If the answer is negative, the fact considered rests onoral tradition alone.
But when the events to be related were ancient, so that no man then living could have witnessed them, and no account of them had been preserved by oral tradition, what then?
Oral tradition is by its nature a process of continual alteration; hence in the established sciences only written transmission is accepted.
There is thus only an indirect method, and that is to ascertain that written transmission was impossible; we may then be sure that the fact reached the author only by oral tradition.
Wherever poetry--at all events anonymous narrative poetry--is preserved exclusively by oral tradition, it is usually the case that the minstrel is allowed a certain amount of freedom in the presentation of his subject.
From what has been said it will be clear enough that the poems are preserved by oral tradition.
It is doubtless byoral tradition therefore, whether in verse or prose, that the stories of the Heroic Age have mainly been preserved.
In the natural history of speech, writing, or, what in early times takes the place of writing, oral tradition, is something merely accidental.
It is almost impossible to distinguish palaeozoic and cainozoic strata in oral tradition.
Now the remarkable thing is, how these hero-tales have lingered on in oral tradition even to the present day.
Such a record is unique in the history of oral tradition, outside Ireland, where, however, it is quite a customary experience in the study of the Finn-saga.
Now in those lands where a blithe peasant life still exists with its dances, like the kolos of Russia, we find ballads identical in many respects with those which have died out of oral tradition in these islands.
As to brusqueness of recital, and the use of assonance instead of rhyme, as well as the aid to memory given by reproducing speeches verbally, these are almost unavoidable in all simple poetry preserved by oral tradition.
There is no reasonable ground whatever for affirming that Justin supplemented or modified the contents of the Memoirs by oral tradition.
Pre-islamic poetry, therefore, was preserved by oral tradition alone, and the question arises, How was this possible?
The disadvantage of oral tradition is not that it forgets but that it proceeds snowball fashion, adding with every generation new edifying matter.
But there is another cause for this tedious peculiarity, namely that for a long period the Pitakas were handed down by oral tradition only.
The mere possession of such hymns, accurately preserved for an unknown number of years by oral tradition, proves that the mythical notions of the Maoris have passed through the minds of professed bards and early physical speculators.
That Macpherson should have found the Ossianic poems extant in the Gaelic memory, was contrary to the nature of oral tradition; except where tradition is organised, as it was for ages among the Brahmins.
Oral tradition is formed by passing a report from one to another, generation by generation; and it is generally true that such a tradition loses credit at every step, because every narrator has some weakness.
In the latter case they are vitiated by the weakness of oral tradition.
Now such is the force of oral tradition in the Church: it is the life of an organised body which dwells in its members.
From their very nature the stories we are now considering were long confined to the common people, and were preserved and transmitted solely by oral tradition.
We think it more likely that it was by way of oral tradition, or from some now lost collection of Oriental tales once known in Italy.
We have, however, given the form which is handed down by oral tradition, purposely avoiding the use of any literary materials.
Although no biographer put in an appearance, it is seldom that some fragment of oral tradition respecting a departed hero is not committed to paper by one or other amateur gossip who comes within earshot of it early in its career.
The above list will hopefully provide you with a few useful examples demonstrating the appropriate usage of "oral tradition" in a variety of sentences. We hope that you will now be able to make sentences using this group of words.
