# Journal of American Folk-Lore/Volume 13/Issue 51/Local Meetings and Other Notices

LOCAL MEETINGS AND OTHER NOTICES.
The Congrès International des Traditions Populaires, held in connection with the Paris Exposition of 1900, met from the 10th to the 12th of September, at the Palais des Congrès. The presiding officer was Mr. C. Beauquier, president of the Société des Traditions Populaires. One of the vice-presidents was Mr. G. Kunz, a delegate of the American Folk-Lore Society. Mr. P. Sébillot acted as General Secretary, and read a letter addressed to him by Mr. G. Pitrè, in which the latter expressed his confidence that the Congress would add another proof of the variety of themes, and importance of objects belonging to a study still young. "Young persons will learn to value as it deserves this new branch of science, which is intermediate between ethnography and linguistics, and which furnishes an important support to anthropology, sociology, and history. Those who have been their predecessors in this career will be rejoiced in the appreciation of their herculean labors, which only the other day were regarded as of little consequence, and considered almost as dreams and illusions." Mr. Pitrè then went on to urge the necessity of preparing a bibliography of the folk-lore of the various nations. "The final results of science will be attained only by virtue of a knowledge of similar traditions and customs among different peoples, a work which no one can usefully undertake without the aid of such a bibliography." A resolution was ultimately adopted recommending that in each country a committee should be chosen to forward the preparation of a bibliography of the folk-lore of that country, to be in one of three languages, French, English, or German. It was also resolved that provision should be made for the classification of tales found in publications not devoted to traditional studies. A resolution was further adopted, that the different societies might through their secretaries communicate the results of researches, or undertake labors in common.
Among papers presented at this Congress, cursory mention may be made of a few. Mr. Vouletich-Voukassovitch gave an account of the moreska, a Dalmatian heroic dance, in which the Moro, king of the negroes, is represented as endeavoring to carry off a girl beloved by the white king. Another ceremony of the same country, performed in the season of the Carnival, bears the title of the "King of the village." The king enters a church, and after mass the "mostra" is danced, then an ox decapitated, which is destined for the feast of the king and queen. In the same country, the Novikatchées are mourners who, like the Voceratrices of Corsica, improvise songs in honor of the dead. Mr. Sébillot gave an analysis of his memoir on the "Evolution of Costume." The difficulty of this study is owing to the absence or rarity of documents preceding the present century. The disappearance of the ancient manner of dress follows a regular law, it being, among women, the coif which is the last to yield. He gave it as his opinion that, on the shores of the channel, the coiffure stands in relation with race, and has been influenced by emigrations from Great Britain. With regard to the costume of Poitou, Mr. H. Gelin had already affirmed ​the necessity of caution in drawing conclusions; thus, a certain coiffure, which had been referred to the fourteenth century, had in fact only attained its present amplitude during the nineteenth.
Mr. R. Rosières attempted to formulate certain laws for the development of legends; such he thought were, that among all peoples of the same mental capacity the imagination worked in the same manner, and often gave birth to similar legendary creations ; again, that in proportion as the reputation of any hero declines, the legend which had been created in his honor attaches itself to another more famous personage; further, every legend which alters its medium transforms itself in such manner as to correspond to the ethnographic and social conditions of the new medium. Mr. M. Tcheraz discussed the "Origin and Development of Legends in Armenia," arriving at the following conclusions: the reservoir from which these legends have issued is not India, but Bactriana; each tale had for author some man of genius, who at a later period had interpolators and imitators. These views were naturally objected to by partisans of the theory of independent origins. The Comte de Charencey read a memoir on "Negro Folk-Lore in America," in the course of which he analyzed two tales, one found among negroes in Africa, the other in Guiana, which had the common trait of "the decapitated by persuasion." The story of Cayenne he considered to be formed by a combination of an aboriginal element with elements Indian and civilized. Mr. S. Prato read a specimen of a "Comparative Study of Popular neo-Greek Songs and of European and Oriental Songs." Mr. Kunz presented a printed memoir on the folk-lore of the precious metals exposed in the section of the United States. Mr. Hoffmann-Krayer read a study on "Folk-Lore in Switzerland," and also gave an account of the formation of the Swiss Folk-Lore Society, which now numbers nearly 500 members. He exhibited a magnificent album of Swiss costumes, published by the Polygraphic Society of Zurich. Mr. T. Volkov exemplified the primitive and traditional processes by the aid of which the peasants of the Ukraine make their arithmetical and geometrical calculations. In the course of discussion, similar methods of peasants in Poitou were pointed out.