REPORTS. 137 



troublesome excrescences known as warts. Also remedies for 

 whooping-cough, cramp, and abscesses. 



Besides these I have during several years past collected 

 notes on cases of "overlooking," the evil eye, and witchcraft, 

 and of detection of crime by means of the Bible and Key. Not 

 very long ago there was a curious instance of a Guernsey 

 sailor who was drowned in a distant port, giving a " token," or 

 making his presence known to his family in Guernsey at the 

 precise moment of the fatal accident. Then again I have 

 examples of a belief, formerly very common in Yorkshire, 

 that confirmation is a splendid and most efficacious remedy 

 for rheumatism. The widespread distribution and per- 

 sistence of many of these superstitions is very remark- 

 able. 



Our Society, as you remember, has at present under con- 

 sideration the permanent preservation, by means of the 

 gramophone or phonograph, of typical specimens of our 

 Franco-Norman dialect, before it dies out and disappears. 

 Also the similar preservation of oiu- Island's popular songs and 

 local tunes. Mr. E. D. Marquand is in communication on the 

 subject with an English friend of his who is doing similar 

 work in connection with the folk-speech and folk-songs of 

 Essex. I have seen Mr. Fred Fuzzey about the matter and 

 he readily promised to give us any help he could with his 

 gramophones. 



^Ir. Marquand has also drawn my attention to a Report 

 issued in 1903 by the Secretary of the Bureau of American 

 Ethnology, as given in the Transactions of the Smithsonian 

 Institution for that year (p. 40). This is in connection with 

 certain linguistic studies that are being prosecuted among the 

 native tribes of North American Indians, and it is mentioned 

 that " numerous texts, grammatical notes, and vocabularies 

 were collected : and in parts of the work the phonograph was 

 used with success. The instrument was employed for record- 

 ing the dictation of old men . . . ." 



We ourselves find, however, that this gramophone record- 

 ing is not quite so simple as it at first app^'ared. But 

 the results are so desirable that we must try to overcome 

 the physical and mechanical difficulties with which the work is 

 beset. 



The collection and writing out of any local folk-stories — 

 if any still survive — is another matter that ought not to 

 be delayed. Most of these wonder-tales have probably 

 already passed aAvay with their old narrators. But if any 

 still linger on, they should certainly be secured. 



C 



