Mr. James Napier, whose name must be familiar to many members of the Folk-Lore Society as that of the author of the only volume on West of Scotland folk-lore, died at his residence, Mansfield, Bothwell, on 1st December, 1884. He was born at Partick, near Glasgow, in June, 1810, and started life as a "draw boy" to a weaver. Subsequently he became an apprentice dyer; and, becoming interested in chemistry, he attended the lectures of Professor Thomas Graham, afterwards the Master of the Mint, in the Andersonian University (or Anderson's College) in Glasgow. With him at that time studied David Livingstone and James Young, Livingstone's life-long friend, and otherwise notable for the discoveries in mineral oil, which gained him the local name of Sir Paraffin Young. With Livingstone and Young Napier was then and afterwards on terms of great intimacy. After several years of work in London and Swansea Mr. Napier returned to Scotland about 1849-50. In his latter years he interested himself greatly in literary pursuits and in the movement for the more real study of folk-lore. He communicated various papers on folk-lore to the Glasgow Archæological Society, of the council of which he was long a member, and one paper on "Ballad Folk-Lore" to the Folk-Lore Record, vol. ii. His small book on Folk-lore, or Superstitious Beliefs in the West of Scotland, was published by Alex. Gardner, Paisley, in 1879. Mr. Napier was also author of A Manual of Dyeing, Metal Workers of the Bible, Electro-Metallurgy, History of Partick, &c. I think I only met Mr. Napier once personally, but I have received many letters from him relative to local archaeology and folk-lore, and I highly prize the copy of his Folk-Lore which he sent me on its publication. I frequently applied to him for information on old Scottish customs, and never in vain. William George Black.
The Council have decided to issue Dr. Callaway's Religious System of the Zulus, which was never completed, with an Index.
Just at the time of going to press, and too late for a proper memoir, we hear of the lamented death of Mr. Henry Charles Coote, F.S.A. We shall give a short memoir of him in our next issue.
