F.? Why may I not have the
same privilege as any other story-teller, especially when I know the
ways of story-telling as she is told in English, at least as well as a
Devonshire or Lancashire peasant? And--conclusive argument--wilt thou,
oh orthodox brother folk-lorist, still continue to use Grimm and
Asbjoernsen? Well, they did the same as I.
Then as to using tales in Lowland Scotch, whereat a Saturday Reviewer,
whose identity and fatherland were not difficult to guess, was so
shocked. Scots a dialect of English! Scots tales the same as English!
Horror and Philistinism! was the Reviewer's outcry. Matter of fact is my
reply, which will only confirm him, I fear, in his convictions. Yet I
appeal to him, why make a difference between tales told on different
sides of the Border? A tale told in Durham or Cumberland in a dialect
which only Dr. Murray could distinguish from Lowland Scotch, would on
all hands be allowed to be "English." The same tale told a few miles
farther North, why should we refuse it the same qualification? A tale in
Henderson is English: why not a tale in Chambers, the majority of whose
tales are to be found also south of the Tweed?
The truth is, my folk-lore friends and my Saturday Reviewer differ with
me on the important problem of the origin of folk-tales.
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