Evening star., 1898-12-12
Work Of an Organization of Well
Known Scientists.
ANNUAL CONVENTION This MONTH
Collect Ancient Traditions and
Record Curious Customs.
OFFIC ERS AND MBERS
Nritten for The Eraninr Star

Written for The Evening Star
10 seafch out ana pul record the he
liefs, superstitions and myths of the fast
dying or already dead old races of Ameri-
ca; TO gather up and preserve the legends
| traditions and some accurate knowledge OF
| their curious customs and ideas is the work
of an organization that is little heard Of
| but yet is strong among scientists and has
| its memhers in every corner of this coun-
| try-the American Folk Lore Society.
Attention is now being directed to these
| workers in a strange and interesting field
| for the tenth annual meeting or convention
of the society is close at hand. the dates
set being December 2S and -. and the
place chosen Fayerweather Hall uhe phys
| les building}, Columbia University, New
| York city. Very nearly 2oo folk Iorsts are
expected at this conference to listen to
! papers on the negro and the Indian. the
| French and Spanish settlers the races of
| Central and South America; a multitude of
| odd facts dug in some case from old docu-
| me nts; in others taken. as in the cases Of
| certain negro settlements and Indian tribes
| direct from the lips of patriarchs and 9TH
ers whose memories are long, and who are
| still aloof from civilization.
Thus the conference will hear, on these
| days, and among other papers already ar
| ranged. Prof Charles l.. Edwards of the
| Cincinnati University on negro folk lore;
! DR.. l.. Ferrand of Columbia on the folk
| lore of British Columbia and A. l.. krocher
| of Columbia on Animal Tales of the Es-
| quimaux.' The other papers that are To he
| read will extend the breadth of the study
! of the meeting to all corners of the CONT
| nent
| The Greatest Work.
| For, in whatever pertains to folk lore, the
| society is eclectic and liberal Its great
| est work since its founding in 1883 has
been, 1t is true, upon the negro and the In
| lay the greatest wealth of superstitions
| record of customs and mythology. There
| were living representatives of these races
| at hand ready to he questioned. The
| work, however, only begins here. Step
by step the folk lore society is digging into
| far distant past. Its eleven volumes of
| its journal quarterly and the six books
| it has published in addition to these show
| that new literature is already well start
| ed.
| up the backbone of this society-professors
| of universities. curators and assistant Gu
| rators of museumS-and Joined with these
| are some hundreds Of observant, thought
| full people who are not scientific experts,
| but have a love for these researches, and
| can sometimes add a word or a thought
| contribute an idea or finishing touch to
| the papers read and the discussions
| waged. The lists open to all, and il
| anything, there are more women than men
| members, many of those from the south
| being useful in the negro work.
From almost nothing has the society
| grown in its course of ten years until now
| it numbers a famous delegation of Ameri-
can scientists. particularly of anthropolo-
! gists. This is so marked that the meeting
| of the AnthroDological Society, to be held
| in Columbia University the same week,
| will have very many of the same promi-
| neut members, and the two conventions will
| not be unlike.
| An Important Field.
| The man and the woman who are severe
| ly practical may wonder, perhaps. at all
! this work, and question the advisability of
| this great Of printers inn. To those
| not interested in et4.noogy it may seem
| good deal like child play TO gather up these
| quaint stories and the scattered hints of
| customs. To this argument the folk lore
| scientists bring forward this clinchng an
| swer:
THE field being one which no other
| agency now fu-.y covers, there is thrown
| upon the society important task which
| cannot be postponed. The collection of
| American oral traditions should be regard
! ed as a national duty. To gather materials
| for history which are Indispensable to an
thropological record. and which, unless
| recorded, will in few years have irretriev
| ably perish ed. appears even more important
| than the collation. of historical records al
| ready safely lodged in libraries"
| The society's head and forefront is Will
| liam Wells Newell of Cambridge, Mass, an
author whose Immediate work of recent
years has been medieval literature, he hav-
| ing recently issued a volume on ''Arthurian
| Romance, King Arthur and the Table
| Round. The protector of it. the editor of
| its journal, and long its secretary, Mr..
Newell has kept on pushing the society
| through all these years, reaching out con-
Stantly for new members and ever striving
| to make folk lore better cared for and un
derstood among people of education and re-
finement.
| As an instance of the material the society
| is collecting, here is Baltimore, Nd, folk
| lore story Gn parD.
4 Folk Lore story.
George. did witch ever get after you?'
Nor m, but my mother, she knew wo-
| man that was mighty bothered by witch.
| Ev'y night, soon as de woman went to bed
and turn over on her back dat witch would
come and jump on her and ride her hard.
so she couldn't move. So enc night she fix
| for dat witch. She put pins in de seat of
| chair. and when de witch come, she sat
| right down on de pins. Witches have TO
sot down befo' oey can get out de skin;
| dey can't ride you long as dey is in dey
skin. Well. de witch sot down on the pins
| and she stuck fas'. She couldn't cit Up
out er de chair. anG she beg de woman 10
| let her go. and she promise. ef she did, she
wouldn come back no more. Den de Wo-
man let her goi
| Six volumes mark the progress of the so-
| ciety outside of the Journal These are
| Folk Tales of Angola (Africa), by Hell
| Chatelain; Louisiana FOX Tales, hy Alice
| Fortier; Bahama Songs and Stories, by
| Charles L. Edwards: Current Superstilions
| Collected from the Oral Tradition of Eng
| lish-speaking Folk, by Fanny ID. Bergen,
with an introduction by William Wells
Newell; Nanako Legends, by Washington
Matthews; Traditions of the Thompson
| River Indians of British Columbia by Jas
| Teit, with Introduction by Franz Boas
Active Workers.
The above list shows some of the most
active workers of the society, but there are
yet many more to be named. Especially
notable among them Prof. o. T Ma
son of the Smithsonian Institute. Dr. Geo
A. Dorsey of the Field Columbian Museum
Chicago, ILL.,; Miss Alice c. Fletcher in
all probability the greatest woman anthro-
nologist in the world fellow of the Peabody
Museum at Harvard and president of the
Woman's Anthropologist Society of Wash
| ington Miss Fletcher's main work in folk
lore has been as regards the Indians); DR.
Daniel G. Brinton of Philadelphia. Major
John w. Powell, the government eyDert-