[Pg iii]

To FRANCIS JAMES CHILD, PH.D., LL.D.

Professor of English in Harvard University,
Cambridge, Mass.

My dear Professor Child,—

It is more than a quarter of a century since youbegan for Harvard that collection of myths, folk-tales, andballads, in all European languages, which has grown underyour hand to such proportions that it is now, perhaps, themost complete of its kind in either hemisphere.

This work was begun by you through a clear perceptionof what was needed for laborers in a most important fieldof inquiry, and achieved by tireless and patient care inseeking and finding.

Your labors as a scholar are honored abroad as athome, and your work on English and Scottish balladswill endure as a monument of skill and devotion.

During your career as Professor you have been trueto the ideals of Harvard scholarship and life, adding tothem meanwhile something of your own.

Whoso adds to or freshens the spirit of our reveredAlma Mater deserves well of the country; for Harvard,now in the second half of the third century of herexistence, is the oldest witness and, so far, the most[Pg iv]eloquent that we have to the collective and continuousstriving of Americans towards a higher life.

To you,—the distinguished Professor, the earnest scholar,the faithful friend,—I, one of thousands who have listenedto your instruction, dedicate this volume, gathered from afield in which you take so much delight.

Jeremiah Curtin.

Smithsonian Institution,
Bureau of Ethnology.
 Washington D. C. October 23, 1890.