Mr. Andrew Lang, as President of the International Folk- Lore
Congress, delivered on Thursday an address in which one suggestion in particular interests us exceedingly. He maintains not only that there was a stock of folk-lore or popular ideas common to all peoples—a notion generally sanctioned by the learned—but that these ideas still remain among the igno- rant classes even in civilised lands. In other words, there existed "till quite recently" everywhere in Europe a mass of secret and traditionary belief which the cultivated only heard of after careful investigation, and sometimes did not hear of at all. We believe that to be quite true, but we wish Mr. Lang, if he again addresses the Congress, would give his reason fm his qualification "till quite recently." Has he any positive evidence for the belief that what we may call " folk-faith " is extinct, or has it only hidden itself away a little more care- fully ? A most intelligent and highly paid workman in Sussex told the writer recently that a waggon had been stopped only a year ago, on a road which he pointed out, by witchcraft. What seems to have died is the belief in supernormal influence directed to benevolent ends, the governing notion being that God sends blessings, and the gnomes of all kinds a limited kind of curses.
Previous page
