2 Sir John W. Byers on 



for the ensuing year. It was a great honour to be placed at the 

 head of a society which for a period of eighty-seven years had 

 kept the lamp of learning burning in Belfast, and had encouraged 

 original research in various directions ; but to him personally, who 

 had spent almost his whole life in the city, the compliment was 

 intensified by the circumstance that he succeeded many of those 

 who were his former teachers, and to whom he owed so much. 

 He proposed that evening, in fulfilment of a promise made there 

 a few years ago, to try to bring before them some features of 

 "The Folklore of the Ulster Child." 



Sir John then proceeded to describe many curious customs 

 associated with the birth of children — the supposed influence of 

 the fairies and matters considered lucky or the reverse in reference 

 to infants. He then dealt very fully with the words and phrases 

 applied in Ulster to children, relating many interesting customs, 

 sayings, and old poems. The early methods of teaching young 

 people their "AB C's " and " tasks " were described. After a 

 reference to the wealth of comparative expressions used in Ulster, 

 the lecturer having collected close on two hundred, descriptive of 

 children and adults, a very full account was given of the Ulster 

 children's rhymes, which were classified as follows : — (i) Rhymes 

 that are used chiefly as soporifics, to woo and to encourage sleep ; 

 (2) rhymes employed with the apparent object of defending the 

 children from supposed enemies, but really with the idea of 

 making them remain more restful, and used also to convey vividly 

 what will happen if they are disobedient ; (3) rhymes the object of 

 which is simply to amuse children of a youthful age ; (4) rhymes 

 which the children repeat, and often sing themselves, while playing 

 at their games. Under each of these classes he supplied numerous 

 interesting illustrations. He pointed out that in the North of 

 Ireland the children, as in many other places, were fond of riddles, 

 some of which were in rhyme and very old, and of which many 

 were quoted. 



Finally, Sir John Byers urged the importance of studying the 

 folklore of the Northern province in order to acquire an insight 

 into the language, habits, traditional beliefs, popular superstitions, 



