks to the collection of oral and to the classification of recorded material, are the preservation in a form convenient for Folklore students of the vast number of facts and notices of a Folklore character scattered in various books and periodical publications, and the compilation of a fully detailed bibliography covering all fields of Folklore research. A promising start towards the accomplishment of the first task has been made in the initiation of