of inquiry. Looked at in this light, ethnology has great claims upon the student. The science of culture has almost refused to deal with it, and has been content with noting only a few landmarks which occur here and there along the lines of development traceable in the elements of human culture. But the science of history has of late been busy with many problems of ethnological importance, and has for this purpose turned sometimes to craniology, sometimes to archæology, sometimes to philology, but rarely to folklore. If folklore, then, does contain ethnological facts, it is time that they should be disclosed, and that the method of discovering them should be placed before scholars. Of course, my attempt in this direction must not be looked upon in any sense as an exhaustive treatment of the subject, and I am not vain enough to expect that all my conclusions will be accepted. I believe that the time has come when every item of folklore should be docketed and put into its proper place, and I hope I have done something towards this end in the following pages. When complete classification is attempted some of the items of folklore will be found useless enough. But most of them will help us to understand more of the development of thought than any other subject; and many of them will, if my reading of the evidence is correct, take us back, not only to stages in the history of human thought, but to the people who have yielded up the struggle of their minds to the modern student of man and his strivings. At the risk of crowding the pages with footnotes, I have been careful to give references to all my authorities for items of folklore, because so much depends upon the value of the authority used in these studies. I believe they are all quoted accurately, but shall always be glad to know of any corrections or additions. Professor Rhys has kindly read through my proofs, and I am very grateful for the considerable service he has thereby rendered me. BARNES COMMON, S.W. March 1892. ETHNOLOGY IN IN FOLKLORE 5 CHAPTER I SURVIVAL AND DEVELOPMENT THERE has grown up of late years a subject of inquiryfirst antiquarian merely, and now scientific-into the peasant and local elements in modern culture, and this subject has not inaptly been termed 'folklore.' Almost always at the commencement of a new study much is done by eager votaries which has to be undone as soon as settled work is undertaken, and it happens, I think, that because the elements of folklore are so humble and unpretentious, because they have to be sought for in the peasant's cottage or fields, in the children's nursery, or from the lips of old gaffers and gammers, that unusual difficulties have beset the student of folklore. Not only has he to undo any futile work that stands in the way of his special inquiry, but he has to attempt the rebuilding of his edifice in face of contrasts frequently drawn between the elements which make up his subject B and those supposed more dignified elements with which the historian, the archæologist, and the philologist have to deal. The essential characteristic of folklore is that it consists of beliefs, customs, and traditions which are far behind civilisation in their intrinsic value to man, though they exist under the cover of a civilised nationality. This estimate of the position of folklore with reference to civilisation suggests that its constituent elements are survivals of a condition of human thought more backward, and therefore more ancient, than that in which they are discovered. Except to the students of anthropology, the fact of the existence of survivals of older culture in our midst is not readily grasped or understood. Historians have been so engrossed with the political and commercial progress of nations that it is not easy to determine what room they would make in the world for the nonprogressive portion of the population. And yet the history of every country must begin with the races who have occupied it. Almost everywhere in Europe there are traces, in some form or other, of a powerful race of people, unknown in modern history, who have left material remains of their culture to later ages. The Celts have written their history on the map of Europe in a scarcely less marked manner than the Teutons, and we still talk of Celtic countries and Teutonic countries. On the other hand, Greek and Roman civilisations have in some countries and some districts |