Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 1, 1890.djvu/262

256 Turning aside from mediæval Celtic documents, let us see what has been done towards the collection and the elucidation of living folk-lore. Lady Wilde, in her new book, at once adds to the debt which all who cherish Irish tradition owe to her, and places her reviewer in a somewhat embarrassing position. Much of the matter is excellent, but the arrangement is even faultier, and the lack of all those indications which the student desiderates even more complete than is usual with her. Her work can hardly be recommended save to the scholar, capable himself of the critical task which the author should have performed for him, or to the general reader, to whom any book stands on the same level as a page of Tit-bits; the one will be thankful for the materials, the other for charm and entertainment. I must confess, however, my doubts as to how far Lady Wilde faithfully reproduces the facts of living Irish tradition, and whether she does not unconsciously lend them the tone and colouring of her own imaginative and poetic temperament.

Mr. Curtin’s Myths and Folk-lore is a most welcome addition to the small stock of folk-tales collected in Ireland. Although no information is given about the narrators, the tales are obviously genuine, and as obviously translated with spirit and verve. It is interesting to compare them with the West Highland tales collected by Mr. MacInnes and annotated by myself (cited below as Tales), concerning which I think it unnecessary to say anything, as the volume is in the hands of most readers of Folk-Lore.

Mr. Curtin’s tales are twenty in number. No. I. The Son of the King of Erin and the Giant of Loch Léinn is a variant of Tales, No. I. No. II. The Three Daughters of King O’Hara: a Beauty and Beast tale. No. III. The Weaver’s Son and the Giant of White Hill: a task story, in which a brother has to seek his three sisters, carried off before his birth. No. IV. Fair, Brown, and Trembling,