FOLK-LORE STUDY IN AMERICA. 



593 



The other day Dr. Bolton found an intelligent, skilled work- 

 man in the metropolis, who used the magic mirror (the Urim and 

 Thummim of the ancient Jews) for the purposes of divination. 

 The seer made use of the 

 Urim to guide his daily life, 

 and to consult with the spir- 

 its of many distinguished 

 persons from whom he re- 

 ceived communications. Dr. 

 Bolton found also a fruitful 

 field of inquiry in the count- 

 ing-out rhymes of children.* 

 Another member of the New 

 York branch who has con- 

 tributed to our slender stock 

 of knowledge concerning the 

 Pawnee and Blackfeet Indi- 

 ans is Mr. George Bird Grin- 

 nell. He is at home with 

 these " prairie people," as 

 they are called. He has 

 lived, slept, camped, hunted, 

 and " swapped stories " with 

 them. His collection of Paw- 

 nee Hero Stories and Folk 



Tales showed what other travelers had missed. Mr. Grinnell is 

 by adoption a member of the Blackfeet tribe, and his book of 

 Blackfoot Lodge Tales tells the life of a Blackfoot brave from 

 infancy to his departure at death to the Sandhills the happy 

 hunting ground of the tribe. Among other members of the New 

 York branch we may mention the work of Mrs. Harriett Maxwell 

 Converse, who is by adoption a member of the Seneca tribe, and 

 Mr. De Cost Smith, who has written and sketched cleverly the 

 ceremonies of the Onondagas. 



The Chicago Folk-lore Society is an independent organiza- 

 tion, not a branch of the American Folk-lore Society. This 

 society was organized in December, 1891. f The membership of 

 the society numbers now about eighty persons, with about twenty 



MR. GEORGE B. GRINNELL. 



* The Counting-out Rhymes of Children : their Antiquity, Origin, and Distribution. A 

 Study in Folk Lore. New York: D. Appleton & Co., 1888. 



f The officers for the year 1 893-'94 are as follows : President, Prof. William I. Knapp ; 

 vice-presidents, Captain E. L. Huggins, United States Navy, department of Sioux and cog- 

 nate tribes ; Rabbi E. G. Hirsch, Semitic folk lore ; Prof. Frederick Starr, Dr. Washington 

 Mathews, Indian tribes of the Southwest ; Mr. George W. Cable, Southern folk songs ; secre- 

 tary, Lieutenant Fletcher S. Bassett, United States Navy ; treasurer, Miss Elizabeth Head ; 

 directors, Mrs. Fletcher S. Bassett, Mrs. Potter Palmer, and Mrs. Edward E. Ayer. 



