Folklore What Is It and What Is the Good of It?

Whilst the greatest effort has been made to ensure the quality of this text, due to the historical nature of this content, in some rare cases there may be minor issues with legibility. The present study is a reprint, with a few omissions and additions, of a paper read before the Gloucester Philosophical Society. The lecture form has been retained. The following synopsis may he found useful.<br><br>What is Folklore - The Science of Tradition - Tradition is subject to laws - The lore of the uneducated - A cure for warts - Other medical ceremonies - Their meaning - The unit of society among savages - The blood-feud - Blood-brotherhood - Votive offerings and their meaning - Witchcraft: sympathetic magic - The value of the study of folklore - Its political importance, especially for the British Empire - Its importance for missionary work - Its social value to us as individuals - Its value in literary culture - In the study of the Bible - Its relations to our conception of history - Bibliography.<br><br>I have left the second edition unaltered save for a few slight stylistic changes, and for the additional note on p. 38. The Bibliography has been revised.