Abstract
LONDON
Ethnological Society, March 22.-Prof. Huxley, F.R.S., president, in the chair. Mr. R. S. Newall was announced as a new member. -A paper was read on current British Mythology and Oral Tradition, by Mr. J. F. Campbell (of Islay). After explaining the sources whence his popular tales of the Western Highlands had been derived, he referred to the traditional character of myths, and expressed an opinion that many genuine British traditions orally preserved in Celtic may probably be old Aryan myths, mingled perhaps with pre-Aryan myths. Popular oral history must be founded on a real event, but minor details gradually drop out, while the most conspicuous incidents approach each other. The author showed how a legend sprouts from a fact which, being at first accurately told, passes into a tradition, while the dates and persons and localities become uncertain. Poetry is a good vehicle for preserving facts, and many current traditions carry with them a rhyme or a proverb to aid the memory. Hence, too, historic events are readily preserved in the ballad form. The president, Dr. Archibald Campbell, and Mr. Bouverie Pusey spoke upon this communication.-Dr. Campbell then read a note by the Rev. R. J. Mapleton on a Cist with Engraved Stones on the Poltallock Estate, Argyleshir.
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Societies and Academies . Nature 1, 592–594 (1870). https://doi.org/10.1038/001592a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/001592a0