French folklorist; born in Paris March 23, 1830; died there Feb. 28, 1901. Privately educated, he devoted his whole life to investigating the traces of supernaturalism in traditional beliefs. The results of some of his investigations appeared in a remarkable series of articles on "The Evil Eye" ("La Fascination") which ran through the whole ten volumes of the folk-lore journal "Melusine." While nominally devoted to this subject, however, the monograph deals with all kindred topics, as, for example, witches and witchcraft, folk-medicine, etc. It is perhaps the most thorough investigation of any single branch of folklore.