Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 1, 1890.djvu/263

Rh is a Cinderella tale. No. V. The King of Erin and the Queen of Lonesome Island: mysterious love-child who accomplishes the task which the legitimate son fails in. No. VI. The Shee an Gannon and the Gruagach Gaire: a variant of Tales VIII, with intercalation of the King of Erin’s tale in Tales III. No. VII. The Three Daughters of the King of the East and the Son of a King in Erin: envious stepmother and swanmaid guest. No. VIII. The Fisherman’s Son and the Gruagach of the Tricks: Master Thief story, winding up with transformation combat. No. IX. The Thirteenth Son of the King of Erin: eldest best; another variant of Tales viii. No. X. Kil Arthur. The best example in the book of the class of tales so common in the West Highlands, of which Conall Gulban and Manus are such good examples, orally preserved fragments of a Gaelic Heldensagc, which assumed quasi-literary shape in the 12th and following centuries. It contains (pp. 178 et seq.) a variant of the Visit to the Fairy Brother-in-law (here, father-in-law), which I had noted (Tales, p. 471) as unknown to me. No. XI. Shaking Head: grateful dead tale. No. XII. Birth of Fin Maccumhail. Valuable Ossianic tale with details I have not met elsewhere. Fin gets through his trials and combats, thanks to Bran’s advice. The tale of how Fin guarded Tara against fairy foes, found in the 15th century Agallamh na Senorack, is here mixed up with the fight against the Carlin and her three sons. No. XIII. Fin Maccumhail and the Fenians in the Castle of Fear Dubh. Variant of the Fenian tale best known as the Fairy Palace of the Quicken Trees. The revivifying Carlin also appears in this tale, with attributes that strikingly recall the Morrigan, the battle goddess of the pagan Irish. No. XIV. Fin Maccumhail and the Knight of the full Axe. Conall Gulban like adventures of Finn aided by a fairy dwarf. No. XV. Gilla na Grakin and Fin Maccumhail. Fine tale, embodying, inter alia, a variant of first part of Tales II, and the King of Erin’s tale (Tales III). The black sail incident to announce hero’s death is likewise here. No. XVI. Fin Maccumhail, the Seven Brothers, and the King of France: variant of second part of Tales II. No. XVII. Black, Brown, and Gray: confused and fragmentary Fenian tale. No. XVIII. Fin Maccumhail and the Son of the King of Alba. A strong servant tale, with variant of the Fairy Palace of the Quicken Trees. No. XIX. Cuculin. Cumulative unspelling quest tale, with the unknown son episode introduced at end. No. XX. Oisin in Tir na n-og.

The community of incident and of subject-matter between the Scotch and Irish Gaelic tales which I have insisted upon so strongly in my notes to Mr. Maclnnes’s Tales comes