TENTH ANNUAL MEETING OF THE AMERICAN FOLK-LORE SOCIETY.
In making arrangements for this meeting, the Society associated itself with the Naturalists and other Affiliated Societies.
The Society met in rooms of Columbia University, New York, N. Y., on Wednesday and Thursday, December 28 and 29, 1898, the President, Dr. Henry Wood, presiding.
The meeting was called to order at 2 p. m. The Permanent Secretary read the Annual Report of the Council, which was adopted.
REPORT OF THE COUNCIL.
During the year 1898, the publication of the Society, the Journal of American Folk-Lore, has been continued in the usual manner.
The Society has published the sixth volume of its Memoirs, namely, "Traditions of the Thompson River Indians of British Columbia," by Dr. James Teit, with Introduction by Dr. Franz Boas.
As the seventh volume of the Memoirs, the Council has given authority for the printing of a second part of "Current Superstitions," collected and edited by Fanny D. Bergen. This second volume, containing superstitions connected with animal and plant lore, will complete the work, of which the first part is formed by the fourth volume of the Memoirs, issued in 1896.
The appearance of this series of Memoirs is rendered possible by special contributions to the Publication Fund, under a provision that its maintenance may be provided for by special optional payments of seven dollars annually, in addition to the required fee of three dollars, making a payment of ten dollars for the year. A list of such contributors is annually printed in the Journal of American Folk-Lore, and also in each volume of the Memoirs. During the year 1898, the amount of contributions to the Publication Fund, made under this arrrangement, was $350.
The receipts of the Society from annual fees, and from the sale of publications, are barely adequate to defray necessary expenses. If the work of the Society is to be put on a solid basis, a large accession of membership is essential.
If the responsibilities of the American people are to be increased by the control of numerous islands in the Pacific Ocean, including some of which the populations are still in a primitive condition, such extension will require attention to the ethnography of the region, and will enlarge the work of the Society. Under such circumstances, it ought not to be difficult to procure the necessary support.
