Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1889-09-04
DECAY OF TRADITION,

Put End to Folk Lore.
TIC is said that the invention of writ
ing injured the power of memory, and
abroad, as he is nowadays, it was pos
sible to meet with many instances oil
strong meinorizing capacity among
persons who could neither read nor
write. Complicated accounts could be
Kept by the aid of tally" only, ana
tts memory of many small farmer or
petty rural shopkeeper was his only
Ledger and order book. It is certain that
since the art of writing has become an
almost universal accomplishment the
faculty of memory, being less needed, is
less cultivated. Long after the inven-
ton Of letters our forefathers rested
much upon oral tradition. Antigua
rians assert that one of the ancient
races of Italy possessed no written
language. and even where written char
acters were in use oral tradition formed
an important supplement to them.
Folk lore tales and ballads have been
handed down from lip to lip for centu-
ries with curious fidelity.
When oral tradition was recognized
as vehicle for actual information
more care was taken regarding the
accuracy than would be the case in
these days. The old reciters jealously
guarded time-honored form Of words
even in their prose narratives. Breton
peasants, notably those who possess a
talent as raconteurs, will repeat a le-
gend Or a story with scrupulous fidelity
TO the established form in which they
have always heard the incidents related,
and will check traveller who at
tempts to deviate from the orthodox
version with Nay. Monsieur. the
story should begin thus, repeating the
regular form of the tale. The Eastern
story teller deviates little in his time
honored recital of tales of love, ad-
venture and magic; we recognize all
our old friends from the ARABIAN
Nights" if we halt to listen to pro-
fessional raconteur in the streets of
any oriental town. In the days of war
against prescribed books faithful
memories were often utilized to pre-
serve prohibited WORKS from oblivion.
During the persecution of the Valid
enses. in the thirteenth century, when
their version of the Scriptures
was prohibited and destroyed wher-
ever found. their ministers COM
mitted whole books of the sacred
volume to memory, and repeated chap
tiers at their religious meetings 1t
would be tedious to enumerate the
many instances in which tradition has
preserved what written histories were
forbidden to chronicle. On the whole,
oral traditions are strangely accurate;
strangely, when we consider how facts
are frequently altered and distorted
when occurrences a"e related by
successive story tellers. The childs
game of Russian Scandal Gin which
a secret is whispered to one person
and repeated to a circle of others, is
repeated aloud by the last hearer) is
played every day in society. And yet
local tradition will ia thfully chronicle
the site of a battle, the burial place of
a hero, the date Of a siege, and some
times, after generations of historians
and antiquarians have scoffed at the
unreliable local legend, later investi-
cation will discover that the despised
traditional story was the true one after
all. Centuries of repetition may have
added to the incidents or distorted
some of the facts. but the main tale is
strictly exac,. The reputed treasure
frove may prove but trifing hoard,
the battleields smaller in extent, the
graves of the heroes less numerous; bat
IN each case local tradition is true re-
garding the facts that occurred and the
locale where they TOOK place.
Tradition may at least claim to be as
accurate as written history; though
this. perhaps, is faint praise. Oral
Tradition is usually free from conscious
party bias The repeaters of traditional
lore carry on the tale as they heard it.
but now many an eloquent historian
appears to assume brief for one side
or another in every party contest and
TO write his history with a view. not of
calculating facts, but of representing
certain historical characters as angels
or the reverse. Such writer's are al
ways the pleasantest to read; an i'm
perial historian" is sadly dull, as
rule; but when a biased writer plays
the part Of Clio, tradition may often
prove the safer guide of the two. Folk
lore, i% not an altogether reliable
guide, is seldom totally at fault in its
statement of facts. and tradition has
frequently kept alive memories which
might otherwise have persisted alto
gether. Books may be destroyed and
history willfully garbled, but it is less
easy to distinguish local tradition. -
Manchester (Eng.) Courier.