* "This work will long remain the standard reference book for the general reader and the specialist on folklore and mythology. Everyone connected with it, the editor, associate editor, the thirty four contributors, and the publishers --- and the lucky reader --- is to be congratulated upon its appearance." -- Ashley Montagu, The International House Quarterly
* "This book is for reading as well as reference. It is perhaps the most useful single work on folklore in print today, and this reviewer finds it difficult to restrain his enthusiasm for both its authority and interest." -- Horace Reynolds, Christian Science Monitor
* "Outstanding. The folklore game book of the year, there is lively difference as well as infinite variety in the Dictionary, like folklore today, it is very much alive and kicking." -- New York Folklore Quarterly
* "... notable for its contributors, its balance, its bibliography, and its format, even the general reader will find fascinating this extremely valuable contribution to the growing literature in the field, and will enjoy clearly written articles which range in subject from "autograph album rimes" to "infanticide". -- Wilson Library Bulletin
* "This will become a standard and virtually indispensable reference work for students of the sciences of mankind, ... a reference source of a kind long needed by inquirers into human belief, superstition and symbol." -- The Psychiatric Quarterly
* "Absolutely essential for all libraries. Cannot sufficiently praise: 1) scope which covers world folklore as known to scholars; 2) lucidity of long articles, each in alphabetical place, on specific cultures and evasive subjects, all in all an amazingly uniform, balanced and fascinating achievement." -- Elaine Lambert Lewis, Library Journal

Topics listed in the TABLE OF CONTENTS:
African and New World Negro folklore * American folklore * Australian aboriginal mythology * Ballad * Basque folklore * Celtic folklore * Cheremissian or Marian folklore * Chinese folklore * Dance: folk and primitive * Estonian folklore * Estonian mythology * European folklore * Fairy tale * Finnish folklore * Finno-Ugric peoples * Folklore defnitions by the contributors * Folklore and mythology * Folktale * French folklore * Games * Germanic folklore * Indian and Persian folklore and mythology * Indonesian (Malaysian) mythology * Japanese folklore * Latvian folklore and mythology * Lithuanian folklore, folk song, and mythology * Materials, science, and art of folklore * Melanesian mythology * Mexican and Central American Indian folklore * Micronesian mythology * Mnemonic device * Motif * Museums * North American Indian folklore * Oral tradition in music * Pennsylvania Dutch folklore * Phallism * Polynesian mythology * Primitive and folk art * Proverb Taylor * Riddles * Ritual drama * Romany folklore * Semitic folklore * Semitic mythology * Slavic folklore * Slavic mythology * Song; folk song and the music of folk song * South American Indian folklore * Spanish ballad * Spanish folklore * Spiritual * Symbolism * Type * Types and classification of folklore * Key to Countries, Regions, Cultures, Culture Areas, Peoples, Tribes, and Ethnic Groups