Language and Folklore. 183 
his language, and if questioned in reference to the etymology of a 
word he easily, and often cleverly has an explanation to offer. Every- 
one who has tried to consult them for this purpose will have had 
the experience that each individually they quickly come to a cock- 
sure opinion, but unfortunately by no means always in agreement. 
In interpreting my material they too often all disagreed. Only the 
most intelligent took into consideration the contents of the poem in 
its entirety, otherwise they looked at the isolated vocable and en- 
deavoured according to their individual ability to refer it to a well- 
known stem and form with no idea of the tricky character of the 
language when etymologies are to be dug out of the gloom of the 
past. In face of the dissension of these spontaneous beings I must 
reserve for myself the place of arbiter and the right to render the 
final ruling. 
In certain cases it may quite well happen that the interpretation 
of the natives may seem more preferable to the critical reader than 
the one I have preferred. To which I shall only remark that out of 
regard to space I have not always, of course, stated all my reasons 
for choosing a standpoint. 
Altogether I do not consider my study of this dialect as finished, 
and I know that I have by no means been able to fathom every- 
where the bottom of the strange waters. 
