The science of folk-lore / [R.C. Temple].

  • Richard Carnac Temple
Date:
[1886?]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The science of folk-lore / [R.C. Temple]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    10/26 page 8
    from the Settlement Report of Ambald, a solemn Government publica- tion relating to the method of collecting the land revenue of the district, and consequently recording only the sober and useful facts regarding the people and their history, but many of these facts as detailed by the natives are pure Folk-lore. Colonel Yule, in the last of those monumental works which have given him so high a reputa¬ tion, has provided us with a whole dictionary of terms in which folk- etymology appears; but throughout his Glossary of Anglo-Indian Words it seems to me that the Folk-lore is easily separable from the instances quoted of mistaken etymologies. Thus, whether or not it be right to ultimately derive the now well-known word u godown ” from the Malay gadong, as some do, or from the Tamil kidangu, as others do, in any case those who may in the end be proved to be wrong merely occupy the place of one defeated in argument; but the eoncocter of such a term as “ Hodson-Jobson ” out of Yd Hasan yd Hussain, the popular cry at the Muhammadan festival of the Mu- harram, who applies it to the whole ceremony, is guilty of jumping to his conclusions in true folk-fashion. So is the user of such a name as u cow-itch ” for the irritating Indian bean ; since this term arises, as the result of striving after a meaning from the modern native name kawach, which is really a Prakritic derivative, by a legitimate process of boiling-down, of the Sanskrit kapi-kachchhu—i.e.f monkey-itch; a meaning, by the way, that has escaped Colonel Yule. As regards Proverbs and Songs I need hardly say anything here, as I presume it to be admitted that Proverbs are the memoria technica of the ideas of the people, and that their Songs are the musical expression of the same. Folk-tales, where not exactly legends, I take to belong to the same category. I fear the discussion on the definition of the term “ Folk-lore” has taken rather a long time, but it is worth while to thrash out this point thoroughly, as everything that follows must depend on what we mean by the name of our subject. Let us now pass on to the “ Science of Folk-lore,” by which I suppose is meant the study of Folk-lore in the recognised scientific style. As to this I have already expressed my views elsewhere, and these, with your permission, I will reiterate now with modifications, since what is required on the present occa-
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