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SEVENTH ANNUAL EEPOET OF THE COUNCIL,
27th JUNE, 1885.
The Council are glad to report that, although the past year has not been one of special activity, there are signs that the steady work now being accomplished, particularly the progress of the Tabulation of Folk-talcs under the superintendence of, and in accordance with the scheme promulgated by, the Folk-tale Committee, is having very wide and important influence upon the study of Folk-lore, not only in this country, but abroad.
It is not surprising that in the seventh year of the Society's existence there should have arisen a desire for the determination of the scope and functions of the study of folk-lore. Upon this subject a very useful discussion has taken place in the pages of the Folk-lore Journal; to which the following Members of the Society have contributed, Miss Burne, Messrs. Gomme, Hart- land, Machado y Alvarez, Nutt, Wake, and Wheatley. Differ- ences of opinion exist as to the scope and functions of the study, but the writers are practically unanimous that folk-lore should be henceforth recognised as an independent science, and should no longer be confused or amalgamated with the science of com- parative mythology. Much discussion has at various times taken place in the pages of the Academy^ Mdlusine, and elsewhere as to the methods and scope of folk-lore, and the work of the Society has been frequently misunderstood by scholars and
