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Holy Week Observance in the AbruzziAuthor(s): Grant AllenSource: Folklore, Vol. 10, No. 1 (Mar., 1899), pp. 111-112Published by: Taylor & Francis, Ltd. on behalf of Folklore Enterprises, Ltd.Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1253619 .
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CORRESPONDENCE.
HOLY WEEK OBSERVANCE IN THE ABRUZZI.
(Vol. vi., p. 57; vol. viii., p. 354; vol. ix., p. 362.)
Mr. Clodd has kindly forwarded for publication the following letter from Mr. Grant Allen:
The Croft, Hind Head, Haslemere, December 2, 1898.
MY DEAR CLODD, I do not quite know why I should have ever been dragged at
all into this controversy. Canon Pullen told me a certain fact, or alleged fact; it was a fact bearing upon studies which interest both of us, and I told it to you. There my part in the matter ended. I cannot imagine why it should be considered quite right of the Canon (because he is a canon, perhaps) to tell me the story, and quite wrong of me to repeat it to you.
More than that. The real burden of having told the alleged fact rests with Canon Pullen, and not with either of us. I was told it by him as fact. I repeated it as fact. It is now said that the Canon told the story "after dinner." That is quite true; but I am not myself in the habit of making my statements less trust-
worthy after dinner than before it. The supposed fact was related to me, not as an anecdote, but as a piece of evidence bearing on a subject under serious discussion in the drawing-room of Madame Brufani's hotel at Perugia. We had been talking for some time, in a group of three or four persons, about Frazer's Golden Bough, and other kindred topics. The Canon then brought up this illus- trative case, which he mentioned with some reserve, because (he said) of its "blasphemous" character. He mentioned it very seriously, as a serious contribution to a serious discussion, and one wrung out of him, as it were, with some reluctance, because of its strange mixture of heathenism and Christianity. I should never have said myself that it was "an after-dinner conversation;"
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Correspondence. Correspondence.
I should have thought that to say so was to cast upon the Canon's after-dinner conversations a most undeserved aspersion.
At the same time I wish to point out that I did not publish the fact; I merely mentioned it, as the Canon mentioned it, in a con- versation with you, which may or may not have been after dinner. I cannot see, therefore, why Mr. Britten attacks me and lets the Canon go scot free. Is it because the Canon is a Christian cleric ?
The whole point narrows itself down to this. You mentioned a case reported to you as a fact, and gave your authority. I gave my authority. The Canon declines to give his authority. If there is an error (and I do not even now say there is, for a fact cannot be denied by those who can merely declare they have never heard of it), that error was given us by Canon Pullen. It is he who put this story abroad; and I thought I was at least justified in saying to you that I had been informed of it by a responsible and serious antiquarian, an English clergyman, and the editor of Murray's Italian Guides. Until Canon Pullen gives his informant's name, and enables us to examine that informant, I shall continue to believe that the story may have some foundation of truth, because it is hardly likely that anyone could invent a tale so wholly in accord with the rest of our knowledge unless he were a skilled student of customs.
Yours very sincerely, GRANT ALLEN.
THE GAME OF GREEN GRAVEL.
In reading Professor Haddon's account of funeral games in his Study of Man, I was reminded of a couplet he has omitted from the "Green Gravel" song (p. 423), as sung by the village children of Cambridgeshire. In my time-but a few years ago-imme- diately following the turning of the child mentioned, we sang- whirling round at a trip-these additional lines:
"Roses in, and roses out, and roses in the garden, I would not part with my sweetheart for twopence-halfpenny farthing."
After this the whole verse was repeated as usual. ALFRED R. ORAGE.
I33, Spencer Place, Leeds.
I should have thought that to say so was to cast upon the Canon's after-dinner conversations a most undeserved aspersion.
At the same time I wish to point out that I did not publish the fact; I merely mentioned it, as the Canon mentioned it, in a con- versation with you, which may or may not have been after dinner. I cannot see, therefore, why Mr. Britten attacks me and lets the Canon go scot free. Is it because the Canon is a Christian cleric ?
The whole point narrows itself down to this. You mentioned a case reported to you as a fact, and gave your authority. I gave my authority. The Canon declines to give his authority. If there is an error (and I do not even now say there is, for a fact cannot be denied by those who can merely declare they have never heard of it), that error was given us by Canon Pullen. It is he who put this story abroad; and I thought I was at least justified in saying to you that I had been informed of it by a responsible and serious antiquarian, an English clergyman, and the editor of Murray's Italian Guides. Until Canon Pullen gives his informant's name, and enables us to examine that informant, I shall continue to believe that the story may have some foundation of truth, because it is hardly likely that anyone could invent a tale so wholly in accord with the rest of our knowledge unless he were a skilled student of customs.
Yours very sincerely, GRANT ALLEN.
THE GAME OF GREEN GRAVEL.
In reading Professor Haddon's account of funeral games in his Study of Man, I was reminded of a couplet he has omitted from the "Green Gravel" song (p. 423), as sung by the village children of Cambridgeshire. In my time-but a few years ago-imme- diately following the turning of the child mentioned, we sang- whirling round at a trip-these additional lines:
"Roses in, and roses out, and roses in the garden, I would not part with my sweetheart for twopence-halfpenny farthing."
After this the whole verse was repeated as usual. ALFRED R. ORAGE.
I33, Spencer Place, Leeds.
112 112
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