XVI. THE STORY TELLER AT FAULT.

Source. -

Griffin's Tales from a Jury-Room, combined with Campbell, No. xvii. c, "The Slim Swarthy Champion."

Parallels

- Campbell gives another variant, l.c. i. 318. Dr. Hyde has an Irish version of Campbell's tale written down in 1762, from which he gives the incident of the air-ladder (which i have had to euphemise in my version) in his Beside the Fireside, p.191, and other passages in his Preface. The most remarkable parallel to this incident, however, is afforded by the feats of Indian jugglers reported briefly by Marco Polo, and illustrated with his usual wealth of learning by the late Sir Henry Yule, in his edition, vol. i. p.308 seq. The accompanying illustration (reduced from Yule) will tell its own tale: it is taken from the Dutch account of the travels of an English sailor, E. Melton, Zeldzaame Reizen, 1702, p.468. It tells the tale in five acts, all included in one sketch. Another instance quoted by Yule is still more parallel, so to speak. The twenty-third trick performed by some conjurors before the Emperor Jahangueir (Memoirs, p. 102) is thus described: "They produced a chain of 50 cubits in length, and in my presence threw one end of it towards the sky, where it remained as if fastened to something in the air. A dog was then brought forward, and being placed at the lower end of the chain, immediately ran up, and, reaching the other end, immediately disappeared in the air. In the same manner a hog, a panther, a lion, and a tiger were successively sent up the chain." It has been suggested that the conjurors hypnotise the spectators, and make them believe they see these things. This is practically the suggestion of a wise Mohammedan, who is quoted by Yule as saying, " Wallah! 'tis my opinion there has been neither going up nor coming down; 'tis all hocus-pocus," hocus-pocus being presumably the Mohammedan term for hypnotism.

Remarks

- Dr. Hyde (l.c. Pref. xxix.) thinks our tale cannot be older than 1362, because of a reference to one O'Connor Sligo which occurs in all its variants; it is however, omitted in our somewhat abridged version. Mr. Nutt (ap. Campbell, The Fians, Introd. xix.) thinks that this does not prevent a still earlier version having existed. I should have thought that the existence of so distinctly Eastern a trick in the tale, and the fact that it is a framework story (another Eastern characteristic) would imply that it is a rather late importation, with local allusions superadded (cf. notes on "Conal Yellowclaw," No. v)

The passages in verse from pp. 137, 139, and the description of the Beggarman, pp.136, 140, are instances of a curious characteristic of Gaelic folk-tales called "runs." Collections of conventional epithets are used over and over again to describe the same incident, the beaching of a boat, sea-faring, travelling and the like, and are inserted in different tales. These "runs" are often similar in both the Irish and the Scotch form of the same tale or of the same incident. The volumes ot Waifs and Strays contain numerous examples of these "runs," which have been indexed in each volume. These "runs" are another confirmation of my view that the original form of the folk-tale was that of the Cante-fable (see note on "Connla" and on "Childe Rowland' in English Fairy Tales).

XVII. SEA-MAIDEN.

Source. - Campbell, Pop. Tales, No.4. I have omitted the births of the animal comrades and transported the carlin to the middle of the tale. Mr. Batten has considerately idealised the Sea-Maiden in his frontispiece. When she restores the husband to the wife In one of the variants, she brings him out of her mouth! "So the sea-maiden put up his head (Who do you mean? Out of her mouth to be sure. She had swallowed him)."

Parallels.-

The early part of the story occurs in No. xv., " Shee an Gannon," and the last part in No. xix., "Fair, Brown, and Trembling" (both from Curtin), Campbell's No. I. "The Young King" is much like it ; also Maclnnes' No. iv., " Herding of Cruachan" and No. viii., "Lod the Farmer's Son." The third of Mr. Britten's Irish folk-tales in the Folk-Lore Journal is a Sea-Maiden story. The story is obviously a favourite one among the Celts. Yet its main incidents occur with frequency in Continental folk-tales. Prof. Kohler has collected a number in his notes on Campbell's Tales in Orient and Occident Bnd. ii 115-8. The trial of the sword occurs in the saga of Sigurd, yet it is also frequent in Celtic saga and folk-tales (see Mr. Nutt's note, MacInnes' Tales, 473, and add. Curtin, 320). The hideous carlin and her three giant sons is also common form in Celtic. The external soul of the Sea-Maiden carried about in an egg, in a trout, in a hoodie, in a hind, is a remarkable instance of a peculiarly savage conception which has been studied by Major Temple, Wide-awake Stories, 404-5; by Mr. E. Clodd, in the " Philosophy of Punchkin," in Folk-Lore Journal vol ii., and by Mr. Frazer in his Golden Bough, vol. ii.

Remarks.

- As both Prof. Rhys (Hibbert Lect., 464) and Mr. Nutt (Maclnnes' Tales, 477) have pointed out, practically the same story (that of Perseus and Andromeda) is told of the Ultonian hero, Cuchulain, in the Wooing of Emer, a tale which occurs in the Book of Leinster, a MS. of the twelfth century, and was probably copied from one of the eighth. Unfortunately it is not complete, and the Sea-Maiden incident is only to be found in a British Museum MS. of about 1300. In this Cuchulain finds that the daughter of Ruad is to be given as a tribute to the Fomori, who, according to Prof. Rhys, Folk-Lore, ii. 293, have something of the nightmare about their etymology. Cuchulain fights three of them successively, has his wounds bound up by a strip of the maiden's garment, and then departs. Thereafter many boasted of having slain the Fomori, but the maiden believed them not till at last by a stratagem she recognises Cuchulain. I may add to this that in Mr. Curim's Myths, 330, the threefold trial of the sword is told of Cuchulain. This would seem to trace our story back to the seventh or eighth century and certainty to the thirteenth. If so, it is likely enough that it spread from Ireland through Europe with the Irish missions (for the wide extent of which see map in Mrs. Bryant's Celtic ire/and). The very letters that have spread through all Europe except Russia, are to be traced to the script of these Irish monks: why not certain folk-tales? There is a further question whether the story was originally told of Cuchulain as a hero-tale and then became departicularised as a folk-tale, or was the process vice versa. Certainly in the form in which it appears in the Tochmarc Emer it is not complete, so that here, as elsewhere, we seem to have an instance of a folk-tale applied to a well-known heroic name, and becoming a hero-tale or saga.

XVIII. LEGEND OF KNOCKMANY

Source.-

W. Carleton, Traits and Stories of the Irish Peasantry.

Parallels.-

Kennedy's "Fion MacCuil and the Scotch Giant," Legend. Fict., 203-5.

Rernarks.-Though

the venerable names of Finn and Cucullin (Cuchulain) are attached to the heroes of this story, this is probably only to give an extrinsic interest to it. The two heroes could not have come together in any early form of their sagas, since Cuchulain's reputed date is of the first, Finn's of the third century A.D. (cf however, MacDougall's Tales, notes, 272). Besides, the grotesque form of the legend is enough to remove it from the region of the hero-tale On the other hand, there is a distinct reference to Finn's wisdom-tooth, which presaged the future to him (on this see Revue Celtique, v. 201, Joyce, Old Celt. Rom., 434-5, and MacDougall, l.c. 274).

Cucullin's power-finger is another instance of the life-index or external soul, on which see remarks on Sea-Maiden. Mr. Nutt informs me that parodies of the Irish sagas occur as early as the sixteenth century, and the present tale may be regarded as a specimen.

XIX. FAIR, BROWN, AND TREMBLING.

Source.-

Curtin, Myths, &c., of Ireland, 78 seq.

Parallels.-

The latter half resembles the second part of the Sea-Maiden (No. xvii.), which see. The earlier portion is a Cinderella tale (on which see the late Mr. Ralston's article in Nineteenth Century, Nov. 1879, and Mr. Lang's treatment in his Perrault). Miss Roalie Cox is about to publish for the Folk-Lore Society a whole volume of variants of the Cinderella group of stories, which are remarkably well represented in these isles, nearly a dozen different versions being known in England, Ireland, and Scotland.

XX. JACK AND HIS MASTER.

Source.-

Kennedy, Fireside Stories of Ireland, 74~80, "Shan an Omadhan and his Master."

Parallels.-

It occurs also in Campbell, No. xlv., "Mac a Rusgaich." It is a European droll, the wide occurrence of which - " the loss of temper bet" I should call it - is bibliographised by M. Cosquin, Ic. ii. 50 (cf notes on No. vi.).