Editing Lewis Spence (section)

==Career==
In this time Spence's interest was sparked in the myth and folklore of [[Mexico]] and [[Central America]], resulting in his popularisation of the [[Maya civilization|Maya]]n [[Popol Vuh]], the sacred book of the [[Kʼicheʼ people|Quiché Mayans]] (1908). He compiled ''A Dictionary of Mythology'' (1910), an ''Encyclopedia of occultism and parapsychology'' (1920)<ref>{{cite book | url = https://archive.org/details/EncyclopediaOfOccultismAndParapsychologyVol2.pdf | title = Encyclopedia of occultism and parapsychology | language = en  | oclc = 60531255 | volume = 2 vol. |publisher = J. Gordon Melton | year = 2001 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20200810172045/https://archive.org/details/EncyclopediaOfOccultismAndParapsychologyVol2.pdf | archive-date = 10 August 2020 | url-status = live}}</ref> and numerous additional volumes.

Turning his interest closer to home, he investigated [[Scottish folklore]]. An ardent [[Scottish independence|Scottish Nationalist]], he unsuccessfully contested a parliamentary seat for [[Midlothian and Peebles Northern (UK Parliament constituency)|Midlothian and Peebles Northern]] at a [[1929 Midlothian and Peebles Northern by-election|by-election in 1929]]. He also wrote poetry, collected in 1953.

Spence wrote about [[Celtic Britons|Brythonic]] rites and traditions in ''Mysteries of Celtic Britain'' (1905). In this book, Spence theorized that the original Britons were descendants of a people that migrated from [[Northwest Africa]] and were probably related to the [[Berbers]] and the [[Basques]].<ref>''The Mysteries of Britain'', Lewis Spence, Health Research Books, 1996, p. 21</ref><ref>More nuanced recent views, based on early DNA research, are presented by the Oxford geneticist Bryan Sykes, in ''Blood of the Isles'', 2006.</ref>