The Clifton clarion., 1889-08-21
DECAY OF TRADITION.
The Invention of Writing Seems to Have
 Put an End to Folk Lore.

The Invention of Writing Seems to Have
 Put an End to Folk Lore.
 It is said that the invention of writ ing injured the power of memory. and years ago, before the schoolmaster was abroad, as he is nowadays. it was pos sible to meet with many instances of strong Clemorizing capacity among persons who could neither read nor write Complicated accounts could be kept by the aid of a tally" only, and the memory of many small far mer or petty rural shopkeeper was his only ledger and order book It is cer- tain that since the art of writing has become an almost universal accom- plishment the faculty of memory. be- ing less needed, is less cultivated Long after the invention of letters our forefathefs rested much upon oral tra- ditions &Antiquarians assert that one of the ancient races of ltal y possessed no written language, and even where written characters were in use, oral tradition formed an important supple ment to them. Folk lore tales and ballads have been handed down from lip to lip for centuries with curious fidelity.
 When oral tradition was recognized as d vehicle for actual information more care was taken regarding the ac- cuiSSy than would be the case in these daySs The old reciters jealously guard ed d time honored form of words even i'll their prose narratives Breton peasants. notably those who possess a tMglit as raconteurs, will repeat a iegyD Dpd or story with scrupulous Hd6B Bty to the established form in VI 3hey have always heard the in ciae<ts related. and will check trav- elerWho attempts to deviate from the ortbpdox version with Nay. mon siqsy, the story should begil. thus, :" the regular form of the tale. SAes seastern story teller deviates little hl his time honored recital of tales of love. adventure and magic; we recog- nize all our old friends from the Arabian Nights" if we halt to listen to professional raconteur in the streets of any oriental town. In the days of war against prescribed books faithful memories were often utilized to preserve prohibited works from ob- livion During the persecution of the Waldenses, in the Thirteenth century, when their version of the Scripture was prohibited and destroyed wher ever found, their ministers committed whole books of the sacred volume to memory, and repeated chapters at re- ligious meetings. It would be tedious to enumerate the many instances in winch 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 are related by successive story tellers. The child's game of Russian Scandal" Gin which a secret whispered to one person and repeated to a circle of others, is usually altered out of all recognition when repeated aloud by the last hearer) is played every day in society And yet local tradition will faithfully chronicle the site of a battle, the burial place of hero, the date of a siege, and sometimes, after gener- ations of historians and antiquarians have scoffed at the unreliable local le- gend, a later investigation will dis cover that the despised traditional story was the true one after all. Centuries of repetition may have slightly added to the incidents or distorted some of the facts, but the main tale Is strictly exact. The reputed treasure trove may prove but a trifling hoard, the battle field smaller in extent, the graves of the heroes less numerous; but in each case local tradition is true regard ing the facts that occurred and the locale where they took place.
 Tradition may at least claim to be as accurate as ancient history; though this, perhaps, is faint praise. Oral tradition is usually free from con- scious party bias. The repeaters of lore carry on the tale as they heard 1t, but now many an e]o- quent historian appears to assume brief for one side or another in every party contest and to write his history with view, not of elucidating facts, but of representing certain historical characters as angels or the reverse. Such writers are always the pleasant est to read; an impartial historian" is sadly dull, as a rule; but when a biased writer plays the part of Clio, tradition may often prove the safer guide of the two. Folk lore, if 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 perished altogether. Books may be destroyed and history willfully garbled, but it is less easy to extinguish local tradition.-Manches- ter EngJ Courier.