sense of the term I have indicated above. This is the foundation of our study, and we have only to glance through the volumes of the Journal, the various volumes of the County Folk-Lore and other additional publications of our Society, to see that a vast amount of these necessary data has been collected and recorded. A great deal doubtless yet remains to be garnered, and we cannot too urgently impress on all those interested in such subjects that delay spells oblivion.
The collection of folklore is a somewhat lengthy process and cannot be done in a satisfactory manner by a casual visitor to a given locality. Our honoured past President, Miss C. S. Burne, in the Handbook of Folklore, from the wealth of her own experience and from that of others, has indicated the difficulties of this kind of research and the special qualifications necessary for a successful investigator. My experience in this respect in the British Islands has been very limited in amount, but the conditions of work among our own folk have much in common with those among savages, and the methods of collecting and the qualifications necessary for the investigator are extremely similar.
I think all will agree that without doubt the first duty of our Society is to record the items of folklore in our own country and in Europe generally, such publication being based upon direct enquiries in the field. All that is now possible to collect should be collected and preserved by being printed. There are many persons who have a peculiar facility for the collection of folklore, and they should all be utilised, but should it be difficult or impossible for them to record their observations others may be found to do this for them. I have known in other fields of much valuable information being lost because the person who collected it lacked the power or the interest to write it down; even in this country co-operation may frequently be necessary.
