FOLK-LORE STUDY IN AMERICA. 



589 



the number of persons interested in the study.* The stated meet- 

 ings of the chapter are held on the second Wednesday of the 

 month from November to June. Many carefully prepared papers 



have been read at the meet- 



ings, and some of them have 

 been printed in the Journal. 

 Among these we may men- 

 tion Miss Alice C. Fletcher's 

 able address on Child Life 

 among the American Indi- 

 ans ; Mrs. de Guerrero's pa- 

 per on Games and Popular 

 Superstitions of Nicaragua ; 

 and Mr. Stewart Culin's in- 

 teresting remarks on Chil- 

 dren's Street Games. 



The Folk-lore Museum 

 established in connection 

 with the Philadelphia chap- 

 ter is unique. Many rare 

 and valuable objects have 

 been collected and are de- 

 posited in the Museum of 

 the University of Pennsyl- 

 vania. These objects serve 



to illustrate myth, religion, custom, and superstition the world 

 over. The collection includes idols and ceremonial objects from 

 China, Japan, India, Thibet, Egypt, Polynesia, Africa, North and 

 South America. Prominent in this exhibit are amulets and 

 charms of paper and wood and metal. Very interesting are those 

 implements used for divination and fortune-telling and those 

 manipulated in games. Thus, the evolution of the playing card is 

 shown ; so too the games of chess and backgammon are displayed 

 in their various forms or types. Nor have the games and toys 

 and dolls of children been overlooked. They are all there even 

 Noah's ark, with its beasts and birds, two and two. Such a mu- 

 seum is an "object lesson" in folk lore.f 



Several informal meetings of persons living in Boston and its 



PROF. ALCEE FORTIER. 



* The following officers were chosen : President, Mr. Victor Guillou ; secretary, Mr. 

 Stewart Culin ; treasurer, Mr. J. Granville Leach ; librarian, Mr. John W. Jordan, Jr. ; 

 committee, Messrs. Richard L. Ashurst and Francis C. Macaulay, and Mrs. Cornelius 

 Stevenson. 



f It may not be amiss to call attention to the exhibition of folk-lore objects at the 

 Columbian Exposition in Chicago. It forms part of a section of the Department of Eth- 

 nology and Archaeology of the Exposition. There will be also an anthropological library 

 and a display of the current numbers of folk-lore journals throughout the world. 



