Lanterna Rally

Author: Charlotte Sophia Burne

Publisher: CreateSpace

Published: 2014-08-19

Total Pages: 374

ISBN-13: 9781500890360

An excerpt of a review from Man, Volume 15: THE original Handbook of Folklore, published in 1890, has long been out of print, and unobtainable except at a price far above that at which it was issued. Although the present handbook retains the name and the general scheme of classification of the original work, it has been so completely re-written and expanded that it has become, to all intents and purposes, an entirely new book. Its appearance, which, for several years, has been expected by students of its subject, has well fulfilled their anticipations, and Miss Burne is to be congratulated on its completion, for she undertook it simultaneously with, and in addition to, other important literary work connected with the Folk-Lore Society. Divided into three parts—"Belief and Practice," "Customs," and "Stories and Savings "—the book covers the whole of that "learning of the people" (whether they be or be not what we call "civilised" folk) which is termed, shortly, "Folklore." The headings of the chapters show the fascinating nature of the field to be covered, and the importance of the subject to the ethnologist—The Soul and Another Life; Superhuman Beings; Omens and Divination; The Magic Art; Disease and Leechcraft; Social and Political Institutions; Rites of Individual Life; Occupations and Industries; Calendar Fasts and Festivals; Games, Sports, and Pastimes; Stories; Songs and Ballads; Proverbs and Riddles; to take some of them—while the number of examples quoted in illustration of the subjects dealt with make the book engaging to the general reader. An excellent introduction describes what folklore is and what it covers—" every "thing which makes part of the mental equipment of the folk, as distinguished "from their technical skill "—and gives a set of instructions and directions, based on the practical experiences of several successful collectors of folklore in the British Isles and abroad, as to the best methods to be employed in getting into touch with the inner lives and the intimate beliefs of the people within the worker's field. In furtherance of such collecting work a valuable "Questionary" is given as Appendix B, while Appendix A gives directions as to the terminology to be employed in order to ensure accuracy in reporting in the place of the sometimes slipshod, and consequently impaired—from the student's point of view—wording not infrequently to be found in printed articles or manuscript reports. It would savor of impertinence for an individual to attempt to criticize as a whole the matter contained in a book of this kind, a book prepared by an expert along lines laid down by, and, to a certain extent, with the assistance of, specialists in the various departments of its subject; and this is the more so in that the author has had the fortunate privilege of having her work receive its baptism of criticism— and that from some of those most competent to criticize it—before its publication. Two small suggestions, however, I would venture, with regard to the form of the book, which now corresponds, as to paper and binding, with the other publications of the Folk-Lore Society. One, that the "Introduction," the "Questionary," and the compendium of terminology, be at some time issued together, as a separate booklet, in order to help to bring into the ranks of the collectors of folklore some of those persons in whose lives old customs, old stories, and the like, play so usual a part that it is not realized by them that the life of the world is not wholly as their own, and that to them there have been bequeathed relics which are fast fading into thin ghosts or nothingness.