THE FLAT-FOOT QUESTION.
To the Editor of Folk-Lore.
Sir,—Allow me to say, in regard to the concluding remarks of Professor John Rhys in the June number, that some of my words had not been correctly reported—especially those on the Flat-foot Question. On receiving the March number, I at once wrote, as you remember, to express regret at this fact.
I will not take up space by setting right three or four errors of reporting, which do not concern the present subject. What I said on December 9th, before the Society, was this:—
"As to the instep, I can speak from personal experience. Almost every German in this country—that is what I have often heard—finds that an English shoemaker makes his boots not high enough in the instep. It is a usual complaint of Germans in England. I don't know but it may be that some northern Germanic tribe had perhaps slightly flatter feet than Germans in general."
This, it will be seen, is very different from what I was made to say in the report. I did not assert that there was a difference, in this respect, between northern and southern Germans. In using the words, "may be that some northern Germanic tribe had perhaps slightly flatter feet than Germans in general," and guarding even this by, "I don't know," I carefully avoided any such general statement as has been attributed to me.
I had in my mind the idea that possibly some northern Teutonic tribe (either German or Scandinavian), which was mainly a seafaring one, had developed slightly flatter feet, though I would not say for a certainty that such must be the result of that exclusive occupation. Still, that is a point which might be investigated.
Historically, it is well known that the Germans, from the
