Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 43.djvu/612

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THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

non-resident members. A manual for the use of members has been prepared by Lieutenant F. S. Bassett, and it contains many practical observations and suggestions for collectors. The Chicago society publishes a quarterly journal called The Folk-lorist, edited by Lieutenant Bassett and Mrs. Bassett, both of whom deserve credit for promoting the organized study of folk lore in Chicago. The contribution on Illinois Folk Lore, by Miss Helen M. Wheeler, shows what the right person can do in the State outside of the cities. Many of the superstitions of the pioneers of the Western country have disappeared, but the traditional customs and beliefs of their descendants, if closely studied as they Colonel Charles C. Jones, Jr. have been noted by some American novelists, should yield unexpected results.

The meetings of the Chicago Folk-lore Society are held once a month at the Woman's Club Rooms. They have been very interesting and well attended. Some idea of the useful work done may be gained from the programme presented at the meeting in April last. The guests of the evening were Mrs. French-Sheldon, the African explorer, and Captain John G. Bourke. There were contributions by Mrs. Molly Eliot Seawell, Miss Mary A. Owen (the author of a book of Voodoo Tales), Mrs. Eva Wigstrœm, of Sweden, Mr. A. M. Stephen, and Prof. H. Hurlburt. The readers were Major Joseph Kirkland, Mr. Franklin H. Head, Captain E. L. Huggins, and Mrs. Wilmarth.[1]

This completes the list of local folk-lore societies in America. It is expected that one or two new branches will be established before another year. There should be folk-lore societies in fields


  1. The Chicago Folklore Society has adopted a seal and motto—an idea which might be used by the other societies. The figure in the seal represents the meal-sprinkler of the Navajos—the courier sent out by the priest (hiring the ceremonies of the "Mountain Chant." The motto on the seal is the well-known line from Hiawatha—"Whence these legends and traditions." (Dr. Mathews's account of the ceremonies in Report of the Bureau of Ethnology for 1883-'84.)