s
gravitated to the historic person or place from the historic facts
which have become part of the legend, and to trace out in the
folk-tale facts which belong to a culture far removed from civilised
life. There are thus revealed two distinct centres of influence, the
traditional centre and the historic centre, and it is obvious that the
question must be asked--which is the more important? It seems to me
equally obvious that the answer must be given in favour of the
historic. History is indebted to tradition for preserving some of the
most remote facts of racial or national life, which but for tradition
would have been lost, and if we are content to use this tradition as a
storehouse from which we may provide ourselves with ancient historical
documents, we can trace out therefrom points in the history of any
given country wherever the traditions have been preserved.

The folk-tale, in point of fact, equally with the personal and local
legend, comes into close contact with history. The periods of history
in the folk-tales are different from those in the legends, but
together these periods reach from prehistoric culture to historic
event. We cannot, however, call this extent of time a continuous
period, and we cannot point to definite stages within the detached
periods. Much more research must be accomplished before it will be
possible to claim such results as these. I have indicated some points
of difficulty, some methods of treatment which appear to me to be
wrong, and to which I shall have again to refer later on; but in the
meantime, from the necessarily incomplete evidence which I have been
able to produce, it is, I think, abundantly clear that folklore has to
be studied from its historical surroundings if we would draw from it
all that it is capable of telling.

III

In the meantime it is well to bear in mind that there is one important
department of history which has always been frankly and unhesitatingly
accepted as history and yet which has no stronger foundation than
tradition, and tradition of the most formal kind. I allude to the
early laws of most of the peoples who have become possessed of an
historic civilisation. These laws have all been preserved by
tradition, are in rhyme or rhythm in order to assist the memory, have
become the sacred repository of a school or class of priests, and have
finally been reduced to writing by a great lawgiver, who by the act of
giving the people written laws has had att