55G PROGRESS OF ANTHROPOLOGY IN 1890. 



IX. — RELIGION AND FOLK-LORE. 



One of the remarkable results of cooperation in the study of folk-lore 

 is seen in the possibility of such a work as Professor Frazer's Golden 

 Bough. The priest of Diana, near Aricia, took office after killing his 

 predecessor. Before doing this the candidate was obliged to break a 

 bough from a sacred tree in the grove, identified with the (lOlden Bough 

 plucked at the Sibyl's bidding by JEneas before entering upon his 

 journey to the world below. The two questions, why was the priest 

 obliged to kill his predecessor? and why, before killing him, was he 

 obliged to pluck the Golden Bough"? drive the author to consult the 

 whole body of knowledge recently accumulated in comparative religion. 

 The lower forms of animisom are quite familiar to Professor Frazer, 

 who explored them in the preparation of his well-known work entitled 

 Totemism. 



Sir Monier Williams has placed within the reach of English-speaking 

 people a study in comparative religion in his work on Buddhism in its 

 connection with Brahmanism and Hinduism and in its contrast with 

 Christianity. There is no better example of the amenability of such 

 matters to scientific treatment than is furnished by Buddhism. At first 

 it was not a religion at all. It recognized no spirit world ; it had no 

 ecclesiastical organization, no places of worship, no cult whatever. 

 Out of itself partly and in its association with surrounding religions it 

 became, in the north especially, the most complicated and exacting of 

 cults founded upon spirit worlds of countless number, of every variety 

 of inhabitants intimately associated in every conceivable way with the 

 people of the earth. The study of Buddhism is a chapter in the natural 

 history of religion. 



The American Folk-lore Society held its annual meeting in Columbia 

 College, New York, under the presidency of Dr. Daniel G. Brinton. 

 The report of the council gave the most flattering account of the pros- 

 perity of the organization. A movement was made toward enlarging 

 the scope of the society's publications. 



The folklorist needs no better guide than the Journal of American 

 Folk Lore, edited in Cambridge, Massachusetts, by W. W. Newell. 

 Original i)apers of great merit fill the body of the numbers, but reviews 

 of current literature and a list of all publications upon the subject put 

 the student at once into communication with bis colleagues. 



In the same manner the Revue de V Histoire des Religions, published 

 under the auspices of the Musee Guimet, in Paris, takes notice of all 

 current literature on the natural history of religions. It is a guide 

 book to this branch of science. During the current year this periodical 

 enters its twenty-first volume. The Anuales du Musee Guimet are 

 devoted to memoirs too long and technical for the Revue. 



Mr. Francis C. Macauley, of Philadelphia, has conceived the idea of 

 a folklore museum. In pursuance of his suggestions Mr. Culin pub- 

 lished a paper in the Journal of American Fqlk-Lore, and organized a 



