The instalment in the present number, with the unavoidable deficiencies of a first attempt, will at least indicate the ideal at which we aim.
While paying attention to these cognate studies, Folk-Lore will continue the work so efficiently carried on by its predecessors, the Folk-Lore Record and the Folk-Lore Journal, of recording, classifying, and discussing the facts of Folk-lore properly so called. In doing this, the aid of members of the Folk-lore Society and of others interested in the subject is cordially invited. Such aid can consist of forwarding to this Journal any instances of popular “superstition”, legend, or practice, that still linger in the British Islands or in the outlying parts of the British Empire. In particular, there is reason to hope that a number of genuine English “fairy tales” akin to, but not identical with, “Grimm’s Goblins”, still linger among old nurses and elderly peasants. It is eminently desirable that these should be saved from oblivion while there is yet time. Correspondence on points relating to the methods of Folklore, the best means of obtaining facts and of dealing with them when obtained, is also cordially invited.
Lastly, while addressed primarily to the members of the Folk-lore Society and folk-lorists in general, this Journal also hopes to meet with sympathetic readers among all those who are interested in the lives of the people. For when it is asked, who are the Folk whose Lore we study, the answer must be that they are those who have borne and who bear the burden of the world’s work. Indeed, the Humanity in whose name we are called upon to exercise our highest strivings is nothing other than the Folk whose feelings and inmost thoughts find their sole expression in the utterance and usages which Folk-lore collects, classifies, and reverently examines.
