Part 14

_Sources._--Kennedy, _Stories of Ireland_, pp. 38-46; Campbell, _West Highland Tales_, i. 320 _seq._; "The Shifty Lad," Dasent, _Popular Tales from the Norse_, pp. 232-51, "Master Thief." Koehler has a number of variants in his notes on Campbell: _Orient und Occident_, Band ii. Mr. Clouston has a monograph on the subject in his _Popular Tales_, ii. 115-65. A separate treatise on the subject has been given by S. Prato, 1882, _La Leggenda di Rhampsinite_. Both these writers connect the modern folk-tales with Herodotus' story of King Rampsinites. Mr. Knowles in his _Folk-tales of Kashmir_, has a number of adventures of "Sharaf the Thief." The story of "Master Thief" has been heard among the tramps in London workhouses (Mayhew, _London Labour and London Poor_, iii. 119).

_Remarks._--Thievery is universally human, and at first sight it might seem that there was no connection between these various versions of the "Master Thief." But the identity of the tricks by which the popular hero-thief gains his ends renders it impossible that they should have been independently invented wherever they are found.

XXIX. POWEL, PRINCE OF DYFED.

_Source._--Lady Guest's _Mabinogion_, with the names slightly anglicised, and omitting the opening incident.

_Parallels._--For the incident of tearing off the hands, _cf._ Morraha; the enchanted hill and maiden occur at the beginning of "Tuairisgeul Mor" in _Scottish Celtic Review_, i. 61, and are fully commented upon by Mr. Nutt, _l.c._ 137.

XXX. PADDY O'KELLY AND THE WEASEL.

_Sources._--Hyde, _Beside the Fire_, pp. 73-91.

_Parallels._--On green hills as the homes of the fairies: see note on "Childe Roland," _English Fairy Tales_, p. 241. The transformation of witches into hares is a frequent _motif_ in folk-lore.

XXXI. THE BLACK HORSE.

_Sources._--From J. F. Campbell's manuscript collection now deposited at the Advocates' Library in Edinburgh (MS. 53, vol. xi.). Collected in Gaelic, February 14, 1862, by Hector MacLean, from Roderick MacNeill, in the island of Menglay: MacNeill learnt the story about 1840 from a Barra man. I have omitted one visit of the Black Horse to Greece, but otherwise left the tale untouched. Mr. Nutt gave a short abstract of the story in his report on the Campbell MSS. in _Folk-lore_, i. 370.

_Parallels._--Campbell gives the following parallels in his notes on the tale, which I quote verbatim. On the throwing into the well he remarks: "So this incident of 'Lady Audley's Secret' was in the mind of a Barra peasant about 1840. Part of a modern novel may be as old as Aryan mythology, which was one point to be proved." [The incident of throwing into the well almost invariably forms a part of the tales of the White Cat type.]

With regard to the Black Horse, Campbell notes that a Gaelic riddle makes a Black Horse identical with the West Wind, and adds: "It is for consideration whether this Horse throws light on the sacred Wheel in Indian Sculptures; it is to be noted that a Black Horse is the sacrificial colour."

"The Cup is a well-known myth about winning a Fairy Cup which pervades Scandinavian England in many forms." "A silver ring, two quaint serpents' heads pointing opposite ways, is a common Scandinavian wedding-ring; many were to be got in Barra and elsewhere in 1869, sold by emigrants bound for America."

"Those who can account for myths must settle the geography of the Snow Mountain. Avalanches and glaciers are in Iceland, in the Caucasus, and in Central Asia. There are none within sight of Menglay. Hindoo cosmogony, which makes the world consist of seven rings, separated by seas and by a wall of mountains, may account for this in some sort."

On the spikes driven into the Horse, Campbell compares the Norse story of "Dapple-grim" and the Horse sacrifice of the Mahabharata. On the building of the Magic Castle, Campbell remarks: "Twashtri was the Carpenter of the Vedic gods: can this be his work?"

On the Horse's head being struck off Campbell comments: "This was the last act in the Aryan Horse's sacrifice, and the first step in the Horse apotheosis."

_Remarks._--Campbell has the following note at the end of the tale, from which it would seem that in 1870 at least he was very nearly being an _Indiamaniac_.

"So ends this horse-riding story. Taking it as it is, with the test of language added, nothing short of an Asian origin will account for it. A Gaelic riddle makes 'a black horse' mean the invisible wind, and a theorist might suppose this horse to be the air personified. As Greece is mentioned, he might be Pegasus, who had to do with wells. But he had wings, and he was white, and there is nothing in classical fable like this Atlantic myth. 'The enchanted horse' of Arabian Nights was a flying machine, and his adventures are quite different. This is not the horse of Chaucer's Squire's Tale. He is more like 'Hrimfaxi,' the horse of the Edda, who drew the car of Noett in heaven, and was ridden round the earth in twelve hours, followed by Dagr and his glittering horse Skinfaxi. The black horse who always arrives at sunrise is like the horse of night, but there is no equivalent story in the Edda. 'Dapple-grim' in Norse tales is clad in a spiked bull's hide, and is mixed up with a blazing tar-barrel, but his adventures won't fit, and he was grey.

"The story is but an imperfect skeleton. The cup was to give strength; he had to open seven gates after he got the cup, but it does nothing. The hood is to hide with; he went in and out of the palace unseen after he had got the hood, but it plays no part. The light shoes were the shoes of swiftness of course, but they never showed their paces. Baldr's horse was led to the funeral pile with all his gear; and Odin laid the gold ring Draupnir on the pile. Such rites might account for the ring in the blazing lake. Hermothr's ride northwards and downwards to the abode of Hel to seek Baldr, his leap over the grate, and his return with the ring (Edda 25), might account for one adventure.

"The many-coloured horses of the sun in the Indian mythology and solar myths may account for all these horses, astronomically or meteorologically. The old Aryan Aswa Medha or sacrifice of a black horse, and the twelve adventures of Arjuna as told in the Mahabharata, are something like this story in some general vague way. But the simplest explanation of this Menglay myth, fished out of the Atlantic, is to admit that 'the black horse' and all this mythical breed came west with men who rode from the land where horses were tamed, which is unknown."

XXXII. THE VISION OF MACCONGLINNEY.

_Source._--Kindly condensed by Mr. Alfred Nutt from Prof. Meyer's edition of _The Vision_ published in book form in 1892. This contains two versions, a longer one from a fourteenth century MS., _Leabhar Breac or Speckled Book_, and a shorter one from a sixteenth century MS. in the Library of Trinity College, Dublin. A translation of the former version was given by the late W. M. Hennessy in _Fraser's Magazine_, September, 1873. Prof. Wollner, who contributed to Prof. Meyer's edition an introduction dealing with the story from the standpoint of comparative literature, considers that the later version reproduces the original common source more nearly.

_Parallels._--At first sight _The Vision_ seems to picture the Land of Cockayne (on which see Poeschel, _Das Maehrchen vom Schlaraffenlande_, Halle, 1878), but as Prof. Wollner remarks, the Irish form is much more simple and primitive, and represents rather an agricultural conception of a past _aurea aetas_. The conception of enormous appetite being due to the presence of a voracious animal or demon within the body is widespread among the folk. Prof. Wollner gives numerous parallels, _l.c._ XLVII.-LIII. The common expression "to wolf one's food" is said to be derived from this conception. On the personification of disease, see Tylor, _Primitive Culture_, ii. 148.

I can myself remember a tale somewhat similar to _The Vision_ which I heard from my nurse in Australia, I fancy as a warning against gluttony. She told me of a man, who in swallowing large pieces of food had swallowed a little hairy monster, which grew and grew and grew and caused the man to be eating all day to satisfy his visitors. He was cured by being made to fast, and then a bowl of brandy was brought in front of his mouth into which the hairy thing, attracted by the fumes, jumped and was drowned.

_Remarks._--We have here an interesting example of the personification of disease in the form of a demon, of which some examples occur in the Gospels. The rollicking Rabelaisian tone in which the story is told prevents us, however, from attributing any serious belief in the conception by the Irish Monk the author of the tale, who was parodying, according to Prof. Wollner, the Visions of the Saints. Still he would be scarcely likely to use the conception, even for purposes of parody, unless it were current among the folk, and it occurs among them even at the present day. (See Hyde, _Beside the Fire_, p. 183.)

XXXIII. DREAM OF OWEN O'MULREADY.

_Sources._--Kindly translated by Mr. Leland L. Duncan from _Gaelic Journal_, vol. iv. p. 57 _seq._

_Parallels._--Croker's _Daniel O'Rourke_ may be compared in part.

_Remarks._--At first sight a mere droll, the story has its roots in the most primitive philosophy. Owen's problem is to get in the Land of Dreams. Now Dreamland, so all our students of Mythology are agreed, is the source and origin of our belief in souls and spirits. Owen's problem therefore resolves itself into this: where was he to go in order to come into closest contact with the world of spirits. Mark what he does--he clears the hearth and has his bed made in it. Now it is round the hearth that the fullest associations with the spirit life are clustered. The late M. Fustel de Coulanges in his _Cite Antique_ traces back most of the Greek and Roman religions and a large number of their institutions to the worship of the ancestors localised on the hearth. The late Professor Hearn extended his line of research to the whole of the Aryans in his _Aryan Household_. It will thus be seen from this course of reasoning, that Owen was acting on the most approved primitive principles in adopting this curious method of obtaining dreams. The story is not known elsewhere than in Ireland, and we are therefore at liberty to apply the method of survivals to this case.

XXXIV. MORRAHA.

_Sources._--The second story in Mr. W. Larminie's _West Irish Folk-tales_, pp. 10-30. The framework was collected from P. McGrale of Achill Island, Co. Mayo. The story itself was from Terence Davis of Rendyle, Co. Galway. There is evidently confusion in the introductory portion between Niall's mother and wife.

_Parallels._--Campbell's No. 1 has a very close parallel to the opening. Mr. Larminie refers to a similar tale collected by Kennedy. Another version from West Munster has been recently published in the _Gaelic Journal_, iv. 7, 26, 35. The evasion of the promise to give up the sword at the end seems a favourite incident in Achill folk-tales; it occurs in two others of Mr. Larminie's stories. On the framework, see note on "Conal Yellow claw" (_Celtic Folk-tales_, V.). I have there suggested that the plan comes from the East, ultimately from Buddha.

XXXV. THE STORY OF THE McANDREW FAMILY.

_Sources._--Supplied by Mrs. Gale, now in the United States, from the recitation of her mother who left Ireland over fifty years ago.

_Parallels._--"Noodle Tales" like this are found everywhere in Europe, and have been discussed by Mr. Clouston in a special monograph in _The Book of Noodles_, 1889. The "sell" at the end is similar to that in the "Wise Men of Gotham." Kennedy (_Fireside Stories of Ireland_) gives a similar set of adventures, p. 119 _seq._

_Remarks._--Mrs. Gale remarks that it was a common superstition in Ireland, that if a raven hovered over the head of cattle, a withering blight had been set upon the animals. As birds of carrion they were supposed to be waiting for the carcases.

XXXVI. THE FARMER OF LIDDESDALE.

_Sources._--MacDougal, _Waifs and Strays_, III. ix. pp. 216-21.

_Parallels._--Campbell, _West Highland Tales_, "The Master and the Man," iii. 288-92.

_Remarks._--I need scarcely suggest the identification of the Ploughman with the----. As usual in folk-tales, that personage does not get the best of the bargain. The rustic Faust evades his contract by a direct appeal to the higher powers. This is probably characteristic of Scotch piety.

XXXVII. THE GREEK PRINCESS AND THE YOUNG GARDENER.

_Sources._--Kennedy, _Fireside Stories_, pp. 47-56.

_Parallels._--Campbell, _West Highland Tales_, lvi.; _Mac Iain Direach_, ii. 344-76. He gives other variants at the end. The story is clearly that of the Grimms' "Golden Bird," No. 57. They give various parallels in their notes. Mrs. Hunt refers to an Eskimo version in Rae's _White Sea Peninsula_, called "Kuobba the Giant and the Devil." But the most curious and instructive parallel is that afforded by the Arthurian Romance of Walewein (_i.e._, Gawain), now only extant in Dutch, which, as Professor W. P. Ker has pointed out in _Folk-lore_, v. 121, exactly corresponds to the popular tale, and thus carries it back in Celtdom to the early twelfth century at the latest.

XXXVIII. THE RUSSET DOG.

_Source._--I have made up this Celtic Reynard out of several fables given by Campbell, _West Highland Tales_, under the title "Fables," vol. i. pp. 275 _seq._; and "The Keg of Butter" and the "The Fox and the little Bonnach," vol. iii. Nos. lxv. lxvi.

_Parallels._--The Fox's ruse about a truce among the animals is a well-known AEsop's Fable; see my edition of _Caxton's AEsop_, vol. ii. p. 307, and _Parallels_, vol. i. p. 267. The trick by which the cock gets out of the fox's mouth is a part of the Reynard Cycle, and is given by Chaucer as his "Nonne Preste's Tale." How the wolf lost his tail is also part of the same cycle, the parallels of which are given by K. Krohn, _Baer_ (_Wolf_) _und Fuchs_ (Helsingfors, 1889), pp. 26-8. The same writer has studied the geographical distribution of the story in Finland, accompanied by a map, in _Fennia_, iv. No. 4. I have given a mediaeval Hebrew version in my _Jews of Angevin England_, pp. 170-2. See also Gerber, _Great Russian Animal Tales_, pp. 48-50. The wolf was originally the bear, as we see from the conclusion of the incident, which professes to explain why the wolf is stumpy-tailed. "The Keg of Butter" combines two of the Grimm stories, 2, 189. "The Little Bonnach" occurs also in English and has been given in two variants in _English Fairy Tales_, No. xxviii.; and _More English Fairy Tales_, No. lvii.

_Remarks._--It would lead me too far afield to discuss here the sources of Reynard the Fox, with which I hope shortly to deal at length elsewhere. But I would remark that in this case, as in several others we have observed, the stories, which are certainly reproductions, have received the characteristic Celtic dress. It follows that we cannot conclude anything as to the origin of a tale from the fact that it is told idiomatically. On the other hand, the stories of "The Fox and Wrens" and "The Fox and the Todhunter," and "How the Fox gets rid of his Fleas," have no parallels elsewhere, and show the possibility of a native beast tale or cycle of tales.

XXXIX. SMALLHEAD AND THE KING'S SON.

_Source._--Mr. Curtin's "Hero Tales of Ireland," contributed to the _New York Sun_.

_Parallels._--Campbell's No. xvii., "Maol a Chliobain," is the same story, which is also found among the Lowlanders, and is given in my _English Fairy Tales_, No. xxii., "Molly Whuppie," where see notes for other parallels of the Hop o' My Thumb type of story. King Under the Waves occurs in Campbell, No. lxxxvi.

XL. THE LEGEND OF KNOCKGRAFTON.

_Source._--Croker, _Fairy Legends of South of Ireland_.

_Parallels._--Parnell's poem, _Edwin and Sir Topaz_, contains the same story. As he was born in Dublin, 1679, this traces the tale back at least 200 years in Ireland. Practically the same story, however, has been found in Japan, and translated into English under the title, "Kobutori; or, The Old Man and the Devils." In the story published by Kobunsha, Tokio, the Old Man has a lump on the side of his face. He sees the demons dancing, and getting exhilarated, joins in. Thereupon the devils are so delighted that they wish to see him again, and as a pledge of his return take away from him his lump. Another old man, who has a similar lump on the other side of his face, hearing of this, tries the same plan, but dances so badly that the devils, not wishing to see him again, and mistaking him for the other old man, give him back the lump, so that he has one on each side of his face.

I may add here that Mr. York Powell informs me that No. xvii. of the same series, entitled, "Shippietaro," contains a parallel to the "Hobyahs" of _More English Tales_.

_Remarks._--Here we have a problem of diffusion presented in its widest form. There can be little doubt that "The Legend of Knockgrafton" and "Kobutori," one collected in Ireland and to be traced there for the last 200 years, and the other collected at the present day in Japan, are one and the same story, and it is impossible to imagine they were independently produced. Considering that Parnell could not have come across the Japanese version, we must conclude that "Kobutori" is a recent importation into Japan. On the other hand, as "the Hobyahs" cannot be traced in England, and was collected from a Scottish family settled in the United States, where Japanese influence has been considerable, it is possible that this tale was derived from Japan within the memory of men still living. It would be highly desirable to test these two cases, in which we seem to be able to observe the process of the diffusion of Folk Tales going on before our eyes.

XLI. ELIDORE.

_Source._--Giraldus Cambrensis, _Itinerarium Cambriae_, I. viii. I have followed the Latin text tolerably closely.

_Parallels._--Mr. Hartland has a paper on "Robberies in Fairyland," in _Arch. Rev._, iii. 39 _seq._ Davies, _Mythology of the British Druids_, p. 155, tells a story of a door in a rock near a cave in the mountains of Brecknock, which was left open for Mayday, and men used to enter, and so reach that fairy island in the middle of the lake. The visitors were treated very hospitably by their fairy hosts, but on the condition that they might eat all, but pocket none; for once, a visitor took away with him a fairy flower, and as soon as he got outside the door the flower vanished, and the door was never more opened. "The Luck of Edenhall," still in existence, is supposed to be a trophy brought back from a similar visit.

_Remarks._--Mr. Hartland suggests that these legends, and the relics connected with them, are in some way connected with the heathen rites prevalent in these islands before the introduction of Christianity, which may have lingered on into historic times. The absence of sunlight in this account of the House of the Fairies, as in "Childe Rowland" (on which see note in _English Fairy Tales_), may be regarded as a point in favour of Mr. MacRitchie's theories as to the identification of the fairies with the mound-dwellers. The object of the expectoration was to prevent Elidore's seeing his way back. Thus the fairies prevent the indiscretions of the human midwives they employ.

XLII. THE LEECHING OF KAYN'S LEG.

_Source._--MacInnes, _Folk-Tales from Argyleshire_, vii., combined with Campbell of Tiree's version.

_Parallels._--The earliest version, from an Egerton MS. of the fifteenth century, has been printed by Mr. S. H. O'Grady in his _Silva Gadelica_, No. 20, with an English version, pp. 332-42. Mr. Campbell of Tiree has given a short Gaelic version in the _Transactions of the Gaelic Society of Inverness_, 78-100. Campbell of Islay collected the fullest version of this celebrated story, which is to be found among his manuscript remains now in Edinburgh. Mr. Nutt has given his English abstract in _Folk-lore_, i. 373-7, in its original form. The story must have contained twenty-four tales or episodes of stories, nineteen of which are preserved in J. F. Campbell's version. For parallels to the various incidents, see Mr. Nutt's notes on MacInnes, pp. 470-3. The tale is referred to in MacNicol, _Remarks on Dr. Johnson's Journey to the Hebrides_, 1779.

_Remarks._--Nothing could give a more vivid idea of what might be called the organisation of the art of story-telling among the Celts than this elaborate tale. Mr. Nutt is inclined to trace it, even in its present form, back to the twelfth or thirteenth century. It occurs in an MS. of the fifteenth century in an obviously unoriginal form which shows that the story-teller did not appreciate the significance of many features in the folk-tale he was retelling, and yet it was orally collected by the great Campbell in 1871, in a version which runs to 142 folio pages. Formally, its interest consists in large measure in the curious framework in which the subsidiary stories are imbedded. This is not of the elaborate kind introduced into Europe from the East by the Crusades, but more _naive_, resembling rather, as Mr. Nutt points out to me, the loosely-knit narratives of Charles Lever in his earlier manner.

XLIII. HOW FIN WENT TO THE KINGDOM OF THE BIG MEN.

_Source._--J. G. Campbell, _The Fians_ (_Waifs and Strays_, No. iv.), pp. 175-92.

_Parallels._--_The Voyage to Brobdingnag_ will occur to many readers, and it is by no means impossible that, as Swift was once an Irish lad, _The Voyage_ may have been suggested by some such tale told him in his infancy. It is not, however, a part of the earlier recorded Ossianic cycle, though over-sea giants occur as opponents of the heroes in that as well as in the earlier Ultonian cycle.

XLIV. HOW CORMAC MAC ART WENT TO FAERY.

_Source._--Kindly condensed by Mr. Alfred Nutt from an English version by Mr. S. H. O'Grady in _Ossianic Society's Publications_, vol. iii. The oldest known version has been printed from fourteenth century MSS., by Mr. Whitley Stokes, _Irische Texte_, iii. I. The story existed in some form in the early eleventh century, as it is cited in the epic catalogue contained in the Book of Leinster.

_Parallels._--Mr. Nutt in his _Studies on the Legend of the Holy Grail_, p. 193, connects this visit of Cormac to the Otherworld with the bespelled Castle incident in the Grail Legend, and gives other instances of visits to the Brug of Manannan. Manannan Mac Lir is the Celtic sea-god.

XLV. RIDERE OF RIDDLES.

_Source._--Campbell, _West Highland Tales_, No. xxii. vol. ii. p. 36, _seq._ I have modified the end, which has a polygamous complexion.

_Parallels._--Campbell points out that the story is in the main identical with the Grimms' "Raethsel," No. xxii. There the riddle is: "One slew none, and yet slew twelve." MacDougall has the same story in _Waifs and Strays_, iii. pp. 76 _seq._

_Remarks._--There can be no doubt that the Celtic and German Riddle Stories are related genealogically. Which is of the earlier generation is, however, more difficult to determine. In favour of the Celtic is the polygamous framework; while on the other hand, it is difficult to guess how the story could have got from the Highlands to Germany. The simpler form of the riddle in the German version might seem to argue greater antiquity.

XLVI. THE TAIL.

_Source._--Campbell, No. lvii.

_Parallels._--Most story-tellers have some formula of this kind to conclude their narrations. Prof. Crane gives some examples in his _Italian Popular Tales_, pp. 155-7. The English have: "I'll tell you a story of Jack a Nory," and "The Three Wise Men of Gotham" who went to Sea in a Bowl:

"If the bowl had been stronger, My song would have been longer."

_Printed by_ BALLANTYNE, HANSON & CO. _London and Edinburgh_

_BY THE SAME AUTHOR._