Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 11, 1900.djvu/246

234 found in Thuringia, Holstein, and elsewhere. Liebrecht conjectures that the original form of the story was one of descent from a dog. This view is supported by the fact that a dog appears in the arms of Hesse, and that the Hessians were termed "Hundhessen" even as late as the 16th century.

ii. Another type of story is that of the maiden whose skin-dress is carried off by a man, whom she is thus compelled to marry. In view of the facts already mentioned about the seal-clan, it is noteworthy that in the Faroe Islands we find a seal-maiden story.

iiiα. To stories of the Midas group it would perhaps be unwise to attach much importance. There can be little doubt that the story came to Brittany and Ireland from the East, where most of the variants are to be found, and where the more archaic form of the story is told.

iiiβ. We must not, however, lose sight of the fact that local legends of the same type are found. In Lleyn (Carnarvonshire) it is related that March Amheirchion, the lord of Castell March, had horse's ears, as in Irish story. In the absence of proof it is gratuitous to connect this with the Midas group ; possibly the relation is just the reverse, and stories of the Midas group lived where they found the congenial soil of a local legend.

Among legends of this group is that of Siward, who was the son of a bear and had bear's ears. Brochmail was a tusked king of Powis. A tusked or pig-headed birth is still said to appear periodically in the family.