The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1897-05-16
TRUTHFUL TRADITIONS
FOLKLORE THAT HAS BEEN FOUND
ED ON HISTORICAL FACTS.
Not Safe to Reject Even the Most Gro
tesque Legends, for They Contain
at Least "A Grain of Truth.
London Standard.

OF the lsiahd Where ne dWelt. After years
of study he made up his mind for
good and all that there was not a particle
OF fact in the legends protesting to be
historic which he had laboriously gathered.
In distrust at his own credulity, unwilling
to let people know what a fool he had been,
he tossed his whole correction into the fire.
Some days afterward there was a. terrific
hurricane. The islanders had told him that
once upon a time long ago a certain famous
chieftain used to sit on a stone bench be-
meath a tree which grew close to the mis-
sion house. That bench had disappeared,
no one knew when or how, but in the days
of heathendom they used to place offerings
to the spirit of the old chief near the spot
where it had stood. When the missionary
sailed out on the morning after the storm
the hrst object he noticed was this tree
oVerthrown-and in the midst of it's up
turned roots hung a stone bench! The rev.
erend gentleman-Whiting was his name, if
we remember r~ight-Stood in q maze. The
legend was true then! Examination proved
beyond a doubt that the bench had rested
against the bole of the tree in some distant
age, for there was no trace of an incision
the wood had grown smoothly around and
over it. So far as he could roughly com
pute, four centuries must have passed since
it stood outside the trunk. For that time
the islanders had preserved the memory
of a circumstance so trifing-for to oues-
uon that this was the bench they assigned
TO their mythic hero would have been silly.
Ana then the good man mourned his haste.
lie had destroyed the patient labor of
years because he would not credit the ac-
counts of grave events given in all serious
ness by members of his flock. and if proved
mat they were trustworthy even on such a
detail as the personal habits OF a man
VINO died four hundred years ago.
The story is one to be borne in mind bv
al students of folklore and of that early
stage IN human annals which is based upon
Iradltlon. But 1T does not follow that Mr..
Whiting had good cause to lament his
burned manuscripts, if he valued them only
Tor the records of events they might con-
tam. That there are particles of fact in the
most grotesque of these legends which pro-
IessAto be historic, we find more and more
reason to believe as our knowledge Widens:
but it is rarely possible to sift them from
the mass of poetic nonsense.
SAVED BY MEMORY.
Savages everywhere keep the memory of
startling incidents which occurred, as we
learn by internal evidence, an indefinite
number of ages ago. Biologists recognize
that the Black sea was once a lake, with
no outlet towards the Mediterranean They
incline to think, or believe, that it escaped
through the Bosphorus and the Dardanelles
shortly after the glacial period. But Do
dorus Siculus mentions a tradition of the
Samothracians exactly agreeing with this
account. which learned men OF the day
have framed upon the teaching of science.
Did the Samothracians exist in the glacial
period? They say that when the Black sea
broke its barriers at last all their country
was drowned-that was the Samothracian
flood. And it is evident enough that such
must have been the result of the cataclyiSm.
There is a passage in Pindar also which
some commentators interpret as an allusion
to the same prodigious event.
Traditions of the are so general
and SO vigorous in the extreme north of
America that savants of reputation are
not unwilling to admit the possibility that
it survived two hundred years ago, and
others who have no scientific reputation to
hazard go very much further. Within the
last twelve months it was announced that
one Of the New York millionaires-his name
was given-had fitted out a party to bag a
living mammoth in Alaska. Very small de-
tails are preserved by the popular memory
sometimes. When the wizard Earl of
FOULS was carried off, to be boiled alive,
as the only means of killing him., tradition
reported that he threw away the key of
his treasure hambe 1t could never be
found. But less than sixty years ago
schoolboys playing in the haunted ruins
unearthed a great key which might very
well have been tossed through the air hole
of a dungeon o~pening-the point is signih-
cant-beside the road along which the
wicked earl was hurried. Many cases
might be cited where even antique stories
Oh DuGl6u treasure nave DeeH proved true.
A notable one is told by the worthy. DR..
Plot. in his history of Herefordshire.
Bransel Castle had a specially fine tale of
this sort, alleging that a kings crown was
sunk in the moat. In 1850 a cottager. named
Taller, planting a hedge along the moat to
protect his children. found a crown set in
diamonds. He sold it to a jeweler at
Gloucester for G37; the jeweler transferred
it to a Lombard street goldsmith at a
great profit, and he sold the diamonds
alone for 81, 500.
DULLNESS.
Disappointed inquirers are apt to eXclaim
that the English peasantry have no tradi-
tons. The patriotic Scotsman makes much
of this point, if sufficiently cultured to no.
tice it. He contrasts the vacant mind of an
English laborer, who, by hypothesis, heard
nothing from his grandsire of the glorious
or awful incidents that occurred within
sight of his cottage, with that of the Gale
DOMAIN who has received the tale of Wal
lace and many other from mouth to mouth
through twenty generations. The one has
simply a vague notion that ghosts walk,
and that a certain place is haunted the
other has an assortment of stories which
identify and explain the apparition. No
doubt the fact is so. Macauley tells how he
%journeyed to SedgmOor with the purpose of
collecting information on the spot. If there
be any occurrence in our history which
should dwell in the recollection of people
living in the neighborhood it is this. Sedg-
- E@ I1Ao
liSh ground. scarcely yet two centuries ago.
The ancestors of those people, not very dis
tant, were engaged there, and such as es-
capped saw the Bloody Assize." In fact,
writers before and since Macauley allude to
the traditions cherished by them as if the
fight We're still a household word. But the
historian found nothing. The battle and the
vengeance, and Jeffreys, are
names to which few details cling.
Oliver Cromwell again is a parsonage
whom his ~neighbors should remember;
when he had run his tremendous career
surely they would hand down stories of
him to their children. But Carlyle searched
in vain. The single legend remaining at St.
Carlyle satisfied himself that he never lived
there. Even though we believe the i'm
probable tales repeated Of his residence at
Cambridge and Lincoln'S Inn, they are few
as insignificant. 1t must be admitted that
our race is wanting in traditional lore. But
PLANTATION may be found. Indubitably ira
dition is strongest among saVageS. Having
no interest beyond the tribe, they concen-
trate their attention on its fortunes; unable
an account of them by careful repetition.
And memory thus exercised gains a
strength which we only observe, with as
constituent, in some rare individuals. Ira
dition takes the place of literature. The
deeds of kings and chiefs are the national
people loses it's traditions ,proportionately
with its advance in civilization. The inhab-
itants of Sedgmoor would have preserved
every detail of the fight had they been
Kaffirs. In the first place, 1t would be nee
essary to ascertain how many families
whom Macauley questioned had that per-
sonal interest which the presence of their
forefathers at the battle would give. But
at q certain stage of progress the lost tradi-
tions are recovered. We do not doubt that