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Excerpt from The Frank C. Brown Collection of North Carolina Folklore, Vol. 7: Popular Beliefs and Superstitions From North Carolina; 4874-8569 That the Ballads and Songs, both text and tunes, should 0c cupy four Of our seven volumes is natural and proper, for they have been a principal interest of collectors in the United States and Great Britain, although the music was until comparatively lately neglected. It is also right and proper that Dr. Hand's two volumes of Popular Beliefs and Superstitions should bring the Collection to its conclusion. For 'superstition' in all senses rep resents more closely and more widely than ballad singing the mind of the folk. Ballads are entertainment, superstitions are the folk mind itself. Two distinctions, moreover, are worth noting. The editing Of ballads and songs was necessarily the work Of specialists and conditioned by their special methods; whereas the superstitions and beliefs have come directly or indi rectly from the contributors and are left in their original form. The other is that these superstitions differ in degree and quality Of belief. We all have our private collection in which we believe, but not very seriously. Even the most untrained minds must qualify in some respects their adherence to this or that super stition and make of it a kind of game with themselves. Many Of these 'beliefs' call for a sense of humor and a measure of credulity in both informant and collector. While in print some of them may look trivial, they are all in fact a testimony of the immitigable vagaries, the anfractuosities, of the human mind. A real superstition is a belief you yourself do not share. What is truth? Said jesting Pilate, but the jest turned against him. Altogether these seven volumes comprise one of the largest and fullest collections covering the whole body Of folklore in a single work for any country or any region Of a country hitherto produced. All who contributed to it are to be congratulated - the hundreds Of informants who in the first instance made the work possible; the zeal Of Dr. Brown and the industry Of Dr. White in organization; the various Associate Editors; Duke Univer sity and others for their financial help; and not least Mr. Brice and his associates of the Duke Press, who have been admirably patient over a period Of more than two lustra. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.

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