540 RECORD OF SCIENCE FOR 188G. 



properly so styled, must be dated at about six tliousaud or ten tbousaud 

 5'ears ago. Aud this man who thus appeared was not a man of feeble 

 powers, a dull witted savage. He possessed aud manifested from the 

 first iutellectual faculties of the highest order, such as none of his de- 

 scendants have surpassed. His speech, we may be sure, was not a 

 mere mumble of disjointed sounds ; it was a full, expressive, well-organ- 

 ized speech, complete iu all its parts. The first men spoke becaut^e 

 they possessed along with the vocal organs the cerebral faculty of 

 speech; " that faculty was an instinct of the mind, as irresistible as any 

 other iustiuct." 



MYTHOLOGY AND FOLK- LORE. 



The folk-lorists of England have been wrestling for the last three 

 years with the following questions : 



(1) The definition, the inclusions and exclusions of the term folk-lore. 



(2) The establishment of classific concepts for the material included. 

 It is very easy to say, put things together that are alike, but it is most 

 difficult to settle upon that characteristic of likeness which willcombiue 

 our examples into what may be called natural genera, species, etc. Con- 

 nected with this idea of classific concepts is the associated one of ter. 

 minology. 



(3) The anatomy of tales, customs, practices, etc., and the invention 

 of a glossary' of their organic parts, their dramatis personw, their essen- 

 tial incidents. 



In vol. Ill of the Folk-lore Journal (pp. 1-16), Mr. G. L. Gomme un- 

 dertakes to answer these questions. He had previously in (vol. ii, pp. 

 28'», 311) advocated a systematic eflbrt of folk-lorists in the same direc- 

 tion. A few definitions are given below to indicate the mental drift of 

 the gentlemen interested : 



" Folk lore is anthropology dealing with ijrimitive man." (Alfred Nutt.) 

 "Folk-lore is anthropology dealing with the psychological phenomena 

 of uncivilized man [meaning uidettered as well as savage], and em- 

 braces both folk-thought and folk- wont "(practice). (E. Sidney Hartland, 

 Folk-1., II, 340.) " That portion of anthropology which deals with the 

 psychological phenomena of primitive man." (C. Stanilaud Wake, Folk-1. 

 J., II, 345.) 



'•Folk-lore is the unwritten learning of the people. Folk-lore is not 

 a science ; it is the thing itself. One of the chief objects of the collection 

 and arrangement of the facts of folklore is to generalize and jihiloso- 

 phize; but the generalizations which we arrive at will not be folk-lore." 

 (Henry B. Wheatley, Folklore J., Ii, 347.) 



" Folk-lore deals primarily with the survival of primitive customs aud 

 beliefs among civilized races, and is comparable with, not identical with, 

 the living primitive customs and beliefs of savage races. The sanction 

 back of folk-lore is tradition. Folk-lore is the science which treats of 

 the survivals of archaic beliefs and customs in modern ages." (G. L. 

 Gomme, i c. iii, 14.) 



