Febbtjaey 5, 1897.] 



SCIENCE. 



215 



as members. An invitation was also re- 

 ceived from the American Association for 

 the Advancement of Science to join that 

 Association. The Council recommended 

 that all members who might feel so disposed 

 present their names for election to that As- 

 sociation. 



The time and place of the next meeting 

 of the Association was left to the President 

 to be decided in consultation with the 

 Presidents of the afiBliated societies. 



After a vote of thanks for the hospitality 

 extended to the Association the meeting 

 adjourned. Livingston Fareand, 



Secretary. 



Colombia Univeesity. 



THE AMERICAN FOLK-LOEE SOCIETY. 



The eighth annual meeting of the Amer- 

 ican Folk-lore Society was held at Colum- 

 bia University on December 29th. 



During the past year the Society has lost 

 two of its most esteemed members — its 

 President, Capt. John G. Bourke, and Pro- 

 fessor Francis J. Child, one of its founders 

 and its first President. 



The Society elected Professor Sidney A. 

 Hartland and Dr. H. Steinthal honorary 

 members. 



The officers elected for 1897 were as fol- 

 lows: 



President, Mr. Stewart Culin, of the Uni- 

 versity of Pennsylvania; 1st Vice-Presi- 

 dent, Dr. Henry Wood, of Johns Hopkins 

 University; 2d Vice-President, Dr. Franz 

 Boas, of Columbia University ; Permanent 

 Secretary, Mr. W. W. Newell, Cambridge, 

 Mass; Treasurer, Dr. John H. Hinton, of 

 New York City. 



To facilitate closer cooperation with other 

 scientific societies and to afford individuals 

 greater opportunities to receive benefit from 

 kindred organizations, the Permanent Sec- 

 retary was authorized to arrange the time 

 and place of the annual meeting and was 

 instructed to give preference to the time 



and place of meetings of the American Psy- 

 chologists and Society of Naturalists. The 

 Permanent Secretary was further author- 

 ized to call a summer meeting at the time 

 and place of the meeting of the American 

 Association for the Advancement of Science. 



The Society has recently published a vol- 

 ume of Current Superstitions, by Mrs. 

 Fanny D. Bergen, and it has now in press a 

 volume entitled Navaho Legends, by Dr. 

 Washington Matthews. 



A full programme of papers was pre - 

 sented, of which only a part can be here 

 mentioned. 



Miss Alice C. Fletcher's ' Notes on Certain 

 Early Forms of Ceremonial Expression' de- 

 veloped the idea that among savage peoples 

 the burden of the song is, to a greater ex- 

 tent than heretofore recognized, correlated 

 with the emotion which the song is desired 

 , to express. Miss Fletcher has investigated 

 this subject specially among the Omahas, 

 and her studies in this direction are still in 

 progress. Incidentally, the accuracy of 

 repetition and pure preservation of native 

 songs was mentioned ; an example being an 

 Omaha song, recorded by means of the pho- 

 nograph, which agreed in every detail with 

 the same song as collected twelve years 

 prior. 



' Ceremonial Hair-Cutting among the 

 Omahas' was treated by the same speaker. 

 The hair has been associated with strength 

 in the lore of many peoples and has been 

 treated as of close connection with the life 

 and reality of the individual. Thus some 

 peoples when giving a name and thus ad- 

 ding an important part to the personality of 

 an individual think it necessary to counter- 

 balance this act by cutting off a portion of 

 the hair. 



Mr. W. W. Newell's paper on ' The Le- 

 gend of the Holy Grail ' was intended to 

 suggest that literary productions, under 

 certain circumstances, may develop, into 

 folk-tales. 



