cended.

Each folklore item, in point of fact, has a life history of its own,
and a place in relationship to other items. Just as the biography of
each separate word in our language has been investigated in order to
get at Aryan speech as the interpretation of Aryan thought, so must
the biography of each custom, superstition, or story be investigated
in order to get at Aryan belief or something older than Aryan belief.
We must try to ascertain whether each item represents primitive belief
by direct descent, by symbolisation, or by changes which may be
discovered by some law equivalent to Grimm's law in the study of
language.

Analysis of each custom, rite, or belief will show it to consist of
three distinct parts, which I would distinguish by the following
names:--

1. The formula.

2. The purpose.

3. The penalty or result.

It will be found that these three component parts are not equally
tenacious of their original form in all examples. In one example we
may find the formula either actually or symbolically perfect, while
the purpose and penalty may not be easily distinguishable. Or it may
happen that the formula remains fairly perfect; the purpose may be set
down to the desire of doing what has always been done, and the penalty
may be given as luck or ill-luck. Of course, further variations are
possible, but these are usually the more general forms.

I will give an example or two of these phases of change or degradation
in folklore. First, then, where the formula is complete, or nearly so,
and the purpose and penalty have both disappeared. At Carrickfergus it
was formerly the custom for mothers, when giving their child the
breast for the last time, to put an egg in its hand and sit on the
threshold of the outer door with a leg on each side, and this ceremony
was usually done on a Sunday. Undoubtedly I think we have here a very
nearly perfect formula; but what is its purpose, and what is the
penalty for non-observance? Upon both these latter points the example
is silent, and before they can be restored we must search among the
other fragments of threshold customs and see whether they exist either
separately from the formula or with a less perfect example. Secondly,
where the formula has disappeared and the purpose and penalty remain,
nearly the whole range of those floating beliefs and superstitions
which occupy so largely the collections of folklore would supply
examples. But I will select one example which