Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 1, 1890.djvu/379

 Rh of Campbell’s diary seem to have got bound up in this volume by mistake, instead of with the Journals, and give fascinating glimpses of his method of collecting. The volume closes with a list of 170 English stories, quite different from the one in vol. x.

Vols. xiv-xvi do for the Introduction and Notes what vols. i-ix do for the Tales, i.e., bring together author’s MS., scribe’s transcript, proofs, revise, letters, reviews, etc.

Vol. xvii is lettered O’Cein’s Leg, 1870-71. It contains the fullest version as yet collected in the Highlands, running to 142 pages of MS., taken down by Hector MacLean from Lachlan MacNeill. The Gaelic text is followed by fourteen pages of English abstract. In view of the great interest of this tale, I copied out the pith of this abstract, and give it here, with constant reference to Mr. MacInnes’s version with my notes. The abstract is preceded by a list of the chief characters in the story of O’Cein’s Leg.

1. King of Ireland. 2. Son and Successor. 3, 4. His Foster-Father and his Magic Wife. 5. O’Cein, the wicked treasurer whose leg is broken.

6. The King of Lochlann, who does nothing and never appears.