, 1888-06-13
FOLK LORE OF AMERICA.
Its Study to BE Undertaken on IA Scion
tiho BasIs-The Difficulties.

Its Study to he Undertaken ON n Scion
tiho BasIs-The Difficulties
The establishment of the American
Folk Lore society. under the efficient
presidency of Professor Francis j. Child,
of Harvard college, indicates that the
study of our native rural tales, legends
and superstitions, hitherto conducted
after q desultory and ftful fashion, is
about to be undertaken on a scientific
basis. Owing to inevitable changes in
the character Of the earlier settled por-
tons of the country the relics of old
English folk lore, comprising ballads,
tales, superstitions, dialect, and the like,
are disappearing 80 rapidly that by the
commencement of the next century there
may be little left worth collecting and
preserving. The same remissness has
been noticeable in the Old World, and it
was not until 1919 that the Grimm
brothers, by publishing their kinder
und Hausmarchen, laid the foundation
of the present scientific study of popular
tales. The very phrase folk lore is
scarcely forty years old But as it Is
never too late to mend, or scarcely ever,
we are led to hope that the investigations
OF the American Folk Lore society may
materially assist the development OF this
long neglected but very important branch
of study.
And the undertaking has been COM
menced not a I'M too soon. The
oral traditions brought to America by
the English ~colonists, and to which they
tenaciously cling for generations, ave
been well nigh forgotten, and the same
may be said of the ballads they used to
%recite, although of these a few have been
recorded and are still available. OF nur-
sery tales scarcely one has been recorded,
although a century ago they were famil-
lar by scores to mothers and nurses. AS
to superstitions, there is more hope. They
linger in the agricultural districts, and
are not uncommon in the neigbborhood
of large cities. An otherwise Intelligent
New England farmer will pin his faith
on the signs of the zodiac or on the
necessity of planting his peas in
the first quarter of the moon What
may be called the minor elements Of
folk lore still exist In considerable abund-
ance. They are observable in children's
games, attended by song and rhyme, and
particularly in what are known as count
ing out rhymes. The game of marbles
still retains the phraseology attaching to
it in Shakespeare's time. Finally, in
many parts of the states which form our
eastern seaboard, there are enough quaint
expressions and archaic words in use to
indicate from what part of the father
land the original colonists came. The
rescue from oblivion of our old English
folk lore is by no means a hopeless task,
but it is obvious that the work should be
commenced without further delay.
With the negro dialect, tales. songs
and superstitions, the case Is very differ
ent. Thanks to the labors and foresight
of Mr.. Joel Chandler Harris, Col. Charles
@. Jones, Jr., of Georgia, Mr.. Thomas
Nelson Page and others, we have \
fairly good foundation for systematic
inquiry. The southern negroes are still
In a comparatively primitive state. and
their retentive memories and delight in
singing have aided in preserving such a
mass of material as to render compare
lively easy the labors of the ethnologist
or NEUROLOGICAL investigator. A more
promising field of folk lore exploration
could scarcely be desired.
The collection of the folk lore of the
American Indians may be regarded as
perhaps the most important, as it Is the
most picturesque, of the subjects to be
considered by the society, Unfortu-
nately, the hard headed and ~unimagina-
tive settlers of New England and the
Atlantic states in general made no record
Of the Indian legends which were once
associated with every valley, lake or
stream, and the race wilted away before
them with little enough of its folk lore
recorded. Within the last sixty years a
more intelligent and ~philosophic spirit
had succeeded to the previous indiffer-
ence, and the traditions and supersti-
tions of the aborigines of the
Mississippi valley and west of
1t have occupied the attention of
many clever men, notably Henry Rowe
Schoolcraft, the first scientific investiga-
tor of Indian myths. But the Indians of
the west are rapidly decreasing In num-
bers, and great changes In their condi-
ton are impending. 1t is important,
therefore, that, If any inquiry In their
folk lore is to be made, the work should
be commenced at once, while the ma
terials are at hand in tolerable abundance.
The zeal which prompted Mr.. Frank
Gushing to live for several years among
the Zuni Indians of Arizona for the pur-
pose of studying their myths and tradi-
tons, should inspire other investigators.