18 



the background, and beware of letting the peasant know the object 

 of your curiosity, or even of allowing him to see that you are curious. 

 Above all, avoid leading questions. If you are looking for tales, tell a tale 

 yourself. Do anything to establish a feeling of friendly sympathy. Never 

 laugh at your friend's superstitions — not even if he laugh at them himself I 

 for he will not open his heart to you if he suspect you of despising them. 



There is one other division of the schedule to which I have not yet 

 referred. The Dialect is perishing as rapidly as the folklore ; it is being 

 overwhelmed by the same foes. Peculiarities of dialect are due partly to< 

 phj sical, partly to mental, causes. From either point of view they are of 

 interest to the investigator of antiquities. Hence their inclusion among 

 the subjects of the Ethnographical Survey. Nobody who has once under- 

 stood how much of history is often wrapped up in a single word can fail 

 to perceive the importance of a study of dialect, or how largely it may 

 contribute to the determination of the origin of a given population. The 

 reduction of dialect into writing requires accuracy to distinguish the nice- 

 ties of pronunciation, and some practice to set them down ; but a little 

 experience will overcome most difficulties, which, after all, are not great. 

 It is believed that most of the words — as distinguished from their pronun- 

 ciation — in use have been recorded in the publications of the English 

 Dialect Society or elsewhere. But it is better to record them again than 

 to leave them unrecorded. Nor should it be forgotten in this connection 

 that a word often bears a different shade of meaning in one place from what 

 it bears in another. In recording any words, care should therefore be taken 

 to seize not only the exact sound, but the exact signification, if it be desired 

 to make a real contribution towards the history of the country, or the 

 history of the language. Of the method of collection and transcription it 

 is needless to' add to the directions in the schedule. 



