The Perth Incident of 1396 - From a Folk-Lore Point of View #264946

"History" of the uneducated is neither better nor worse than "Folk-lore." Education is a matter of comparison. There is a natural credulity in man which accepts anything stated "on authority," and this, in religion, is a part of the national life. If you want anything believed, speak as if you knew it was a fact. It may be repeated for so many years that it may take some courage to doubt, let alone deny. In the present case, proposing to study the origin of two clan names, much that will be said will be in very marked opposition to what is commonly believed, and will, no doubt, in many cases be treated as heretical, and even possibly as absurd. The writer is no philologist: he desires to be an interpreter of folk-lore, and believing that all folk-lore has some kernel of fact, and is not mere fancy, it is of this kernel he is in search.