Page:Transactions of the Second International Folk-Congress.djvu/83

 build abridge?" And the bridge was built. They went over with waggons and horses, and brought so heavy a load that, as the last waggonful passed over the bridge, it broke, and the gold was lost. Reuben lamented, and said, "Now we can have nothing more from the giant's treasure-house." But Lady Featherflight said, "Why not mend the bridge?"

This tale was obtained from a member of a highly intelligent family in Massachusetts, in which it has been traditional. I have observed, in New England, that in folk-literature the best versions of tales and games are found in the possession of educated persons. The truth is, I believe, that English popular literature, like that of other countries, has been the property, not only of the inferior portion of the community, but also of the most intelligent class; incoherence and vulgarity are the result of transmission, through illiterate persons, of material which, in former centuries, was in circulation among the superior part of the nation. This circumstance must be taken into account in framing a definition of folk-lore; if the word folk is to be defined, in the language of early dictionaries, as plebs or vulgus, it must be admitted that our own grandmothers belonged to the vulgar: in the words of the President of the American Folk-lore Society, the folk must be taken to include "(1) all savages; (2) the old-fashioned people; (3) the children; and (4) all of us when we are old-fashioned."

Of all folk-tales, this is perhaps the most widely diffused. In the course of remarks on a Scottish version of the story, Mr. Andrew Lang has remarked that no human composition would seem to have attained so wide a circulation as the work of the unknown author. The force of this observation will be made clear by the comparisons presently to be offered.

Other English versions are as follows: (1) In Scottish dialect,